Breaking in Ridley
Roughly 72 hours ago I returned from a 6,000+ mile, 3 week road trip across the western US. I had many goals for this trip, but one of the main points was to travel to just outside of Bozeman, MT where I had a Go Fast Camper installed on our new Nissan Frontier.
Tiffany and I spent roughly 3 1/2 years living/traveling in first a school bus, then a van. After moving back to Alabama we sold the van with the intention of building out an expedition vehicle to take us further into the back country than we felt safe taking our comfortable, yet huge, tall, and heavy dually Ford Transit. We would pass dirt road after dirt road and try to track where each one led with our eyes as we drove by. We wondered what secret features those roads eventually lead to, and what strange places lay off the beaten path. Ridley is meant to help answer those questions.
A great deal of the work I make has to do with exploration. No matter where I travel, someone at some point has been there before. Even so, many of the locations I seek out are so far removed from civilization that, occasionally, a place has an air of never having been experienced before. These places are occasionally so quiet and devoid of animal or insect life that the loudest sound is your own heartbeat.
These places are not always picturesque, but given the right light and perspective, can take on a visually interesting yet desolate atmosphere. Exploring the American back country and looking for strange places is often what I mean when I write or say that I’m trying to “explore our planet as if it wasn’t”. By seeking out places I’ve never been to before alone, with an element of solitude, one can imagine setting eyes on a strange new planet for the first time.
Growing up, I was never really into cars or trucks beyond collecting a few Hotwheels. Now as an “adult”, and since having lived in, traveled in, worked in, and relied completely upon vehicles to allow me to do what I love to do the most, I have a much greater appreciation. During this 6,000+ mile road trip I was able to access, camp, and photograph locations that I would have never taken the van or bus. Just the sight of washboard would give us pause before rattling our teeth out even while driving at a snail’s pace in the van. For the Frontier, even extremely rough roads could be taken in stride.
I’m beyond excited for future excursions to make work and enjoy nature in even just slightly more difficult to reach places. A higher ceiling means more location access, which means more work, which means, good things maybe.
