sit properly

Denny - Maybe we'll even need another Vespa! (or at least a side car) Dave - Thanks so much! Every time we're out by Spencer (which is quite a bit), we talk about how much fun that day was with you. And I agree with Jim, great shot with the roll film! It really did seem to retain the color. I hope the stuff Fuji makes now will hold up as well. Looking at GoogleMaps, the schoolhouse seems to still be standing in Richmond. There's a good chance that we'll be headed that way prior to the 66 trip. If so, I'll try to grab a shot from the same angle (using a Polaroid, of course).

The turkey tracks are one of my favorite Route 66 stops. They've been there since the original concrete was poured. The reason they are pointed out, however, is because of one understandably proud (and lucky) fellow. http://route66news.com/2010/07/14/making-tracks/ It's a testiment to the cement, is it not?

Thanks! We're ridiculously excited about this. Honestly, we're more excited about this than the actually wedding. We're pretty awesome.

Hi folks! I usually post in the Yellowstone Trail forum, but my original old road love is, of course, Route 66. I wanted to tell you a bit about a project that my gal Sarah and I are doing this summer and how you can get involved. In June we'll be traveling from Seattle to Central Pennsylvania (mostly along US 2 and 6) to get married where we grew up. For our honeymoon, we'll be leaving almost immediately for Route 66. We'll be start from Chicago around June 25. Over the next two-three weeks, we'll be documenting the Mother Road using vintage Polaroid cameras. These relics are 30 to 50 years old, and yet, Fuji still makes film for them! But this isn't really the fun part. We don't plan on keeping these photos. Instead, as part of our project funded via Kickstarter.com, we're mailing them to people who support us. You can read all about the project here. Basically, we want to show people how amazing Route 66 actually is through the use of vintage Polaroid cameras. In the days of digital photography, sharing pictures means emailing or posting computer images. Actual film-made photographs exposed onto paper are all but gone. Maybe this will serve as a bit of a reminder that, like the Mother Road, film photography is still alive, though perhaps a bit rare. This will be my fifth time across Route 66, though the last time I did it was in 2008 and I was on a Vespa. Sarah has done bits of it before, but this will be her first full adventure. Oddly enough, the idea of Route 66 as a honeymoon was her idea! For those who support us, we'll be sending the photos in screen printed, hand canceled envelopes from various small towns along the road. Also, we'll be blogging along the way and updating our Facebook page (both of which are usually about travels in the Pacific Northwest). So, if you care to give a bit of support, that's great! Thanks! Eric

I agree with Denny - definitely start in Joliet. It's a great town. 300 miles a day on average is pretty good and it will allow you to hit the small towns through Illinois and Missouri. If it were just me, I'd skip the larger cities (St. Louis, both Springfields, Tulsa, OKC, etc). They're nice to explore, but are HUGE time eaters. Seek out the old, rural alignments and just enjoy yourself. -Eric

Thanks Mike and Dave! The Old 99 in Washington site is amazing and helpful and basically a labyrinth that could wrap me up for days upon days. I agree with Dave, please share the other sections. I live in Everett, and so getting to the ones near Burlington is actually pretty easy. I've driven most of the old alignments between here and Bellingham, so there's a chance I know the roads and have just missed it - the cement here is darker than back east. Why is that? -Eric

I saw that too! I wasn't 100% sure it was the same exact road, but if it was, that kind of breaks my heart. But it says quite a bit about their special effects team. Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.

The range finders are so much fun. The 250 (or 100) are both great. Keep the rollers clean and your shots will turn out even better than you'd expect. Sometimes they turn out almost too good. Most of what we'll shoot on our 66 trip will be with 250s and 100s.

Hi Jim! The Big Swinger 3000 is, I think, my favorite of the pack film cameras (maybe after the 250). The single element lens pulls off some wonderful shots. I absolutely love it. I just wish they would have made a single element camera that could take color film. I don't usually shoot B&W. I've got six or seven pack film cameras. I can't believe I somehow missed out on this. Some of my shots from the BS3k are here. I checked out your blog and I'll start following. Your collection is fairly amazing. Mine, here, is smaller (and missing all of the Polaroids that I now have). I think I've gotten a few others since then. They're all 120. I like big negatives, I guess. -Eric

There's something to be said about straying way off topic. Thanks!

Dave - Thanks! These are "as shot" sort of. It's sort of long to explain, but they're "reclaimed negatives." Basically, when you take a picture with Polaroid packfilm, you peel off the photo and throw away the back. But the back is actually the negative. If you clean it off (which includes bleach), you've got yourself a rather large negative. The weirdness of it is in the color shifts. I love it. I've been taking a LOT of film shots lately (everything on my flickr page is shot from film - mostly 120). I've even started processing my own - it's a lot cheaper. I've done 25 or so rolls thus far. I don't have a dark room, but I don't need one, since I'm only processing the film, I'm not making prints. The jist of the Route 66 project is taking Polaroids and mailing them to people who want us to mail them Polaroids. We keep the backs (the negatives) and they get the originals. We'll have different themes and packages for people to choose from and will even do custom shots. But all that's in the future. Mike - And thank you! What I love about shooting film (Polaroids included) is how the other-worldly aspect somehow perfectly captures the moment in a way that digital (or "normal" film photography) simply doesn't. This is especially true in the desert or in really small towns. The places that already feel surreal can be perfectly captured using certain kinds of film that portray that surreality. The colors may be off, the contrast is wacky and maybe some stuff is blurred, but, while that's obviously not how it looked, it's precisely how it felt. And that is wonderful. I can't wait to get out there again.

Hi Mike! We've played around with Impossible Project's stuff and were just not impressed with the quality. It's great that they're trying to do it. It's exciting. But it might just be impossible to perfect it. We use colorpack Land cameras. They're the kind that you peel the photo off the negative. No powder or stuff to coat. Fuji still inexplicably makes the film and we can get it at our local camera store (Glazier's in Seattle). We're having tons of fun with it. You can see some of my work with it here. As for Route 66, there's no better way of seeing it than on two wheels. I did that (on a Vespa, no less) in 2008. Spent three months on the road and about a month on 66. I've done it three full times and still haven't seen everything. You're completely right, it would probably take a year. But then, things change so much, you'd have to start all over again. Before you know it, you'd be a hippie painting murals or something. Dave, thanks so much! We're really excited about the honeymoon. Since we're getting married in Pennsylvania, we're not nearly as excited about that. Planning a wedding from 3,000 miles away is a really bad idea, which we're going to do anyway. The pay off will be worth it.

If the road is CGI, they more than likely just lifted it from a real concrete road (or at least used it as their source). Such a shame though. I really wanted this to be real. Ohh well. And absolutely we still have it! Wouldn't give that up. We could definitely get a good photo of it for you. Really weird that the map included Spencer, but I guess that was the only "town" between Coulee City and Waterville (or was there another just east of there?). Since we explored Spenser, we've been out to the coulees quite a lot. We'll always check out old alignments, etc., but I've become obsessed with the geological history out there. Sarah covered our last outing on her blog. Check it out if you like. There's a bit of old US 2 alignments, but mostly just horrible back roads and glacial erratics. I love it! And speaking of Sarah, we're getting married in June. Heading to Pennsylvania for the wedding and then doing a three (plus) week, cross country Route 66 honeymoon. We'll be capturing the whole thing on old Polaroid cameras. The Route 66 idea was hers - I swear! I'm kind of a lucky guy.

Oh I am! This is really interesting. Looking on Google Earth, I can't find where the road would be. It's really possible that they're two shots stitched together with CGI. But that road looks real. And beautiful. You know my love for old concrete!

I'll admit, when I saw the Grand Canyon in 2006 (the only time), I just wasn't impressed. Seriously. The first time I saw it, sure, I was awestruck. But after about five minutes, it was just a big hole in the ground. I'm not sure what that says about me. In my defense, the trip was incredibly strange. It was a crosscountry, Route 66 trip that my girlfriend at the time and I had been planning for about a year. Two weeks before we left, she broke up with me, leaving for another guy. We decided that it would still be okay to make the 7000ish mile trip. We were wrong. Sort of. I mean, we did get a crosscountry trek out of it.