The following is my account of iStockalicious. In the next paragraphs you will travel with my wife and I on a journey filled with scenic vistas, sunsets, flowers, vacation photos, very blurry high ISO noisy snapshots, and panoramas of wicked deep holes in the ground.


Friday March 4th, 2005

7:30 PM CST Austin, Texas
After the typical scramble to find every last bit of stuff that could possibly go missing at the most critical packing moment, my wife Claire and I shoved everything into the rented car (a Dodge Stratus, more on that later) and headed West. Our goal of the evening was Ozona, Texas, where we were assured we could find accommodations by various online hotel sites that shall remain nameless, lest this account inadvertently generate business for these most devious enterprises.


11:30 PM CST Sonora, Texas
After hours of listening to songs on Claire's iPod, discussing the trip ahead, and all the while dodging the numerous deer of the Texas Hill Country, we arrived at the City of Sonora, Texas. I would personally like to thank the fine officers of Sonora for driving slowly in the passing lane around a blind curve, where I nearly struck them as I zoomed around them at 76mph. As you can expect, they weren't too pleased about it. They were, however, very friendly and cordial as most Texas police officers are, and quickly sent us on our way with a brand new, shiny speeding ticket for 76mph in a 75mph zone (65mph at night).

Now, a bit about the Dodge Stratus. This car has the worst cruise control in existence. You can not set it to any real number like normal cars, but only numbers incremented by three. Therefore we could not simply set it to 74mph (a relatively safe speed in regards to traffic stops) as would be normal and expected in any other vehicle. Additionally when trying to adjust your speed, the car reacts violently to cruise control button presses. Each simple tap is a step of 3mph, and the car attempts to respond to the change as quickly as possible. Thus when learning the system, one should avoid driving in Texas at night, near small towns. Your futile attempts to slow the vehicle down after mistakenly pressing the acceleration button a few too many times will not be viewed favorably by the local police.


12:00 AM CST Ozona, Texas
Ah the quaint town of Ozona. We arrived late at night to the hotel we had booked online. Except it turned out to be a fairly shabby, run down motel (complete with gigantic, non-operational Motel sign. Loaded down with equipment, we hiked to our motel room near the party and settled in for the night.


(Poor lighting severely limits the usefulness of this image)


Saturday March 5th, 2005

6:30 AM CST Ozona, Texas
Up early to get a quick start on the day, I saw the most amazing thing. The small glass window in the bathroom was lit by the lights from the surrounding buildings in a weird way, creating strange patterns. I grabbed the camera and took a couple of shots, and promptly had a shoe launched at my head by Claire, who wasn't too pleased to be woken up at 6am by the sound of a shutter clicking away. We got ready and packed everything up, and were off on another exciting day of West Texas deserts.



10:00 AM CST Somewhere in the deserts of West Texas
I haven't mentioned rain yet, but it had been raining for weeks in Austin, and here we were in the desert being rained on for most of the first part of our trip. We had been driving along down I-10 for several hours, and we finally came to the end of the rain storms. A few miles later, we pulled off the road to stretch and take some pictures of the small yellow flowers that were covering the desert. The aroma of the acres of these flowers was very pleasant and strong. Someone later told us that the plant is called desert mustard. It was very striking to see the stark, dreary desert covered with such vivid plants. The constant rainfall of the past few weeks had been a boon to the desert plant life. (Claire says this paragraph sounds like something out of a cheesy guidebook)



11:00 AM MST El Paso, Texas
El Paso, a very unique city bordering Mexico. You can literally see the junkyard-salvaged shanties in Mexico from I-10. A very strange mix. We stopped for gas and continued on into New Mexico, where we stopped at the first city for food and to unload photos. We realized we hadn't charged the camera batteries the night before as we had planned, and we needed to dump off the shots before we arrived at our first stop of the day, the Very Large Array.


4:30 PM MST Near Soccoro, New Mexico
We hurried to the VLA to try to beat the rainstorms we could see brewing. The Array is always an impressive sight. After driving about fifty miles west of Soccoro, you suddenly top a rise and see the antennae dotting the plains in the distance. The storms were nearly on top of us, so we got a few shots down where the north arm of the array crosses the highway. The contrast between the crisp white of the antenna and walls of falling rain was very beautiful. At the visitors center, we set up to take our tourist snapshots and played on their tour trail a few minutes (Claire made friends with a tumbleweed) before the rain started.


(Check out my antenna-hat!)

We ran back inside, but I came a long way to get shots and I wasn't about to let a little rain stop me. I hurried over to another building and looked for a good spot to get a panorama. I tried to do one of these the last time we came out and didn't have much luck getting the shots to merge. The storm was overhead at this point, but you could still see clear skies out beyond the edge of the storm. I got the panorama finished just before the sleet started. Running through the mountains at 7,000 feet when you are used to the air at 500 feet doesn't work so well. I made it back to the visitors center, but I was only able to run a short distance. Thankfully it did not start hailing as I had originally feared when the ice started.


6:30 PM MST Bernalillo, New Mexico
We arrived at our stop for the night, La Hacienda Grande Bed and Breakfast. This building is over 250 years old and has been a travel stop for nearly two centuries. The owners, Melody and Troy, are very friendly, and we always enjoy our stays here. In fact, Melody was one of the first people to encourage me to try to sell my photography, which eventually led to the search where I found iStock.


(La Hacienda Grande Bed and Breakfast)



Sunday March 6th, 2005

8:30 AM MST Bernalillo, New Mexico
We got up, had a fantastic breakfast at La Hacienda, and arranged to stop at La Hacienda again on the return trip to take photos of some of their rooms for an update to their web page. We got on the road quickly because our next stop was Vegas, and we wanted to try to meet up with everyone who was already in town.


1:00 PM MST Arizona State Border
We decided to stop at the visitor's center to find out where all the interesting stops were along the way. I recommend doing this to anyone planning a road trip. There are a lot of things you will miss if you don't stop and ask. We picked up several brochures and decided to stop at the meteor crater this trip, and catch the rest on the way back.


3:00 PM MST Wicked Deep Hole In The Ground (AKA Meteor Crater, Arizona)
The famous Meteor Crater in the Arizona desert is a few miles off I-40, just before you reach Flagstaff. At 4,000 feet in diameter, the crater is nearly a mile across, and a very impressive sight. Your head plays tricks on you trying to rationalize the size of this massive crater. It is over 550 feet deep, and at the bottom, there is a 6ft cutout of an astronaut (they did some training for the moon landings here, or something along those lines) standing next to an American flag. You wouldn't even know the figure is there, but they have a fixed telescope that points it out, and then your mind really boggles trying to adjust to the change in perception.


Sunset, Somewhere between Flagstaff and Kingman, Arizona
We were heading West, which was fortunate, because we had an opportunity to view a most beautiful and stunning sunset from start to finish. There were multiple layers of clouds, and as the sun set, you could see cavernous channels running deep up inside the cloud bank, while the base glowed with the amber-orange tint of the setting sun. Oh how I ached to stop and take a photo! Unfortunately we were already running behind schedule (and Claire is not a big fan of stopping on the interstate, something about semis and bug-splatters and windshields blah blah blah). So we admired the sunset for what it was, and marveled at the details of the cloud formation that became visible as the sun lowered to the horizon.

7:00 PM PST, Hoover Dam, Nevada
After crossing miles of desolate, empty desert, we came to a checkpoint (our second of the trip, the first was in New Mexico where they wanted to make sure we were white). They were pulling over every commercial vehicle, camper, or towed trailer and inspecting them. We assumed they were checking for bombs and other nasty things that could do serious damage to the dam or water supply. In our nice safe rental car, we were waved through with a polite nod from the officer, so we continued on our way with trunk full of C4 and other high explosives on our mission to destroy the dam (Ok, ok, we really didn't have any nefarious plans or dangerous weapons, but we could have for all the attention that was paid to us). The dam was impressive, and had some interesting statuary we wanted to come back and see in the light, so we decided we would come back out to the dam sometime during the week.


7:15 PM PST, Outskirts of Las Vegas, Nevada
As we topped a rise, Vegas spread out before us in all its sprawling glory. We stopped on the side of the interstate so I could grab a couple of shots. None of them came out very well, possibly due to the pressure waves that tossed me around as barreling semis nearly squashed me on their windshields like a bug (OK, so maybe Claire has a point after all).




Vegas, Baby!


Evening, Sunday March 8th, 2005
At the North end of the Vegas Strip, we were greeted by shabby hotels and traffic, and almost immediately came across the Viva Las Vegas Hotel and Wedding Chapel. Fortunately we weren't staying there, our destination was The Excalibur (doot doo doo doooo!) at the South end of the strip near the Mandalay Bay. I had called KellyT a couple of times during the trip to get the low down on the nightlife. She gave us the information for the restaurant everyone was meeting at for dinner, and we planned to join them as soon as we got settled in at the hotel. We eventually made it all the way down the strip, got checked in, got directions to the Hard Rock, and headed out to meet up with everyone.

The person who gave us directions said it was only a few blocks away, so we decided to walk. Now, what they neglected to tell us (and that isn't really obvious when you are driving) is that the blocks on the strip are gigantic. We ended up walking about two miles to get there. When we arrived, we found the restaurant fairly easily, but didn't see anyone at first, and were worried they might have already left. On the second walk through though, we found everyone way in the back corner. It was great to finally to meet the people we had driven halfway across the States to see. We had the pleasure of watching everyone try to evenly divide the large dinner bill and narrowly succeeding. Afterwards, it was off to the Mandalay Bay for late night poker and general socializing (we took a cab back).

There is a elevated tramway that connects the Mandalay Bay, Luxor, and Excalibur hotels. We decided to try it out rather than taking another expensive cab ride or wearing out the treads on our shoes by walking. After wandering about in the Mandalay Bay casino trying to find out which room everyone was in and where the elevators were, we finally found our way to the right room. Simon graciously popped open a couple bottles of Heineken the hard way (by that time his hand was already numb from opening all the other bottles, so we didn't feel too much pity for poor Simon). We hung out, chatted for awhile, and generally got to know a little more about everyone. Before we left, Bruce hooked me up with a too-small blue smoking jacket and a corncob pipe of anonymous history to wear for the retro reception the next day. It had been a long day with all the driving, so we headed back to the Excalibur and crashed.



Morning, Monday March 9th, 2005
We attempted to meet with everyone for breakfast, but that is a little difficult when you don't know where everyone is meeting up. We checked the restaurant downstairs at the Mandalay Bay and didn't see anyone, so we figured we'd try to find the lounge to check in. We remember someone mentioning that they were moving rooms, so we went in search of hotel staff that might be able to figure out where they moved to. Unfortunately, none of the information desks could find anything and weren't able to figure out where the new room was. We eventually went back to our hotel to see if we could figure anything out. It was getting close to time to head over to the Viva, and we figured we could just meet everyone there. Since we had some time to spare, I ended up calling Pat and we went over to the convention center to say hello and see how the booth was coming along.

On the convention floor, we found Rob, Kelly, and Pat setting up the iStock booth, a complicated mass of interconnected bits and pieces that as a whole makes a very impressive display. We chatted with Pat and Kelly for a bit and got phone numbers for everyone else so we could figure out what was going on. We were running short on time, so we headed back to our car and drove down to the Viva Las Vegas.


Afternoon, Monday March 9th, 2005
We arrived at the Viva just shy of 3:00 PM, and easily found the wedding group (its hard to miss 20 people lugging around heavy duty photography equipment). The photo op was pretty fun, and it was interesting to watch how different people used different techniques and styles. I have no flash, not even a built in, so I was shooting at 800 ISO with a slow shutter. Eventually it was time for the real ceremony. It was a lovely wedding and a privilege to be there to witness it. Best wishes to you both, Marrje and Bobbie, and many happy years together.



After the wedding, we headed over to the Retro Diner, for some Retro good times. The place was a trademark and logo disaster area. Everywhere I turned, one logo after another was staring me down. I'd find a nice safe spot and WHAMMO! Another cliche 50's era trademark would pop out and smack me around. Aside from that it was a great time. I did end up with some lovely photos of a rotary phone, though. I got a sneak peak at some of the things other people shot, and there were some really cool shots. One of the best parts of iStockalicious was getting a chance to see how everyone else approached their photography.



Evening, Monday March 9th, 2005
Claire and I had tickets to Blue Man Group, so I handed Bruce the smoking jacket and pipe, and we bid farewell to everyone so we could get to our show on time. From the photos I've seen since, it looks like Claire and I missed out on a good time with the iStock crowd, but Blue Man Group was worth it. The show was amazing. It just goes to show what extremely creative artistic people can do when given a lot of money to play with. I would highly recommend that anyone spending any time in Vegas work this show into their schedule. I won't describe any of the show (I'd like to see you try to describe performance art with no budget constraints), but I will say this, seats at the back are just as good as seats at the front.



Morning, Tuesday March 10th, 2005
I woke up early and couldn't sleep, so I took my twenty dollar gambling budget down to the casino. I won't go into details but I discovered that I enjoy playing cards a whole lot more than playing a monkey sitting at a machine, pumping quarters in and pushing buttons. I played Blackjack for half an hour and went back upstairs without my twenty. Claire was stirring, so we got up and decided to try out the breakfast buffet downstairs before we headed over to the iStock lounge.

Being a vegetarian in Vegas isn't pretty. Not only is food in Vegas expensive, the non-meat selection in the tourist areas is fairly poor. Claire is fairly devout (with a few exceptions), while I still eat poultry on rare occasions. The buffet at the Excalibur actually had a fairly decent selection. Enough that Claire was able to find something to eat, while I ended up just giving in and having some eggs, bacon, orange juice, biscuits and gravy (bacon gravy!), pancakes, jello, and a bite of Claire's omelet (ok, so I was hungry). We wrapped up breakfast, and I have to say I enjoyed the twenty dollars I spent on cards more than the twenty on breakfast.

The sign on the door at the Mandalay Bay said that they'd gone to breakfast and would be back shortly. Claire set off to the conference area to see if she could snag some show swag, and I settled in at the end of the hall to burn some time playing with my new 50-200 lens (100-400 35mm equivalent). The lighting in hotel hallways isn't the best, add in the zoom and I got some fantastically horrible blurry, noisy shots. I also got a few good ones of the hotel cleaning carts hanging out in the hallway. I had laid down on the ground and was using my camera bag for stability. While helping reduce blur, this also gave me a stealthy profile. Combined with the zoom lens, I was able to spot Kelly, Rich, and Becca coming down the hall, long before they knew I was there.



We sat around and chatted for a bit and talked about cameras, flashes, and such. Eventually we were joined by the others and we went inside the room. We all hung out while the experts set about preparing the equipment and backdrops. The airport was right near the hotel, so I took some photos of the helicopters taking off and planes landing. Just A short time later, Rich, Dale, and Ed were already testing the light on the models and we were ready to begin.





Afternoon, Tuesday March 10th, 2005
The afternoon went by so fast that its hard to touch on all the interesting moments. I had the opportunity to watch some of the iStock greats in action, and learned a lot. The experience of being at a real shoot with real models and people who know what they are doing can't be matched in a classroom. As we each waited for our turn to shoot (the poor models never got a break), we had an opportunity to watch what everyone else was doing and how they worked with the models. This also gave us some time to think about what we might want to do when it was our turn. Dale and Ed were assisting everyone by holding reflectors, faning the models, and generally making the models laugh and feel comfortable. I have to applaud those two, they worked very hard and everyone benefited from their help.



Eventually it was my turn and I had to push away my nervousness. I had never worked with studio flashes and a paid model before, and here I was in front of all my peers, hoping I wouldn't break anything and worried I would do something stupid. After a few test shots though, I found everything was working fine, and relaxed a bit and started having fun. I wanted to go for a more casual look, so I asked the model, Rachel, if she could change outfits. We went and dug through the big pile of clothes that were available, and ultimately found a men's black shirt that looked pretty comfy. When we folded the cuffs back it actually fit her pretty well, and looked decent with her jeans. They were shooting Kevin while we were deciding on an outfit, so I got him to stick around and did a few couple shots with Rachel.



After that series, I got some with just Kevin and then some more with only Rachel. At some point Kevin was shoved into a leather jacket (I don't remember if they let him put his shirt back on first or not) and I got some more couples shots, this time going for more of an unwanted advances or lovers spat kind of feel.



Eventually, I had to let someone else have a turn, so I unplugged and went to see what everyone else was doing. There were actually two lighting setups, so I went to see how things were going at the other rig. Soon after I joined the other guys waiting, I had an opportunity to shoot Topher while he was all dressed up. I had him do a couple of serious shots, and then I discovered that he had this wonderfully cheesy grin, so I had him do some sappy shots. After a bit, Rachel wondered by in a new outfit, and I had her jump in for a few shots with Topher.



I took a break for awhile, and sometime during that period, we changed out the blue paper roll for a small pink paper roll. I asked Brianna if she was up for some modeling and she very graciously agreed to do so. She looked stunning, so I decided to try for some high key sophisticated shots. I would have been happier with a martini glass, but I think it worked fine with the glass we had available.



The rest of the afternoon was a blur of shooting, when I found an idle rig, I hopped on and shot whoever was available. The models went through several outfit changes, and things got a little wilder as people became more comfortable with each other. I won't go into details, but I know there was some baby oil or something along those lines involved somewhere at some point.


Evening, Tuesday March 11th, 2005
We hooked up with everyone else for dinner and drinks, and we all wandered down to the Belagio afterwards to see the water show. Claire and I had tickets to the late showing of Zumanity, so we headed back from the fountains to catch the show. It was ok, but not as good as we had expected. We found out later that they had some technical problems during the show. I think I would have had more fun hanging out with everyone instead.

It was late when we got out of the show, and we had arranged to meet Louis and Lise early the next morning for a trip out to the Hoover Dam, so we headed back to the hotel and crashed.



Morning, Wednesday March 12th, 2005
We woke up early so we could make it to the Hoover Dam and still get back in time for the Photoshop World Expo. We met Lise and Louis and their hotel and headed out. The trip out was fairly pleasant. There are many more things to see during the day that we had missed on the way in. A half an hour later we arrived and decided to drive across the dam to one of the parking areas before going by the visitors center. We got a couple of shots of Lake Mead and the dam and headed back over to the Visitor's Center.

We never actually made it inside, there were some really cool bronze statues near the dam that we had seen on the way in and wanted some pictures of. The whole dam is huge, and we didn't really have much time for a proper tour. We eventually headed back to the Strip, as we had planned to have breakfast while out, and Lise wanted to pick up a new CF card.



Afternoon, Wednesday March 12th, 2005
We eventually made it back to the Mandalay Bay, a little later than we had hoped, but still pretty early in the day. We walked around the convention center for a bit and Claire found some demonstrations to watch. I hung out next at the iStock booth for the most part, chatting with people who were stopping by. Pat was about to get lunch, and Claire and I were hungry as well, so we set out to see what we could find nearby. Just outside the convention area, we found Rob, Dale, Kelly, Rich, and Becca having lunch. We joined them and chatted for awhile until Kelly and Becca had to leave for the airport. Rich was driving them, so we said our goodbyes and it was sad to see them go. We finished up our lunch while Pat showed us photos of his family and friends, and then we headed back in to the expo.

Bruce had asked for more photos for the slide show that evening, so I headed back to our hotel to pick up some more shots off my computer. Claire showed up after awhile to drop off her stuff, and we went back to the Mandalay for the evening festivities. While hanging out waiting for everyone to show up, we got to talking to Simon about curry, and made the poor guy both hungry and homesick. As the evening grew later, more people began showing up. Eventually the worn out booth crew finished packing things up and made it upstairs. They worked really hard the whole week, while everyone else got to have fun and they deserve a big thanks from all of us for working so hard to promote iStock. Thanks guys!

The slide show started and there was much discussion and chuckling as photos from the week passed by. As each photo passed, I was reminded that our time in Vegas was slowly coming to an end. All the wonderful people we spent the week with would soon be traveling back to their homes. It was a little sad, as we had a lot of fun together. Even though very few of us had met before, the whole week still felt like old buddies hanging out. Awards were given, goodbyes were said, the evening slowly wound down.



Goodbye and good riddance, Vegas If asked to describe Las Vegas, Nevada in one word, the word I would choose is 'sloppy'. The city seems to bring out the worst in a lot of people, and most of the tourists are very self-centered and rude. Being there with the iStock folk was fantastic though, they made having to put up with Vegas worthwhile.




Thursday, March 13th, 2005

9:00 AM PST Las Vegas, Nevada
We got everything packed up and got out of Vegas as fast as we could. 4:00 PM MST South Rim, Grand Canyon, Arizona
We were very excited about our first stop on the way home, the Grand Canyon. It only took about six hours to drive to the South Rim from Vegas, but we wanted to get there early enough to find a good place to catch the sunset. As dry as the desert is, there are still trees in that area. One posting we saw said that it takes forty years for the trees at the rim of the Grand Canyon to grow one foot. The actual canyon itself is huge. You can't really describe it, and any photo you ever see of the place will not do it justice. You really should see it for yourself.

We set up to take some panoramic photos near the visitors center, and I accidentally donated my brand new circular polarizer to the depths of the canyon. Oops. The last circular polarizer I owned met a similar fate a few months ago. I'm not sure Claire will let me buy any more of them, as they don't seem to get along well with me and always want to leave the hard way. We got our vacation photo and headed over to the visitor center to get sunset advice.



At the visitors center they suggested we try out Hopi Point, so we got directions and took the bus down to Hopi Point. One sad fact that readily became apparent is that the Grand Canyon is polluted.



Where you used to be able to see for miles down this gorge, there is smoggy haze obscuring the long view. It apparently gets a lot worse in the summer. We waited patiently for sunset, trying not to use up all the space on my CF cards. There are so many interesting things to see that it is hard to decide what to shoot and what to wait for. I eventually got a few very nice shots, and we headed back to town to check in to our hotel and to grab some grub at a restaurant named "We Cook Pizza and Pasta". They did, and it was good.




Friday, March 14th, 2005

8:00 AM MST Tusayan, Arizona
We threw everything in the car and left early, we had several stops we wanted to make and a long drive on top of them.

10:00 AM MST Walnut Canyon, Arizona
Walnut Canyon is the former home of the Sanagua. It is a very steep canyon, and the Sanagua used its limestone overhangs for shelter. They built rooms under the overhangs and farmed on the cliffs and plains above. In the early 20th Century, visitors raided the dwellings in search of ancient pottery and damaged many of the walls.



2:00 PM MST Petrified Forest, Arizona
Our next stop was the petrified forest. This place was amazing. As the sand gets washed and blown away over the years, these rock trees are uncovered. Some of the trees are very large and one can only guess at how old they were before they were fossilized.



Sunset, Bernalillo, New Mexico
We arrived back at La Hacienda Grande as the sun was setting on the Sandia mountains, turning them the slightly watermelon color for which they are named. When we left La Hacienda a week before, we had promised to return and shoot some of their rooms on the way back home. We got one of the rooms that night, and the others the next morning. It is as comfy as it looks, and I highly recommend you stay there if you are ever traveling to the Albuquerque area.





Saturday, March 15th, 2005

9:30 AM MST Bernalillo, New Mexico
Before we left, I re-shot two of my favorite photos from our last visit to La Hacienda. They are of this old wood ladder that leans against their wall. I just love the way the shadows on the wall look, with the bars from the ladder and its shadow crossing it. Afterwards, we said our goodbyes to the kind folks and headed for White Sands.


4:00 PM MST White Sands, New Mexico
We found our way across the desert, past the road that leads to the Trinity Site, and around the missile range to the White Sands National Monument. The gypsum sand is carried down out of the mountains to a lake where it crystallizes as the lake dries. It is later blown into the famous dunes. We parked near the end of the loop through the main parts of the dunes and walked off to try to find a place with less visible signs of humanity. Unfortunately we found litter and pollution fairly regularly on our walk through the dusty sand. We found a couple of ancient pull tab cans out there, things that hadn't been manufactured in decades.



We finally settled in on the top of a dune we suspected might have a good view of the sunset. We played around with the sand, watching how quickly nature erased the signs of our presence. I slid down a sand dune for fun (and still have sand in my shoes to this day), and Claire created cascades of sand down the back side of the dune, watching how the sand flowed like water. Eventually we took our tourist photos and eventually got our sunset shots too. On the way out, we tried to give the guard at the gate the 20 year old relics we had found in the middle of the dunes. We figured they could put them on display somewhere as an example of why you be careful not to litter out there, but he gruffly said he didn't want them and told us to throw them away.



7:00 PM MST Cloudcroft, New Mexico
We headed for Cloudcroft, a town that has sat on top of the mountains above White Sands for over a hundred years. We hoped to have dinner there at a great little pizzeria in town, but we discovered it had been turned into a coffee shop. Disappointed, we decided to push on to Carlsbad, New Mexico and spend the night there.



Sunday, March 16th, 2005

8:00 AM MST, Carlsbad, New Mexico
We were nearly back to Texas, and still a long way from home when we left Carlsbad that morning. After several hours of driving, we stopped for lunch in Pecos, Texas. The truck stop had wireless internet access, and we had gone without contact with the rest of the world for days. We lingered awhile longer catching up on news and mail before hitting the road again.

4:00 PM CST, Sonora, Texas
We visited this lovely town again, to drop off my speeding ticket and request to take a defensive driving course. Monday the 16th was the deadline for having everything turned in, and we couldn't mail it in time to make that deadline. We eventually asked the right people and found the place we could turn everything in so it would get to the judge on time. It was with great pleasure we left Sonora in our dust on the final leg home.

7:00 PM CST, Austin, Texas
Home! Its always such a pleasure to return home after a long road trip. It was good to finally be able to sleep in our own bed and reflect on the trip. Writing this travelogue has freshened a lot of these memories, and I hope that this effort will help cement them in my head for years to come. I would like to thank Bruce, Brianna, and the whole iStock team for putting together a great event, and all the other iStockers who came from around the world. We already miss you guys and will see you in Boston.



Over 3,000 miles of road, to iStockalicious and Back, we saw many things, had a lot of fun, and will have memories for a lifetime.


--David and Claire Gilder

March 2005