Iola Car Show and east coast adventure!

Hey, Steemit! I’m here. What a whirlwind few days this has been. Friday afternoon, myself, @vermillionfox and @guthrie left Minneapolis around 4:00p.m. A stop at the co-op for 20 cans of my favorite beverage [non-alcoholic] and new contacts […doesn’t sound like a big deal until you tear your last pair as a photography, on the other side of the country]. We made the 3 1/2 hour drive to Iola, WI. Checked in the our hotel and slept [somewhat] before waking up the next morning and meeting @wcpublishing at the Car Show fairgrounds. I was going to be signing copies of Dark Pinup along side Cherry Dollface and shooting the winner of the Iola Pinup Pageant.

We arrived under a hot, humid sun. Tens of thousands of people and car enthusiasts. @guthrie was on a mission to find cotton candy. @vermillionfox and I were just trying to find the @wcpublishing booth. We walked almost a mile before finally seeing Bob and Kelly. By the time we arrived at the tent, @guthrie was already tapping out. He was hot and sweaty; overtly dramatic. I think it’s good that on some occasions, he gets to see what I do for work. I’m not sure what his idea of “work” will be. He was raised at @caffetto watching me edit for 12 hour days. To experience the lengths of what goes in to the “travel” part of this job is probably good perspective.

Iola was great. We met some wonderful people […and some really weird ones]. Sold some books. During the time we were under the tent, I heard @guthrie yell “DAD! DAD!”. When I looked over, here was holding a tooth in his hand. His first tooth! I’m really glad I got to celebrate that milestone with him because under most circumstances, I’d have been on the road and he would have been home with @vermillionfox. The first two rounds of the Iola Pinup Pageant were held across from our tent. @guthrie and @vermillionfox headed back to the hotel early because of the heat. I shot the winner of the Pinup pageant, then headed back to meet my family.

The next morning, we were on the road at 7:00a.m. I didn’t feel at all intimidated by the length of this drive […for some reason]. Maybe because I’d justified that it was four hours shorter than leaving from Minneapolis […a trip we’ve made several times before]. I will tell you, though, it was long! About half way through, I was feeling the first signs of driving fatigued. I would never drive sleepy […almost, thankfully, @vermillionfox and I had a good night’s rest before leaving that morning], but soreness, stiffness and Subaru fever […similar to cabin fever] was setting in.

@vermillionfox and I were both suffering from a Culver’s […fast food burger joint in the midwest] hangover. We picked up a Caesar salad, which did help. @vermillionfox made two great Steemit posts on her iPad Pro, tethering from my cellular data […one of which was our playlist on the drive, so definitely check out her post “Now Playing”. Hours slowly slipped by with the occasional peep from the backseat as @guthrie would say “…how many hours now, Dad?”. Around midnight, we finally pulled in to @bonni’s driveway and the grandma/grandson duo was reunited.

Thanks for reading. I had to summarize a lot of the fourteen hour trip and Iola Weekend, but this trip is just getting started. @vermillionfox and I have a few shoots in NYC over the next couple of days. There will be a lot to come. In the meantime, I’m looking forward to see family and friends and getting caught up on editing. For more photography, art, illustration and travel, follow me here @kommienezuspadt!