OK, the story:

My buddy, a retired Disney artist came up with the idea of a legendary road trip in 2013. He and another old friend, we all worked at Disney together in Hong Kong, said "Let's do it!". The trip was planed for several months and everything was mapped out, where we'd stay , where we'd get gear (camping and clothes) and what we would see, even down to the black Tahoe truck with tinted windows.

We decided May, just over winter and just before sightseeing tours. It was all about the Wild West, Americana, history, the good the bad and the ugly. It was to be a voyage of discovery, of catharsis and of sharing time with those we so much enjoyed being together with. It even got branded a name, "Tough Trip through Paradise"

I flew in from Hong Kong, another from Hawaii and we met in Salt Lake City, home base and point zero for the trip. We went over the agenda again in an historic Mormon house, my ex-boss's, who speaks 7 languages and is a converted hard core anti-Mormon. As an interesting caveat, we are all left handed, all born in the month of March, though different years, and are all have been married for many years to Asian wives. Each of us attribute not being in jail or dead by now to our wives.

We packed up the truck the morning after we met and off we went.

I saw things I only ever read about as a kid, Meteor Crater, The Grand Canyon, Durango...just the name is cool, The Little Big Horn, Wounded Knee, Mount Rushmore, Ship Rock, Route 66, these are in no particular order, and each left a different mark on me, some I never saw coming. In fact, most of what we traveled through was American Indian Reservations. Pretty sobering.

The abandoned house with the cross outside was from Pine Ridge.

The cross in the field was from Wounded Knee grave yard.

I think the highlight for me was two days at The Little Big Horn. Pretty cool. We met on the first day with a Lakota guide. We drove and walked a very large part of the battlefield, including the approaches by Custer's group. We walked atop Weir's Point and wondered how Custer got it so wrong from that vantage point of observation. Hence the many conspiracy theories.

We walked ground level, where Reno and his men fought and died retreating to a creek and tree cover.

The next day, amazing, we did it on horseback and we forded The Little Big Horn. A whole other funny story there, but by now this must be as interesting as viewing wedding pictures! Suffice it to say, it really was an epic road trip.

Forgot to add gear: D600, 24-70 2.8 (workhorse) 70-200 2.8 (occasional long shots, one in gallery, the road and Monument Valley) Now upgraded to D610(free replacement)