F.A.Q. (Frequently Asked Questions)
Some of these are, in fact, questions that people have actually asked about this website. Others are questions that I imagine people would ask or, in my opinion, should ask. A few are simply made up questions that match some answers I happen to know.
- What's it for?
Danged if I know. 90+ percent of the time maintaining this website is a lot of fun but every now and then it feels a little like work and I then ask myself that very question. I answer myself with three reasons. One is that sharing travel stories is fun and, since I have no regular travel companion or significant other, the website lets me do that without forcing it on some guy who happens to be stuck on the bar stool next to mine. Second is so I'll have something to fuel the memories when my traveling days come to an end. The third is that I enjoy writing and taking pictures and this lets me do both. It doesn't "keep me off the streets" but it keeps me busy while I'm there.
- What's it contain?
The main pieces of the site are the trip journals and the blog. Journals are the heart of the site. The whole thing started with a single trip journal in 1999 and there are now more than a hundred. There is a journal for every trip with a page for every day. These pages appear during the trip as soon as practical after each day's travel; Typically the next morning. Some journals contain other pages with extra information. An off shoot of the trip journals is a collection of "oddments". These are single page reports on events or locations that were not part of a road trip. There are separate indexes for all completed road trips and oddments. Road trips can also be accessed through a clickable collage containing one photo from each trip. The blog was added in 2011. Among other things, the blog gets an entry specifically associated with each new road trip or oddment. This serves as an announcement for anyone who only follows the blog but its main purpose is to provide a place for comments and questions on each trip or oddment. In addition to journal related entries, the blog is updated every Sunday with whatever suits my fancy. Some things that might have been oddments in pre-blog days now appear there and the list of oddments has been frozen since 2012. I also do an occasional review of something as a blog entry and those generally appear on Wednesdays. The blog's "About" page is here.
- How can I keep up with it?
There are two mailing lists and a RSS feed associated with the trip journals. The "Announcements" mailing list just tells you when a trip starts and ends. The "On the Road" list tells you that plus when each daily page is posted. The journal RSS feed contains everything in the "On the Road" list plus an occasional feed specific item. The "On the Road" mailing list and the journal RSS feed are the only ways of being alerted to the daily page postings. Note that both of these merely tell you when something new is posted and provide a link to it. The link must be followed to read the actual journal page.On the blog's home page you can subscribe to a mailing list for new entries, and email notification for comments on individual entries is available on the entries. There is also a RSS feed for blog entries and one for comments.
I do have Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook accounts, and I do try to post a photo to them every day while on a trip and even a "Twip that Twiggered the Tweets" link at its conclusion. These social media accounts are not, however, reliable methods for following a road trip.
- Is it mobile-friendly?
Pretty much. When I realized the importance of being compatible with smartphones and the like, I set out to make it so. I do not, however, expect the site to ever be 100% mobile-friendly. The two index pages, Oddments and All Trips, are tables that don't squeeze down easily and the effort to rework them doesn't seem justified. In addition, most of the individual Oddment pages contain photo tables that, like the indexes, extend beyond small screens and require scrolling. I've decided that reworking these isn't justified either. At least for the present. But, as of February 25, 2016, basic changes to support mobile devices have been made to all other non-blog pages on the site. It's possible that I missed a page or two and there may be places where the changes did not lead to 100% mobile friendliness. I will endeavor to deal with such cases if and when I become aware of them. The blog pages were already mobile-friendly courtesy of WordPress.
- Does it make money?
Not exactly. In 2004 I added an area for advertisements from Google. It was sacrificed as part of the mobile-friendly efforts in early 2016. The Google Adsense program, which manages the ads, issues payment when accumulated earnings reach $100. While the advertisements were appearing, earnings of $71.23 were accumulated. I know I promised a party when that first payment rolled in but, unless I revive the ads, I guess I'll never see that money. Sorry.
- What's with the Seeds, Leads, and Deeds?
These are selections on the site's home page associated with three possible stages of a road trip. Done Deeds accesses the journals of completed road trips and oddments. There are subcategories for my favorites and those most recently completed but the most useful items are the Oddment link and the List and Collage links under "All Trips". Fixed Leads contains road trips that I have firm plans for. At a minimum there will be a cover page and a Prelude paragraph or two. Some of the bigger trips may have additional pages about history, planning, and such. Trips that I'd like to do but have no definite plans for are placed under Just Seeds. Whenever anything is added or significantly changed, a yellow "NEW" appears next to the affected item and the selections it is under. For example, if firm plans were made for a trip to Venus, a link to the trip's cover page would be placed under Fixed Leads and the yellow "NEW" would appear next to Fixed Leads and the Venus link. Things become not-new after a month. When a trip actually begins, it is marked with a red "NOW" and it remains under Fixed Leads until completed. Sometime later (i.e., when I get around to it) it will be moved to Done Deeds and marked as new for a month. The majority of trips occur without ever having been Seeds and some even occur without ever having their Leads fixed. And yes, I do realize that a trip to Venus would not, at this time, technically be a road trip.
- What GPS do you use?
Either a Garmin Zumo 396 or Garmin Zumo 220. The 396 is the newest with the most bells and whistles and is great for finding and getting to places and even for some more carefully planned trips. The 220 is kind of beat up and showing its age and it sometimes hiccups but it is still my favorite for following a specific route since neither the 396 nor any other current Garmin model supports routing properly in my opinion. I am also using my smartphone more and more for finding and getting to places when I don't care precisely how I get there. Excluding the phone, all GPS receivers I've used have been Garmins and all are covered in the on going My Gear series of blog entries.
- What camera do you use?
The arsenal includes a Nikon D5100, an Olympus OM-D E-M10, and a Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS40 plus the camera in my Google Pixel 4a seems to see more and more action as time goes on. The aging Nikon still gets picked when size and weight aren't considerations. The Olympus is a nice front seat companion for through-the-windshield shots and for occasions when I just don't feel like carrying the Nikon. The Panasonic is the smallest and, in many respects, the most versatile so it gets used when I can't or don't want to carry much of anything. Of course, as the saying goes, the best camera is the one you have with you, and with the Pixel I've always got one that is quite capable. The on going My Gear series of blog entries covers all the non-phone cameras I've used for the website.
- Do you geotag photos?
Yes. Mostly after the fact. I try to keep the Nikon and Olympus clocks in sync with my GPS receiver then use the recorded track to assign locations to photos. The software I'm currently using for this is Garmin's BaseCamp. The Panasonic and Pixel geotag their own photos.
- What photo editing software do you use?
Serif's Affinity. This is a new "from the ground up" product that replaced PhotoPlus near the end of 2016. I had previously used PhotoPlus for many years through many releases. I also use FastStones' Photo Resizer (and watermarker) regularly. The on going My Apps series of blog entries will eventually cover most of the graphics software I've used for the website.
- What website software do you use?
CSE HTML Validator. It's essentially a slick text editor with powerful syntax checking. There is nothing very fancy on the site and Dreamweaver style designer/builders seem like overkill and learning them too much work. A background in software (From back when a K really meant something.) made basic HTML not too tough and beyond basic I don't go.
- What routing software do you use?
It's a mix of DeLorme Street Atlas and Garmin's BaseCamp. I long relied on DeLorme software to create routes and Garmin software to interact with the Garmin GPS hardware. With the purchase of DeLorme by Garmin and the end of Street Atlas development I'm really trying to wean myself from it but it's not going all that well. The on going My Apps series of blog entries will eventually cover most of the map software I've used for the website.
- What is your favorite highway?
I don't sit cryin' over good times I've had. I love the road I'm with.
- Do you really look like the caricature with long hair and dark mustache?
Yes Idodid. When this question first appeared, the caricature in question appeared at the top left of this site's home page. It was removed with the mobile-friendly changes but still appears on some individual trip pages as well as here.
- What
iswas that picture in the upper right thatkeepskept changing?
After each trip I select one photo to represent it. When the original question was asked, one of these photos, randomly selected, appeared on this site's home page each time it was accessed. Clicking on the photo would access the journal for the trip it represented. That feature was removed when the page was revised to increase mobile-friendliness. With completion of the 100th trip, I started using these pictures in a clickable collage of all trips. The link to the collage which appeared beneath the changing photo went away with the photo but one now appears in the "Done Deeds"-"All Trips" menu. There is also a "Random Trip" link that leads to a page containing the changing picture feature.
- Mac or PC?
PC. When I was working it was more or less necessary so that I could share stuff with my work machine. Now that I'm gainfully unemployed, I may at least consider a Mac for my next computer but that's some time off. I hope.
- How can I search or filter the trip list?
Sorry but neither is directly supported. The list is chronological and there is a button at the table's upper left that reverses the sequence. The list is presented on a single page so a browser's find facility (often accessed with ctrl-f) can be used to search through it. The search box for the entire website that appears on the home page might also be useful.
