As promised the “Startling Announcement” plus a few less startling.

So what does 2021 bring to the Two Lane Touring site? 

First, we are ending the separate “moose” section. Sorry for those Cadillac fans but he will only appear while we are on trips or an occasional cameo. Apparently he has left for NYC to start his acting career not heeding what we said about Broadway being closed. The best case outcome is that using his keen sense of direction he ends up in Hollywood and finds work in a revival of Northern Exposure. The worst case is that he ends up with Rusty or Tom or Dennis and they send him back!

Second, Bird Week 10 was the first of any new bird weeks. From here on bird weeks will be from a single location. That might mean that there will be more bird photography on TLT - we will have to see how that works. 

Third, in addition to “bird week” I am planning four to five projects that will have a more “artful” slant. I feel a bit pretentious even typing that but I want to try some work that interests me in different ways, possibly more creative efforts a few times each year. I expect a complete project will have 5 to 7 photos. Others may not see the light of day and will end up just discarded.  

Fourth, 2020 was not good for restaurant reviews because it was not a good year for eating out. Period. I hope that we can get back to a more normal time but for now, I am searching old places and I intend to get one up each month. I have saved a few camping posts for this winter.

Fifth, and this is a big change for me, I am going to completely re-do the National Park portion of the site. I will list all the parks by NP regions, do a more complete description of our time at the park and share 1 to 3 photos. They will be set up so it will be easier to find a park you might be interested in. This will take months to finish so I will not be removing the current photos but you will see additions as I can get time to complete them. 

Sixth, I have a lot of photos that were edited years ago (and some last year) that I did not do the best job on and I hope to re-edit some older work and then post or in some cases, repost those photos. In the nearly six years at TLT I have only used duplicate photos a dozen times or so, meaning I have posted about 2500 photos and written close to half a million words. I think I have some nice work poorly presented that I want to revisit. This is all while learning two new editing programs!

Seventh, soon there will be a new feature on the menu bar, the C 2 C 2 C. In April, there is an exciting adventure that you can read about from preparation to completion beginning next Tuesday the 19th of January. 

Finally, and this is a big shift in some ways. I started this blog to force myself to learn photography & simply by putting the product “out there” I wanted to do better. I am more accomplished now than the first efforts in 2013 and 2014 and that is gratifying but I really want to learn more. So I am going to work more diligently on the photography.

The other half of the reason for Two Lane Touring, which was a new focus five years ago, was to visit and photograph all the National Park Service Units - now at 423 places. But there is a shift coming. The goal is still there yet there are places that are more difficult to visit for a variety of reasons and may remain that way for some time. Covid, of course, unsafe neighborhoods some places, costs for some areas, arbitrary changes in how or when you can visit play a part so that all together some units are just tough to do. Plus last year missing most of the parks we planned was a set back. I expect by the time we leave for a late summer / fall trip with most of the last year of part time work completed, the plan may be to go more slowly and spend more time exploring other places and things than just the National Parks. Spending a bit more time in a place just seems right for now. The effort feels a bit unsettled this year. We’ll see. Even so we expect that in 2021 we will crest the 300 park threshold or at least that is the plan! We have two new parks planned in February.