January – St Louis for the first time ever, and the furthest traveled west by land rather than air. The inaugural St Lois Polo Lock-in, 24 hours of overnight, indoor polo in the midst of winter. Fantastic, and totally nuts with a sometimes 3 hr wait between games of pick up. I got 14 in, no cheating, just good time management. More black and white portraits here. And a gallery from the event here.
February – Minneapolis for Stupor Bowl 13, the annual running of one of the larger and more brutal alleycats in the country. The idea of Urban Velo was more or less sort of forged on a roadtrip to Stupor Bowl 10. A great time of riding bar to bar with whoever is in front of you, with the opportunity to get falling down drunk if you so wish with the Stupor race. Gallery of images here.
February – Richmond for another running of NAHBS, with lots of studio coverage on Urban Velo and the official NAHBS site. The absolute worst place I’ve ever visited, and I’m well traveled in the USA to have had some bummer trips. Perhaps we just went to all the wrong places, but Richmond was a dump from what we saw. I’ll give it a second go someday. Lots of NAHBS photos here.
April – Lexington, my first trip to what has become a favorite destination. This was for a polo tournament that ended up being the kickoff to an amazing summer season. Lots of polo, lots of exploring town, lots of time with our wonderful hosts.
April – Ohiopyle trail camping for a few days, making it all of 80 miles form home. It was originally a trip centered around a Fallingwater visit, but while the camping worked out perfectly the visit wasn’t meant to be. Perfect weather, lots of downtime spent just hanging. I’d love to repeat this weekend.
May – Frederick. More camping, this time riding solo from Pittsburgh to Frederick MD over the course of 3 days, and then playing polo at DC polo camp. Rode the GAP and C&O trail straight to Frederick, making it door to door in 3 days and two nights on the road, 110/90/100 miles before Polo Camp. It was a wonderful way to spend some time alone, and then spend some time hanging with friends playing endless polo.
August – Dayton for an impromptu day of pick up polo, ended up with a great day of games capped off with a horribly dislocated shoulder and a trip to the ER to get it put back into place. This was not fun. I didn’t take this picture.
August – NYC was the first stop on the roadtrip, crashing with great friends and exploring town along with a bit of business. A low-key stay with a fair amount of riding around and some great times. Made it to the Chrome NYC store grand opening. A gem of a stop.
August – Boston, all business at this stop. Visited Geekhouse, Bern, ANT and Indy Fab over the course of a short two day stay in town. Can’t wait to make it back July 2011. Got a Boston builder feature out of it.
September – Raccoon Creek car camping with the family and friends just outside of town. The campsite wasn’t the best, but we made the best of it ignoring the quiet hours and the fact that we could see at least 4 other camps from ours. Played Risk to the point of yelling at each other in the dark, shotgunned beers in the woods to avoid passerby, generally relaxed, ate and did a bunch of nothing for the weekend.
September – Las Vegas for my 8th consecutive Interbike. It’s an oddly familiar place these days, at times I can’t believe I’ve been to the show once let alone 8 times. Business is good, but to hell with the city. Fuck this place.
October – Louisville for the first time, for what ended up being more or less a shit-show polo tournament and a crazy fun weekend at the same tome. Didn’t dislocate my shoulder even if it was only a few months out from the Dayton injury, placed 3rd or 4th overall… got bounced by the authorities from both courts, had to play with poles in the midst of things. But made it to Lexington for a day of pick up polo on the way back home and made it into yet another great trip.
November – Lexington for the third trip in 2010! This time for the Midwest Open polo tournament and an awesome mixer team between myself and friends from Dayton and Lexington. Playing well enough on a well organized weekend and then managed to dislocated the shoulder again, bringing an end to my day and the last game of polo for nearly five months. Shot pictures for the rest of my time there. Cut a planned trip to Nashville short. Bummer.
November – San Francisco, a quick four day non-work trip with fantastic friends. Could it get better? Not really. Perfect trip to just wander and see what we would get into capped off by a trip to Muir Woods and the sunset at Muir Beach, just magical places.
The theme: Lots of film experimentation. Lots of digital as per usual, just not so much here. Lots of polo.
See also: 2009 Travels in Pictures.
It’s been a long time without an update. Perhaps this will change things.
