In days of yore I had a radius from Austin beyond which I would not drive on an assignment. Every once in a great while I broke the rule and drove a bit further away but those were usually when an assignment called for more gear than one could safely and economically transport on a commercial airline. For example, jobs that called for: lots of big strobes, lots of large lighting gear, huge scrims and lots of redundant cameras and lenses. For the most part my boundaries equal the distance and time to drive between Austin and Dallas.
It's a pretty big circle and includes most of the major cities in Texas. When one can drive to Houston in three hours it just doesn't make sense to spend two hours getting to, and waiting at, the airport, deplaning at the other end and wrangling luggage, getting the luggage to the rental car depot, etc, etc. Your time commitment may actually exceed that required to just drive there.
But on the other hand, when I was doing jobs in places like North Carolina one day and Florida the next driving between the two was out of the question. And driving to either location from Austin would have been about as inefficient as I could imagine.
That was all before the pandemic upended travel in a dramatic way. Now the lines at the airports are even longer (because of social distancing, etc.) and rental cars are as scarce as ice cubes in the desert and pricier than a mortgage. Now I feel like I need to recalculate the driving radius and figure out some new boundaries.
Also, just because I've been vaccinated doesn't mean I want to take chances with a Southwest Airlines flight full of dumbass yahoos who think the earth is flat, viruses are the will of a vindictive baby Jesus, and that face masks are for sissies and liberals. In fact, when I called my dentist to reschedule an appointment because of my travel schedule they wanted to know if I was flying since their policy is to wait for at least ten days after any flight before admitting one into their office. I figure there's good logic to that and it conveys also to me seeing clients after a flight!
So, here's my current planning conundrum: I am booked to photograph an assignment in Sante Fe, NM. at the end of this month. I looked up travel information and found that there are no reasonable direct flights from Austin to Sante Fe. I would be booking Southwest Airlines to fly from Austin to Dallas and then from Dallas to Sante Fe. When I get there I'll have to have a rental car. There are none.
The flight time is a little over seven hours for both legs. Add two hours for initial arrival and check-in. That puts us over nine hours. Add an hour to fetch luggage, get a rental car (none currently exist) and get to my hotel. We're looking at ten hours and change to go from door-to-door. That's contingent on no one on the flight tossing down their face mask and challenging a flight attendant which might require us to sit at a gate and wait for police to come and remove the nut job.
The drive from Austin to Sante Fe is about 650 miles. The estimated time on all the mapping apps is about 11 hours of drive time. Add in some breaks for the restroom, coffee regeneration and food and we'll call it 13 hours. I have a new-ish car with only 16,000 miles on the odometer. I can bring all the camera gear I'd ever want to play with and I can hang up suits and dress shirts so they are fresh and ready to go the next morning.
I'm definitely driving and I guess this means that for now I'll extending my boundary range from Austin to a max of about 700 miles. I'd bill for travel days on either end of the project anyway.
It's interesting that we now have different pain points to take into consideration when traveling for work. On some level I think air travel is probably safer than indoor dining at restaurants but I think you are still taking a risk given that we don't know whether or not vaccinated passengers, exposed to the Covid virus, can pass it on to unvaccinated people in turn. My concern is not so much for my personal health but concern for those I'll subsequently come into contact with.
I have always wanted to do a project in Sante Fe. I think driving there is actually more fun given that my return trip isn't bookended by any particular schedule or obligations and I could come back through the White Sands area and the through El Paso and on to Marfa, Texas before heading home. Lots of places to stop and take photographs.
Look for the silver lining in every choice. There's generally always one there.
19 comments:
No brainer, drive. Take someone along, make it a min-vacation.
google "limousine from albuquerque to santa fe"
650 miles - that's a lot in a day, and you'd be really whacked the next. I used to drive back and forth between near Santa Fe and Virginia twice a year (1800 miles), and I didn't like to do more than 350 - 380 miles in a day, at least not day after day (well, you're much younger than I am, but still). You may remember knocking off 600 miles in your 20s and 30s, but it will take more recovering these days.
I'd strongly recommend planning an overnight stop. I used to overnight in Amarillo, at least when I drove via I-40. The leg between Santa Fe and Amarillo may seem short for a day's drive, but you'd feel much more rested at the end.
With shorter driving days, you can afford to spend some time at interesting-looking places along the way. In Albuquerque there's a Vietnamese deli/bakery that has the best banh-mi sandwiches going. Makes a good break from driving.
I'd suggest breaking the drive into segments, as Tom stated above. We did an I40 and I10 section through Texas on a west to east coast trek last Fall and spent some time exploring back roads and highways. Route 66 in particular has some terrific photo ops along it's path. If you can make it a mini vaca as others have suggested I think it better than slogging through non-stop just to spend the following day at home delirious with fatigue.
Tom, that's an option I'm definitely exploring. We're not booked up as solid as we used to be pre-pandemic so there's more opportunity to slow down and enjoy the journey. Thanks for the Albuquerque suggestion.
James, still need a rental car for the week in Sante Fe.
Robert - Sorry sir, I hate having passengers along on road trips. Even the ones I love. We've done short, one day car trips for vacations but in the 36 years (anniversary this week!) we've been married Belinda and I have never taken a car trip longer than one day from Austin. If we can't drive there in one day then we're flying. No questions asked.
That drive is on my bucket list. I could easily take a lazy two weeks to do it. My biggest expense next to gas would be 4x5 film! Naturally a lot of pixels would get excited too but the area just screams large format B&W. At least to me anyway. Not that it's any better than a 45mp digital wunder-camera, just more fun for Eric.
Eric
Kirk:
It sounds like a great long, one day drive and without the chance of snow or ice it ought to be a breeze.
I do some work from time to time in Las Cruces and I highly recommend you visit White Sands as a reward to yourself after the work is done. The landscape is breathtaking, just bring water and stay close to the roads for safety!
CDC
I have a good friend, whom I met years ago while conducting biological fieldwork on various Pacific Islands. He now does contract work that requires him (pre-Covid) to make regular trips to the Pacific. Unfortunately, after a few too many rough landings he developed a severe flying phobia.
He obviously has to fly to and from the different islands, but he now schedules all of his departures from LA and drives there from his home in Pennsylvania. At the end of the work trip he lands in LA, picks up his (inefficient!) pickup truck from long-term parking, and drives home to Pennsylvania. He does this (pre-Covid) 3-6 times per year.
So, his cut-off point for driving or flying is about 2600 miles, with a bag full of sedatives once he gets on the plane.
In your case, load up some good podcasts, music, or a companion full of brilliant conversation, take it easy (two days each way), and you'll be fine.
Surely a no-brainer. Kirk. :o)
I was at White Sands once trying to get a certain road + mountain shot for an AR cover about ten years ago. "Accidentally" trespassed on the military base there and got escorted out with a stern warning. It was fun. And I got the shot I wanted. Bad boy of photography that day....
Will a car rental in Sante Fe cost more than your airfare?
I hear that car rental prices have soared.
Hi Joe, I read the same thing. Rental cars are in short supply. The real issue is whether one will end up being available at all.
I've pretty much made up my mind to drive the trip. It should be fun....
Netjets. You're worth it and so is your client.
Kirk, I often drove from Kerrville to Santa Fe, traveling I-10 to Ft. Stockton and then up US 85 to Santa Fe. I would consider that route. It is a long hike and we often stopped in Roswell overnight.
Coming back, travel down I-25 and stop at San Antonio for a visit to Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge. There won't be many birds there but you might get some good images. Then go on to Las Cruces and White Sands. You could even go down to the Big Bend. Makes for a good vacation with lots of landscapes.
That's funny, just a few days ago I put Marfa on my list of places to visit in 2021. I'll have to avert my eyes when you post your usual fifteen shots from your walk around the town so you don't ruin it for me! ;-)
Also consider the airline losing all or some of your luggage when you connect in Dallas, or if one plane goes tech and SW is short of replacement equipment because they've had to ground some of their MAXs to deal with that new electrical issue.
Kirk, the NY Times had an article by a couple of academics a month or so ago. Bottom line is that your chances of getting covid on a plane and dying are dwarfed by the risk of getting killed in a car crash. Factor in being vaccinated and flying strikes me as a no-brainer. I'm travelling from L.A. to Flagstaff AZ at the end of the month (2.75 hrs total flight time with a change in Phoenix) and opted to fly, so this is not just academic for me. And I have been super cautious during the pandemic. Being vaccinated did make the decision easier.
Good luck with whatever you decide!
I live in Santa Fe, and just made a long trip through Texas by car. In fact, I've driven all over the place from Santa Fe. From reading about your swimming schedule, I think you're an early-riser. If you drive from Austin to Roswell, NM, which is a fairly large town with lots of motels, that's an eight-hour drive. The next day straight up to Santa Fe, also a very easy three-hour drive, most of it on four-lane highway, the last bit on virtually deserted good two-lane up to I-25 and then into Santa Fe. If you got going at seven o'clock after checking out of your motel in Roswell, you'd be in Santa Fe by ten.
Don't fly to Santa Fe from Dallas. If you decide to fly, fly into Albuquerque. When there are delays, which there often are, Santa Fe flies last (I've been told that when there are delays, from thunderstorms and such, they try to get the most people flying as quickly as they can. Since the Callas-Santa Fe flights are about the smallest local planes, with very limited overhead storage, they're at the bottom of the priority list. Also, they usually have about six rental cars at the Santa Fe airport, although there are other rental agencies in town. Albuquerque has more cars, and from the Albuquerque airport to my house in north Santa Fe is exactly one hour.
It's sounds like you're driving Kirk. Very cool! I've made the trip between Dallas and ABQ/Sant Fe many times over the years. What sucks is the speed traps through the multiple towns before you reach I-40. Otherwise, it's a great drive with oodles of photo opportunity as you go farther west. I'm sure it will be the same for you. Be safe and have fun!
Post a Comment