85 MPH South-East and Out of Town

JWise Photo of the Day, Travels

Driving out of Arizona to New Mexico

After Caroline saw the photos from the bat flight at Carlsbad Caverns that Jutta and I had witnessed last week, it became imperative that we return as soon as possible. For years, Caroline and I had wanted to see this phenomenon, but it always seemed to be a few weeks or months off. Here we are, between Tucson and Phoenix, Arizona, on our way to New Mexico. The freeway is not as crowded as the roads heading north and west for the 4th of July weekend, so this was perfect. We made it 387 miles (627km) to Las Cruces, New Mexico, before having to catch a hotel. Not bad, since we didn’t leave Phoenix until 5:00 p.m. and lost an hour entering the Mountain time zone. And NO, we did not consider getting a room at the Town House Motel.

Haircut

JWise Photo of the Day

John Wise in Phoenix, Arizona

Moments prior to getting my haircut with Albert at Gio’s on Bell Road and 64th Street in Phoenix, Arizona, I snapped a photo of myself with my beard hiding my many chins. Following the haircut, back in the car, I took a photo of the new naked and near-bald look I am sporting for the second half of the year. Turns out that when you sit in your car, you sit in almost the exact same spot all the time – this photo turned out to be fairly simple to composite.

Nogales Hot Dogs

JWise Photo of the Day

Side of the van for local street side seller of Nogales Hot Dogs in Phoenix, Arizona

With Caroline at her Cold Fusion Users Group meeting in Tempe, Arizona, tonight, her mom and I stopped at 25th Street and Bell Road in Phoenix for a couple of Nogales Hot Dogs.

This local street-side vendor sells traditional Nogales Dogs wrapped in bacon topped with tomato, onion, mayonnaise, Mexican and cheddar cheese, grilled onion, guacamole, and salsa with a side of roasted peppers. Jutta had a bottle of Coke while I opted for the Mexican Apple Soda. This was my mother-in-law’s first sampling of Nogales Hot Dogs; as for me, well, I’ve been a frequent enough customer.

EasyMosaic

JWise Photo of the Day

A mosaic image of Caroline and myself made for my mother-in-law using Easy Mosaic from www.ezmosaic.com

Using Easy Mosaic software from www.ezmosaic.com, I created this 3072 x 2048 pixel image using 346 images from our vacation with my mother-in-law. The final image contains 4096 images, the maximum allowed with the Free Trial version, and, of course, are duplicated images from the 346 source photos. The software is easy to use and free for 20 days of usage, which I took advantage of. Easy Mosaic cost is as low as $35 for a Home version and up to $149 for the Commercial version – for those of you needing 2 GigaPixel images using more than 400,000 images.

To see the details in the image, click here.

Moto Photo printed a matte 11×17 image in less than 10 minutes for under $12 as a photographic print, not a laser or inkjet print. I’ve used Moto Photo for a couple of years now and love their service, friendliness, great quality, and prices.

The Pool

JWise Photo of the Day

My mother Karen, Mother-in-Law Jutta, Great Aunt Eleanor, and wife Caroline Wise in the Pool in Phoenix, Arizona

Earlier in the day, I printed nearly 800 photos that will travel with Jutta back to Germany later this week. Afterward, we visited my mother again for another cookout, but this time, we took a dip in the pool before dinner – even Aunt Eleanor joined us, her first time in the pool in 2 years. With only a few days left until Jutta leaves us, I can’t help but start to miss her as her stay, for the most part, has been so much fun, and the smiles and laughter a real pleasure to see on my mother-in-law’s face.