My last post on this blog was nearly six months ago while I was on vacation in North Carolina. Since then, I've drove down to Cincinnati for Homecoming in October, followed by a trip out to Connecticut in early November to see an old high school friend, Craig and his then-pregnant wife, Heather. I'll may eventually write up a few articles on those trips in a flashback style, but I'm in no rush to do so. Since then, aside from a few back-and-forth drives to Youngstown, my travels have been kept to a fair minimum. Until now.This past August, I put together a team of friends and collegues to produce and shoot a film for the 48-hour Film Project that ended up being called 'The 4th Floor." We had 48 hours to write, shoot and edit the film, and our efforts paid off. Two weeks later at the Cleveland awards ceremony, we were awarded the 'Best Film' selection for the city of Cleveland, meaning that our film will move on to the next round of judgment during the annual Filmapolooza, an event which happens to be taking place in Las Vegas next month. Am I going? You better [expletive] believe it. If our film is selected as the top ten out of it's 80 competitors, it will move on to the 2010 Cannes Film Festival in France. Consider my fingers crossed.
So next month, I'm spending three days in Vegas attending different films and booths throughout the NAB floor show. I'll be the first to admit that Vegas isn't my favorite city, but I'm lucky enough to have a few friends in the area, so we'll all have a good time, no doubt. However...three days isn't much of a vacation for me. I travel out west about every other year, so this is the perfect opportunity for me to explore a few things that I've been meaning to do for quite a while, see some family that I'm overdue to visit and spend a good full week relaxing in the Arizona sun.More details are sure to come, but as soon as the Filmapolooza wraps, I'm planning on driving out of Vegas in my trusty little rent-a-car and heading east towards the Grand Canyon. Before I reach it however, my route turns north along a small Indian highway that runs for 65 miles before dead-ending in a parking lot overlooking the canyon. From there I'll enter the Havasupai Indian Reservation, one of the most remote reservations in existance, hike 10 miles into the oasis where I'll spend the following two days camping and relaxing by the turquoise-blue waters of Havasu Falls. After my hike out of the canyon, I'll jump back into the car and head south through Sedona and into Phoenix and Tuscon, where my uncles and their families both reside. I'll hang out down there for a few days and help them out a bit before catching my flight back to Cleveland.
I plan on documenting this trip fairly heavily, so try and keep up. I may even make a small documentary out of my experiences in the Havasupai Indian Reservation. I'll be sure to keep everyone posted. I leave on April 10, so until then...signing off.
