Homage to Horace Greeley: "Go West, Young Man"—With a Sony Nex-7 Camera in Hand

So every year about this time I break camp and head west to Colorado, where I hole up to write and enjoy the mountains. That Horace Greeley quote has stayed with me ever since childhood, and I’m always longing for the West if I’m not there, and happy that I am when I am. One version of this (slightly) disputed quote is the one I agree with most: “Go West, young man, go West. There is health in the country, and room away from our crowds of idlers and imbeciles.”
Plus this year I have a spanking new camera, a 24mp Sony Nex-7, which is a cool little gadget, and Popular Photography’s 2011 Camera of the Year no less. It’s something of a hybrid between the bigger (and clunkier, in my opinion) DSLRs that tend to be the top-o-the-line models, and the smaller and more convenient digitals, of which I’ve owned several, but most of them are definitely a couple steps down in image quality. On this trip I’ll take some pictures that capture some charm of the open road, and post them here. It’s about an 1,800 mile drive, so I should see something worthwhile. I’ll be traveling with a five-year-old imp named Lili, who quite likely will be the star of the show. Here she is on the eve of the trip, wondering how many stuffed animals she’s going to collect en route!