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Our experience with a 2014 model has been similar. Hallmark's communications is excellent during the buying and building process, but once delivered it's phone calls during business hours only--difficult when I need to send photos or to reference links. Solving problems is like pulling teeth...

The best tripod, if any, depends on the kind of images you favor and your type of camera. Landscapes, birding, macro, travel, panoramas and video have different needs that no single tripod/head will excel at. Big cameras need a more hefty tripod/head than smaller systems. However, the in-camera...

Spring rains made for nice flowers this year in Oregon, too. Lupine, paintbrush and other alpine flowers are prominent now. For example, here are a few images from Pine Mountain this month. Many Cascade areas I've visited are equally colorful.

Field of lupine and other flowers on Pine Mountain's northeast ridge summit, 6509 feet elevation.

Sunrise from hill above Pine Mountain Observatory, 6349 feet elevation, with smoke from wildfires.

Looking north on Pine Mountain's northwest ridge. Prominent rock formation locally known as Littlerock, 6157 feet elevation.

Butterflies hill topping on Pine Mountain's northeast ridge.

Images from trips

I also have the GH4 and several lenses. Very versatile system. It's my go-to video camera, and it is an excellent stills camera although bigger and heavier than other Micro Four Thirds bodies. The swiveling and tilting rear screen makes shooting low angles easy--if I had to contort my body to...

That's a great system. I've rented an X100 twice (fixed 35mm rangefinder style) which has a similar sensor and controls. Its film simulations and built-in ND filter work amazing well. When shooting RAW+JPEG the JPEG with minor adjustments suits me over half the time--saves significant computer...

Another vote for Torklifts. The Alaskan is a heavy popup that can bend bumper and bed mounts. The newer Torklift Talon frame-mounted tiedowns are powder-coated aluminum that resist corrosion. Combine them with FastGun turnbuckles for the best bed mounting available.

Saw my first V2 besides the prototype in Bend yesterday. Washington plates. It looks like the one featured on XPCamper's website. I bet it was on the way to the NW Overland Rally that starts tomorrow. They should have left a box of brochures on the hood because people were stopping to gawk at...

XPCamper V2 in downtown Bend on June 23, 2015

Yes, that's why I ask about what others find to be the best balance. Some people love a city such as Pilot Rock--motto, "It's not the end of the world but you can see it from here." Others want remote--could you live at Five Bar? Meanwhile, nearly all the country's population growth has occurred...

Compared to what? In 1990 the pop. was about 24,000. That grew to 36,000 in 10 years during the housing bubble, plus the city annexed another 15,000 or so. By now we are over 80,000 because it's a great place to live. Still considered a small city but large enough to have most civilized...

Is the head for an indoor or outdoor shower? The ones I have seen used by camper manufacturers are standard, cheap, plastic units with little choice other than finish. Pressure ratings are all the same. Some owners replace the interior unit with a better home-style faucet and head. The stock...

When we moved to Central Oregon 25 years ago we had many of the same questions. Trusted sources told us the west side of Bend was the place to be and we never regretted that advice. The keys were a good real estate agent, patience and timing. Weather and politics proved to be highly variable. I...

Good for you! I last shot film in 1996. Still have some unexposed rolls of 35mm film in a drawer and several old cameras that probably leak light like crazy. The weight, wait, chemicals and lack of control have kept me from going back to film. Not to mention the thousands of slides from...

http://www.randalolson.com/2015/03/08/computing-the-optimal-road-trip-across-the-u-s/ is an interesting exercise to compute the shortest driving distance between a major landmark in each of the lower 48 states. http://rhiever.github.io/optimal-roadtrip-usa/major-landmarks.html is an...

5 (many times although I hardly think Hwy 395 is overlooked), 6 (partial) & 8 (long time ago). Oregon is crisscrossed with scenic byways and tour routes, so they can't be called "overlooked" although many such as the Steens Loop are not that well traveled.

Not sure what your point might be. Fewer people? Yes, that would help many problems but then we would not likely be having this discussion about modern vehicles. Fewer cars and trucks in cities? Yes, that would help greatly but we have to get over car dependency first. Note that per capita...

There have been many documentaries on the power grabs and political influence of the oil industry. Roughly one in five jobs in the U.S. is related to cars, so keeping the demand for oil as high as possible benefits the industry's near-term objectives. Maybe the increased attention to heavy truck...

According to Martin Bailey in a recent TWIP podcast, the only device worth buying in the "relatively low price range" is the X-Rite ColorMunki Photo at $450. His priority is getting accurate prints. He notes that brightness is a vicious circle where camera raw files are often dim, monitors tend...

Excellent article on loading a trailer properly at Expedition Portal, http://expeditionportal.com/a-balancing-act-how-to-calculate-your-trailers-weight-and-balance/.

I beg to differ. The complex and expensive emission systems are about as good as they can get and do not figure to meet future requirements. Even Fiat-Chrysler head Marchionne mentioned the doubtful future of diesel. The is a glimmer of hope in non-petroleum fuel sources but the basic engine...