January 27, 2020

Today started out pretty smoothly as I got out of the house a few minutes before planned. With the errands I needed to do and topping off the gas tank I ended up putting myself 15 minutes behind my planned schedule. This got me to SUNY Purchase 15 minutes after I had intended. It wasn't a huge deal as I didn't have any confirmed meetings. Two of the six people I contacted let me know they wouldn't be available but are interested in connecting.

I tried my luck at Admissions and Liz welcomed me and set me up with an impromptu meeting with the Dean of Enrollment Management, Caitlin Read. She was kind enough to answer my lengthy list of questions. I feel I have a better understanding of how our students would fare transferring there, but I really won't know how well until I get to talk to the instructors in the different disciplines. Purchase has quite a few great options for the right student, and it appears that even with the curriculum the way it currently stands, DAT students would be able earn a degree within two years.

I took a little while to walk around the campus and I was truly impressed with the amount of space dedicated to dance, theater, and music. I walked the 400 foot halls (give or take 100 feet), and in one area saw dance studio after dance studio filled with people. On my return the opposite direction, I saw an equal amount of classrooms dedicated to acting. I hopped over into another building and there I found practice rooms galor with piano music flowing out of many of them. Since I didn't have a tour guide I didn't get too nosy. Before heading out I popped over to the Center for Media, Film, and Theater but chose not to venture too far as the facility list on the wall said alot.

When I travel I try to take photos of all the state signs that I pass. Unfortunately coming into New York there wasn't a safe spot to stop so I let it go. Same thing happened with the New Jersey sign. It came up so fast and was above the highway so there was no way I was going to get that one. Since I got off the highway and took a less traveled route over the Delaware River into Pennsylvania the sign didn't exist. I enjoyed the diversion, but I have to say that bridge was sketchy. I don't know how they made a one-lane bridge into a two-laner. Later I managed to safely pull over in Delaware to get the photo. Maryland was an experiment with high ISO, as the sign was in the median and I had to cross the state road to grab the photo.

I was hoping for over 40 MPG average, but I was very disappointed as I started out and it was closer to 35 MPG. Thankfully it's the long game, so by the end of the day it turned out to be 39.5 MPG. That's horrible when my winter average is 46 MPG, but it's pretty darn good considering I've got a lot of weight in and on this car with all my gear.

In less than 12 hours I will be leaving in pursuit of knowledge and adventure. My intention is to write about a myriad of topics over the next four months. The main focus is gathering information that will help inform the direction the DAT program update follows. If you haven’t done so already, you can look back at the test run that I did this past summer by clicking on the 2019 button. I must admit I did fail to write the epilogue, so this will serve as that!

I learned a lot from the summer 2019 trip. I have decided to go no more than 250 miles per day, give or take 50 miles. Last time I pushed 350 miles regularly. The days were longer then, so in order to make the most of the sights this time, it is best I limit myself. I figure this will give me at least 5 hours at each destination and around 5 hours of driving where I can stop and practice my photographic skills without feeling rushed. I would like to donate whatever images I take to NVCC, in particular the DAT students, so that there is a library of royalty free images and video that students can utilize in their projects and portfolios. The question will be; where do we store them?

The fall DAT 116 Interactive Design independent study students gave me the opportunity to use a self-contained blogging site. A very talented student, Jas Pindzic, offered up the idea to redesign the website so it would be database driven. (The original site: nvcc-dat.com/2019trip, which I broke the gallery and didn’t have time to fix it on the road.) With the help of Christian Kutzy, the other independent study student and one of our DAT work study students Sarah Fildes, the site took shape and morphed into what you see now. Jas’ experience with this medium and his drive to learn more offered everyone involved more of an education than I would normally have expected. Many things I learned from this experience have helped me develop questions for universities and businesses as to what they are looking for and need from their future workforce.

Each day I will either be meeting with someone (from a university or business) or enjoying what the country has to offer. Once the sun goes down, wherever I am, I plan to dedicate an hour or so to blogging and uploading and another hour or two to redesigning the curriculum. If I don’t have access to Wi-Fi or data, the uploading will happen as soon as I do! I will probably reserve weekends to get to laundry and have some “off” time. I don’t think I mentioned this; most of the trip I will be car camping, in a Prius. I will be sure to comment on both the pros and cons.

I have been planning this trip for months now. I know it will have some hiccups in the giddy-up. I will need to go with the flow. Feel free to track me on a map (I think the DAT Club is doing it. There is a map outside the L303 classroom.) You’ll get where I have been at least a day after I have been there. I don’t know how it works, but you can comment on my blog posts. You may have to sign in and wait for me to accept it; I honestly can’t remember what Jas said I had to do regarding that. If that is too much, I will be posting some things on Instagram (dat_nvcc), Twitter (@DAT_NVCC), and Facebook (Digital Arts Technology at NVCC) so you can follow me on one of those.

I do miss my DAT family and so many people at NVCC already, but I am really excited for this opportunity. Thankfully I have many family and friends at home taking care of things that are making this journey possible. I hope you stay tuned and wish me luck!