Tammie Dooley
Member statistics
- Member since
- 24th April 2009
I’m an explorer who happens to write and maintain a camera on my person at all times. Foreign travel is exotic but doesn't happen all that frequently so I've come to covet the American open road. Few things in our lives are as liberating, empowering, and rejuvenating as a solo road trip. Adventurous solo road trips have become a staple for me, and a curiosity. So I created a website to share them and inspire others to step out and give them a try.
Having ditched 18 years in the financial industry, I'm having the time of my life pursuing the importunate desire to write. My mission has become to 1)celebrate the adventurer in all of us 2) help others discover the lost art of solitude 3)encourage people to pry themselves from the easy chair & move one step out of their comfort zone and 4) explore the unknown for at least 2 nights away from home.
Tammie Dooley's activity
- July 2011
Tammie Dooley wrote a blog post 10 Tips for a Fearless Solo Road Trip
The first eight of these are about limiting risk"
Tammie Dooley reviewed Dar al Islam Mosque in New Mexico, United States
In a region devout to the faith of the Spanish throne, driving a washboard rough, chalky road in Abiquiu, New Mexico that snaked up to an adobe structure resembling the mosques of Northern Africa was a behind-the-wheel eureka moment. It w…"
Tammie Dooley reviewed Plaza Blanca in New Mexico, United States
Plaza Blanca, or the ‘white place’, rests protected and guarded in a valley of the Rio Chama hills. Made famous by a 1940 painting by Georgia O’Keeffe, the sense inside the walls and spires of white sandstone is that it’s be…"
Tammie Dooley reviewed The Penitente Morada in New Mexico, United States
On a cliff in New Mexico stands the reason I could die and not regret having never seen Paris, or gasp, Italy. The structure is not in guidebooks; its presence on the internet limited. The wonder of it on this trip, a simple road trip on borrowed time, s…"
- November 2010
Tammie Dooley wrote a blog post Road Trip: FAYETTEVILLE, ARKANSAS
Knowing that Fayetteville is a college town is like knowing a woman only by her measurements..."
Tammie Dooley wrote a blog post The salt plains of Oklahoma's lost sea
It’s not really lost. Gone is more like it. There is a difference."
Tammie Dooley wrote a blog post His First Flight
Upon boarding the plane we discover our window seat on the Chinese tin can we’d elbowed and leaned our way into, taken"
Tammie Dooley reviewed Yellowstone National Park in Mountain States, United States
An ad infinitum judgment of isolation is pinned to the town by the immutable saw-toothed ridges of the Absaroka and Beartooth Mountain ranges. As I step outside the truck to see the town from the proper height, the eclipse from a large tree envelops me i…"
- March 2010
Tammie Dooley wrote a blog post Travel Photography with a Disposable Camera
Lots of scenarios could result in a disposable/single use film camera landing in your hands. The good news is great photos (even artistic photos) can be achieved with the simple equipment."
Tammie Dooley wrote a blog post Lessons from a cancelled trip
Since it’s been a brutal winter for many of us and thoughts of summer travel are rampant daydreams, I thought I’d finally sit down and share a few hard-earned tips to remember when planning your next trip abroad."
- February 2010
Tammie Dooley wrote a blog post 3 Best Kept Travel Secrets
SRT travel not-so-secret secret #3: Take a weekend road trip and stay within your county of residence."
Tammie Dooley wrote a blog post The Greenbrier Resort
Born and raised Southern, I thought I was comfortable with all things Southern. Until I stood in front of The Greenbrier."
Tammie Dooley wrote a blog post Diner Divine
Lots of things make a travelers’ heart palpitate. For many of us it’s a great diner."
- December 2009
Tammie Dooley wrote a blog post South Dakota’s Chocolate Mine
Just after exiting Highway 385 towards Deadwood, South Dakota on my meandering ten day SRT, a sign “Chocolates & Ice Cream” grabs my attention."
Tammie Dooley wrote a blog post Yellowstone’s East Entrance, the 50 most beautiful miles in America
“It charmed me, intrigued me, seduced me so completely and in such a way that memories of it result in the kind of longing normally reserved for the best fruit pie of your life.”"
Tammie Dooley wrote a blog post Road Trip North Dakota: Fargo
The desire to travel has no correlation with positive impressions despite the travel industry’s ardent efforts to convince us otherwise."
Tammie Dooley wrote a blog post The Cozy Motel
Moorcroft, Wyoming emerged out of the black just as my desperate quest to find a place to sleep birthed the recollection of Peter Fonda’s movie Race With The Devil."
- November 2009
Tammie Dooley wrote a blog post Mullinville, Kansas…A Favorite Wrong Turn
Tumbleweeds the size of boulders streak past in all directions causing me to involuntarily close my eyes and make darts to the left or right behind the safety of the windshield."
Tammie Dooley wrote a blog post Road Trip Wyoming: Dubois…of Petroglyphs & Togwotee Pass
With names like Wind River Gear, Stewarts Trap Line Gallery, Tukadeka Traders, and Whiskey Mountain Tackle you get the idea quickly Dubois is all about the outdoors with its own brand of rough and a unique version of western."
Tammie Dooley wrote a blog post 13 Reasons for a Road Trip: A Pictorial
The majority of my best photos that have been taken on road trips..."
Tammie Dooley wrote a blog post L’heure Bleue “The Blue Hour”
When my camera stopped clicking and my host broke the silence, she said “it’s the blue hour. Isn’t it something?” I thought I’d cry."
Tammie Dooley wrote a blog post A Spoon In My Persimmon
Before we talk about the persimmon seed as a harbinger of winter, I just want to know one thing: Who was the first person to open a persimmon seed? Okay, two things: WHY?!"
Tammie Dooley wrote a blog post Your Black & White Opinion
On a recent road trip, this old warehouse was photographed. The sky was beautiful, the leaves made such a lovely carpet, the light was just right. Notice how it falls on the gate leaning against the fence."
Tammie Dooley wrote a blog post The Annual Itch
Just about the time we’re contemplating a jail break from the confines of our air-conditioned homes, the light and air begin signaling fall. The itch to wander off the beaten path starts gathering steam as the sun starts changing its slant on the Earth. O"
Tammie Dooley wrote a blog post Shutterfly vs. Snapfish
For me, shooting digital has resulted in a screeching halt of printing. I’m guessing it’s the same for you. A local commercial color printer continues to print the captures I want to add to my portfolio, but those are laughingly rare."
Tammie Dooley reviewed Oklahoma Road Trip: West Loop to Little Sahara/Anadarko in Oklahoma, United States
This western circuitous route encompasses two of Oklahoma’s most surprising topographic wonders - the Salt Plains National Wildlife Refuge and Little Sahara S.P. The sea salt of The Great Salt Plains was deposited by an inland sea that once covere…"
- October 2009
Tammie Dooley wrote a blog post Will Hike for Nutella-Filled Waffle Sandwich
“One waffle, please”, I croaked. Just two steps from the door to the counter, the guy running tiny Corbet’s Cabin barely looked up when I trudged in. Ruddy skin, chapped lips and wild eyes topped off by a black stocking hat, a bright orange bulky backpack"
Tammie Dooley wrote a blog post The Fuzzy Slipper Travel Chronicles
No one can say who started the whole travel-from-home-to-the-grandest-of-destinations idea (the first human that realized there was a continuance of land beyond the river’s bend, I’d guess). Henry David Thoreau wrote tomes about exploration, never venturi"
- September 2009
Tammie Dooley wrote a blog post It’s Not About the Summit Anymore
Conditioning for the Grand Teton summit bid has continued in Jackson, Wyoming. In the actual environment the climb will take place, my body aches from the intensity that cannot be duplicated in a gym. Here, I’m faced with the reality of what it is I’m att"
Tammie Dooley wrote a blog post 46 To-Do’s in Jackson Hole, Wyoming
There is something to be said for the delicious stride of habit’s familiarity. Some can’t fathom traveling to the same place twice; there is indeed a great deal to see in the world. But even among those with the most severe case of wanderlust, many have a"
Tammie Dooley wrote a blog post From the Top
It might as well have been the moon. Surreal to a degree that supports the possibility it didn’t happen at all, I’m suspended in a slow motion movie without sound. Maybe I dreamt it. A thick haze has spread its blanket and laid full claim to my reality to"
- August 2009
Tammie Dooley wrote a blog post Scandinavian Food Break!
We interrupt the broadcasts about photography for a food break. There will be a Part III of the Now, What? series, but only after a discussion about what’s been haunting my dreams of late."
Tammie Dooley wrote a blog post Now What? Part III…the Finale
We resume the regularly scheduled programming - specifically the last part of the series that began with the Rah Rah! article encouraging you to shoot with whatever camera you happen to have: Great Photos from Really Cheap Cameras."
Tammie Dooley wrote a blog post The Grand Climb - 4 Weeks & Counting!!
For my birthday this year, I asked to climb Grand Teton. I’ve been training now for 4 months. There’s lots of hissing going on in my household."
Tammie Dooley wrote a blog post A Library of Soda Pop
Pointy elbows and lowered hat bills greet soda pop aficionados at Arcadia Oklahoma’s POPS Soda Ranch on Route 66."
- July 2009
Tammie Dooley wrote a blog post Now What? Part II … Of Regret
You read your manual, right? Okay, but you’re going to, right?"
Tammie Dooley wrote a blog post Now What? Part I
Now that you’ve shaken off the cloak of darkness created by the “cheap camera myth” and are ready to either learn photography with the camera you have, or improve your current skill set, we can move forward."
Tammie Dooley wrote a blog post Great Photos from Really Cheap Cameras
So you think you need an expensive camera to get good photographs? Crappy camera = crappy photos?"
Tammie Dooley wrote a blog post The Tetons from a Dog-Trot Cabin
Standing in the breezeway of the settler’s dog-trot cabin, the sod roof sheds sandy sparks when the wind rises."
Tammie Dooley wrote a blog post Oklahoma Fried Potatoes & Rocket Science
The hot powdery sands sift into every nook of my flip flop clad feet."
Tammie Dooley wrote a blog post 7 Tips from a Photography Pro
1. LIGHT….is the only thing you are taking a picture of; so make it your prime consideration; where is the light? how is it falling on your subject? What color is it? How hard is the light."
- June 2009
Tammie Dooley wrote a blog post Yellowstone National Park’s Original Entrance
Yellowstone’s original entrance in Gardiner, Montana, and the only one open year-round, is framed by the Roosevelt Arch. While all the literature points out this entrance is the only one open all year, few state why."
Tammie Dooley wrote a blog post The Enchanted Highway
North Dakota’s Enchanted Highway is 32 miles of soaring, metal art sculpture that qualify as some of the largest in the world. They are as unusual as they are enjoyable, qualifying unequivocally as must-see Americana Road Art."
- May 2009
Tammie Dooley wrote a blog post A Patriotic Drive - Mt. Rushmore and Beyond
The grandeur of granite rising from the cliffs of Mt. Rushmore will in one upward glance sweep away any countryman’s negative sentiments. And impress the hell out of everyone else."
Tammie Dooley wrote a blog post From Medora to Moorhead
The desire to travel has no correlation with positive impressions despite the travel industry’s ardent efforts to convince us otherwise. I’m often moved to action by emotional responses that would have the experts gnashing their teeth (in which I happen t"
Tammie Dooley wrote a blog post What the H*** Did You Do To My Quail!?
As a kid I remember being told if we dug a tunnel through the earth, we’d come out in China."
Tammie Dooley wrote a blog post Of Rattlesnakes & The Geographic Center of the U.S.
Clamoring on the steep incline under the weight of my heaviest film camera (reserved only for the most promising of discoveries), slipping twice to one knee on rime ice, I hitch one last gasp of frigid oxygen as my head lifts my eager eyes into..."
Tammie Dooley wrote a blog post China, a Land of Faces
Having returned from 4 weeks backpacking China with a thousand photographs, a large Moleskine filled with a multitude of entries and anecdotes, the story of it all is only now being synthesized by my brain."
Tammie Dooley wrote a blog post China’s Interior
“It seems to matter not the quality or amount of a night’s sleep. We are tired."
Tammie Dooley wrote a blog post Solo Road Trip Safety
So you’re at least considering a SRT? Good! First, realize it’s not brain surgery. The logistics are simple, subjective, and subject to change - a beautiful thing."
Tammie Dooley wrote a blog post Treasures of the Dakota Plains
Veering from Highway 385 onto 79, then onto the first unmarked road heading east, the Badlands are nowhere to be seen but the expansive Pine Ridge Indian Reservation offers enough gems to keep my camera clicking."
- April 2009
Tammie Dooley commented on Walk With Me to the Bar at the End of the World
"Wait! I forgot to log in. So here's the same comment, but with the commenter correctly identified! For breakfast I'd like one of each of the items you've described. the artichoke and hot dog have my taste buds really intrigued. Oh, and I loved the pi…"
Tammie Dooley wrote a blog post Backpacking China — 4 weeks of Tan Suo
I’d always imagined I’d see Morocco, or base camp at Mt. Everest way before I got down the list to China."
Tammie Dooley wrote a blog post Aces & Eights
Walking around with thumbs hooked in my front belt loops makes it difficult to fire off shots. Camera shots of course."
Tammie Dooley wrote a blog post Late, for Nowhere in Particular
Rolling down some back-road cloaked in the bliss of anonymity, one arm in contact with the wheel at the point that encourages my wrist to flop carefree at the end of it, head bobbling to a slow rhythmic beat that doesn’t match my rousing vocal accompanime"
Tammie Dooley wrote a blog post Taking a Solo Road Trip
Articles on efficiency are prolific: how to cut a minute off some task, make your morning shower more efficient, and speed up this or that. And yet I know more discontented people than ever. When the pundits start messing with your morning shower..."
- November 2007
Tammie Dooley reviewed Temples of the Mogao Caves in Xinjiang/Northwest, China
The heat sears my neck as I turn over my camera equipment at the heavily guarded checkpoint. No photos are allowed of what we're about to see. Between the heat and my nakedness I lack the proper anticipation for what lies in the beehive of caves ah…"
