I made a trip to Stillwater, Oklahoma last weekend to hang my collection Patina: Gravel Racing in the Heartland in one of the Midwest’s best bike shops, District Bicycles. Bobby and Crystal Wintle are fellow Southeast Kansans and in addition to owning/operating a wonderful shop they also promote a gravel race called the Land Run 100. I shot the ultra sloppy 2016 edition of the Land Run and it’s well represented in Patina. I didn’t spend long in town, but I did a little bit of exploring and biscuits and gravy eating. On the way home I spent the evening parked off I-35 at the Bazaar Cattle Pens. It was a cloudless night and the moon was late to rise to I was able to try my hand shooting the Milky Way. I have never seen so many stars in the Kansas sky. Absolutely crazy. It was fun to shoot the stars, but I quickly discovered I had no idea what I was doing. I ended up getting pretty cold and I’m going to blame it on the late arrival of fall temps and my lack of acclimation, but I’m probably just getting super soft. I capped the trip off with a stop by one of my favorite Kansas restaurants, Radius Brewing Co. in Emporia. A word of advice– get the clam chowder.