As part of my challenge of recording a video a day on Youtube, with the end goal of building a visual library of Arizona, my focus is currently on adding content for hikes and drives. To plan out my drives, I made “The Matrix” which you can see below. It’s a Google Sheet with a list of major local highways and local cities within about an hour’s drive.
An example of how you read it would be as follows: Cell B2 represents Tempe Downtown. Cell K6 represents I-10 E Highway in Phoenix. As I complete a drive on a road or highway in a particular city, the cell gets checked off; if the road or highway doesn’t exist for that city, I would input “n/a.” The boxes that are not yet checked bring inspiration for where to drive and film next, thus allowing me to film all relevant highways and downtowns for the respective cities.
It keeps me motivated to continue filming, and I would love to complete the Matrix! You can see progress I’ve made so far in this playlist I created on Youtube titled: Driving in Arizona. My top played video currently is 1-17 North Highway in Phoenix, which was filmed on a cloudy day with relatively little traffic.
Speaking of the Matrix, this weekend I was out near Goodyear, Arizona and I spotted this truck with words “Matrix” engrained on it. Coincidence? I think not…
Very cool @AZ_2021 . All the best in checking off all the Highways and Roads of AZ. Very cool idea. I will definitely check your channel. Thanks for sharing it with us. Please share your sheet once you checked off all the boxes.
Interesting project @AZ_2021 . When I read it I couldn’t help but feel that this would be a good fit for a collaborative effort (e.g. meet-ups) involving other Local Guides
Happy Wednesday. Thank you for your kind words @AdamGT . I love to get comments from you, and what a great idea. For the meetups, love how we think alike- I was thinking of doing them once my weekend bandwidth opens up. My idea for that, once the time comes, would be exploring additional trails and plazas.
@AnithaM and @AdamGT As promised, sharing my update here-- I have finished filming for the Matrix: Highways and Roads of Arizona. Some of the highways did not extend into certain cities, so a lot of boxes - I just put N/A.
However, it was a lot of fun to do, and I got to listen a few podcasts too while driving and exploring, including the LetsGuidePodcast by JanHaver.
I put the update for this project on my latest article.
I love this! And you added sound tracks. Driving and listening to music is the best. What a great idea. Did you you start using a gimbal after a while, or does your car just have great suspension?
I just use the GPS phone holder that I found off Amazon and I attach it to the car vent. It’s too bad it doesn’t rotate to landscape so I can film horizontally.
