TEXAS
Eric Myers arrives at the bottom of the fissure crack in Jacob’s Well
KANSAS MONTANA A 6 foot catfish in a quarry in Fredonia
across America was also expensive. I purchased a new car that would be reliable, get good gas mileage and haul a lot of equipment. Hotels were beyond my initial budget, so I bought camping equipment. For destinations that would require more than a 24 hour drive, I flew and stayed in budget hotels. I drove to all other destinations and often camped. I spent every spare penny I earned on my quest. I began my journey with more than
fifteen years of diving experience. I needed only to maintain the SCUBA equipment I owned and fulfill ongoing needs for new gear. As an underwater photographer, I was able to meet initial photographic needs. All equipment for the trip was at some point upgraded or maintained. I acquired new gear as necessary to solve needs, or as backup for when
challenges arose. I then identified my dive locations
and schedule. I could divide my vacation in such a way that I could make several trips a year to complete ten states a year for five years. Dive sites often have best times to dive for good conditions and visibility. I left and returned to Austin, Texas for each trip. My map showing each dive trip looks like bicycle spokes across the country! I completed the southern states first, which left me with a lot of flights at the end of the journey. For the first 28 states, I traveled
with my dive buddy Ben Castro. I am grateful to him for taking the first steps with me. Texans are foreigners when it comes to northern climates. We learned how to overcome challenges as we camped across the country. America is still home to wilderness. We always packed out
Above: These
tools fell through the ice on Lake McDonald in
the early 1900s, when Glacier National Park
visitor centers were being constructed
NEVADA Jennifer and Ben selfie in Lake Mead
what we packed in. We carried all the backup and repair items we might need when we were in remote areas. We couldn’t afford to risk a dive or underwater photograph because we weren’t prepared. On our first dive in Utah, we learned
about snow. The new car battery died on top of a mountain in Colorado when our drive took us from 85ºF (30ºC) temperatures to 20ºF (-7ºC) in one day. We were fortunate enough to flag down a bakery van that helped us jump our car at 5 a.m. We stopped at an AutoZone on the Utah border to pick up a jump-start battery, so we could jump our own car in remote areas. By the time we arrived, the snow and wind picked up so much that we escaped to a Scamp trailer at Seabase. We did, however, build a snowman. We decorated him with our gear outside of Homestead Crater.
www.divermag.com 21
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68