Rolling out the US 50 road trip videos and being a homebody in August

August recap – school starts and rolling out the US 50 videos

I’ve had a busy past month, but being on the road hasn’t been part of it. After my long road trip in late July, I’ve pretty much been a homebody. School has started at Wichita State, and my full-time job as a track and field coach has kept me very busy! The beginning of the school year is filled with meetings, helping newcomers get oriented, and establishing a different routine after months of a more low-key summer.

Original US 50 in Eastern Kansas

On the YouTube front, I have begun publishing videos about my trip on US 50. This is the fourth long road trip I have documented, previously posting videos about Route 66 in 2020, US 89 in 2021, and The Oregon Trail in 2022. My experiences on these road trips generally have three parts. The first is planning, as I meticulously document each and every place along the path I would like to visit. This is done over several weeks leading up to departure. The 2^nd part is the actual trip. Obviously, I’m filming almost the entire time, but I also try to make sure and “enjoy” what I am doing. It can be easy to just focus on the filming part and forget the reason I’m out there in the first place. The 3^rd part is reliving the trip through the editing process. Before I started YouTube, I would’ve done the first two parts, but not the third. And going back and seeing where I went is always a lot of fun! There are so many places I already forgot I visited, and I’m thankful for documenting it in a way that I can always look back on and enjoy. The fact others seem to enjoy it is a bonus!

Before I talk about US 50 some more, going all the way back to the beginning of August, I released a ”behind-the-scenes” videos traveling all around Arkansas looking for the 10 smallest towns in the state. This was the first time I’ve ever done a video like this. There are many YouTubers who do vlogs in this style, but I’ve always tried to go a different way as I want the focus to be on where I’m going and not myself. And this video is basically me talking most of the time. I was pleasantly surprised the video has been well received, and while I don’t plan to do this often, I might try it out from time to time in the future. It was by far the longest video I’ve ever made (just over 69 minutes), so hopefully next time I can do it more efficiently.

Ok back to US 50. In previous years my “road trip” videos have not been the most popular or the least popular. But over time they seem to do well and continue to bring new viewers to the channel. I still get people commenting on my Route 66 videos from 2020, and my Oregon Trail videos have seemed to gain popularity as the months go by.

Cousin Eddie's in Coolidge, Kansas

The first few US 50 videos are doing better compared to those previous trips. One reason is obvious – there are more subscribers to the channel now than back then. But in looking at the stats on the backside of YouTube’s incredible analytics section, a higher percentage of people are watching these videos as soon as the video is released. That means the “core audience” of the channel seem to be excited to watch the latest video and are doing so in the first days it’s released.

This is really important to me because it gives confidence that I’m posting videos that the true fans of the channel enjoy. This channel has been growing slowly over the years, but I’m proud that it seems to be growing in an organic way. If you read the comments under each video, you’ll see dozens and dozens of the same people commenting each time with their thoughts. Many are very well educated on the subject matter and often teach me things about these areas I didn’t know! It feels like a small community of like-minded people that continues to grow little by little each week. Very cool.

For the month of August, the channel had 160k views, and 650 new subscribers. That brings the lifetime totals of the channel to 3.2 million views and 17k subscribers - thank you all so much!

Looking ahead to September

I just released my first video of September, which ends around halfway through my US 50 trip, so the rest of the month will mostly be videos in Utah and Nevada. In terms of US 50 being known as “The Loneliest Road in America” – this is what they’re talking about. The towns become fewer, and the wide open spaces become bigger! I’m excited to continue working on these videos during September.

Since I didn’t really go anywhere in August, I’m getting the itch to head out on the road again. I don’t have any plans yet, but I’ve thought about going to a few places that would be “small town, USA” subjects. I found some really good ones during the summer and would like to go back and revisit them in more detail. One of the drawbacks of the road trip being on a “schedule” is that you can’t stop and spend an entire day exploring a place you just found interesting all of a sudden.

I do have some tentative plans for October. I’m leaning towards going to Iowa in the middle of the month to find the 10 smallest towns in the state. I’ve looked at it geographically and it appears to be doable in the time frame I have available. More on that possibility next month!

Upcoming September video releases (for the diehards)

I always like to reward anyone who is interested enough to have read this far :)

Here’s what I have coming up on the channel …

Sun, Sept 3 – US 50 Western Colorado

Thu, Sept 7 – Pioneer Museum in Gunnison, Colorado

Sun, Sept 10 – US 50 Eastern Utah

Thu, Sept 14 – Cisco, Utah, Ghost Town

Sun, Sept 17 – US 50 Western Utah

Thu, Sept 21 – Arches National Park & Utah State Route 128

Sun, Sept 24 – US 50 Eastern Nevada

Thu, Sept 28 – Nevada Ghost Towns Part 1 – Black Horse, Oseola, Hogum, Taylor, Ward

Then I will continue with more US 50 videos of Nevada and California.

Thanks again for all the support! Until next time, safe travels!