The Last Frontier

ONCE AGAIN, Particulate Matters comes to you by way of my “current situation.”

- KJ Jones

For this installation—well, this part of it—I’m roughly 32,670 feet in the sky, riding Delta Flight 776 from Seattle, Washington, to… Anchorage, Alaska!

Some of you veteran readers may recall a column I wrote not long after assuming the Big Chair here at Diesel Power; an article in which I explained my plan was to hit the road—hard—on seek-and-obtain missions for compelling diesel-related content. Travel can literally take us anywhere, domestically and internationally, provided our budget supports making the trips.

Credit for this attitude goes to “Bigg Steve” Turner, my former editor, mentor, and great friend, who stressed the importance of “going and getting” a good story, information, photos, video, and so on. There’s no promise the juicy pieces of content are always going to drop right on your plate. I believe that notion is true for many things, not just magazine fodder.

It’s just the middle of June 2017 as I write this. We’re only halfway through the calendar year, and I have already logged more than 25,000 miles in air travel. Yes, I’ve been getting after it (and so has Tech Editor John Lehenbauer), and I think the effort is definitely manifesting itself as valuable. The trips are not only paying off through the articles we’ve published and video coverage and/or updates via Facebook Live, they’re also beneficial to the growth of our network of contacts and partners in the diesel industry, and to meeting and forming friendships with diesel enthusiasts from all over the U.S.