About MarkHitsTheRoad.com
MarkHitsTheRoad.com is a hobby website where I share trip summaries, destination overviews and photos from my travels across the U.S. and around the world.
Major cities, national parks, historic sites, scenic views, hikes along secluded trails, and out of the way places are all here. And when I travel I'll hit the brakes to get pictures of interesting buildings, old business icons, classic theatres, funny signs and anything that claims to be the biggest-smallest-oldest-oddest of its kind - an ecclectic combination of whatever catches my eye. I hope you enjoy them, too.
About Mark
Who is Mark?
That would be me, Mark Wasson of Las Vegas, Nevada. I'm someone who likes to travel. A lot! I started taking road trips around the U.S. and Canada shortly after I got my first car. I soon had a list of favorite destinations, and a longer list of places I wanted to see - or see again. Over time I added more big city destinations, and then more overseas trips.
Through a mix of personal and work-related travel I hit the road (and the skies) about 80-100 days a year, sometimes more.
I enjoy visiting some major U.S. city or wandering around some foreign capital just as much as I enjoy rambling around the small towns and open spaces of the Great Plains and the desert Southwest. Any place is worth exploring. Some more than others, to be sure, but I've come across a lot of great places and cool sights all over the map, many of them completely unexpected.
I always have a camera with me, and I take a lot of photos. Although I consider myself to be only an amateur photographer, I learned early on that if I take enough photos, some of them are bound to be pretty good. Bless the inventors of digital cameras and cheap memory cards - much of the praise I get for my photos is because they make it easy and inexpensive for me to get a lot of shots to choose from.
For me MarkHitsTheRoad.com is a place where I combine my interests in travel and photography and share them with others.
For you MarkHitsTheRoad.com is a place that may inspire your own interests in travel. I hope you enjoy some virtual travel through this website as well as some real travel to discover your own great places.
Frequently Asked Questions
I haven't been asked any questions particularly frequently at this point, but I have anticipated some on my Frequently Asked Questions page.
Copyright Notice and Licensing
All photos, text and videos on MarkHitsTheRoad.com and the MarkHitsTheRoad channel on YouTube are © Copyright 1987-2024, Mark Wasson. All rights reserved.
The Hit The Road artwork, shown here, is © Copyright 2012, Mark Wasson. All rights reserved.
I'm not actively looking to license out my content, but some people have tried to help themselves to it. So, to be perfectly clear, any reuse or reproduction of this content requires written permission from the author, and may require payment of a licensing fee. Please direct any licensing inquiries to me using the email address below.
If you use one of my photos without my written permission for commercial purposes, such as on an ad-supported website or site that sells services or merchandise, you agree to pay a $150 licensing fee for non-exclusive rights for each photo used, and to reimburse me for the legal and other costs to collect the license fee.
NOTE: Photos that include works of art, museum pieces, the interiors of buildings, scenes from Native American lands and some other features, however, are NOT and will NEVER be available for licensing.
Linking to Pages and Pictures
One of the great things about the web is the interconnectness of pages and websites created through links. Linking to MarkHitsTheRoad.com and its individual pages is encouraged.
The downside of this is when someone links only to the photos on another website so that they can display those photos on their own website. In addition to the copyright and licensing issues associated with displaying such content without permission or licensing, the website that hosts the photos gets all the server costs associated with serving up and displaying the photos on the sites that merely link to the photos, but only the websites that link to the photos get the page view credits. I.e., the site that owns the photos gets all the cost but none of the benefits - page view counts are important for search engine ranking purposes as well as for ad revenue for ad-supported websites.
Some people refer to this as "bandwidth theft", although I doubt the average blogger is at all aware of how this works.
I really didn't expect this to be much of a problem when I first set up this website. But some websites of dubious value began linking to a number of my photos to attract visitors to their websites (some even offered my photos for sale). This substantially increased my bandwidth in the process. It got to the point that more than half of my bandwidth was going to serve up my photos to other websites.
So I had to block linking to photos to get a handle on that problem. You can of course still link to my pages that display the photos.
Addressing Concerns About Photos Used On This Website
I took all the photos used on MarkHitsTheRoad.com and thus hold the copyrights to the photos themselves. However, I recognize that some people may have questions or concerns about the content of the photos I use on this website.
Please contact me at the email address at the bottom of this page with questions or concerns about any image used on MarkHitsTheRoad.com or with requests to remove an image from this website.
Privacy Policy
MarkHitsTheRoad.com generally does not collect personally identifiable information from visitors to this website, although visitors may choose to provide such information through email. I do not intend to retain such information, I will not publish it on the website, nor will I sell it.
As with most websites, log files are stored on the web servers that include information about your browser type, IP address, and other tracking information. I may use this information to guide changes and improvements to the website, and to block problem visitors using certain IP addresses. The website host, HostGator, captures this information and provides a number of related analytical tools. I direct you to the HostGator website to learn more about what they do.
MarkHitsTheRoad.com itself does not install cookies on your computer or other devices for use by this website. Cookies are often used to remember visitor preferences or to personalize the user’s experience, but this website does not in and of itself provide features that would benefit from the use of cookies.
MarkHitsTheRoad.com is a personal "hobby" website, and I currently do not have any plans to commercialize this site. However, I may at some future point present third party advertisements that use cookies, web beacons and other means for tracking purposes. Web-based advertisers routinely use cookies to help them determine which ads to serve to users of websites on which their ads appear.
Most web browsers allow users to accept or decline cookies or override web beacons. Using these features of your browser should have little to no impact on your use of this website.
MarkHitsTheRoad.com is not directed to children under the age of 13. It will not knowingly collect or use personal information from anyone under the age of 13, in compliance with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act.
Your choice to use this website indicates acceptance of this privacy policy. If you have concerns with any aspect of this privacy policy, please do not use this website.
Disclaimer
The content on this website is provided as-is, and is not guaranteed to be accurate or current. I undoubtedly have made some mistakes when writing the articles, and of course the world changes, often rapidly and without notice. Like most people, I don't routinely go back and update the descriptions I associate with my vacation photos to keep up with those changes.
You assume all risk concerning the accuracy and use of information that this website provides. Verify the information accuracy and current status of any destination or sight before you visit. That is simply good practice no matter the sources of information you use when planning your own travels.
By using this website, you are agreeing to the disclaimers, licensing terms and all other rules and restrictions specified on this website.
Contact Me
You can contact me via email at:
