The Stop You Didn't Make.

I spent six months working a hill above Deadwood, South Dakota, watching the Black Hills do something different with the sunrise every single morning. On my last night in town I sat in my truck outside Saloon #10 and ordered my first drone. The full story is in Six Months on Tatanka Hill.

The Drone Drifter is where the footage lands. Steakhouses that used to be country clubs. A Greek church wedged against an interstate off-ramp in Cleveland. A jetty on the Gulf where the pelicans don’t care about you. I fly these places with a DJI Mini 5 Pro that goes everywhere I do, plus a Neo for the low stuff, dig into who built them and why they’re still standing, and write it down.

I’m Greek Orthodox and it shows up in the work. Domes and icons make good subjects from the air.

What you get: one full essay a month, shorter flight logs from the road most weeks, and daily thoughts in Notes.

Everything I publish is free and stays free. The paid tier exists for people who want to keep the drone in the air. Five bucks a month covers batteries, gas money and the occasional basement whiskey, and it means more than you’d think.

If you’ve ever driven past something at sixty and wondered what it was, this is the stop you didn’t make