– Doug McConnell

Those of us who work on OpenRoad.TV are always clear about a couple of things.

First, we always have and always will keep a big and insurmountable barrier between editorial content and advertising. Nobody can pay us to do a story about them or their institution. We follow old-fashioned journalistic standards in our work. We choose what stories we want to do, what tips we want to give and what opinions we want to have. We can’t and won’t let anyone’s money influence our editorial decisions. We believe our value to you is in our independence, integrity and credibility. We want to be a source you can trust and we want you to pass along your best and most credible stories, tips and suggestions, too.

The second thing we’re absolutely certain of is that I’m not the star here. I’m just the lucky guy who gets to meet the real stars of our videos almost every day. Our job has always been to find the bright, fascinating, funny and passionate people who have stories to tell about places they know and love, and who have good information and interesting ideas to share. Our collective talent at OpenRoad is our ability to find these people and then get out of their way. It’s not about me, it’s about them and they fill this website. Andrea Mead Lawrence, the first American woman to win two gold medals in the winter Olympics, and a defender of the Sierra Nevada. Keller Laros, who taught me how to scuba dive years ago and has a passion for seeing and caring for manta rays off the Big Island of Hawaii. Helen Smith, who has spent much of her adult life interpreting and restoring a Scandinavian retreat on the shore of Lake Tahoe, Vikingsholm. And Foggy Gomes, who volunteered for a lifetime to keep the fragile village of Mendocino safe from fire. They are the stars of this show and we urge you to join them.