Susan

does have wifi so I’m able to get a blog post off tonight.

The photo art club I belong to has monthly print competitions. Half of them are open and half are themed. One f our themes for this next year is “old barns” so while Carol drove today I tried getting some grab shots out the side window. This is one of the better ones. I’ll need to do better yet if I want to be one of the finalists but I sort of like it.

We drove I-70 through Indiana and into Ohio. Usually when you get to a state line there is a sign along side the road marking the line. Ohio welcomes you in grand style.

Finally, I’ve been carrying one of our girls along this trip as a travel doll. Susan has a very feminine and luxurious bedroom and when Lanelle got out of her carry case and saw that room she was absolutely in heaven. I got a photo and she is still there. I’ll have to work on her so she doesn’t get too comfortable.

Tom & Carol

Prairiescapes

That is the name of an art photo book I have of images from the heartland. These are from the same general area and have what seems to me is the same look. Creating art images in flat land with big sky.

This first image is morning light streaming through breaks in the cloud cover

We stopped at an art and craft gallery and outside they a giant metal sculpture of a huge bird and a sunflower.

Central Kansas has lots of limestone and not a lot of wood. Limestone, when first dug up, can be worked with hand tools. Many farms still have limestone fence posts.

Tonight we are in Effinghham, IL. To get into Illinois from Missouri we needed to cross the Mississippi River. This is a grab shot out the window as we crossed that river.

Tomorrow we will be staying with Carol’s cousin Susan. Susan works on a computer all day and doesn’t have a personal eMail account. We don’t believe that she has wifi so I may not be able to put up an update for a couple of days.

Tom & Carol

Wilson, Kansas

Bills itself as the Czech capitol of Kansas. As Carol’s maternal grandparents came here from Czechoslovakia she wanted to stop and look at it.

It seems like it was a really nice town maybe 40 years ago. It was on Rt 40 which was a major East/West highway then. It is now 2 miles South of I-70 and it is dying.

We stopped and browsed an antique shop. Carol found a pair of dolls made in Czechoslovakia.

We had lunch in a diner and soda shop that was frozen in time.

some photos of the plains…

Tom & Carol

Out of the mountains

The past 4 days we’ve ben in the mountains. Today we left that behind. We drove Rt 24 into Colorado Springs, detoured to the Current outlet store so Carol could pick up some stickers and stuff for the PNW Sasha Fun Day which the Portland Sasha club in hosting this summer.

Leaving Buena Vista. (well named I think)

Approaching Colorado Springs the mountains reach almost to the city. This scene is ~30 miles from Colorado Springs

East of Colorado Springs you’re on the plains and the sense is that the land is flat. Today the heat spawned some petty major thunderstorms. We were fortunate in that we didn’t need to drive through any of them but we saw where a wind gust had overturned a double trailer and we saw hail which looked like snow had fallen.

Tonight we are only a few miles from the Kansas border so tomorrow we will be mostly in that state.

Tom & Carol

Colorado Rocky Mountain High

You can drive from Glenwood Springs, where we were last night, to Buena Vista, where we are tonight, in about 2 hours if you drive I-70 East and then take Rt 24 South. Rt 82 is somewhat more direct but it goes through the mountains and over Independence Pass so actually takes a few minutes longer. Well we managed to spend something over 5 hours driving it.

The highest point in Oregon is the top of Mount Hood at 11,250’ Today we drove over Independence Pass which as the name implies nestles between higher country. The elevation of the pass is 12,500’ so 1000’ higher than the top of Hood.

Once on the East side of the pass we could look down on a small river

Tomorrow we’ll be driving through Colorado Springs.

Tom & Carol

A bucket list item

I’ve taken photos of picturesque old mills in many areas of the country but there is one here in Colorado that, while I’ve seen photos of it, I’ve never actually captured one of my own. This trip I was determined to remedy that so today…. but I’m ahead of myself. Yesterday afternoon we noticed a tram leading up a mountain overlooking Glenwood Springs. When we investigated we discovered that it goes to an amusement park on top of that mountain.

We asked at the information center if it was possible to ride the tram without purchasing amusement park passes and she assured us that it was not only possible but Friday afternoons after 4:00 it is free for the holders of a particular coupon and she had the magic coupons so we got to ride the tram for free.

View from top of tram – I-70 and Colorado River

I had intended to post this last evening but we had a local power failure and we were dark from 7:45 to !!:10.

So back to today. The mill in question is Crystal Mill which is accessible only over really rough and narrow jeep roads. We opted book a tour from a commercial Jeep tour operator. As it happened the other party who had booked this tour changed their plans so we got a private tour.

This is our driver Tim and Big Red.

We opted for a longer loop trip than the simple in to Crystal and back out again. This took us through some spectacular Colorado high country.

Finally we arrived at Crystal and were rewarded with the opportunity to photograph Crystal Mill. I’m sure that you have seen multiple photographs of Crystal Mill. This is said to be one of the most photographed scenes in Colorado.

It was a marvelous day!

Tom & Carol

From Vernal to Glenwood Springs

is only a 3 1/2 hour drive so we had lots of time and subsequently took lots of photographs. We started out quite early. Many of the farms were irrigating and I’ve always loved the effect of a low sun shining through the water from the irrigation sprinklers

Just a few miles from Vernal we stopped so I could take some photos of the Green River. I also saw this ranch in a shadowed valley with a background of the Rocky Mountains. I thought it made a striking photo.

Whenever you drive somewhere in the summertime you run the risk of having to go through a construction zone. This time Carol happened to be driving so I could get some grab shots out the front window which wasn’t all that clean.

We got to Glenwood Springs a bit before noon. It’s a nice little city but this time of year it is absolutely over run with visitors. If there had been maybe half as many people it might have been fun to take some pictures in the old town area which does boast some lovely old buildings.

Tom & Carol

Stormy Afternoon

Today we drove from Mountain Home, ID to Vernal, UT. Vernal is near Dinosaur National Monument which includes the site where the greatest number of Jurassic age skeletons were uncovered. We’d need to stay another 2 or 3 days to do the area justice and this trip we’re just passing through.

We stopped at Starvation Reservoir so I could take a couple of photos. While there we could hear the rumble of thunder and I could see this storm passing to the North of us.  I got to drive through this same rainstorm a bit later.

There are a few scenic viewpoints along US Rt 40 where you can pull off and enjoy the scenery. Some of them aren’t worth it. This one assuredly was.

At one of these stops Carol was taken with the clouds and asked if I would take a photo of them for her. This is Carol’s Cloudscape.

Tom & Carol

Heading Out

Left home this morning and drove to Mountain Home, Idaho. Usually this is entirely routine and uneventful. Today I got a surprise. We got checked in and I went to write an update for my travel blog and discovered that I hadn’t loaded my blog creation tool onto this new laptop. (oops) Then I discovered that Microsoft hasn’t supported that tool for something over 4 years so it is no longer available for download. Fortunately I did find an open source version of the tool so I downloaded that and installed it. Hopefully it will allow me to create my posts and publish them to the blog.

The Idaho visitor information center is located right on the Snake River with a lovely view over it.

Tom & Carol