After crossing the Mississippi, we were in Illinois and within range of Tanya’s home, which I planned on using as a base of operation for the next week or so. We stopped at the Shake & Shake for a quick meal, then headed on to Indiana since it was now to dark to do much in the way of photography. These photos were taken in the Springfield, IL area. Back to Springfield Photos Back to Springfield Photos
Thursday, we woke up somewhere around Oklahoma City. This was day five of our trip and I was contemplating washing the car to attract some rain. I watched the weather channel and their storm chaser was having the same luck as I, so I could not feel too bad. I had to make a decision, go north into Kansas or go northeast into Arkansas and Missouri. The forecast looked a little more promising east but one thing I learned was that they are not very good at forecasting them more than an hour or so ahead of time. We headed …
Leaving New Mexico, we blasted through Texas and into Oklahoma. The panhandle of TX was very dry with many warnings of wildfires. At one point we were leaving Amarillo and noticed a little smoke in a small patch of grass. Within seconds they had a full fledged fire. They could definitely use some rain, which so far, seemed to be avoiding me like the plague. The beginning photos were taken at various stops in Oklahoma on my way east. The photos at Ruby Tuesday and beyond were taken in Tulsa on my home. Back to Oklahoma Photos Back to Oklahoma …
These photos are from a large storm I ran into on my way to Joplin. I had stopped at a rest stop about 50 miles east of Joplin and checked the weather report on the National Weather Service website. It looked like Joplin was getting hammered again and a storm was headed straight for me. When it cleared I continued on. When I hit Mount Vernon the skies became amazing, so I had to pull off the interstate and try to photograph it. The storm ended up circling over me. It made for a great photo op. Back to Storm …
These photos were taken at Bayard, Hurley, City of Rocks, Las Cruces, White Sands, Roswell and Portales, NM. They were having lots of fires in the forest at the border, and the heavy wind was mixing the smoke and sand so that visibility was terrible throughout most of the state. After leaving AZ we visited Bayard and Hurley, then stumbled up the City of Rocks. It was a very cool place as it is surrounded bu flat desert then the city of rocks pops up. We stopped for lunch in Las Cruces, which was great. As we headed to Roswell, …
Waking up in Springerville, I realized that I had been on the road for two days and had yet to leave Arizona. That had to change. As we headed towards New Mexico we went through the Gila National Forest. It was a very windy day which made for some very clear skies around us. I could see that we were probably going to be headed towards some large forest fires as there was a lot of smoke mixing with the dust in the distance. Back to Gila National Forest Photos Back to Gila National Forest Photos
After leaving the meteor crater we headed towards the Painted Desert. The Painted Desert is the entry to Arizona’s Petrified Forest National Park. Since the day was drawing to a close and I have visited several petrified forests in the past, I decided that we would skip this one and just enjoy the beauty of the Painted Desert. I have seen it from the opposite side, but it was nowhere near as nice as this. After photographing the Painted Desert we headed on to Springerville, where we enjoyed a great meal at the Safire Restaurant & Lounge. They make most …
These photos are from the Meteor Crater by Meteor City, AZ. This giant hole in the ground was created about 50,000 years ago when a meteor crashed into the Earth at an estimated 26,000 miles per hour. It is pretty amazing when you look at the size of the crater and think about what kind of devastation it must have caused at the time. One moment you are surrounded by forests, then vast expanses of nothing. It was very windy, with gusts up to 70 MPH, which the locals say is the norm. Back to Meteor Crater Photos Back to …
Since the weather was not cooperating in Utah, we thought we would try to make it to the Valley of Fire in Nevada for sunset. It was a great idea, and we were there on time, but the clouds had only grown worse. Luckily, I-70 in Utah is a beautiful drive. These photos were taken in the San Rafael Reef area of Utah, which was a big uranium mining area in the 1950’s. Back to San Rafael Reef Photos Back to San Rafael Reef Photos
When we left Natural Bridges National Monument we had two options. We could backtrack, or we could continue on towards Lake Powell and just make it a large loop for the day’s drive. Since the road ahead of us looked pretty amazing, we opted for taking the long way back to Moab. While the scenery was magnificent, it appeared to me that the lake’s water level was way down. I later asked a “local” and she told me the level was actually up. I guess we were at the wrong part of the lake. That is okay, the lake is …
