West of Flagstaff

Shot just west of Flagstaff. Long drive home, but we made it back right at 2am.

Eventually, when I wake up again, I will get in here and straighten these out.

Some town west of 4 points

Middle of no where. One of the cheapest we saw. $3.95 was the cheapest, just outside Kingman AZ at 10pm.

Middle of no-where USA

On the out skirts of Monument Valley. Someday I am going to have enough time to actually go through there and spend more time shooting photos.

Tanner Goof'n

Tanner goof'n around while waiting for lunch in Ouray, CO. Had to get him on video.

The trip updates

Just wanted to let people that are following the updates on the trip right now, that I am sending messages from my phone all the time. My plan is to go back and "clean it all up" when the trip is over. I will sometimes add comments with some of the posts right now, but I plan to do a mass update when I get back home. Especially since the internet connection here at the hotel is spotty at best. And I have been exhausted at the end of each day so far.

Raining in Silverton

Just as we got back on the train in Silverton after lunch, it started pooring rain. "Cow peeing on a flat rock" raining. We saw the start of a flash flood coming down the mountain right next to the railroad tracks on the way back. And I mean we were watching the water start to cut the ground right were it had been dry.

Silverton for Lunch after train ride up

"The Bent Elbow" saloon in Silverton. Live music and lots of atmosphere.

Durango to Silverton train ride.

You can't really tell from this photo, but Carl, my mom and dad and the kids all got covered with an oily soot substance when the first train before ours pulled out of the station. My dad thought it would be fun to watch the steam engine start-up as it was leaving the station. Not realizing that the engine would belch out this very oily sooty substance. So needless to say they all got blasted. I, looking for the best photo op place was ahead of the train by about 25 yard and thus missed most of this lovely shower.

The Spazz!!

Tanner is not excited to see us at all... Yeah right!!

He rode up with Toy Grandma and Grandpa on Wednesday. They had a pretty good drive up over two days. He had already been swimming and had some rest. So he was fired up and ready to go.

We made it

Damn I'm tired. 14 hours of driving to Durango. We made pretty good time until we turned off at Gallop NM and headed north. Then we were plagued with construction and traffic on two lane roads. Unfortunately we missed US 160 in Flagstaff. The Tom Tom sent us the other way. Guess thats what I get for not trusting my instincts. The last 60 miles added about two hours to the total time. But we did have fun making comments about all the stuff we were seeing. The delirium was setting in at this point. ;-)

Jordyn and Shad on the other hand were all fired up. Probably excited about being out of the truck finally (I was to tired to have asked at that point).

We are in Colorado

We are in Colorado. This photo was shot just as we crossed into Colorado. Right before we got pummeled with rain. The road was starting to improve though.

The Land of Pawnography

There was so much Pawnogrophy in this little town. Every store we saw seemed to have to word Pawn attached to it.
The Lawn and Garden and Pawn...
Guns and Ammo and Pawn...
Hardware Supplies and Pawn...
Circle W Mart and Pawn...
Blake's Big Burgers and Pawn...
The Pawnogrophy was every where....

Rest Stop just inside New Mexico

Just into New Mexico, we stopped at a rest stop for a pee break. They had this really cool bronzed Saber Tooth skull. So I shot a picture and posted.

The plaque read:
"Bronze cast of
Smilodon fatalis skull
Pleistocene 1 million to 8,000 years ago
Western United States"

Didn't have time to really look around more. Back on the road.

Self portrait in New Mexico

In Flagstaff for lunch at 'The Place' most lunch places don't open till 11am. So we found a little local dinner that was open.

Turned out to be a pretty good place. Good food and nice people.

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Oh the pain!! Needles ca

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Ready to get started

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Time for a road trip

It's time for a road trip.... The kids and I will be leaving for Durango Colorado at the end of this week.

We are heading up there for a Hanes Cousins reunion. Have tickets for the train ride on Friday. Hoping to have time to get to Mesa Verde and see the Indian cliff dwellings.

I will try to post updates as time permits.

The AV Fair Photo Exhibit (update)

My Dark Space in the World: The AV Fair Photo Exhibit

Entry form submitted. Photos to be submitted on Aug 13th.

What kids do when Dad is shooting

Entertaining themselves while I try to get photos of the sunset. They were trying to catch rain drops.

Watch Out!! BIRDS...

Eewww!!

Scary Movie Night

Jordyn and Tanner watching Spiderwick at a scary part. Huddled close.

July Sunset

Photo of the sunset, same day as the sunrise.

The Lemonade Experience

Jordyn and Tanner decided they wanted to make Lemonade late Sunday afternoon. So they took a couple of lemons and squeezed them into water. Then decided that it was not 'yellow' enough. So they then added lemon coolade mix. Not sure if they ever put any sugar in it or not. But here are the tasting videos.

July Sunrise

I was having one of those nights where I just couldn't really seem to stay asleep. So around 5:30 in the morning, I decided to get up and see if I could catch the sunrise. Wasn't sure if it would make for good photos or not. But they seemed to work out rather well.

In the first photo in the following series, you can see the Titan IV rocket motor test stand at the Rocket Site silhouetted by the rising sun.

The last one in this series was an experimental shot of a broken fence post.

The AV Fair Photo Exhibit

The deadline for the AV Fair Photo Exhibit entries is quickly approaching. I am planning to enter 10 of my photos into various categories for the first time this year. So we'll see how they do.

Have all ten printed and mounted now.

Just have to get the entry form and the entry fee over to the fairgrounds.

Photo of the week: Lakebed Sunrise

Believe it or not, this is actually a desert sunrise. Shot Feb 6th 2008 while driving into work. The Rosamond Lakebed was full of water from the rains we had. And the lakebed was completely frozen over.

The trip I want to take some day

I found a blog today documenting a trip that I would love to take some day. Awesome photo opportunities and the open road. Man I want to go.

http://www.dustydavis.com/longride/

The bear story cracks me up, not sure that I want that part, but had me rolling just thinking about it.

4th of July

Tanner, Jordyn and I had a good time at the Fourth of July Pool Party. Tanner was really getting the hang of surfing the boogie board. He did smack his chin on the side though, but I don't think he was on the board when he did that (Lori has video of that I believe). Both Tanner and Jordyn are becoming quite the little 'fish'. Shad was up in Utah with his cousins this weekend (see other posts). Tanner and Palsy we more interested in digging out the "Rocks" from the lake bed we parked on than watching the fireworks show. But at least they were entertained.

The photos below are just some of the fireworks shot that I took while out there watching the AV Fairgrounds Fireworks Show. The last one is the mad rush of people leaving after the show was over.

Tanner Surfing

He was getting pretty good at this. Did hit his chin into the side of the pool though. Sometimes they just have to learn the hard way.

Shad in Utah with his cousins

Looks like Shad is having a great time up in Utah with his cousins. Rope burns and all! Its good for him. And if you don't have some sort of injury, you weren't playing hard enough ;-) I am glad he was able to go up there again this year, I know he loves that trip.


Thanks for the photos Christine.