We haven’t road tripped a significant distance in quite a while. But one thing I can’t help doing anytime we road trip is snapping photos out the window–either as passenger or cautiously as the driver. I have to take pictures of the land. I love seeing the landscape, the slice of life in small towns or the middle of no where along the way. Abandoned houses? Who lived there? When did they just walk out on the house and why? And then there are the not-abandonded houses still in the middle of no where and I wonder about the occupants inside. Dilapidated buildings that show genuine age and wear found in these tiny towns I’ve never heard of–Hugo, Kit Carson, Cactus. I know this is going to sound condescending but they’re real towns filled with real people and while I am familiar with small town life, these micro-towns are a whole different ballgame. I am fascinated.
It’s Americana at it’s finest and I have to document it. So here are some of my favorite pictures from the road.
This last house was the only one I actually made B pull over for while I got out and snapped some pictures. I love that you can actually see right through the house. I love the shape, the rust, and the wooden skeleton peeking out from under the metal roof. If walls could speak right?
Any other avid photograph-as-you-drive friends out there? What are you looking for and why do you do it? Or what do you find yourself photographing over and over again when you travel? Remember my doors from Italy?
I wish I had snapped a picture of EVERY water tank we saw on our trip back east last year. I found them facinating and endearing. Something you don't see much of out here in Utah.
I usually start out loving to take photos on roadtrips, stopping to get a soda and a "local" candy, stopping to pick flowers. Then, suddenly, it will be 9:00pm and we still have 4 hours of driving and I hate that I stopped and took photos or stopped in Cawker City to see the biggest ball of twine and I just want to BE THERE.
It always ends up being a love-hate (usually hate-love-hate in reality… And then those trips through Wyoming on I-80 are just hate-hate-hate).
We moved to Dallas from a small town (about 2000 people) in Illinois when I was six. We took a roadtrip back up there twice every year–4th of July and Christmas–since we moved. I usually slept through a lot of Oklahoma, but I loved watching the differences in the landscape in the rocky hills in Missouri to the smooth farmland in central Illinois where we'd lived. I've only been up there a handful of times since we've been married. I get teary-eyed thinking of tassled cornfields and soybean fields that look like a velvety green carpet. I, too, have wondered about similar abandoned farmhouses along the road. I didn't live there very long, but I feel like it's part of my DNA.
Beautiful pictures. I really love these so thanks for sharing!
In my family's vacation home in Hawaii, we just had to replace our metal roof. It was not a fun project! We asked some of the local residents for a recommendation for roofing companies in Hawaii and found someone great but it still made the trip for less than pleasure. Totally worth it, though, because I love how it looks.
roofer Baltimore