TRIP-5 ENTRIES 4 OF 5
Hi!
A few miles down the road, after Joe and I left Sunny and Tony’s farm, I saw a small rainbow cloud in the sky. Known in the weather world as a circumhorizontal arc, this phenomena is caused by light passing through wispy, high-altitude cirrus clouds. The sight occurs only when the sun is very high in the sky (more than 58° above the horizon). What’s more, the hexagonal ice crystals that make up cirrus clouds must be shaped like thick plates with their faces parallel to the ground. When light enters through a vertical side face of such an ice crystal and leaves from the bottom face, it refracts, or bends, in the same way that light passes through a prism. We just took it as a sign that we were living right. About an hour down the road these bare trees caught my eye. Looking strait up at them, they looked a lot like lightning.
Further down the road the play of light and shadows on a golf course fit my idea of serenity to a tee.
Traveling through Richland/Kennewick, Washington we crossed a beautiful bridge and reflected on the nature of water. Somehow, I either can’t find or deleted the next 100 pictures from the trip. Most of them were an animation of driving on the cable bridge. There were also a few field furrow photos and a metal grain elevator reflecting the last red rays of sunset. They will show up or they won’t. There is always more and I know that if I don’t let it go I will be using the energy that I could be using to go with the flow. Right now they are just water under the bridge.
The next day it became overcast. It remained overcast or raining for the next two and a half days. We drove through a hundred miles of rolling fields of wheat and barley fields. We spent a time lamenting the low light and how incredible the hills and colors would be with some sunshine. After that became boring we dropped into the shapes and subtle swatches of color of the surreal landscape. It was like driving around in a giant painting that moved through periods of bold brushstrokes and delicate pointillistic details. The purple strokes are Spring flowers that grow on the slopes too steep to cultivate. The “Hi!” picture at the top of the page was taken in Dayton, WA. that used to be in the Valley of the Jolly – Ho Ho Ho – Green Giant before they moved the plant to South America.
Joe had been through these hills before. He spent the first three years of his life in the town of Pomeroy, Washington before moving to South Dakota. We drove the main and few back streets imagining what life was like for his young parents in this small rural community. Joe was lost in thought when I took this picture of the church sign. I was explaining the significance of the missing letter and within a block, as we passed a deserted service station, he said, “Ok, I C what U mean.” From there we drove 30 miles down the same road his father took to Lewiston, Idaho with his pregnant wife who was about to give birth and Joe to be born.
From Lewiston to Missoula, Montana we drove up and down the mountains in and out of down-pouring rain. The next day we took side roads that straddled the highway in and out of the fog. The picture on the right reminds me of an English pastoral painting. I couldn’t have staged the position of the animals any better. There wasn’t a ewe out of place. It took a long exposure to make sure the single sheep in the background would stand out against the highlight on the river. I also like the way the longer exposure added movement to the picture with the blurred sheep in the foreground.
We stopped in Drummond, MT for breakfast at a cafe across the street from Mentzer’s Used Cow Lot. I didn’t remember which town it was in so I Googled it and found a single entry from the Chicago Sun Times. Someone had sent a picture of her sister in front of the same sign to the paper in response to a request for people to send in their favorite vacation photo. They reported that this was the “home of the world famous bullshipers.” I so appreciate the internet…and anyone with a good sense of humor.
I’ll save the trip to Yellowstone and last day home in the light for the next email. Now lets get back to talking about the weather….one of the major events of this trip. I took the picture of the farm and the fog in Wyoming. Right after that our trip became peppered with periods of pouring rain until well past Salt Lake City. Just to pass the thyme and spice up the experience of such a chili day I began to take pictures out the side window of the moving car. Shooting digital, without the cost of film that would have cost me a mint, I was completely carawayed. It made me delliriously happy. 
When Joe took a turn napping in the back of the van I had to learn a few tricks to keep shooting. The exposure had to be short enough to fit between the swipe of the windshield wipers. Also, it was raining so hard that the auto-focus only worked on the outside scene for a second before it refocused on the accumulated raindrops on the windshield.
I had to wait five minutes at a road construction site. The flagman had a good sense of humor and said that he had dressed for the occasion. I turned off the car and watched his post-modern abstract impressionistic image dance across the window screen. We saluted each other when it was time to move. Ok, it’s time to stop.
Thanks for playing in the rain with me. If you ever have a comment about these photo essays or if you have a picture you’d like to share, please send it along. I love hearing from you and seeing how other people picture the world. Of course, for any reason, if you want to be removed just send a reply with “No Thanks” in the subject line. If you are one of those who received this from a friend and want to be added to the list send me an email. I will be delighted to include you. jd@jerrydownsphoto.com
I’ll C U Soon!
Jerry
