FREE AS A BIRD.....NOT

Oregon Coast July 2007

Sadly last summer may be the last summer doing what I love most -- get in my truck and just drive, look, see, and make photographs. Like everyone else, I, too, must pay heed to the price at the pump. And while I spent bunches of money on gas, I spent almost twice that amount on food and lodging. I was gone seven weeks driving from here in central Massachusetts, through the central states to California, up the Pacific coast, and across the northern tier towards home. 14,000 miles in all, and most of that off the Interstate highways preferring instead the "blue highways" that William Least Heat Moon wrote about in his book by that title. I read this book when it was first published in the early '80's, and that confirmed in me my wanderlust. I wanted to drive those "blue highway" and photograph the cultural artifacts of a rural America. I guess if I had a choice I would live somewhere out west rather than on the east coast, but life takes us in unforecast directions. And then in the early 90's WLHM hooked me again with his book, PrairyErth - just has to go see the last of the tall grass prairie in Chase County, Kansas. From now on, it'll be fly-in, rent a car, drive around for a few days, and try to make some meaningful images. The problem with that approach is you never really acclimate to where you are or what you're doing.