NORTH TO ALASKA

I have been planning this trip to Alaska for almost forever.  This morning I departed home and headed west.  Yes, I am driving, driving very slowly.  This is not my first trip, the Navy sent me to Adak and Attu in the Aleutian Islands, and I made driving trips during the summers of 1973 and 1976.  The latter trip I had hoped to find a job there and stay. That didn't happen.  I've wanted to do this driving trip for the longest time, and this past fall I talked my wife, Ellen into doing it.  Previous trips were roughing it a bit, but this time I'm traveling a bit more comfortable. This is our new rig.

The purpose of this grand road trip, as with all my road trips, is to make images.  I looking for those things and scenes that talk about our culture.  Sometimes sad, sometimes poignant, sometimes melodramatic, sometime hilarious, but always relevant to my central theme: a landscape with a cultural overlay, the iconic and the ironic.

Today I photographed this in Petersburg, New York.  It is very difficult to make a Y-turn with 25-foot of trailer dragging behind you.  It was five miles down the road before a place presented itself large enough to reverse direction.  Even then it's immensely difficult find a place on the side of the road to pull off safely.  I saw these broken stairs but had to drive almost five miles before I could reverse direction, but so worth effort.

 
I hope to post almost daily, but as we move further towards Alaska, I expect to have less opportunity to plug into the web.  Onward.