Expedition Oklahoma

Abandoned in Nebraska

There is something haunting about these abandoned farms. In the 1860s Nebraska filled with settlers with the passage of the Homestead Act.  People moving west in search of land ownership quickly filled the empty plains.  Old, abandoned homes fascinate me.  Here are a few shots from my trip to Nebraska last week.   

We had old barns on our farm that I grew up on as a child.  The old barns are part of my memory.  Kittens in the barn, hay and old school desks in the hayloft.  Time to play and imagine what life was like in a world long, long ago.   

 Memory is a way of holding onto the things you love, the things you are, the things you never want to lose.  ~From the television show The Wonder Years

We do not remember days; we remember moments.  ~Cesare Pavese, The Burning Brand

What kind of memories do these old places leave behind.  What kind of memories did these places create, were they happy ones?  

At one time someone used this trellis to make the home beautiful. In a way it still is beautiful because you can see the care one of the owners put into it, at one time.   

Footfalls echo in the memory
Down the passage which we did not take
Towards the door we never opened
~T.S. Eliot

What a large barn.  What a lot of work it took to raise this barn. It is magnificent, a testament to agriculture in it's time.  

It's surprising how much memory is built around things unnoticed at the time.  ~Barbara Kingsolver, Animal Dreams

I filtered this shot, I am beginning to grow more and more turned off to the excessive use of "filters and frames" within Faux professional photography pages that I look at.  Technical knowledge in photography, although slow to gain sometimes, is more worthwhile than any filter you can put on your computer. 

We're always building memory, just as my trip to Nebraska made me realize the amount of memories that I have made in Furnas and Red Willow County Nebraska since 1995.   Like the Christmas we snuck to the quickstop to eat fried burritos because Grandma and the Aunts were taking too long to cook dinner. 

If you aren't observant you won't see these places at all.  You fly by in your car on your way to your destination. If you aren't looking for them, they blend into the landscape.   No one notices them anymore, just old houses falling down and empty barns.   You must know what you are looking for in order to find it. 

 

You can purchase prints from my photography website if you would like to place these images in your memory: My Print Site

The High Plains of Kansas and Nebraska

A few images from my journey on the Great Plains (there is a reason they are called great).  

Vast and empty 

A little church on the prairie  

Highway to nowhere that goes on for miles and miles.  

skyscrapers of the plains, dot the landscape of these plains towns.  

Empty farms, abandoned and lonely.  At one time they represented someone's dreams.  

Mountains of grain 

Fields of milo.  

Fall has arrived in the high plains of Kansas and Nebraska. 

and I can't leave out a barbed wire shot...

Cossatot Falls

Off of Highway 278 between Umpire and Wickes Arkansas you will find the Cossatot State Park. While in Arkansas, my Son and I had a day out before our family reunion and we went to the Cossatot, near Umpire Arkansas.  We went down to the river first then backtracked to follow the gravel road the four miles to the Cossatot falls.  Now, I imagine the drought and heat has affected the falls greatly, as the sign point out that its a "rapids" and a butt kicking one at that.  Not to mention that the meaning of the word "Cossatot" is actually French for "Skull Crusher," and looking at the rock formations in this falls area I believe that at one time it would crush a lot of bones.  

Welcome to the park... but before you get to the falls you turn off on a narrow windy road.  Kudos to the logging truck drivers, because that is something I have NO desire to do after driving these narrow windy roads.   It is interesting to think of all the people who once lived on this land.  

If you look down you can see how steep this road is.  We are in the Ouachitas.   

I LOVE Arkansas, but the landscape of the Plains is so much easier to photograph.  Arkansas is great, but you can't see the forest for the trees.   I love driving these roads, probably because I know that as far back in the early 1830s many of my ancestors had made this home.  

Raging.... I think not.  Well, not this August.  Maybe next year....  

Imagine water rushing over these rocks, smoothed by centuries of rapids rushing over them.  Yes, I took a $2000 camera out in the water.  Yes, I'm stupid sometimes.  Yes, I fell down.  Yes, I lost my flip flops.  Yes, the rocks are painful to walk on.   Did I answer your questions?  Now when we returned Saturday evening, I left the camera in the truck.  Smarter much? No not really I didn't wear shoes on those rocks then for fear of losing them.  I'm too old for barefoot adventures.   

I have to admit its, great fun.  A combination of rock climbing, waterfalls and swimming holes!  All things I like. 

See my Son down there?  I was up on a rock taking this shot. 

Looking down the falls.  Hey, these rocks are mossy and slick!  My poor flip flops floated away down the Cossatot.  

these rocks may look pretty, but remember pretty things can hurt you.   

We really enjoyed the scenic beauty of the Cossatot Falls

Note the scenic waterfalling from the rocks.  Pretend you didn't see the legs of my man-cub enjoying the rushing water. 

There he is! He loves this! 

Love this flower... 

Beautiful, compared to the pale winter-like dryness at my home Arkansas was lush and green this August. 

We will definitely be returning to the Cossatot Falls.   

 

 

 

 

Cossatot Morning

Last Monday night our Central Air unit decided it was tired of running 24/7 and quit working.  Our repairman was out on Tuesday afternoon.  He fixed it, it quit, he fixed it again...  and we finally knew we needed a new unit.  So,  we made it run for a full day with the water soaking it to keep the unit cool.  But by Wednesday night it was done for.  Thankfully it was time for the annual family gathering in Umpire Arkansas, where cousins come from all around to meet for our big once a year reunion.  We left Thursday morning and Friday morning my oldest Son and I went exploring the Cossatot in the Ouachitas.  If you go to Umpire Arkansas and follow Highway 278 towards Wickes you will end up at the Cossatat River State Park.  

For years we went to this area to go swimming when we came to the reunion, before it was a state park.  

The bridge over the Cossatot.  I love this bridge.   

This is one of my favorite views.... 

I love getting to the river bottom and looking up at this impressive bridge spanning the Cossatot. 

and wading in the river to see all the tadpoles, the little fish and the occasional snake (at that time I leave the water).   

Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything that is beautiful; for beauty is God's handwriting - a wayside sacrament.  Welcome it in every fair face, in every fair sky, in every fair flower, and thank God for it as a cup of blessing.  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Such a pretty river.  

Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.  ~Confucius

My lens had actually fogged with the humidity and I was not happy with it, these shots are not the best, but it is a beautiful place. 

Arkansas in Black and White

A few photos of Arkansas in Black and white as I drove off of the Talimena Scenic drive which runs between Mena and Talihina Oklahoma.  If you drive down this Highway 272, not only will you smell your brakes afterwards(maybe you're not supposed to), you could quite possibly make someone severely carsick (which I have been known to do)  and you will end up at the bottom of the Mountain, heading towards Heavener Oklahoma.  I always think of this song when I think of driving out in the Ouachitas "Up On The Ridge"   from one of my all time favorite CDs.

If you leave the Mountain and go into Mena in not too long you can make it to the homestead of my Great Grandparents in Umpire, where we gather every year for our large family reunion!  My Grandparents, born in the 1890s  left the beauty of Arkansas during the Great Depression.  Such a wonderful family I have, that I know so many of my cousins.   In a day in age where often we don't have as much contact with extended relations I get to see mine every year.  

The tourists looking out into the distance.  

Language... has created the word "loneliness" to express the pain of being alone.  And it has created the word "solitude" to express the glory of being alone.  ~Paul Johannes Tillich, The Eternal Now

Photographing, I've found in this relatively new passion of mine is something I love to do alone.  I love to go drive around somewhere different and stop whenever I please and photograph.  Its solitary, its peaceful, it is never sad, it is never lonely.  It is me, my music and of course my cell phone with internet access.  So, yeah I'm connected.  But I'm not lonely by myself.   

Arkansas and SE Oklahoma, always felt like "home" to me, having never lived there.  There is a certain comfort in this reason.  The family ties are deep to this region.   To see a Grave of an Ancestor who died in the 1830s, the Great Great Grandfathers who fought in the Civil War.   The land that is still in family hands.  That sense of place.   That heritage that gives you a connection with a place.   It may not be my home, and may never be my "home" but because were it not for the people who made this their home and met and married, I would not be who I am today.  So because this land, the Ouachitas, and the Piney woods of Oklahoma I am who I am.   

The Glorious Staircase

After my appointment, I left with the intentions of doing some photography around Talilhina.  The day humid and rainy, yet holding at a nice 80 degrees.  I decided to drive up the winding staircase, and forgot my map.  I hate traveling without a map,  luckily the visitors center had Maps of Arkansas and Oklahoma.  I headed towards Mena.   I love this area of Oklahoma and Arkansas for many reasons.  The natural beauty that takes your breath away.  Knowing that my ancestors came there, some as early as the 1820s and 1830s.  My Choctaw ancestors walked the trail of tears.   My heritage lies in the Ouachitas.  My Father was born in Arkansas during the Great Depression.  

I love this view... 

This is my simple religion.  There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy.  Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.  ~Dalai Lama

To speak truly, few adult persons can see nature.  Most persons do not see the sun.  At least they have a very superficial seeing.  The sun illuminates only the eye of the man, but shines into the eye and heart of the child.  The lover of nature is he whose inward and outward senses are still truly adjusted to each other; who has retained the spirit of infancy even into the era of manhood.  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

No, I did not take this photo of myself. A couple were stopped and asked me to photograph them, and then offered to photograph me on the mountain.   It is funny what tourists we are, that we love to bring back the memento that we "were somewhere"  "I was here"  I have been to this place.  Is traveling so important that we have to mark the places we visited with our souls carved into the pixels on our digital camera.   Its interesting traveling to places such as El Morro in New Mexico and seeing the Conquistadors,  and Pioneers that carved their names into a rock, as if to shout "I existed, I was here" four hundred years ago... and today we may not carve our names into the mountain but we record our journies through our photography, our networking and our interactive world that we have spun around this world wide web.  Someday our existence on this earth will be lived through the genes of our children and a marker in a cemetery.  And perhaps a hundred years later someone will walk up to your grave and say your name aloud,  remembering your existence.  

Memory is a child walking along a seashore.  You never can tell what small pebble it will pick up and store away among its treasured things.  ~Pierce Harris, Atlanta Journal

We do not remember days; we remember moments.  ~Cesare Pavese, The Burning Brand

Is it not what photography is?  Its moments remembered.  These images, that I can look at will take me back to a time, a place, a smell, a memory.  A memory that I may have lost in the abyss that is my thoughts.  Then I pull a file and look at a photo and I'm taken back to a specific day, time, place and moment... 1, 2, 5 or 10 years ago.   I can remember my life through a photograph.   A photograph at the time is just a picture, but in the future it will be a memory.   

 

Footfalls echo in the memory
Down the passage which we did not take
Towards the door we never opened
~T.S. Eliot

When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs.  When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence.  ~Ansel Adams

Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not.  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.  ~John Muir

Oh, the smell of the pine trees!  So green, so alive, did you know that "green" has a smell, it does.   The earth smelled alive in the Ouachitas.  While the earth is baked and thirsty at home.   

Climb the mountains and get their good tidings.  Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees.  The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.  ~John Muir

Summer Vacation

Some images from our week long camping trip to the South Texas coast... 

Justin and the gulls...

My pretty Sister-in-Law Amanda on the beach and her lil' Miss. 

Justin on this huge piece of driftwood on the jetty. Showing the power of little boy. 

We camped in an industrial area, just behind the campground at   Quintana is Freeport, where the dow chemical plant is located, also two huge tanks for LNG, here are the cooling fans for the LNG plant.   Industrial sunset.... 

The emotions that the image of a palm tree and a setting sun evoke...the eternal holiday, the sun setting through the tropical tree.  While in the background you find industry.  Industry that makes our modern life what it is. 

An industrial sunset...

Camping... 2011, teenager style.  The only shot of all three of my children together.  Primitive camping, no electricity, no water...but a bathroom/shower/laundry nearby... and of course free wifi. Only in 2011, do we have free wifi and no electricity to our campsite.   

Early morning on the jetty.  I got up before 6 on Friday to capture the sunrise on the beach, here is a shot of a  ship going to sea from the jetty at Quintana Texas. 

Sunrise on Quintana beach Friday, soon after this photo was taken we packed up to head home.  

 

Stormy Morning

These photos make me think of this song by Sting, called "Wild, Wild Sea" We had a nice stormy morning here at the campground.  Yes, primitive tent camping with free-wifi, so I get my photoshop fix.  It thundered all morning and finally the storm approached.  I'm tired as I type this so it won't be very descriptive.  But, our tents tried to blow away, everything got wet, thankfully we camped at a camp ground with access to a washer and dryer.  The afternoon was nice, soaking in the ocean and floating in the waves....  not much photography gets done when I'm swimming.   

Justin, Hannah and I walked out to look at the stormy sky over the Ocean.  What a sight!  We didn't stay long, maybe five minutes before the gusty cold winds bringing the storm into camp came through.   

very dark, very stormy... but I could have stared for hours at a landscape like this,  I love the tones of the blues in the sky and the sea.  

I love..the ocean... love it, I can't explain how it makes me feel.  We, are sadly lacking the Ocean in Oklahoma, besides the remains of a permian sea, the ocean is not where I live.  

Not a pleasant storm for any of us, scared kids dreading the camping... dreading the wet tent, frustration..but we got it fixed...and it passed by... just as anything that troubles us eventually passes by and times get better. 

and the poor tents, one collapsed and broke, ours lost its waterproof top and soaked everything within... ah, fun. I was "not a happy camper" 

Poor tents swaying in the wind... 

by dinnertime all was well at camp.  Now, the laundry is done and I'm very tired.  This is my South Texas Gulf Coast expedition...  

Wild West

A few photos from my trip home.  These were shot in Eastern Colorado on a hot August day.  They just feel "wild west" on an isolated road east of Trinidad Colorado.  

So, in honor of these "western" photos, it calls for one of my favorite country songs (which I was listening to on that long drive home).  

 

Midden

Anthropologists and Archaeologists filter through inches of dirt, clay and sand to find the little pieces of the past to create pictures of the ancient world.  Why?  Perhaps to prove just how much like us people were thousands of years ago.   These broken vessels lying on the ground at Goodman Point, Colorado.   We call our trash litter, their trash is federally protected (I repeat- don't touch).