OMG UPDATE!

It's been a while since my last post and I've been busy. Even taking a photograph or two every now and then. The problem is that I tend to run the same areas of the country and there's very little to take pictures of on the Interstate. Usually I don't have time to stop and get the picture right, so I won't take it.



I dragged Mystee to a small local playground in a park near where she lives and snapped some shots of her. I wonder if she even remembers these...



Swans are beautiful. Swans are Majestic. Swans don't like it when Canadian Geese swim in the same pond that the swans are in.



The city of DeKalb, Illinois (and I'm using the term City very loosely here, it's 1/3rd the size of Dayton with nothing around it) is home to Northern Illinois University, which is home to the Huskies. As a result, it's one of those towns with painted animals all over the place. In this case, Huskies. Most of them are closer to downtown where I don't go, but this one's out in the boonies where I can stop and snap a shot.

Its name is, no joke, Paw McCartney.



Well, I'll be heading to FWA this coming weekend, sure to be lots of photographic potential there. Who knows? I might even catch up.

Verbrigghe Potato Farm

Early this morning I picked up a load of potatoes from the potato factory known as Verbrigghe Potato "Farm". They mass produce potatoes for consumption by normal, every day folks like you and me. First, though, I wandered around and took a few shots of things I found interesting.





And now, on to the factory!


For the record, it's pronounced "Ver-breeze".


Here's the finished product coming down the belt. They said that they couldn't show me where the potatoes were actually produced. Something about it being Underground. Given the small amount of buildings I saw there, I would say there's probably a secret entrance somewhere to their Underground production facility. I was unable to find it though.


One of the work stations for the potato sorters.

Nothing like a good barbeque and some beer!

We'll start with the BBQ. Or the CarBQ. Or, in this case, TruckBQ.



Snapped with, of all things, my cell phone. This guy was just west of the southernmost Oasis on the 294 loop around Chicago. Given his position, I'd say it was probably a fire caused by his Bunk Heater, or something in the cab while the driver was asleep. I just hope he got out in time.

Next, on to the Beer. Specifically, Shiner beer from Shiner, TX.



A shot taken from my dock door in Spaetel Brewery, home of Shiner Beer, in Shiner, TX. I picked up a Shiner Blonde pint glass and will be drinking Shiner Blonde out of it when I get home. Sadly, I'm going to have to wait 'til I get home to buy it, because I can't carry beer in the passenger compartment of the truck. Which means that the Gates of Heaven, below, were closed to me.



And of course you can't have Heaven without a Hell. I'm not sure what this thing does, but given the name on the side it can't be that good.

Playing Catch-Up, Again

After spending a couple of lazy days at home, I've got a lot of catching up to do. We'll start on the day I got home, February 27th.

I started off in Kentucky, digging my truck out of the snow and wound up getting unloaded in a familiar WalMart. I actually took this picture back then, too, but the differences between the shadows and highlights weren't as striking and there wasn't any snow falling at that time.



Upon arrival back to the Dayton yard (I had to drive through snow the whole way home making the normally 45 minute drive take almost 2 hours) I found that my little SnowKat which had been sitting since December had accumulated a little dust during its peaceful rest.



The next evening I grabbed a good friend of mine Anima and I dragged him out in the cold of Downtown Dayton's Riverwalk to do some random photography, just to see what there was to shoot.








The next night (friday night, for the record)I cooked a special Valentine's Day dinner for Mystee because I wasn't home for the actual date of V-Day. But first, she got acquainted with her soon-to-be-meal.



Finally, on Saturday we took a trip down to the Dayton Art Institute, spending more time in the Asian section than anything else. I'm going to have to drag a couple models there in Victorian garb and see if I can do a photoshoot. Maybe make arrangements for a Fursuit shoot with tripod and everything.

Kentucky Down Under

Down in Horse Cave, Kentucky (yes that's actually the name of the town) there's a Love's Travel stop. Behind the Love's, tucked away in the woods is a little hole-in-the-wall place that's essentially a small cave system and a wild animal exhibit. The animals aren't there right now, probably vacationing somewhere more tropical, because the kangaroos can't take the cold.



I'm currently in Florence, KY, home of the "Florence Y'all" water tower. I was going to utilize the bathroom in the TA, but when I hit the exit ramp my Air Pressure Warning Light came on, meaning that I was losing air pressure. I made it to the TA, swamped with snow, and picked a parking spot before calling the company to let them know I had the air leak. (I'd located the leak by the hissing sound and a little exploratory work.) Well, I went inside and got put in the queue for a maintenance bay, then went to watch TV for a bit because it was either that or wander around and wait for my name to be called.

After about 20 minutes, they called me and I was given my bay, though I thought I would have a bit of a problem getting out, since the snow was bad. Boy was I right.



While I was inside, someone had tried to get into the spot beside me and wound up almost sliding into my trailer. To make it worse, when I tried to get out, my tractor almost jacked into the poor Schneider driver beside me.



The guy on my driver side was eventually pulled out by a buddy of his. Me and Schneider are going to stay all cozy tonight and I'll probably call to get pulled out tomorrow morning.

Itty Bitty Church

Somewhere in Gainesville, GA, there's a tiny little church. This church looked like it was about the same size as a one bedroom apartment and it had a tent out back almost as big as the church itself.

As you can see from the pictures, this was taken the day after Atlanta and the surrounding area got buried in the snow. I'd wanted to take pictures of this church last time I passed it several weeks ago, but this time I was afforded the opportunity by a passing train blocking my ability to continue down the road. Lucky me!

Arkansas Snow

Snow capped mountains in Arkansas? Say it ain't so!

Yes, this little hill, and all the other ones that tall, is covered in trees that are simply loaded with snow. It's not as warm as it looks down here, either. It's supposed to be down into the 20s tonight.