Taken in Pigeon Forge Tennessee.
I like to find those quite little places to escape from the pavement.
Category: Color Photography
Long Term Parking
This Jeep was parked in this very spot when I was a kid. It’s one of several old Willie’s Jeeps that the landowner has. In my imagination I can see young soldiers crossing the battlefield in this jeep. I imagine the stories of home that are exchanged. The men are hopeful because the war is over and they are returning home. I imagine that when the jeep is sold as surplus it falls into hands of someone who puts his heart and soul into making it roadworthy again. I can see him exit the highway on a whim to explore some mountain trail. He and his jeep are a good match. They are both rugged and free spirited. Not to bound down by the well traveled highway which goes only to and fro but not out. I imagine the fishing and camping trips with friends and laughter they enjoyed. The jeep started out with a mission to bring people home. Now with it’s mission accomplished it was time to rest. It made one last trip. It’s last escape from the pavement on the edge of the home it came back to. There it could stay parked and enjoy the peace.
Morning Drive
Early on the morning of August 21st 2017 I stopped by the roadside park at Summerville Lake in West Virginia. The shot was taken by placing the camera directly on the road. The road crosses the Summerville Dam which is a Flood control dam. My grandfather was a engineer who helped build the dam. Below the lake is the flooded town of Gad. The traditional way of naming Dams and Lakes built during the flood control project had to be suspended to prevent a scandal. The local community just couldn’t allow the existence of “Gad Dam” and “Gad Dam Lake “. The resulting history is somewhat of a local joke today.
I spent a large part of my youth on or in the lake. By the time I was 16 swimming from the beach to the campground was a ritual way to celebrate the opening the summer lake season. Just to left of the road here there’s a cliff where I used to dive. I’m guessing the drop was about 60 feet high from the surface of the water and the bottom of the lake is about the same. We’re not allowed to have such adventures there today. Unfortunately a person was injured because he dove from the wrong spot. The Corps of engineers decided to ban diving altogether.
On the right side of the road is the Gauley River. The outlet for the lake creates class 6 rapids and so that spot is popular with rafters and kayakers. The river is a great place for trout fishing. There’s a local story about a specific DNR officer who came up on two guys fishing. When he asked to check out their licenses one of them dropped his pole and took off running downstream. After a harrowing chase the officer finally corners the fisherman and once more demandsfor the license to be presented. When the fisherman produces the license everything checks out. No laws were broken. The two men are completely out of breath from the chase. Panting heavily the officer asked why the first man ran. “You have your license and there’s nothing I can charge you with ” he said. The fisherman replied “yes, but my friend didn’t have one.”
If you come to West Virginia, Summerville Lake is a great place to have some summer fun. Just don’t jump from cliffs and if you plan to fish you better have a license. The DNR officers travel in pairs now. 😉
Electricity Is Delivered By Train
Electricity is delivered by Train. In my Appalachian home coal culture runs deep. Almost every family has at least one family member who is a miner. The rest of us only have jobs because the miners buy our goods and services. The hours are long and even though great advances have been made the work is brutal. I don’t know if you have ever been in a darkness like the bottom of coal mine miles underneath a mountain. It’s absolutely pitch black. Or so I’m told. (I’m one who never went into a mine). As a child I grew up with men who had black spots just beneath the skin as a result of a piece of coal that fell from the roof of a mine. They all had hands that were hard and calloused. I’ve listened to stories about what it means when you feel a sudden breeze from one end of a tunnel and the the rebound hits you from the other end. It means there was a cave in somewhere in the Labyrinth underground. It’s the most terrifying experience a miner can have. People scramble to find where the roof has fallen. Miners always pack extra food because they never really know if they will be trapped or for how long. Self rescue is sometimes the only option. This is the reality behind the lights we see by, the energy that powers the microwave, the refrigerator that preserves that food and even the Hospitals that save our lives. All of it is powered by the men and women who enter the deepest part of the world and pull the light out of the darkness.
A SHAY REPRODUCTION ROADSTER AND A THOUGHT ON DRIVERLESS CARS
I’ve always loved the artistry of older cars and Trucks. Some people can quickly rattle off the make and model. They’ll tell you all about the horsepower, fuel economy and history that went into the vehicle. I’m not that guy. I’m the guy that just wants to drive. And yet there’s something special about early models. The curve of fender. The chrome and leather along with the fine woodwork created something that was more than the sum of its parts. Driving a roadster is about the journey more than just the destination.
Pictured here is a Shay reproduction vehicle based on the 1929 Roadster. It was made in the 1980s. I think about the world that we are going to live in within the next 20 years. Will a car even have a steering wheel? More sophisticated doesn’t necessarily mean more perfect. The melding of man and machine was perfected decades ago in a time when iron and steel merged with flesh and spirit to produce the freedom of an open road.
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