The road this far can't be retraced

Along the western portion of the Iowa - Missouri border, it's very apparent that time has managed to pass by without much notice. The increasingly small towns are shells of their former selves, full of abandoned houses and buildings that appear as if they've been untouched for decades. Even if time appears to have stopped, it still takes its toll on everything here, from half-crumbling state highways to downtown buildings slowly disappearing one by one. The reasons for this are fairly simple: no major east-west highway through these parts and the disappearance of the railroads that once spurred settlement and commerce in these places.  Such is progress, as they say. 

Here are two images from a Sunday afternoon spent exploring this area and enjoying the incredibly gorgeous clouds that filled the sky... 

Westboro, Missouri

Atchison County, Missouri

It's a tough job, part two

This morning, Fontenelle Forest Raptor Recovery assisted Nebraska Game & Parks in banding and testing the Peregrine eyasses (baby falcons) that nest near the top of the Woodmen Tower in Omaha.  It was quite a scene, with numerous television and newspaper photographers all attempting to get images of these small, squawking birds. I really enjoy the resulting images...

Photographer's block...

Much of my Sunday was spent exploring places I've never been in Western Iowa while attempting to come up with new ideas. The weather was fantastic but I couldn't shake this feeling that I'm in a bit of a rut. I'm sure it happens to most everyone who has creative pursuits. Your work is your work, after all, and it's difficult to abandon yourself in even a small way when you're trying to make something uniquely yours. One day is tough, the next is amazingly creative, and on and on it goes.

Keep on keepin' on, as they say.

Schleswig, Iowa

Defiance, Iowa (Detail)

Until that day, keep on wanderin'

It has been said that it's good to have goals. Exactly what kind of goals are never specified, just that a person needs something to reach for.  For myself, a goal often becomes a bit of an obsession, pushing me to do things that most would find to be little more than a very big waste of time. Case in point, my map of Nebraska as it currently stands...

Each dot stands for a town, place, park, etc. in Nebraska where I have taken a photograph or attempted to do so. This obsession began with ninety-three back in June of 2007 and continues to this day. A vague idea to see the state became a project to visit all of its 93 counties and is now an attempt to pretty much say I've been everywhere. Driving for hours on end in south-central Nebraska is a bit monotonous and very tiring, yet I find myself compelled to keep at it for no other reason than to have done it.  

Harvard, Nebraska - "Negative Info Travels Faster Than Positive"

This is not to say that I've grown tired of Nebraska and have to drag myself into my car to keep at it. I remain as fascinated with this state as I did on my first travels, if not more so. The apparent monotony leads to great surprises and the discovery of new details brings about an intense desire to revisit and explore further.  At the moment, I find myself needing to visit the panhandle once again, to re-see what I've already found and to soak in the feeling of being there. 

And that is harder to explain. It's the feeling that a person gets when they are in the midst of a place that has the ability to change who they are. The difficulty is always finding a way to take everything in all at once and not leave anything out.