This is a road in rural North Dakota. This is what the roads look like there. This is the vast expansion, the big open sky, the heartland of America in all its glory. An interesting thing about my trip to Dakota-when I was young I would have never wanted to go there, to this place, to see roads like this. Nope, not me. I was much more of a city kid. Always wanting to be near the action, flying by the seat of my pants, hanging on with friends, jumping stoplights, and partying in nightclubs until late at night. There’s something about being in this kind of land, seeing this kind of place, that really changes you. I can feel it in my bones. Maybe it’s just me getting old. Maybe I’m wiser now than I once was. Those friends who jumped stoplights and dressed up in goth clothing to hang out downtown in nightclubs seem all but a distant memory to me now. Now, why I welcome sights like this.
I didn’t grow up in this land. It’s not in my blood, not my bones, not a deep set part of me, no, but I welcome it. I enjoyed seeing it. A funny thing about image processing from this trip. Yes, I photographed a lot of empty rooms. Heck, I always do that, don’t I? But, the images that really speak to me seem to be more of this nature. This big open sky. Those fields, That rural icon that, to me anyway, just screams “Dakota!” at the top of its lungs. Yes, there’s something about that place that attracts me, but it’s not really, or perhaps more precise to say not *only* in the abandoned architecture and the essence of the farm people. It’s the land itself. I’m somehow drawn to the land itself.
It sure was different anyway.
Until next time…
