At 9AM on Veterans Day, I drove out of my driveway for a twenty-five-day trip from Pascoag, Rhode Island to St. George, Utah and back. My focus was to photograph. My first goal was to get across the Mississippi River. I would not start to take pictures until I did. On the first two days, I just drove as far as I could. I stopped in Clarion, PA, just off Interstate 80. Took a couple of photos before hitting the road again. The next stop was Hannibal, Missouri, right on the river. I arrived at night. Had dinner at the Mark Twain Brewery. The next morning in the clouds and dampness I began to photograph. This was to be my last bout with “bad” weather. I headed across Missouri on Route 36. Continued on 36 across northern Kansas to Phillipsburg. All three hotels in the town were sold out. The next town was Norton, thirty minutes away. They had one hotel with one room available. I took it and drove on to good fortune. It turned out to be the opening of hunting season and thus the hotels were full. Norton ended up being an interesting place.

I always wanted to see the great plains. Kansas in particular. I was a history teacher for fourteen years. We, of course, covered the Depression and the Dust Bowl. I remember reading the Grapes of Wrath while laying in a bed in Germany suffering from my first kidney stone. Finally, I loved the photographs from the 30s and the Farm Security Administration. All these things created an imagined view of a place I wanted to see first-hand.

While rolling across the northern part of the state, it was dark and cloudy with occasional rain. Just before sunset there was a burst of light. I knew it would not last long. I saw this abandoned gas station. The light was magnificent. I took a few photos. It was all over in less than three minutes. It was the highlight of day three.

The fourth day was one of the best of the trip. My plan was to drive south from Norton to Monument Rocks Natural Landmark and on to Dodge City. The night before I went out to get dinner in Norton, I saw an area of town I wanted to photograph. I had a good laugh at dinner. Eating in a Mexican Restaurant, I sat alone at a table. The owner was all upset that I was alone. The other tables were kind of bewildered at the guy’s response to me. I asked the family at a nearby table if I could borrow one of their kids so I could get some service.

Sunday morning, I walked all around Norton. The sky was blue and cloudless. It was a perfect day with temperatures in the 70s. Lucky for mid-November. The town was typical of what I found all over the southern Plains. Many abandoned buildings. Empty streets. Occasionally a pickup truck would drive past. Interesting photographing. The theater, corners, grain elevators, trains, murals, all under a clear warm light.

Took route 383 out of town, down 83. Through farms and fields. The harvest was mostly done for the year. More towns with the past all boarded up. All around was the industry of food. Much of it not for people. Cattle were in some of the fields. Rolls of hay in others. Some were green. Some brown. Some yellow. Piles of corn were waiting to be moved somewhere. Trains were crossing the land moving goods.

Monument Rocks are seven miles down a dirt road. They stick up out of the flat land. I was reminded of Stonehenge. I was mesmerized by them. There were no people around. I took lots of photographs. I knew that there was very little chance I would ever pass this way again. When it was time to leave, the good old GPS said to continue on the dirt road. I was surprised at the directions. I thought I would be going back on 83. I took to the dirt for 30 or 40 miles. I was truly out in the middle of the flat plains. There was nothing but farmland on the road.

The plains are very much like the ocean. They have similar feeling about them. Mostly, it is the dominance of the sky. I live in a wooded area and the sky is fragmented. I only see it in bits and pieces. But by the ocean and in the plains the sky fills your vision. The horizon is far off. In the plains there are sometimes slight curves in the horizon lines. The big storage containers from a distance look like ships dotted around the ocean. As I drove down that dirt road, I understood the feeling of The Great Plains.