Earth Touches Sky

Maybe it is the speed in which modern metropolitan life is led. Or maybe it is our climate, the clouds, the rain and the lush green trees and forests they bring. Maybe it is the all sprawl and big box parking lots, here in the populated parts of the West the sky is only overhead. Separate. It when you slow down and search out places beyond the parking lots and cities, you find were earth touches the sky. And in these places you are a bit closer to understanding earth, the vastness of the heavens, and God's grand design.

Portland Cement

Portland Cement was once used quite often as pavement on our state highways. So what you say? Well it isn't often you can find a stretch of road that is the original Portland Cement of the 1920's. On our recent road trip we did just that, between Reardan and Davenport there is about 10 mile stretch of the old Sunset Highway, that has never been repaved. Again you say so what, I would agree on a certain level, since there are plenty of streets that haven't ever been repaved. But a grand scale, this is about 85 or 90 year old pavement, stretches of road such as this are living museums to what it was once like to drive in America. Also it is thrilling to know that I can drive the same stretch of pavement that my parents and grandparents did and see basically the same scene, this road an example of time not marching on, at least by in the sense of a human time scale. Instead this scene, this road are locked into a different time structure, one of seasons and geography.

As an aside, this makes for a nifty lonely hi-way photo too.

Enjoy

Dan

The Steptoe Butte

Eastern Washington is known for many things but it's lush green fields are not usually one of them. Thanks to a rather miserable spring, Eastern Washington is looking more evergreen than Western Washington. A truly amazing sight to see and something that doesn't come around too often, normally by June, the eastern part of the state is well on it's way to the normal yellow and brown hues of summer.

Recently, while touring the eastern part of our fair state, I was able to drive to the top of the Steptoe Butte, in Whitman County and observe all the green in person. What a view and what a place, the Steptoe Butte is located 10 miles east of the town of Steptoe between U.S. 195 and the Idaho border.

The butte, the town and the nearby battlefield are all named for one Col. Edward Steptoe, a Virginian who was a West Point man and veteran of the Indian and Mexican-American Wars. His greatest claim to fame is that he and his 154 men were routed by 1,100 Indians from the Couer-D'Alenes, Spokanes, Yakamas and other tribes at Pine Creek, the so-called "Steptoe Disaster." Although by disaster terms, it really wasn't too bad. Steptoe lost 7 men and 6 more were wounded. Even though, Steptoe and his men only had about three rounds of ammunition each, using the cover of darkness and a driving rain, they managed to retreat and escape back to Fort Walla Walla. However they had to leave behind their cannon.

Anyway back to the Butte, it is a 400 million year old quartzite rock that sits surrounded by 7 to 15 million year old basalts. It is 3620 feet above sea level and about 1,000 feet about the surrounds hills, so the view is awesome. Once upon a time a man named Cashup built a hotel on the top of the Butte, but it closed and burned down. Now even though it's a state park, the view must be shared with microwave transmitters. Here are a few shots from atop the Steptoe, sans microwave transmitters. The third photo features, the town of Steptoe.

Enjoy

Dan

Back from the Road

Friday was my 40th birthday, so as surprise my wife rented a convertible and told me to drive where ever I wanted. I had great fun indeed. We meandered are way through Washington, Idaho and Montana, it was great fun. Saw a bunch of wildlife, at least on the first day, and went to and through towns, most people don't know too much about, such as, Dayton, WA and Orofino, ID. There were fun towns and there was Odessa. I was able to take lots of photos, so more about the trip later. For tonight photo's of me driving.

40

One Last Spin on the Axis

As this is likely the last blog entry prior to starting a new decade on this lovely rock of ours, I can't help be think, its a wonderful like, cue Louis Armstrong please. Seriously, It isn't a bad gig and it will be an even better one, starting tomorrow when my 4 day weekend kicks in. I'm happy to be still around and hope I got a few more trips around the sun. Now on this occasion, a look at a couple of the cars that participated in the reenactment of the great New York to Seattle road race of 1909, which as you may know is near and dear to my heart (check the archives I've blogged about it before). 101 years ago today, a Model T Ford arrived in Seattle to claim victory. It didn't really win, but that didn't matter.

Well enjoy the photos

Dan

Marching On

It has now been ten years since the death of my mother. An entire decade now has past, it really seems rather hard to believe. It is amazing to me, thinking back on all the important events that have happened to me in the last ten years. She was there for none of them, but it doesn't seem that way. Not to say, it actually seems that she was there, because it does seem that way either. I guess that is why they say, "Gone but not forgotten." I am not sure what it is like for the rest of my family but, this is the toughest week of the year, although I am must say it is nothing like it was in the past. Time does march on...

The 100th Father's Day

Today is the 100th Father's Day. As you may know Father's Day is the idea of Sonora Smart Dodd, of Spokane, WA. Sonora after listening to a church sermon at Spokane's Central Methodist Episcopal Church in 1909 about the newly recognized Mother's Day, she thought it nice to recognize father's as well. So with a little help from the YMCA, on June 19, 1910 young persons wore a rose to church, red for a living father and white for a deceased. Sonora Smart Dodd, went about the city giving gifts to shut in fathers.

Unlike Mother's Day, Father's Day had a very difficult time getting official recognition. Even in Spokane, the day with met with laughter and jokes. Congress didn't adopt it as an official holiday, because we needed not fill the calendar with needless holidays and for fear of commercialization. So, even though both President's Wilson (who actually spoke in Spokane on Father's Day 1916) and Coolidge lobbied for recognition, it wasn't until LBJ in 1966, that a proclamation was signed. It wasn't an official national holiday until 1972, when Nixon signed it into law. So happy Father's Day and remember thanks to tricky Dick it's not a joke anymore. Oh the irony.

Anyway here's a picture of my Dad.

Dan

A Problem with Digital

In our continuing look at photos of signs, tonight the pitfalls of digital photography. No this won't a technical essay on the subtle differences between digital treatment of a subject verses the analog real world. Instead it is about cost and true value of a photo. So in the old analog days, when I pulled out the T-50 to take some shots it would be at a cost. A fixed cost give or take a buck or two, roughly. Depending on the amount of photos and the type of film someplace between 60 to 80 cents a photo. Add to the that the limited amount of shots you got with film, the internal editor was turned way up. It doesn't work the same way with digital, you get a camera and a SD or XD (if you use Olympus like me) card for 10 or 15 bucks and start shooting. The reality now is the more shots you take the less each photo is actually worth, so to maximize the value of the card you shoot a photo of anything. Internal editor need not be used. So tonight a shot that I would never have taken using 35mm film.

Dan

The Hope Slide

Continuing along with signs, I bring you the Hope Slide. I will give the Canadians credit for the really nice sign. Apparently the sign was also very large, as the photo is both in and out of focus at the same time, interesting. This photo was taken by my dad on one of the bike trips he and my mom went on in the early 1980s. I visited the Hope Slide a few years later with my Grandparents. Honestly it is not one of the places that I have vivid memories of, other than looking at a scoured mountainside on a cool gray morning.

Dan

A Sign So Nice, I've Photographed it Twice (At Least)

Dry Falls is a wonderful and fascinating place, I've been there about a dozen times in my life, its just truly gorgeous. I think I even got my Mom to admit that once. Each time I stop there, I find myself standing there looking out over the place as if I had become a part of a painted landscape. Then to think about the water flowing over the cataract, it must of been amazing. Also amazing is the wooden sign that explains this at the State Park, so amazing I have photographed it more than once. I suppose something might have changed. So tonight a picture of the sign and picture of the lake.

Practical Reasons For This Picture

Photographing informational signs is really rather smart. Not only do you get avoid reading about the wonder you are staring at, you can setup the projector in your living room and make you friends and family read about it over popcorn. There is always the chance that the thing you are looking at will cease to be at some point. Finally they make for a nice back drop for pictures of your camp.

More Signs

Signs come in many forms, some may be informative, some may be figurative, then there are the literal, and the ironic, you get the point, they are everywhere. Example, today is the anniversary of D-Day, that could be considered a sign of the beginning of the end of Hitler's Nazi Germany. Today is also the anniversary of the Great Ritzville Fire and the Great Seattle Fire, in 1888 and 1889 respectively. Now considering most western cities had burned to the ground at some point during the mid to late 1800's, starting with Chicago and ending with who knows. Those great fires were a sign to stop building your cities from wood, oh and to make sure you have adequate water pressure and fire fighting infrastructure. The Ritzville and Seattle fires are nice object lessons for those who fail to notice the signs.

Signs

Photographing signs is something, at least in my family, we do regularly. A quick check at Flickr shows that we aren't the only ones, there are about 4.1 million photos tagged with the word sign. So with that in mind for the next few days America's Finest Blog will explore pictures of signs. Pretty exciting stuff. The first sign, is a photo I took in Snoqualmie, about 1993. It nearly a decade before a got around to photographing the historic log. I always thought of this sign as unnecessary, you see a big log under a pavilion you just assume it is historic. Then again the pavilion could be the historic item I suppose...

Into Dust

So today is a rather sad day for baseball fans and Seattlites. First a botched call cost a Detroit Tiger pitcher a perfect game and will doubtlessly lead to instant replay in baseball. It's sadder day for the greater baseball loving world as instant replay will ruin the game. It is fitting then that on this day the greatest pure human to ever play the game stepped away. Ken Griffey Jr. was possibly the most nature baseball player ever or at least since the end of the WWII. Not since Dimaggio had a player moved about a field with such effortlessness and grace. Then there was the swing and his smile, national treasures. He saved baseball in Seattle once in the 1990's and possibly again in 2009. He was both terribly frustrating and a joy to watch. I can't tell how many times I was left cussing at the T.V., after he waved his bat at a 0-2 curve ball. Especially 0-2 curve balls thrown by Paul Assenmacher. I disliked Assenmacher and I waited for years to hear the gleeful report that he had elbow problems, it never happened. Instead Griffey broke our hearts by demanding to be traded and then being shipped to the Reds. I remember telling my mom I think we'll be okay.

Griffey, along with Edgar and Buhner saved baseball for me, in 1995 I had sworn off the game after the strike of 94. Something wonderful happened in August, September and October of that year, I was taken in hook, line and sinker. I didn't mind one bit. Those fellows are gone now, into dust and the historical stat page on MLB.com. For the last one and third baseball seasons, I have told my son to stop and watch Griffey, because ever know when he could do something special.

Its over now and I'm glad, Mr. Griffey wasn't the Kid anymore, this season was tough to watch, the swing was slow and the magic gone. He reminded me of watching Willie McCovey back in 1980, a revered and beloved relic, but not a baseball player anymore. They say baseball was designed to break your heart and today in Detroit and Seattle proved it once again.

Tonight a sunset and after a period of darkness there will be another sunrise.

400

It's time for another post about how many posts have been done here at America's Finest Blog. Recapping the previous posts about milestone posts; 101st post blog, I didn't want to be called out by Sarah Palin, in the 200th, I admitted there is really no deep philosophical reasoning behind America's Finest Blog and in 300, I admitted without this diversion I would have more questionable hobbies.

400 is just a number, but milestones are good for reflection. 399 posts ago I had no idea what the blog would look like or act like or anything, other than it would not contain digital photography. That rule was broken June 7, 2008, so since then anything it has been anything goes. Originally it was a way to show off to my family and friends the slides and film that had been accumulated over the years, but quickly it became more, it transformed into a way to express, stories, ideas, thoughts and rambling. But always coming back to the pictures, whether it was the words matching the photo or vice versa.

This brings us to 2010, for the most part the scanning of old stuff is done, not completely but close. The original purpose of America's Finest Blog has been exhausted. That pipeline of inspiration is gone, thus leaving me to the current world to look for reason's to blog. Lets face it, 2010, hasn't been a great year thus far, and in an interest to look at the world in a positive light, it has been easier to look elsewhere for things to ramble about. Truth is at 400 posts this blog is sick, my time spend with it seems to be very limited, work and family seen to use all my energy. But I still try to publish 3 times week, floundering along until something gives me inspiration. Not to say 2008 and 2009 didn't contain floundering, oh I floundered, but inspiration often was just a slide away. It's different now but I am too stubborn and afraid to stop publishing, for fear of this dying off a sad death. I suppose I also do this for my son, one day I'll print these ramblings and give them to him. They'll hopefully provide glimpse of me and my family. Thus has America's Finest Blog become nothing more than a living history of a madman? Please stop me if this starts to sound like a manifesto for living off the grid. Until then, the second half of 2010 my inspiration will be the boy.

So tonight in celebration of the 400th post, 400 blurry photos of random stuff...

Just Kidding, instead my current inspiration.

Enjoy and keep reading

Dan