Every route into town is familiar, intimate. Mental notes on every jarring pothole and road seam, trees dropping walnuts and osage oranges, hiding places for police cars and intersections known for drivers running stops signs and traffic lights. If you ride long enough.
Ride even longer and the characters along the road come to life as well. Like this Belgian draft horse at Oak Hall Farm. Trotting over each time I stop to take a picture — a bit unnerving to have 2000 pounds of horse giving you the once over with only a few strands of wire between us. If we were properly introduced and the owner approved I would offer a slice of the Honeycrisp apple stowed in my topcase. Few words exchanged between us aside from a soft, “Hey bud, why the long face?”.
A moment more to consider the fog, make a few more images, and then off towards town and Saint’s Cafe. A perfectly ordinary ride until I take a moment to look a little closer and say hello to a horse.
Fog offers one of the few reliable environments to experiences something too strange to believe. Like seeing spirits or ghosts, aliens or Big Foot. If there is magic in the world it will surely involve fog.
Imagination forges doorways in perception that allow imagination to burn forth and transform a perfectly ordinary ride into something special.
Off in the distance, at the foot of Mount Nittany, I can almost see a mountain lion cross the road and disappear into the forest. Some believe they still prowl the Pennsylvania forests. If they do then surely their existence will be confirmed on a foggy day.
Photographically speaking fog strips away much of the tonal and color experiences of life leaving behind form, shape, composition and the hint of something more beyond perception. I’ve ridden past these gravel piles a hundred times, maybe a thousand. And each time I stop and look I imagine something new, like a kid laying in the grass on a summer day looking at clouds and seeing giants.
The new front rack looks good in this dream on a perfectly ordinary ride.
Can’t help but think of scenes from The Walking Dead. Empty roads disappearing into the unknown. The story would be different in the sunshine, a different perfectly ordinary ride.
Sunday morning at Saint’s Cafe in State College, Pennsylvania — a destination for, by now, hundreds of perfectly ordinary rides to meet my friend Gordon, talk about photography, teaching and the work and world we construct.
The morning started with a whisper today, the world spinning up slowly giving me time to take it in. As it was on the Vespa during a perfectly ordinary ride.
Finished watching “Long Way Down” and thought about my own experience in light of that film. Adventure lies close and circumstance dictates the rides I make. That’s ok.
I don’t believe I’ve yet scratched the surface in terms of seeing and experiencing the world just outside my door. And that’s why a perfectly ordinary ride is still so rich.
Steve, having seen Long Way Round and Long Way Down before my recent trip to AK, I have a different perspective of their travels.
Great pic of the gravel mounds by the way. I need more fog in my life….the physical kind, not the kind one encounters in IT projects.
dom
I saw that very draft horse earlier today (really). I rode with Mary to Centre Hall on our bicycles. I said, “That’s a really big poodle.”
You can’t make a better scooter photo than to pair it up with a Clydesdale. I think that’s in your owner’s manual.
Hah, I rode past some draft horses yesterday surrounding a pond filled with ducks. Amazing scene; my stopping would have just upset the magic so I merely slowed and can only share with words what I saw.
Thanks for the scenes you kindly brought to us.
I can’t put my finger on it, but for some reason that horse makes me think of Flash Gordon…
Fantastic photos, as always.
PassTheWheel–Preparing the Drivers of Tomorrow
PassTheWheel provides you with online practice test questions which mimic the types of questions you will be asked when writing your knowledge test (written test).
Each driver’s license practice test is individually crafted and always updated to help you practice all the questions for the Official written test that you want to acquire in your region.
Just visit us at http://www.passthewheel.com/ and take an online drivers exam.
See you.!!!
I like the foggy photos, it almost turns the world into a black and white photograph. And an adventure is just a series of perfectly ordinary rides…
Charlie6: You made a Long Way out and another Long Way Up. Your solo adventure is a far different experience.
We’re blessed here to have fog now and again…
Paul: He’s definitely a big horse but would take offense at being called a Clydesdale. He’s a Belgian draft horse. No dragging beer around for him!
Coop: That’s weird. Synchronicity at work in the world.
Sometimes I think the images are more powerful when created with words. I became a photographer because I couldn’t write that well. Or draw. Or paint.
Photographers…
Lucky: Flash Gordon…. hmmmmm. I’ll have to think about that.
RichardM: Fog certainly is a transformative element. Must be why Hollywood has so many fog machines!
I agree, an adventure is just a series of perfectly ordinary rides. Some just collect more than others…
Great blog you guys have, some very good news and important information. We love your site. mostly I like a quot ” Sometimes I think the images are more powerful when created with words. I became a photographer because I couldn’t write that well. Or draw. Or paint.”