Back from the road trip!

[another view]

I guess I'll use post number 2200 to show a couple of shots from my 2660 mile road trip through Iowa, Nebraska and Colorado. It was a great trip, and part of it was planned to visit family in Denver.

#1: The "original" Pony Express station in central Nebraska. I guess there's some debate over this but we needed a rest stop and it sounded interesting. The light on the flag and buffalo skin coat on the left caught my eye.

#2: This storm produced a tornado not far from here. We didn't know it at the time, so we got back on the road with another 8-10 miles before the next exit. A CD was playing, finished right before we got back on the road and then we decided to turn on the radio. Sky didn't turn green but western Nebraska sees it's share of tornadoes.

#3: Ellie the retired seeing-eye dog. Ellie now lives with my sister and family and is enjoying the good life.

#4: Ghost town near the ski resort area of Aspen. The town was built in the 1880's and was deserted not long after when the silver mining boom went bust.

[jar_e]

Great shots! Glad to know your trip went well, and congratulations on the 2,200 post! A great contribution to PR.com for sure. Love the shots, very interesting capture of things!

Jared

[opus]

I'm particularly interested in the tornado storm. Am I looking at the part of the storm that later produced the tornado? (If so, the rotating wall cloud isn't fully developed yet.)

Or is there a tornado inside that rain band in the background? (~imagining I can almost see it~)

[another view]

Thanks, guys! Kelly, congrads on the big 1500!

There was a tornado that touched down somewhere in the area but we never saw it. This is just east of North Platte which is right about in the middle of Nebraska, and you can see for many miles in all directions. The warning said that a tornado was spotted six miles southeast of town (so 15 miles from here). Since the sky didn't turn green and it was pretty windy (20mph +) I wasn't too worried other than the fact that we had about 8 miles to the next exit. Head for the ditch, I guess - but I don't know why we didn't see it. Less than an hour later, another storm came thru (still sitting at a truck stop waiting it out) that brought 60mph winds but no hail where we were. Ten minutes later it was sunny and calm...

Here's a couple of others:

#1: I saw this sign near Boulder CO. Since I have this thing about cool old signs I stopped to shoot it. On a road trip, you see gradual changes in the scenery as you drive (which you'd miss by flying) and right about where that storm was it really started looking less like rural areas around here in Northern IL and more like "out west". This was a variation on that theme, more along the lines of urban sprawl, and a more obvious photograph. They're removing and restoring the sign, but I doubt it will make any more sense (visually) in another place because there's no theater that it goes with.

#2: Kinda gross, but less than I expected.

[jar_e]

Love the last one! Nice shot, should be for an add or something

[another view]

should be for an add or something

Yeah, a car wash!

[Lara]

Nice shots Steve! Hope that you post more!

Do I see a reflection of a face in the VW logo? Or am in imagining things?