Another day, another car problem? Yeah, just wait for the next day! We thought we flushed all of the water-based windshield wiper fluid out of my car by now, but as it turned out… not so much.

I think it was 9 degrees F that morning when leaving the hotel? But at least it was sunny again!

In addition to very large metal crosses, we started seeing signs like this along route 40

and is this not one of the best backdrops ever? too bad it’s a good 2 days of driving from new york…

another river. I recall many in tennessee

lots of ice on the rocky walls, too

the next two were taken very close together. huge difference, no?

exactly what every traveler wants to see: detour signs

never been real into landscape photography, but I was loving the countryside in tennessee and virginia

virginia!

yep, chose our route specifically to avoid DC

yeah, virginia was not without humor either

welcome to wytheville, va. they sure seem happy to welcome everyone

the sky behind us

the wind was killing us driving through these passes… and yes, this is right about the time the check engine light came on. more on that later

Only two states on Thursday, but as it turns out Tennessee is kind of wide. We also had kind of a late start, seeing as it was snowing as we left the hotel and my tires suddenly needed more air. They don’t exactly mark “air” at gas stations in Fort Smith the way they do back home, and eventually we just found a random hose attached to a building. We drove through the beautiful Ozark area, and saw many funny and strange signs along the way. That was kind of the theme of the day.

It was cloudy all day, but didn’t snow a whole lot after we got on the road. I forgot to take a picture of snow all over my car since I was worried about the tire pressure, so here’s  the first image of the day; with a little snow on the ground.

Fun sign time! Including an odd combination of signs off the interstate to start with

Besides being an incredibly beautiful drive, Arkansas had lots of humorous signs.

They weren’t all funny. This one, actually very sad.

maybe everyone else doesn’t think this funny, but I like that the “cotton plant” makes a major sign like this

then on to a few scenics, starting with more bird migration (I think)

incredible sky for a while that afternoon

and then behind us, the clouds breaking

anyone want to explain this to me?

crossing the Mississippi River. they make the guardrails too high to get a decent picture

tennessee!

we thought we’d get some BBQ for a late lunch in memphis, but as it turns out, good BBQ is in sketchy areas. and I’m a little too attached to the valuable computer and camera equiptment I had in the car, so we didn’t stop for BBQ

and then, by the time we actually finished lunch on the outskirts of memphis and got back on the road, that was pretty much the end of daylight

Or, snow morning. I got out and made it count.

Yep, we were in four states on Wednesday! Granted, it was the narrowest part of Texas, and also granted, we started before sunrise and ended after sunset and it was absolutely as long a haul as it sounds.

leaving Albuquerque after an oh-so-hearty IHOP breakfast

sunrise!

billboards, anyone?

this bridge was seen in The Grapes of Wrath, which is I suppose this town’s claim to fame

however, I think this proud business should be their claim to fame :)

texas!

oh, and how could we ever forget this?

and the leaning tower of water

oklahoma!

anyone else noticing that as soon as we enter Oklahoma, the sky starts getting darker? yeah?

look! I just hit 25,000 miles! yep, I’m a total dork about things like this

hmmm…. texaco or mexico?

okay, so I’m a bad road trip photographer. I blew out the pretty Arkansas sign, so you just get the boring state line sign instead

fort smith, ak – a welcome site to some travel weary eyes

We left Carefree and got on the road, albeit with a bit of a late start.

And soon we left behind the land of cactus

and entered the flat plains as we made our way north towards Flagstaff

and this is where Road Trip Lesson #1 comes in: just because it’s okay to wear flip flops when you leave a place, doesn’t mean it’s okay to continue wearing them over the next few hundred miles!

and the sister to that, Road Trip Lesson #2: Spontaneous snowball fights by the side of the road are not at all advisable when wearing said flip flops.

figuring this might be the last time I see a road sign for Los Angeles for a while!

and since I have no problem posting road-weary photos of anyone else, here is one of me, too, in front of the world’s longest map of route 66

New Mexico!

I love this sunset shot just past the border

and just what everyone expects to see in New Mexico, right?

and this one, I also love

These were all taken in and around Carefree, AZ

all in all, probably not the best hill to roll down

I love this one, the moodiness encroaching

hey photographers, look! I, too, can shoot at f/11 once in a while

this is another favorite from the day

one of Scottsdale’s finest drove by me while photographing here. I’m pretty sure I was trespassing, and definitely was parked illegally, so I thought I’d get yelled at. instead he just waved and kept on. :)

I’m under no illusions that I have a nice car, but it looked pretty and sparkly for once…

we received a really interesting lecture about saguaro cactus from one of the carefree resort campfire guys– I had no idea they were so old or complicated!

Just before Imaging USA in Phoenix, we started the trek from Southern California to Carefree, AZ. Here are a few (okay, a lot) of my favorites along the way:

The one and only Barbie, near Mattel headquarters

Can’t forget a real freeway interchange before leaving the land of freeways

Passing by the Palm Desert area

The lone little cabin in this one kind of makes the image for me

this picture is not at all remarkable, but it shows the beginning of the dust storm on the right of the frame

getting a little closer to the dust storm

and finally in the storm

we took a quick coffee break and found a fun wall. he’ll be not so happy with this being posted, I think

making headway into the desert

then, just past the arizona border, we saw the most amazing moonrise. it was truly one of the more beautiful things I’ve seen! the first image is just as the sun was setting, with the shadow of the mountains behind us casting onto the mountains ahead

a few more of the moonrise over the next 20 minutes or so

and then the sun actually set and taking pictures from inside the car on the bumpy road was not so easy anymore

Perhaps a little late, but still a golden session with Travis! We started at their home, and then Erin and I took Travis down to his daddy’s boat in Redondo Beach!

I’ve been looking forward to documenting my road trip, but never thought I’d see such an amazing scene on the first day! Just after crossing the border into Arizona, I saw the most amazing full moon rising over the mountains in the distance. I took a fair amount of pictures trying to get the perfect shot, and I think I’m pretty happy with the results.

It might be a couple days before I have a chance to blog the rest of Travis’s photos, but I just couldn’t resist this. I mean, really, is there anything cuter than an almost naked baby on a bear skin rug in front of a fire?

I am now contributing to the Modern Photographers blog! It’s a great collection of images from some very talented photographers, so check it out!

I was pretty excited to see my friends Cat and Adi last week, and just as excited to see baby Clara so much bigger! Cat and Adi are working on a wall of Clara by other photographers, and I was honored to photograph her last Monday. As a photographer’s child, you’d expect her to hate the camera, but she’s really just a dream to photograph.