Getti'n close to home now.

We got through in Indianapolis today with three delivered at one place. Now on to Michigan then home. Only about 300 miles now.
One of my goals is to show what this great country looks like in many places as well as trying to make good pictures. In looking back over the pictures I have posted, I'm not sure that I'm doing that. Many of them have a feel of being much alike. It's obvious that I like farms and clouds, and wide open spaces. One of the problems, at least for me, is that in the urban areas, there are signs, posts,fences and other "stuff" that just gets in the way. I try to shoot "through" the obstacles and then crop to show the beauty, but sometimes it's just not possible at 60 mph.
If anyone has suggestions of things you'd like to see, I'll try my best to see if I can capture it.

I do have more river pictures today.

Illinois river.



Rock river.



Flooded area in southern Indiana.



Farm in Illinois.



Kate & Dick

We missed the blizzard.

I don't know how, but we seem to have bypassed the blizzard. They were calling for snow the two days we spent in Denver, and it never showed. Then, when I checked the weather map, it showed that we would be headed right into it in Nebraska. The sun has been shining on us for four days now. I guess we really lucked out.

Here a couple of pictures of the displays in front of the Kinze manufacturing facility in Iowa. They make farm equipment.




Platte River in Nebraska.



A couple of farms in Iowa.




The Great Platte River Road Archway Monument.I took this picture in the rear view mirror because the sun was in the wrong place when I saw it through the windshield.


The Archway Monument is a museum of and monument to Nebraska"s and the Platte River valley"s role in westward expansion. The Archway Monument is directly over Interstate 80 three miles (5 km) east of Kearney, Nebraska.

Another farm.



Dick & Kate.

Pictures of Molly.

Kate and I had a good visit with my cousin in Colorado. We arrived Sun afternoon and didn't have to leave until this morning. Since I stopped in one place for more than 36 hours, I can reset my time working clock back to 0. The law says truck drivers can only work 70 hours in 8 days with out a restart. We had a good time visiting and doing some errands together.
We seemed to have missed all of the snow(at least so far) that was forecast. But it was really windy. I saw three trucks laying on their side that had blown over.

While we were there I received these pictures of Molly working sheep and ducks.






Looks like she's coming along quite nicely.

Dick & Kate.

Out of hours in Salt Lake.

I ran out of hours today, but I was able to get to Salt Lake and get the last car picked up. I will gain enough hours tomorrow to get to Denver. I think we'll take a day off there. I was able to get at least a couple of different pictures in the last two days.

Dust Devil in Nevada. Dust devil is just left of center, if you look real close you can see another real small one to the far right.



Tree of Utah.
The Tree of Utah is an artwork constructed between 1982-1986 by the Swedish artist Karl Momen. The Iranian-born Momen, who painted portraits of Stalin and the Shah of Iran early in his career, later studied with the surrealist painter Max Ernst, and studied architecture at the Kunst Academy in Stuttgart, Germany. It has been said that he was moved to create the 87 foot tall tree by the "vastness and relative emptiness" of the Bonneville Salt Flats, and that the tree "brings space, nature, myth and technology together". The tree's six spheres are all coated with natural rock and minerals found within the state of Utah, and the pods below symbolize the changing of the seasons, when trees naturally transform themselves. The costs of building the tree, reportedly over a million dollars, were provided entirely by Mr. Momen. The tree now belongs to the State of Utah.



Sunrise.



Kate at Donner Summit.

The pass received its name from a group of California-bound emigrants. In early November 1846, the Donner party found the route blocked by snow and was forced to spend the winter on the eastern side of the mountains. Of the 81 emigrants, only 45 survived to reach California; some of them resorted to cannibalism to survive.



California Hwy 20 near Nevada City, California.



Barn in Nevada.



Nevada farm.



Utah.



Lonely house, Nevada.



And finally a farm in Nevada.



Dick & Kate.

On to Denver.

Yesterday we got everything unloaded and two picked up. Picked up another today and we're headed for Denver with a stop in Salt Lake to pick up another car. Starting out yesterday I didn't think I would get many good pictures. The stretch of CA99 up to Stockton is very built up along the highway. Later in the day though, I got some really spectacular pictures of the hills that are green this time of year, and the shade of green isn't something we see at home.

Sheep and Cattle.



This is probably a hay field.



More hills, I think these are so pretty.



Farm buildings.



Early morning trees.



Cranes and shipping containers at port.



A splash of roadside color.



Eucalyptus tree. I think these are so cool.



Refinery along the bay.



Old farm house.



More roadside color.



Old barns.



Looking toward the bay from I-880



One more green hills with windmills and cattle.



Boy, that wall is close.


Hope you enjoy all of the pictures.

Dick & Kate.

Short day today.

Since we had a long day yesterday and got a lot of miles in, today was pretty short only 375 miles. Since there is now a 3 hour time difference and I get up at 6AM eastern time I spend most of my morning driving in the dark. I arrived here in Bakersfield about 11AM local time. I have to make my first delivery at 7AM tomorrow morning and it's about 2 hours away so I'll leave here at 8AM by my clock. All very confusing, but my log book has to be kept on the time where the home office is, besides I'm not in any one time zone all that long.

I have started geotagging my pictures. Geotagging means that the picture has latitude and longitude information stored with the picture. I have also started a web page with some geotagged pictures. If you go here......http://www.locr.com/profile/somewhereinusa
and click on a thumbnail it will show the picture along with where I was when I took the picture. Waaaaaaay cool.

I love mountains in the distance when all you can see is different layers of blue.



Another of distant mountains with train.



Joshua tree.



Tehachapi Pass windmills.



Tejon ranch. 270,000 acres.



Dick & Kate

There's beauty everywhere.

I was going to write some facts and statistics today, but I got so many good pictures today I'm going to just post them. I was worried that the pictures were beginning to look a lot alike, but since I've gotten farther west the scenery has changed a lot.

Early morning glow. New Mexico.



Arizona Mountains.



Balloons over Albuquerque.



Log house, Arizona.



Sandstone rocks, Arizona.



Indian hogan, Arizona.



Ranch, Arizona.



Winding road, Arizona.



Humphrey's Peak (I think), Arizona



Just a pretty tree. Arizona.