2014: THE CHURCH OF THE OPEN ROAD’S YEAR IN REVIEW

… in pictures

January:  Folsom Lake reaches near historic lows affording interesting panoramas…

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…while exposing remnants of earlier times, and…

…presenting little mysteries that might be solved with some research of a visit with a local historian.

Muddy shoals created by receding water offered shots of shore birds looking for shores.

An impending relocation excited us with new vistas to explore…

… and new weird things to either learn about or act as if we had.

2014 may have proven to be the year of the bird picture.

February:  And we enjoy a favored walk along the American in the rain…

… and check off a bucket list item – that of a coastal posing the Guzzi where former bikes have posed before.

March: That impending move causes us to visit the Sierra – soon to be a day’s drive away – more frequently, while it is still at our doorstep.

Easing that partum anticipation is knowledge that the coast will be closer and its finer points just as fine as the Sierra.

April/May:  The Church of the Open Road goes on hiatus, taking a job as a school principal for a few months.  Probably never again.

Still, weekend walks afford all manner of surprise.

In June, we fulfill a promise to take a short road trip with Granddaughter…

…to see some California missions…

…and the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

Bird 4.

Bird 5.

Summer Months find us entering midwestern states never before visited to catch a ball game…

…and taste some Bourbon and check out the ‘Vette factory (where they don’t allow photographs.)

Birds 6.

Bird 7 (at Avery Pond)

Another quick day hike in the Sierra discovering an historic dam once used to power monitors miles to the west.

This one isn’t a bird.

September: and a group of Italians visit on Classic Guzzis traveling, in part, a route shared by the Church of the Open Road.  We cooked 'em dinner at the house...

They brought along their own mechanic.

A trip to the Basin and Ranges of Nevada and Utah offered a chance to walk along the rail line that Dad helped construct 70 years before…

…hum a few bars from “the Magnificent Seven”…

…wonder at the civilizations that preceded us in this place (Nine Mile Canyon, UT)…

…check a specific spot off the Bucket List…

…find the historic Airway Beacon Arrows Granddad used to rely upon while carrying airmail back in the early 20s…

… and view some generally spectacular regions ribboned by rails.

October:  Engaged in a motorcycle tour of Northern California and Oregon’s volcanic Cascade Mountains, seeing first Shasta…

…then Crater Lake…

…rendezvousing with riding buddy from the north…

…the rugged and unforgiving Sisters of Oregon’s McKenzie Pass route.

November:  A Modoc Plateau trip is scheduled – again with the intent of addressing that bucket list.  Here, a buck poses across from the store in Adin.

A homestead weathers on the historic Barrel Springs Byway.

Bird 8.  A Golden roosts in Vya, NV.

And we achieve our goal of seeing the corner of California and Nevada at the Oregon state line – first marked by Von Schmidt 140 years ago.

December:  We investigate the smaller things closer to home…

…gather in another bird shot…

…and catch the Golden Gate shortly after dusk.

Shots of the Year:  Third runner up, a frog has affixed him or her self (I don’t know where to look to find out which) to the sliding glass door one stormy night at home.

Second runner up:  An art-deco fuel truck rusts outside a remote landing strip in Nevada.

First runner up: Granddaughter Emilia draws a portrait of her “Noma.”

Shot of the Year:  The reflection of Crater Lake’s Phantom Ship is captured in the reflection of the Crater’s far wall.  Photographers tip:  Better to be lucky than good.

© 2015

Church of the Open Road Press.