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The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind

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Friday, April 18, 2008
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Friday, April 18, 2008
April 2008
[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] Making the Dawnster Smile...
[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] Bzzzzz....
[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] Foto Heute!
[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] What the...?!?
[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] Puny Humans!
[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] And The Winner Is...
[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] New Toys! New Toys! New Toys!
[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] Burp...
[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] Sometimes, I wonder.
[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] Night time is pretty dark.
[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] I Hope She Takes Half of
Everything He Owns!
Contest Time!
[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] Better?
[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] Testing... Testing...
Ladies?  I've Not Forgotten You.
[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] I Could Never Get the Hang of
Sundays...
[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] First Attempt... FAIL!
[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] God versus OPEC!
[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] Chilling...
[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] Something for You to Do...
[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] Fishy Friday Foto Fun!
[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] Thursday's Shutterclick.
[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] This Wednesday Thing.
[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] Oooo... It's Spring!
[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] Not an Iguana...
[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] Bark... bark-bark...
[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] Get a Better Watch...
[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] Monday... Monday...
[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] Sunday's Picture...
[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] Neato!
[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] Hey, Thanks!
[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] A Little Learning...
[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] Eeesh!
[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] The Toll of The Shake...
[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] The Last Road of Winter...
[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] The Rocks... They Be Angry!
[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] Awwwwwkward!
[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] Blogcrushing...
[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] In Case You're Wondering...
[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] Album Cover Meme...
[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] A Wispy Picture...
[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] Manufactured Persecution (Part
Deux).
[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] The Uniform...
[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] A Little Miscellany
[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] Shocking?
[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] Manufactured Persecution.
[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] Oh Deer!
[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] Bad Picture...
[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] Ooo... Scary!
[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] Sunday's Photo: For the Ladies.
[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] Your Daily Picture of
Something...
[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] I Suppose I Should Say Something.
[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] What Can I Say?
[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] Today's Picture... ASAP!
[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] An off day...
[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] Captions Away!
[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] Not Quite HDR... Close though.
[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] Look What I Did...
[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] You Nailed It...
[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] Storm's a comin'...
[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] Today... A Picture. A
Challenge...
[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] My Old Stomping Grounds...
[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] It's Uplifting, at Least...
[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] One You Might Have Missed...
[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] Hmmm....
[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] Wilson!!!
[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] Sunday's Picture!
[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] It's Baseball Season After All...
[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] Woohoo! Woohoo!
[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] Today!
[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] It's THEM!
[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] Cute... And Terrifying!
[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] Friday Foto!
[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] Do Not Play Nice With Liars...
[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] Today's Foto!
[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] You Do Care What I Had for Lunch,
Right? Ri...
[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] Tao in the Morning...
AOL Photo Challenge --Aged!
[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] Tuesday Two-Four?
[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] Bad Cheese...
[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] Someday... (dammit).
[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] Have We Really Come This Far?!?
« April 2008 Archive
Friday, April 18, 2008
11:32:00 AM CDT

[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] The Last Road of Winter...

Here's today's picture...

Old road

As some of you have noted, I'm kind of fond of setting my camera on the ground and pushing the button. Focus be damned, I just let the camera grab onto whatever it pleases to get that odd, low perspective.

I mean, you really don't have to always peer through the viewfinder. In fact, you can even hold it a couple of inches off the ground, snap the shot, and see what comes of it. Usually, it's nice to have a line or some edge to help get a sense of what's going on. Give it a shot, and let me know how it turns out.

Anyway, as for the photo itself, this is a very old road that ends at the bluffs above Lake Michigan. At one time, many years ago, tucked away along this road were some really awesome and old Victorian houses. Some belonged to the farmers who worked the land in the area, and some were people who bought lake shore land for nothing but the view.

Unfortunately, as the years passed and the lake gnawed relentlessly upon the shore, the eroding bluffs collapsed and took a few of the houses with them. Eventually, the houses were abandoned as people fled the hungry lake. Some houses were actually picked up and moved, and others were torn down, and the whole area embraced its destiny to be nothing more than farmland.

As for the road, it's been closed for almost thirty years. In summer, the growth along the edges encroaches upon the dotted yellow line, turning it into a narrow path of old, unused and nearly forgotten pavement. Perhaps the greatest memory I have of this road is growing up in a childhood seasoned with the tales of broken-hearted teenagers, fed up with living, barreling full-speed down this road to plunge head first into the end (a girl I went to school with ended it here).

It's a strange and somber walk along this patch of old, gray roadway. When the winds fade, there is a silence that bears down upon you with the weight of one ton of Detroit steel free-falling over the edge into oblivion.

It's a fascinating area.

-DP

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Posted By Dan to The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind at 4/18/2008 11:01:00 AM


Written by dpoem Blog about this entry
This entry has 2 comments: (Add your own)
  • #2 Comment from luvrte66 
    4/19/08 9:11 PM Permalink
    Reminds me a lot of some sections of Route 66, the ones that they've closed off. There's one section in Illinois that runs right down into a lake. (They formed the lake after the highway was decommissioned.) It's all overgrown, but you can still see the yellow lines as they lead into the water. It's one of the coolest and spookiest things I've ever seen.

    Beth
    http://journals.aol.com/luvrte66/nutwoodjunction/
  • #1 Comment from markonit 
    4/18/08 12:08 PM Permalink
    ... this was a fascinating entry ... thanks for sharing it ..!