Scene on the Road

More people and photos from my slight detour off Pennsylvania Route 73 in Berks County to visit the Kutztown Folk Festival.
All the stickers plastered on the suitcase and guitar cases, right next to the Hoedown Stage caught my eye. Singer songwriter Alicia Keister and guitarist Jason Shaffer of Harrisburg were lost, looking for the Children's Theater where they would perform later, and the tent of Butch Imhoff's Acoustic Roadshow. Keister has a new CD out and plays coffee-shops and smaller venues, "because we're mostly acoustic." Imhoff is also bringing his roadshow to Musikfest in Bethlehem next month, where Keister will be among the more than 300 performers from across the country and around the globe, on 13 different indoor and outdoor stages (nine of the them free).

Chip Buck moved in for a closeup of his nephew visiting from New Jersey, when the goat moved in even closer. Now that the festival is over, you can go to the Pennsylvania German Cultural Heritage Center at nearby Kutztown University. They have a museum, and a year-round program dedicated to the preservation of "Pennsylvania Dutch" history, folklore, and traditions. Also Pennsylvania's official travel and tourism site has a "Fairs and Festivals" search function. Look for it under the "Arts and Entertainment" pull down menu. I'll be back to Route 73 on my next post.

I am deeply touched by a cartoony bear as I stand near a cemetery facing Route 73 in Boyertown, in the rain during this week of Independence Day, watching water drip from the saluting figure's face.

On the border of Berks County, the highway becomes Philadelphia Avenue as I drive into Boyertown. It's here where I notice one of downtown's many artfully decorated "Bear Fever" fiberglass bears - the kind of public-art display that began with a 1998 fiberglass cow exhibit in Switzerland and in this country with Chicago's "Cows on Parade" in 1999.

Over the years there have been giant frogs in Toledo, race horses in Lexington, baseball bats in Cincinnati, and guitars in Nashville. Around here, I've seen the recent zoo animals in Chestnut Hill and Moorestown's Nippers.

So I admit seeing the bears didn't get me to pull over. Until the Fairview Cemetery on the edge of town. There I see a bear in military camo, standing upright in an erect salute. I have seen and photographed many memorial ceremonies and monuments, but this one got to me.

The bear's name-tag and dog tags say Zimmerman, but the plaque reads "...May this 'Military Bear' honor all Boyertown veterans, although separated by generations, shared a common undeniable goal..."

Army Pfc. Travis C. Zimmerman is a 19 year-old 2005 Boyertown High School graduate who was killed April 22, 2006 by an improvised explosive device while conducting combat reconnaissance operations in Baghdad. The quote next to his senior yearbook photo said he planned to join the Army after graduation.

The Reading Eagle reported that when sifting through Travis' belongings, his father Lloyd Zimmerman discovered that his son had saved the front page of a newspaper from the day after the Sept. 11 terror attacks. "That must be when he resolved to make a stand," he told Eagle reporter Jason Brudereck at the funeral. Zimmerman's senior classmates raised the money for his bear last year, honoring all men and women from the Boyertown area who died in service to their country. It was completed in time for the town's 5th anniversary commemoration of 9-11 last September and installed this past Memorial Day.

Here's another of my "Rules of the Road Trip." Actually this one is more of a photographic road trip "Reality:" Pictures often present themselves when the driver/photographer is in the wrong place at the right time. Besides great light, great photography is all about timing. Sometimes it's being able to react to the instant. At other times it's having the patience to wait.

On a road trip, you don't often have the luxury of time. So you make the best picture you can in your situation (see previous post: Greenheads - Making Lemons Look Like Lemonade). Heading north on Route 73 between Schwenksville and Gilbertsville, a huge red fireball suddenly appears on the horizon. I watch it for miles as it slips behind trees and the two lane road dips in and out of the hills. Around each bend I lean forward in anticipation of seeing something - anything - worth silhouetting in the foreground.

Finally, even though I'm driving west, opposing the earth's rotation, I'm not moving at quite the same speed, so the sun starts to fade for good on this day. Nothing photographic materializes, so in a desperate move to salvage a photo - I pull over in front of a field of corn.

That's a lot like many of my daily newspaper assignments. Besides "careful, my face is gonna break your camera," the thing I hear most from photo subjects is: "you shoulda been here twenty minutes ago...." Or even worse, when shooting a photo for the next day's newspaper: "You should be here tomorrow!"

This brings me to another call for your photos. Reader Jim McWilliams emailed me some of his photos after I completed my third road trip down Route 9 in Delaware. He commented, "I love that ride any time of the year. I discovered it about 6 years ago as an alternative to Rte 13," and sent me photos he's shot of the wildlife - and the cooling tower at Hope Creek - in different weather and light conditions over the years. That's HIS photo at left.

I'd like to see - and share - some of your pictures made repeatedly over time in the same place. Maybe you've visited the same state park, or Jersey Shore spot to photograph in varying conditions over the years. Send them as jpeg attachments in an email, with caption information (date, location, circumstances) to me at: RoadTrip@phillynews.com. I'll post a selection later on.

For inspiration, check out the website of Jim Brandenburg (click on "Chased by the Light" under Gallery heading). To get "back to the soul of his work," the National Geographic photographer gave himself the challenge of taking only one photograph each day between the autumnal equinox and the winter solstice. He just made ninety single photos in ninety days around his home in the boreal forest of northern Minnesota.

There are a lot of good reasons to hit the road: Spring Break, death or divorce, a midlife crisis. I have friends who are trying to visit the birthplaces of all 43 US presidents, and as I've already bragged here, I've been to all fifty states. But one of THE most popular excuses for a road trip is built around America’s favorite pastime - taking in home games at professional baseball stadiums.

As if I need an excuse, I figure the All Star break is a great time for a minor league journey, so I head south on US Highway 40 toward Ripken Stadiumin Aberdeen, Maryland, home of the Baltimore Orioles single-A league IronBirds. The stadium is right off I-95, but parallel to the freeway is a section of US 40, a classic pre-interstate cross-country route, one of the original 1920s highways. After leaving Atlantic City, it used to go all the way to San Francisco, before I-80 was built and absorbed it in Utah. More on the road later, now it's "Play Ball," as the game starts with a parade of little leaguers on the field.

Cal Ripken, Jr. and his family (with some help from their hometown of Aberdeen) built the fan-friendly 6,000 seat stadium modeled after Baltimore's Camden Yards, where Cal played his entire career. Just like at most Minor League games now, the staff interacts with the crowd, and brings fans onto the field for contests.

Tonight, between innings as the IronBird's are beating the Phillies Williamsport Crosscutters 15-10, there are tee shirt tosses, "hillbilly horseshoes" (toilet seat tossing) and dance and sports trivia contests. There is a Picnic Plaza and a Kid Zone near left field has batting cages, pitching speed booths, and an inflatable moon-walk. Most home games become sold out, but standing room tickets go for $5.

Besides the IronBirds There are a whole bunch of professional league teams in our tri-state region. Here are links to their websites: Atlantic City Surf; Camden River Sharks; Harrisburg Senators; Lakewood BlueClaws; Lancaster Barnstormers; Newark Bears; New Jersey Jackals; Reading Phillies; Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees; Sussex Skyhawks; Trenton Thunder ; Williamsport CrossCutters; Wilmington Blue Rocks; and the York Revolution.