Scene on the Road

Toward the end of this summer's blog, I've asked you to share YOUR road trip photos. Some readers looked beyond the roadside, toward the skies:

Bill Corcoran, focused to infinity, and beyond this farm on U.S. Route 30 in Lancaster County, "while cruising to Fuddruckers restaurant."

"The important thing to note (along with three other photos he sent me) is that they were taken out of a moving vehicle," he added, not saying whether he was driving or a passenger.

Becky Bryan, on a mission trip to the Lakota Indian Reservation in Pine Ridge, SD wrote she was "stuck" on the side of the road when their van broke down. "Fascinated by the rapidly changing...cloud shadows (that) would sweep across the prairie, turning the mundane into spectacular and back to mundane again," she captured some of the moments when there was the most contrast of light and dark. If not for the engine trouble, "I never would have witnessed this ever changing beauty," she reflected.

Jim Klotz photographed the late summer sunset over Lake Towamensing in the Poconos.

Terry O'Brien observes "many people don't know that the New Jersey Pine Barrens is within an hour of Philadelphia," and took this Oswego River kayak trip "after the water level rose a foot after the nor'easter in August. We were the only people on the River and if you stopped paddling, there was no sound - no traffic, no airplanes, even the birds were still."

Steve Perzan captured this roadside Americana along N.J. Route 47 just south of Courthouse-Dennisville Road. He calls the photo "American Honor."

"This house sells the American Flag 365 Days a year. Although the Flags are made in China they still are Old Glory for me," he says.

Harry George has been in sales for years and always carries a camera in the car, shooting "Roadside America." He and his wife were in Utah the first two weeks in May, beginning their trip at Zion National Park heading north using two lane highways, including the National Scenic Byway (Utah Route 12) through Bryce Canyon National Park through to Salt Lake City.

The antique RV, an old Dodge motor home, Harry reports, is now used as "a traffic stopper for a gas station."

In early April, Kathy Miller and her husband went into New York City and "got a little taste of Paris." They toured City Hall, with its Renaissance Revival exterior facade, and walked over the Brooklyn Bridge - "our version of climbing the Eiffel Tower." She made this photo as they sat by a fountain, "like strolling through the Jardin des Champs-Elysées."

That's why, Kathy says, "when people ask why I live in NJ I say it's because I can have a European experience without crossing the Ocean!"

Also in NYC, Inquirer staff photographer David M Warren shot the scene at right on the streets of Manhattan.

A last minute reminder: You've got one more chance to have your photo included in Labor Day posting, and possible publication in the newspaper this Thursday. Send your jpeg to me at Roadtrip@phillynews.com as an e-mail attachment. Please include info about the photo, including when and where you shot it, along with any of your thoughts about photography along the road.

Looking back on this Labor Day weekend, here are more of YOUR summer road trip photos. Some were taken along the usual roads - and a few on routes "less traveled by," to paraphrase the oft-quoted New England poet Robert Frost - that sometimes make "all the difference."

Michael Kimble took a road trip to Vermont and south of Middlebury, found the cabin Frost lived in during summers from the 1940's until his death in 1963.

When Michael was there, he says, "no one else was around. The location, as you would expect, is beautiful, secluded, and peaceful." The locals don't want to invite too much attention to the cabin, he figures, as it's "accessible only by an unmarked dirt road that must be taken (pun intended) for a half-mile and then a trail walked for about 100 yards."

Ingrid and Jonathan Cheng and their family took a road trip to Boston and then to Acadia National Park, where a third of the way to the summit of Penobscot Mountain, "the kids (ages 3, 5, 7, 9) were taking a breather and enjoying the view of Jordan Pond from up high."
Ingrid went on to say, "the view from the summit was totally awesome. I was so proud that the kids and Grandpa (age 60) climbed to the top without any carrying, especially at one point, when we were pretty much climbing some pretty steep rocks."

Grandpa, Ingrid's father Jung-Yiao Yeh, who was visiting from Hualien, Taiwan, said they have "beautiful mountains and the blue Pacific Ocean, but this (Acadia) is incomparable."

"Maine is definitely a place where I would love to come back again, for a longer period of time. It's so peaceful and life seem to slow down," Ingrid added.

Mallorie McRea visited the mountains of Tamaqua, Pennsylvania, where her father spent his summers as a child. "In keeping with his family tradition," Mallorie writes, "he likes to drag us to this middle-of-nowhere town every summer."

They started at the local neighborhood pool, and "on this particular day," she continued, "the fire company was having its annual summer block party. How lucky were we! Little did we know my dad had this planned the whole time."

Her dad, Tim McRea, emailed me to recommend Heisler’s Dairy about 5 miles outside of town, "a great place to enjoy ice cream, miniature golf and a great golf driving range all surrounded by mountains. They just celebrated their 50th anniversary in July."

Rosemary Mackintosh sent in a photo - taken just last week - of her sons Owen and Luke on the early morning beach at Ocean City, NJ. They were searching for “good shells” before everyone else got there, she explained.

Lisa Polidora likes to photograph nature in the wildlife-rich waters around Cape May. The muskrat was in Lake Lilly, across from lighthouse. "That one in particular was very friendly and wasn't bothered by me at all," she told me.

Inquirer staff photographer Charles Fox and his family traveled out West in a rented RV this summer (that's not their home on wheels in the photo). The super-sized prairie dog was in South Dakota's Badlands.

Also in the West, Harry George photographed an automotive yard sale in Glendale, Utah. He titled the picture: "Another Man's Treasure."

Diana Keat made this still life in Pennsylvania Dutch County, at the Mascot Roller Mills. "A wonderful place to visit," she wrote, "stepping back in history even for just a few minutes. These clothes caught my eye on account of the way they were hung and how it just added life to the mill."

This is the last of my summer road trip blogs. For 12 weeks now, I traveled the region's roadways with my camera, bent upon discovery.

Inevitably, visual surprises emerged because they were there and because I was looking, whether the carefree joy of two boys fishing at sunset in the Pine Barrens, or the dignity of Boyertown's military-bear statue.

Click here or on the photo at right for a slide show of some of my favorite "Scene on the Road" photos from the summer. The picture above was taken by my son Jesse at the Ocean View Service Area on NJ's Garden State Parkway. I dragged him and his older sister Madeline there while we were on our way to visit friends at the Shore, and I wanted them to see first hand some of the places I'd visited (That's where I'd met Marvin Katzer of South Hampton/Ventnor in week 10). That's what the blog has been about all summer, a way to share a passion for photography by saying "look what I saw today!"

It has also allowed me to become more connected with you the readers - who like to get out and experience the region and love taking pictures while you're at it.

I plan to continue to blog occasionally, talking with you about photography as we all enjoy our own journeys. For now, it will happen in this same space. So thanks for reading and sharing your photos. cheers, TomG