When we headed out Wednesday morning for the day's activities, there was still some evidence of last night's rain...wet windshields, damp dirt roads, and raindrops on the plants. Our first stop was listed on John's itinerary as "Sally's truck" off Glenwood Road.
Sally's truck turned out to be quite photogenic. It was abandoned in a wheat field, "parked" at an angle, worn and torn, and riddled with bullet holes. We had to carefully step through tall grasses and muddy, uneven ground to get some good vantage points, but it was well worth it.
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The remnants of the rain clouds made for some beautiful soft lighting this morning!
When we finished photographing the truck, the caravan started up a small hill on our way to our next destination. It was a dirt road, what John calls a summer road. He had warned us previously that summer roads tend to get very muddy and slippery when there's been a rain, and can be more than a little scary to drive on. So, John headed out, leading our caravan, and the rest of us followed. Three of the five cars were part way up the hill when John came on the walkie-talkie to tell us to stop. The going was getting very slippery where he was, and he advised us to slowly turn around and go back the way we came. That turned out to be a little adventure in itself, with each car carefully backing up, then turning around in a wide spot in the road. There was definitely some slipping and sliding going on during these maneuvers, but we eventually all got turned around and back to the main road.
Our next stop on Omar Brown Road offered something for everyone...an old house with lots of interesting texture, an old Dodge parked in a field, and an area further afield with an old bus and car. I opted to stay with the house and Dodge, not trusting myself to stay upright on the uneven terrain out to the other field, and I found plenty to occupy my camera. Referring to the "No Trespassing" sign, we DID have permission to be there.
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From here we traveled a short distance to see something I didn't even know existed. It was an actual REO Speedwagon! I was (somewhat) familiar with the musical group of the same name, but had no idea their name came from an actual truck that was designed by a man named Ransom Eli Olds - thus REO. The keyboardist of the musical group, Neal Doughty, had learned of Ransom Olds in a college class on transportation history and decided to use the name for his band.
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We were now ready for our lunch break and headed back to our hotel where we had pizza provided by John and Rad, and participated in a classroom session of Lightroom and iPhone apps. These guys have so much knowledge, wish I could just soak it all up at once. After our classroom time, we had a break, then headed out to dinner at a place called Nectar, located in Moscow, Idaho. Good food (grilled meatloaf!) and good company. The group was going to head back to photograph another sunset at the Weber house, but Rich and I, and three other participants decided a little rest time at the hotel was a better choice, so we all headed back to Pullman to get some R & R and be ready for tomorrow.