Road trip 2012: 24 states in 27 days: Introduction

On October 10th, 2012, Brad and I packed up our Toyota Tacoma pick-up with gear for an extended road trip east. Starting in Corvallis Oregon, just an hour from the Pacific Ocean, our goal was to venture as far east as we could go within a three or four week time frame. With a borrowed Yakima Rocketbox (thank you Nathan!) for storage, a duffle bag each, a cooler and daypacks, food bags, and a few other essential belongings stored in the cab and under the back canopy, we were on our way that afternoon. Under the canopy was our cozy nest in back with a twin sized air bed, three Coleman flannel sleeping bags on top for insulation and two down duvet blankets to use for covers . There were open bin areas between the wheel wells both in front and back of the tires where we could stash shoes, or items we wanted near us during the night which were also covered up by our bedding, allowing for a little more sleeping space. About the only other goal we had on this adventure was to try and drive mostly backroads, but we were also realistic, and knew we'd be needing to zip ahead on freeways at times too. Below, this photo shows our "rolling home", compact and easy to maneuver at one of our stops on the way. 

Follow along with us as we post more about our trip in the upcoming days with more photos and stories from our traveling adventure.

Mural Painting In Carlton Oregon

This past weekend we were invited to join a group of sign artist friends and help paint a mural in Carlton, which is about 5 miles north of McMinnville. We arrived on Saturday and were promptly pulled into the task of trying to complete this artistic vision within the three days allotted. Here's the weekend in photos: 

One of my first jobs was to help fill in some of the abundant greenery.

Brad, dancing on the scaffolding... this shows the size of the mural - it was big! 

Under this awning was the paint mixing area. 

It was a beautiful evening on Saturday.

This is what your feet will look like if you've been standing in bark dust all day! Ick... 

Here's our group photo the next day. The police department kindly left their car parked nearby all night adding a bit of security to keep the riffraff away. There were several more artists that contributed to the mural but they had to leave before this photo was taken. 

Rick Scott, Justin Riede, and Jose Solis - the designer of this mural making some decisions. 

Gerry Blankenship - our local Carlton contact & generous host. 

I'm standing on a box while Pete paints the border below, both of us having to maneuver around the scaffolding.

Here I'm up on the scaffolding, with my feet braced on the wall to keep from toppling forward. I'm wearing an old shirt of Brad's after dumping a jar of phthalo blue onto my paint shirt... Brad decided dunking the whole shirt into a bucket of water was the best way to clean it, not realizing it was the only long sleeve paint shirt I had with me! Made for a chilly morning in my tank top until Brad remembered he had a 2nd shirt to loan me. He spent his time painting the letters - his favorite subject. 

You can see a crew of painters below Brad, under the scaffolding. 

Pete McKearnan - one of our fearless leaders. 

This photo above shows the height of the scaffolding and the space available below (and the nasty bark dust...)

Our youngest member of the crew taking a break and watching her Papa, Justin work.

The letters getting their final embellishment. 

Pete up on the scaffolding, helping nudge Brad along.

The mural, not quite finished yet, but close to completion, and below, you can see where our youngest painter left her mark! 

Dahlia Field

Last Wednesday our local Plein Air painting group headed to Frey's Dahlia farm NE of Jefferson OR. I enjoyed an opportunity to paint with watercolor, which isn't usually my first choice when painting plein air. Normally I work in pastel but leaving my stack of canvases on a chair put a stop to that. Luckily I brought watercolors, and a nifty new watercolor journal I'd just made the previous weekend. I also enjoyed the company of two good friends that were playing in watercolor too, so after touring the dahlia field we settled down to see what we could accomplish. Here's a glimpse of some of the beauties vying for our attention.

Snow Fun

While out on a photo shoot this third day of Spring, admiring all the snow that had fallen the night before, I came upon this area where I set up to capture some of the lovely weathered rust and snow covered roof reflected in the melting snow on the ground. After this first shot I moved to try another view and at that moment the snow on the roof decided to dump part of its load! Lucky me, I captured the fall, and then the last shot shows the "after". True serendipity!

Technical info - these were shot TTV (through the viewfinder) of a Kodak Duaflex camera with my Canon DSLR camera.

Snow Scenes

Earlier this week, we enjoyed a few snow days - a rarity for our town. While out for a walk on Monday, we met up with my oldest daughter and had some fun collecting photo images together of some familiar scenes made new with the dusting of snow. Here are some of my favorites: 

This just doesn't look like a street in our town...but it's Jefferson, looking west towards campus. 

Roses in the snow - still colorful, even in January. 

These two photos are of the art installation at OSU by Patrick Dougherty. In the photo below, you can see how large the sculptures are in comparison to my daughter - if you can find her - the curved bench is pointing to her.  

So glad we made it out while it was snowy - warm rains arrived yesterday and we're looking at a very wet week ahead. Personally, I'm hoping this isn't the last of the white stuff for us this winter!