American Adventure

Ohio

A special thanks to my new friends at Applebee's in Hilliard, OH
Thank you Paige Barrow and Scott Lively

Starting on July 25, 2002, 5:56:46 PM

Crossing into the very north tip of West Virginia took me by surprise. West Virginia would be the last state on my trip. In all actuality I could even bypass it at the very end and may even be tempted to by then but I will try to maintain the original plan and visit the state a little more.

As I drive on for long periods of time the motorcycle has a way of almost hypnotizing me. The vibration and constant wind eventually gets soothing and I find myself getting sleepy. Having fallen asleep at the handlebars once, (And I must emphasize, only once, a few years ago.) I will never let that happen again and always pull off to take a break. Once I get off the road for a while I'm fine and I can go on.

I pulled off the freeway and onto one of those little country roads, I pulled into a little drive to a small wooded area where I took the following sets of images.

I thought the honey bee was a really great picture. The angle and timing was perfect. Its often difficult to catch them as they bee-bop from flower to flower. Hee hee, ("Bee-bop") Then following the lady bug until she got angry with me and turned to attack.

These images are proof that you don't need to be a talented photographer. Just be patient and take a million pictures. Eventually, by law of averages, you will get a god picture or two. Well, here's mine.

Looking around I always seem to find things that look interesting to me. From the light lavender blossoms on this thistle,

to the tiny little yellow flowers right at the edge of the pavement, to the tiny hairs on the very edge of this thin blade of grass. Which I believe was actually eggs from some insect.

Of course I always like to indulge myself in the wild berries that I find everywhere. Interesting bunch these blackberries were. Some were extremely tiny. I ate some and moved on down the road a little. Some of the different vines had a little variance in sizes of fruit and actually they all had a slightly different flavor. Especially that one with a stink bug on it. That really didn't taste too good.

On down the freeway towards Columbus I enjoyed the scenery. I stopped and watched as this person flew around in a powered parachute. I got to get me one of those toys.

Many people complain about the midwest with all the corn fields and I will probably grow tired of them myself but for now I rather enjoy the views.

I stopped at a rest area where I came across a family that had stopped to let their kids out to stretch their legs. It reminded me of those people that stop and let their dogs go for a run. The four little girls were having a ball as they attempted to run their batteries down. My favorite was this precious little 16 month old, Greyson.

A little flower and some crab apples later and I was down the road again and into the sunset. The sky was rather hazy that day. I imagined from some past fires somewhere. I really find it hard to believe that it might have actually been that humid.