Road Photo of the Day: Vanishing Point (part 1)

There is something uniquely American about scenes like this. You find them all over the West. A ribbon of asphalt, two lanes, running like an arrow for the horizon across barren, unpopulated country. Never varying from a plumb line in the horizontal, but undulating freely over the varying vertical terrain. From the Great Plains through the Rockies and Great Basin, to the Sierras and Cascades you’ll encounter this phenomenon. I never saw anything like it in anywhere Europe, and I’ve never seen anything like it east of the Mississippi river either.

I imagine you see nothing but this in parts of Australia, but I haven’t been there… yet.

As the vast majority of my lifetime as a license carrying adult has been spent within a day’s drive of the Continental Divide I’ve spent a lot of time looking through windshields at this sort of horizon. Driving this sort of road. To me it is like being home. As comforting as my driveway.

I’ll never forget running the Cannonball Classic almost ten years ago. We barreled west from New York and the route took us through Colorado and Utah to US 50, aka “The Loneliest Road”. Leaving I-15 in Utah US 50 makes a couple of cursory turns and then settles into a straightaway that I swear goes on for 100 miles. Of course it crests a hill at one point and you see the road going straight over the distant horizon. There were 4 British journalists stuffed into a Subaru WRX covering the event and I had just returned from the UK about a year before. I remember thinking how absolutely mind-blowing experiencing this must be for them.

Picture yourself out there. Go ahead, floor it… nobody will ever know.

Car Photo of the Day: Evening Light Redux

While I’ll keep exploring this “Road Photo of the Day” theme, I can not give up on the tried & true CPotD staple of this website.

Another shot from that evening at Otter Crest on the Oregon coast two summers ago during the Monte Shelton Northwest Classic car rally. The focus of the composition is on this lovely 300sl coupe, which is the proverbial fish in the barrel for a car spotter. Even my wife can spot a Gullwing in a photo! But there are enough other cars in the background to keep all you car geeks busy for a while. Have at it!

Road Photo of the Day: Curves Ahead

A slight alteration of theme, at Paul Wigton’s suggestion: Road Photo of the Day. I hope you enjoy it.

This was shot last year on Montana Highway 279 northwest of Helena. The question is who shot it? I know it was taken with Mark Collien’s camera, but I can recall taking a shot like this somewhere on that trip. I know both of us drove portions of this road, and I was playing with his Nikon whenever I was in the passenger seat. I know I did my best to grab shots at the end of the day that I knew I snapped, so perhaps this is one… who knows? Mark?

If it is your shot Mark apologies for the blanket application of my copyright. 😉

Car Photo of the Day: This is not a car…

…but it is just as evocative. This is a spot near the highest point on this particular road. This photo was taken in the late summer of 2006, when the western US was literally consumed by large forest fires. That is why it is so hazy.

There is something about that sweep of asphalt, tight switchback, and the promise of more of the same that make me want to just… go.

Car Photo of the Day: Wrenching.

Not really a car, but one of its major components. In this case a rather famous one. While you guys ponder the nature of this machine I’ll be out in the barn wrenching on my daily driver. The recent cold snap forced me to switch to running 100% petro-Diesel and I suspect that has contributed to a common malady in VW TDI engines, a clogged EGR/Intake manifold. I’m pulling both the EGR & the intake manifold off the Jetta’s much-smaller-than-this-photo’s engine and cleaning out the accumulated soot. Thankfully there is a wonderful community of smart folks online, in the form of tdiclub.com who share all the “how-tos” of TDI maintenance freely. Armed with that info, I’m off to do battle! Wish me luck & See you soon!