Tag Archives: Wild Wild West

Living in One’s Element

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Life is good

I met Mrs. Green only once but she made quite the impression on my 10 year old self.  While I was staying with a friend, we took Mrs. Green a bouquet of flowers and in return, she offered us cookies and one of my first ”Ah Ha!” moments.  Mrs. Green opened a camel back steamer trunk filled with old photographs, journals, letters and postcards from what was already a long life.  She let me rifle through her collection of memories as she told us tales. Her adept storytelling, accompanied by the amazing artifacts of a life lived well, galvanized my attention.  I was dazzled and vowed to fill my own steamer trunk.

Snowy breakfast

My sister and I have been car camping together since the summer of 1989.  We sometimes head out onto the road for 1000’s of miles without staying at a motel or campground.  This was true even when we were driving a compact car.  In 2004, Shaunna bought the Honda Element and we have been traveling in luxury ever since.

The following slide show is a visual poem about small roads, living out of a truck, adventure, sisters and The West.

Living in One’s Element

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Pee Wee’s Great Adventures

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Pee Wee at Wall Drug, South Dakota

This project began as a practical joke.  A friend treated a collection of  her closest family and friends to a fabulous Fourth of July celebration at her home.   Her hospitality was repayed with the merciless kidnapping of her cherished Pee Wee  Herman doll.  It so happens that I was shortly thereafter leaving on a road trip to Alaska.  The ransom notes arrived as photo postcards of his travels with text and images culled from ubiquitous tourist literature gathered along the way.  Who knew where it would lead!

Pee Wee Postcards

I have always written on postcards with stories of my travels.  (After all, I’ve got a steamer trunk to fill.  See Living in One’s Element) Up to this point, they were store purchased stock photo postcards that did not often match my experience and certainly did not describe Pee Wee’s adventure.  So, I started constructing my own.  Digital photography and 1 hour photo labs have made this a cinch.  Making and writing on postcards enhances my travels and provides a satisfying record of the journey.  I make and send them by the 100’s.

Postcards by the Hundreds

The Pee Wee pictures are not attempting anything very meaningful content-wise.  They are absurd spoofs of typical tourist shots in typical tourist places.  They amuse me because he is such a foppish character, out of place in the rugged Marlboro Man landscapes of the mythic Wild West.    It was a  silly pleasure to make the photos and my sister was thankful to be relieved of  the  duty of posing.

Post Script

Pee Wee went on one more road trip to Texas and New Mexico after his epic Alaska adventure.

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