Archive for January, 2008

Boy! I’m ready to put Texas behind me!  I spent a lazy day in Austin with a friend and his family.  He’d bought a house down there, packed up his entire family – kids and all and moved them down there from Minneapolis.  I spent the day teaching his daughter how to play hopstoch, threw ball with the family dog, and discussed new-house-buying-experiences with my friend.  Didn’t even pick up the camera.  Quite a u-turn from the photo-extravaganza and party-till-you-drop weekend in Lousiana with the Tulliers.

I got up early this morning to make the straight shot from Austin to El Paso.  Tomorrow will be a short (relatively) four-hour drive to Tucson where I’ll get a few rounds of golf in with family.

I made sure to stop and grab pictures along the way.  Enjoy!

After thanking Tate and Sarah for their incredible hospitality, I set out for Austin.  Along the way, I decided to stop somewhere to do some photos.. something in Louisana, before I headed on out of state.

Approaching Lake Charles.  It was around lunch, so I figured I’d look for a place to eat.  Maybe I should drive THIS to california…

After taking a exit, I found myself in a empty part of town.  Even though it was in the middle of the day under broad daylight, I still found myself looking around out of concern for my safety.

I walked around just taking pictures.  Urban decay always has been a favorite subject of mine.

My beloved car taking a breather.

I found it very surprising that even years after the hurricanes, houses here still have tarps and boarded up windows.

I stumbled across this graveyard with markers dating back to just after the Civil War.

It was all in very bad shape, but I found it utterly fascinating and just walked around looking at all those different gravestones and absorbing names and dates.  For the picture below, it might be hard to read, but it says “Man’s Best Friend:  Mother” – not ‘Dog’ as you’d expect.

Heading out of the graveyard, I ran across a few more condemned buildings.

Found a nice little cafe on Main Street.

Ordered burgers and fries.  Sat there, absorbing the atmosphere.

Of course, had to do a self-shot in the bathroom after taking a leak for the road.

And I’m back on the road to Austin.

After a wild Saturday night that involved me getting wiped out by two hurricanes and a hand grenade, the Tulliers and I elected to make it a lazy Sunday. Tate ran around the place making lots of really wacky photos with my 12mm lens. I just sat on the couch and gave SoHo all the attention that dog needs (and lots more).

SoHo is a fucking rock star dog. And he knows it. He knows he has it good.

For dinner, we headed out to Baton Rouge to eat at the Tullier’s favorite place, Chimes.

Tate doing his “special person” impression.

And you just never know where the conversation between Tate and Sarah is going to go at any moment. Tactile signing included.

Alligator meat appetitizer. It was very very very good.

Imagine being married to a guy who will take pictures of you at any moment of the day, in any place for any reason? I envy them – when they’re all old, been married a million years and all that – they’re gonna have a billion, if not billions of photos to look back and remember their lives by.

Something you never quite see in food stores anywhere else. I remember when I was a kid, I’d go looking for crawfish in the local rivers back up in Minnesota. They were ugly, gross looking brown crab/scorpion/lobster mutants. I dont think I could EVER bring myself to eat them, even if they might be delicious…

I’ll be driving to Austin today to meet with the Egberts. This has been an amazing trip so far!