Crossing the Country

Car on Historic Route 66

Old Car © 2013 Bo Mackison

“Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.”
~ Miriam Beard

Saturday:

It is sunny and 71˚ and 8:03 a.m. when I lock the door,
jam my last bag in the car.
No need to memorize the blue of the sky, it is already mine.
A red tail hawk dips into the arroyo,
I catch his wide sweep as I turn north.
Prickly pears and yucca bloom extravagantly,
Spent blossoms of the ocotillo litter the curbside.

In three hours I have detoured twice,
a little lost, I follow Arizona Scenic Highway signs
like dropped bread crumbs in a dark forest,
curve along the edges of copper mines,
open pits of rock, miners in yellow hard hats maneuver
front-loaders along the narrow ledges.

Boyce Thompson Arboretum State Park

Boyce Thompson Arboretum © 2013 Bo Mackison

I walk the paths of the arboretum at noon,
detour through Miami’s mission district at three,
at four I descend into the Salt River Canyon.
Hawks soar high above the road, I follow their shadows on the asphalt.
Red Tails are my trip totem,
Road cuts expose the white rock of the White Mountains,
Vines and creeping flowers line the rough rock.

5:02 p.m. and I stop in Show Low,
the motel is on Deuce of Clubs Street, the main drag.
Can’t show lower than the deuce of clubs.

Scattered Petrified Wood

Scattered Petrified Wood © 2013 Bo Mackison

Sunday morning:

Gas at Safeway is 3.42 a gallon,
two fishermen lean against their truck, boat in tow,
and argue about late starts and wasted time.
The older guy draws on his cigarette while pumping gas.

North of Show Low the topography is Illinois flat,
the soil is Utah red.
Dead River.
Querino Wash.
Four Mile Draw, Five Mile Draw, Six Mile Draw.
Godawful flat and dusty,
Telephone poles are distraction.

Past Holbrook, outcroppings jut like layers of floor sheeting.
It’s a land of rock, a many-layered fossil cake in rainbow hues.
Entrance signs greet and command:
“Welcome to Petrified Forest National Park.
Do Not Remove Rocks Under Penalty of Law.”
I take only photographs.

———-

Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. A cross-country traveler by day, and an occasional poet in the evening.

Badlands Trail – Badlands National Park

Badlands Trail © 2010 Bo Mackison

First stop — Badlands National Park in South Dakota.

An all day drive from Madison, if you start at 4 a.m. We did — leave at 4 a.m., that is –and so we arrived with enough light to set up camp before catching a dozen shots of the park dressed in the light of the setting sun.

In the morning we explored several trails, including this one across from the Visitor’s Center which led up the the peaks of those jagged formations. They were crumbly, slippery, and high. Hint: I did not climb all the way to the top this year. After all, it was only the second day out, and I wanted to stay in good condition for the next destinations.

My new camera is proving to be great, when I can remember the many settings, all of which are in different places than my Olympus. I only practiced with it for a couple of weeks before we left for the trip, and I am painfully aware that I don’t know the new camera as well as I knew my old one. I hope by the end of this trip, I’ll have learned this ins and outs of this camera.