April 28, 2011 - what a day

Whenever the phone rings at 2:45 AM you always expect the worst, especially when it's family calling. Caller ID showed my sister's number.

I got that first shot of adrenaline that comes with fearing bad news.

When I answered the line went dead. I immediately called back and got through, but it was a sketchy cell connection. She said "a tornado had come through her back yard" ...static... "sent mike to check on mom & dad" ...more static... "can't get them out" the line went dead.

I got the second shot of adrenaline the comes when your fears are realized.

I handed the phone to Linda so she could try to get them back on the phone while I quickly dressed. I grabbed a handful of flashlights from the nightstand and jumped in the truck and started driving north. Not knowing what I was going to do when I got there, but I was going.

A bit while later I got a text that said they were all ok, that it was pretty bad, and they couldn't get out.

I got as far a exit 26 before I ran into traffic that was stopped on the interstate. I sat there for the next hour watching what seemed like every vehicle in southwest Virginia that had a flashing light pass me heading to Glade Spring. Traffic finally moved about 5:30 and I drove past exit 29, it was still dark so I couldn't see the extent of the damage so I drove on to exit 32 to get to mom's. the farther I got past 29 the better it looked so I was hoping that it had passed them by. There were service trucks blocking Fleet road so I turned up the service road driving toward Glade. My intention was to get to stagecoach road and get into town that way, little did I know that I was driving toward ground zero. I turned around, headed back to exit 32, then drove back to exit 26 and came into Glade up Hillman Highway to my sister's house.

We left her house and went toward mom & dad's, we got as far as the barn at the intersection of Fleet Road and Plum Creek --- the barn had been mostly flattened. It was still a bit to dark to see very far so we parked at the barn and walked in. We literally had to crawl through the downed trees to get up the road to their house. This cellphone picture is from the neighbor's yard early on Thursday. We found mom and my brother out in the yard, talking to the neighbors.

The next picture is the back of the house. Once the initial shock was over and I confirmed everyone was ok, we went inside to assess the damage. The living room was a mess, there was a hole in the bathroom ceiling, but the rest of the house was in surprisingly good shape. There was no way that mom and dad could crawl out through the trees the way the we had come in, but there was already a VDOT tree clearing crew working to clear a path up the road, it would take several hours to get to moms.

My sister and I went back to her house to check on her damage, I patched up a few things, we grabbed some tarps and headed back to moms. This next picture was taken Friday morning as I was coming back to get mom and dad's packed up, it was taken from the crossroad near the flattened barn, you can already see that a lot of work had been done at the house.

The picture at the top is an odd looking panorama taken Saturday morning, even more work clearing trees and securing the house has been done.

Shady Valley Ford

As I was driving back home from mom's I detoured through Damascus and Shady Valley and spied this old blue ford truck sticking out from under a old red barn near the intersection with 421.

It was the contrast in the red and blue and green colors that caught my eye from the road. So I skidded to a stop, parked in a driveway, and quickly shot a couple of brackets.

Here's the result after some HDR'n and some cropping.

Rural Retreat Train Depot

My plans for a photo trip on Good Friday didn't go as planned. I tried in vain to outrun the rain as I motored up I-81 to Rural Retreat Va., looking for this train depot that need it's picture taken.

I had read a newspaper article about this depot a couple of weeks earlier. The article says that, like the train depot in Chuckey TN, the train depot in Rural Retreat is privately owned but currently sits on land owned by the Norfolk & Southern railroad. The owner wants to upgrade the building but is reticent to do so in its current location, and the railroad won't sell him the land on which it sits. So he plans to move the train station to property he already owns at Mount Airy, a long-lost stagecoach stop along U.S. Highway 11 in Wythe county.

I was about a week late getting there as most of the platform and the roof over it have already been removed. I assume the article in the paper must be drawing lots of attention because of the number of 'No Trespassing' signs tacked on the building - and yes, I was careful to stay on railroad property and the sidewalk, not on his property.

Regardless, when I arrived it was breezy, about 41 degrees, and sprinkling rain, a really bad combination for picture-taking. But I was determined to get some brackets so I grabbed a towel to cover my camera and set off. Between gusts of wind I snapped off several brackets, I could only take pictures from the upwind side because the rain was blowing too much to allow shooting into the wind without getting water spots on the lens.

Anyway, here's the HDR'd result, with some judicious photoshop'n to remove the 'No Trespassing' signs and power lines.

Barn Along I-26

Another HDR shot of a barn with clouds. This barn is along I-26 just north of the Gray exit.

I stopped along the interstate - while observing all safety rules of course - and snapped the three photos of the bracket between cars on the road.

Pretty sweet clouds, eh? I'm always amazed at how cool the clouds look after being HDR'd.

Pine Tree at Host

Here's another picture of the pine tree that sits on the ridge above the pond at Host. I ran the single exposure through the HDR processing software and it did some really cool work on the clouds.

Bridge to a Really Nice Place

Here's a strongly-HDR'd pic of a stone-covered bridge near our house. I've been scoping this scene out for a while now, but never stopped because there was no place to park my truck that was out of the road --- so I got my girls to drop me off then come back later to pick me up.

Once again it was not a cool a shot as I expected, but now I know, right? What I think the scene needs is a nice orangy, glowy, cloudy, morning sky for a background, and maybe a better angle shooting from the other side of the creek.

The Long Way Home

The weather was so nice on the way home from mom's on Sunday I decided to come back to J'boro through Damascus to Backbone Rock to Elizabethton. It's a great ride through country with some great old barns and other stuff that should make some great pictures.

What I hadn't anticipated was how many motorcycles would be out riding that route. Oh my gosh, literally hundreds of bikes, loud bikes, fast bikes, slow bikes, old folks on bikes, geez. The numbers of bikes on the road really mucked up my picture taking trip cause every wide spot along the 50+ miles of road that I wanted to stop at was occupied, oh bother.

I was able to get stopped at and snag the above faux-HDR picture of this neat old barn with baskets and whatnot nailed to the outside. I wish there was a better angle to get a better shot, but, the no trespassing signs and herd of bikes precluded working around to a better angle. All that stuff on the outside of the barn made some really great texture.

The next faux-HDR picture is a church that looks like only the roof was built, no walls, just dormers on a roof .... weird. The rock front of the church also has some excellent texture and color.