Yup, traveling once more. On Saturday I left Hendrix—don’t even get me started on saying goodbye to my freshmen year—and headed home. Sunday morning, we loaded up and took off for Iowa to visit relatives.
If you remember—which you probably don’t and I can’t blame you—last time we went to Iowa we made an unintended detour to Arnold, Missouri when our van broke down.
Well, here we are, same van, same trip, and hopefully a different result. The ride is, as always, long and somewhat boring but it is giving me a chance to catch up on blogging! Granted, there is no wi-fi signal out here on the road so I can’t actually post blog entries. However, I can write them and get the pictures ready. =)
We packed sandwiches in the morning for lunch. Last time we had to eat outside of a courthouse because we couldn’t find any other picnic tables in the town. This time, my father spotted a sign for river access, and on a whim swung off the highway. We twisted around and down through the trees, ending at a launching dock and a river. There was no picnic tables or really anything, but we made do, enjoying the beauty of nature.
On the way to the launching dock, I had spotted an old metal bridge, half-obscured by a mass of clinging vines. The road leading to it had been gone for a long time and so the bridge stood like a mystery, alone in the trees.
As we were leaving, my father stopped the car and I hopped out, pulling up my camera and taking some pictures of the old bridge.
I loved the worn-down look of it; how it had fallen into abandonment. I would have loved to get a closer look, but that would mean hoping over the guardrail, going down a steep hill, and then climbing up another one all the while hoping that there was no poison ivy or snakes lying in wait. Besides, we still had six hours to go. So I took some pictures and then headed back, mulling over the bridge. It was in the middle of what is now a national forest—why was such a big bridge built in the middle of nowhere? There were very little signs of human activity.
While I’m used to shooting nature, another area that has really caught my interest is structures in disrepair. I love stumbling upon an old house, the walls crumbling in, the plants eagerly taking over. I love the old stories that encircle the structure.
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