The Anthony Hall

It's been a handful of days since we made it back to Richmond; David Neal is officially back "home", and I've been slowly decompressing and recalibrating back to normal life, whatever that is... I've got post awesome road trip depression, or "PARTD" for short. I didn't even realize how hilariously appropriate "PARTD" was until I typed it just now...

Anyway, the second half of our journy took us down to Memphis, where we watched some of David's dance friends perform in Swan Lake, ate some pretty killer BBQ, and drank various colors of slushy boozy beverages. I didn't really photograph much of anything in Memphis because I was busy enjoying life and taking in the sights (aka drinking way too much to care about photography). It's really kinda cute how Beale St. tries so hard to be a tiny French Quarter; nice try Memphis, but you are no New Orleans... still, I enjoyed my time there.

 

The next leg was supposed to have us camping in Great Smokey Mountain National Park, but we were thwarted by thunderstorms and potential damaging winds and hail, so no beautiful photos under the magnolia blossoms. Oh well... So here is another series of images from the trip, in no particular order...

 

The plains really do make for some good photos, despite being so boring to drive through...

 

Warning: Bison in photograph are closer than they appear. I'm just glad none of them got angry our presence...

 

 

We found this billboard that sported a striking resemblance to Mr. David Neal. Maybe he is Wheat Jesus?

 

Tightwad: Population 69...

 

So this place actually exists; somewhere in Missouri. The presence of a poster with the image of a NASCAR driver saying "welcome to the glory hole" had us a bit confused as to the theme of this bar. We didn't stick around to investigate...

 

Hours later, still cackling about The Glory Hole...

 

So that's pretty much it; over 2,000 miles of road tripping condensed down to a handful of images. I'm not sure I can say I had some sort of photographic/creative breakthrough, but when I wasn't clicking away, I had some really good conversations with David Neal about life, ups and downs, and moving on and forward. I think that's the most important part...

 

 

 

 

We made it to just about the halfway point of our trip now, and I'm finally able to get around to doing a little photo updating. Since David picked me up at the airport on Monday, we have noted the unique aromatics of the Denver air, driven through the most boring landscapes of Kanas, camped under the stars, got maybe a little too close to a herd of bison, rolled along through the beautiful Ozark hills in Missouri, went to a Cardinals game, and enjoyed more than a few beers here in St. Louis. My brain is feeling like the best kind of mush right now and I'm not feeling particularly wordy, so here are some photos...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next Monday I'll fly out to Denver, CO to meet up with my good friend, David Neal, for an epic week+ long road trip. David has spent the past few years dancing for the Alberta Ballet company, and is finally retuning to Richmond. I've left all the planning up to him, as it's more his trip than mine, but thankfully he has mapped out a course that should be truly awesome.

 

 

We'll almost immediately leave Denver to head towards  Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, where we'll camp and hopefully make some beautiful pictures.

From there we'll drive to St. Louis to meet up with his sister and brother in law. We'll be there for at least a couple days I think, with no real specific plans. I'll be looking for some photo ops, though... then we head to Memphis! 

In Memphis we'll meet up with another dancer friend of his and hopefully see a performance of Swan Lake. And then party... 

 

The last stretch of the trip before Richmond will take us to  Great Smokey Mt National Park, where once again we plan to camp out and take photos under the magnolia blossoms. So very bromantical...

 

I'll be doing my best to have photo updates here and/or on my Facebook and Instagram accounts, so be on the lookout! I'm super stoked to go on this trip with David and take photos of places and things that I normally wouldn't get to.