Highway 50 is said to be the loneliest highway in America. This is the part that runs thru Southwest Kansas. It is part of the OLD US Highway system. 50 is a little over 3000 miles stretching from West Sacramento, CA to Ocean City, Maryland. A little explanation is in order as “they” are really referring to the stretch of 50 that runs thru Nevada. The Pics on Google show it to be nearly abandoned. This stretch in Kansas is not that desolate but it is not the Connecticut Turnpike either.
So who says there’s no culture or artistry in small towns. Well ya kind of have to look around. This is an outdoor menagerie or sculpture garden. Clearly put together with some serious welding skills. But look beyond that and you see folks out in the plains who want to express their artistic skills.
As a child, I spent a lot of time wandering around the prairies and in the hills, and there was a sense that it was such a wide-open space, and there was kind of a feeling of potential. I could imagine anything happening there. Arthur Slade Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/arthur_slade_
This is main street Kit Carson or maybe it’s Eads Colorado – don’t remember but it doesn’t matter. I have no idea what this building used to be but it suggests some long lost grandeur given the meager surroundings. A grand apartment bulding, a two door school? You would not see this from the interstate and you wouldn’t see this is you are trying to rush thru town.
I take this back way to Garden City specifically so I can slow down. It’s a sure bet that there is a town cop or county sheriff looking to make quota so I always go the speed limit thru these little towns. If I see something going 30 mph it’s easy to come to a stop , pull to the side and take your picture. On some roads like CO 96 there are no shoulders so I just stop and hope there are no cars coming and generally I’m OK
Slow Down is probably good advice for most photographers anyway
The are known for all three – generally not all at the same time. During this time of the year in SW Kansas it is the thunderstorms that predominate the weather. Sometimes it’s too much and other times there is not enough weather to sustain crops. For me the Good comes in some phenomenal weather photos.
This was the site as I left for work this morning at 7 AM. The back end of an Anvil Cloud catching the first sun. This photo doesn’t even do justice to what this felt like. And it was heading away from Garden City which was good.
Admittedly most folks think of the plains as ‘just plain boring’ – sometimes we refer to these areas as Prairie lands. If you spend some time in the prairie you see that it isn’t boring. Quite the opposite, it is full of things but you have to be open minded about it. With this blog I’m hoping to expand people’s vision of the plains.
In Plain Site 