Long way from home.

"I'm going home to the place where I belong 

Where your love has always been enough for me
And I'm running from.. you know I think you got me all wrong
I don't regret this life I chose for me'
But these places and these faces are getting old
But these places and these faces are getting old
I'm going home
I'm going home."

Because we have many modes of transportation we have the ability to travel many miles away from where we call home. Sometimes we leave for a short while and other times we move away and start anew. I fall into both camps as I travel more than 30 miles to my job and live 300 miles from where I grew up.

But, there are many people who I have met who still live within the neighborhoods where they were raised. Their kids go to the same schools they did, in some instances they are very actively involved in the community and I know of a few who have businesses just steps away from their homes. I think I might struggle with that, but then again, I don’t know any better. My brother lives less than a mile from the home he grew up in---it works for him and it has really helped as my Dad has needed care.

In my travels, primarily through the Midwest, I have gone to many cities and towns all the while exploring them if I have time; it’s rare that I am concerned for my safety or anything like that, but it’s common, if I am taking photos to be concerned for their privacy. One of my most memorable ventures outside the lights of a big city was when I went into Amish and Mennonite areas in Iowa, Ohio and Pennsylvania. It was in Pennsylvania when I saw, and heard, my first horse and buggy.

At first I was not sure if I had heard it, but as it got closer there was no mistaking what I was about to encounter. Around the turn came a man and his wife---being drawn by a horse and carriage. It stopped me in my tracks and I really wanted to take a picture; I decided it would be best if I tried to “fake it” by staying in my car and taking it with the window down. It worked, but it also was just what I thought it would be---a snapshot. So I drove to another location, I was in a car after all, and caught them coming around the turn. I suspect this had happened before as they waved.

Later in the trip I saw another family, with their buggy to the back of me, traveling down a long road. It was the picture I wanted---in the distance were fluffy clouds, the road was as far as I could see, and it may have been a snapshot, but it turned out to be a photograph. I still have it…somewhere on an external hard drive with 1000’s of other photos.

The photo above was taken a week or so ago. It was lunchtime in downtown Chicago, and I knew a huge storm was coming toward the city; I have wanted to go up on the “ledge” of the former Sears Tower (now known as the Willis Tower) to capture a storm of this magnitude from above. I missed the storm as the elevators that take you up 1300 plus feet were delayed. While standing in line I struck up a conversation with the family in front of me. They were from Northeast Indiana on the way by train, yes train, to Montana---30 hours in a non-sleeper car. Did I ask for a photo? Nope, I didn’t feel comfortable.

Until they stepped out on the ledge with nothing between them and the ground below but a piece of very strong glass.

Thanks for stopping by.