Change of pace...

from the Newport Hill Climb.....
There is an event in our county called the Newport Hill Climb. It takes place annually in Newport, Indiana and is sponsored by the Newport Lions Club the first weekend of October. The first hill climb took place in 1909...can you imagine that?
I hate to admit this, but we have lived here since our first child was about 5 months old and have never went. I am here to tell you I got more than I expected! There were dozens of beautiful old cars and trucks....all spic and span, with not a fingerprint to be seen anywhere.
And shiny where it should be shiny...and overall just wonderful. I am having a hard time picking out the words to describe it.
Kind of the worst and best thing at the same time was the number of people...it was hard to get shots without someone in the way. If I was bold, I would have liked to ask some of them to stand posed, but I don't like my own picture taken so have a hard time asking others to do something I don't want to do myself.
I had a feeling the gentleman in the red and white ball cap belonged with this truck. Isn't it wonderful? And some of them had that old vehicle smell...you don't normally think of that as a good smell, but it was today.
And something I really enjoy is just looking inside the vehicles...the dashboards of the older cars is one of my favorite features and I an not even sure why. Maybe they remind me of simpler times, or maybe it is just the way they are made. They seem so clean-cut...bet you never thought you would hear that to describe a car dashboard, did ya?

Weeping willows, etc...

For a while now, I have been wanting to start photographing weeping willows. I just don't seem to see that many around here...oh, there are a few. Just not a big number of them.
Up north, I had ample opportunity though! I honestly think there are a lot more up there. Could it just be the distance that we traveled...possible. Yet I don't remember noticing a lot of them till we got up to northern Indiana and from there on.
I don't know why I like them so much, but I do. These are a few of the ones I captured this time.
I think at least one or two photos I have already posted from the trip had some weeping willows.
And then there is this thing...not a weeping willow, but interesting anyway. Does anyone have any idea why it would grow that ball at the top of the trunk. We passed it so quick, I was lucky to make this capture. I don't think there were any others like it, but not sure. Roger didn't know what I was trying to capture till I downloaded the picture and showed him.

My first attempt at Camera Critters

Camera Critters is something I have seen pop up every weekend at some of my friend's blogs, but usually I have done made a post of something else. Well I am running late today so thought i would take the opportunity to join. I got this first of the geese while at Fort Mackinac...it is blurry but I still like it. Part of the walls of the fort are on a hill higher than the rest of the fort, and this is taken while walking up there. I think I like it cause I am sort of on a level with them. And I sort of like the motion the blur of the wings makes.
This grasshopper was taken up on the Door Peninsula of Wisconsin...we were stopped at this little place created to pull of the road and view the lake...I spotted him and he let me get several pictures.
And this turkey was also on that peninsula I think...I am lucky it is this good cause again I was in the car.
And now this one is going across the upper Peninsula of Michigan I think...and it is blurry as were sooooo many of my pictures. I took close to a thousand pictures, and at least 75% were from the car. And so many of them are just a bit blurred...it is very hard not to not blur shots taken to the side....looking head-on through the front windshield is much better if the road isn't too rough.