A day for a drive

Sunday DaNece and I decided to go for a drive. We wanted to take a route that we hadn't taken before. After a quick glimpse at a map we loaded up the dogs and departed. It wasn't a day for lots of picture taking, just a day to get out and about.

 

We started out heading south-bound on Highway 89, going through Wilhoit, Peeples Valley, Yarnell, and Congress. This drive we had done before. We did however, stop at a scenic overlook to grab a few pictures.

Graffiti at the abandoned overlook. Notice beer at right:

 

My girls:

 

Me and the Doo-Man:

 

As we dropped down the hill the temperature rose until we were in the high 90's. No A/C in the truck meant there were some sweaty bodies for sure. Of course this meant driving with all the windows down, which is my favorite way to go anyway, so Tom was a happy camper!

 

At Congress we turned northward onto Highway 93. On our tourist map of AZ (always a handy thing to have) this is labeled as a scenic byway. With a nickname of 'Arizona Joshua Parkway' you would think there would be at least one picture of Joshua trees, right?

 

WRONG! We drove through them for a good long time, but I was un-motivated to capture one. Oh well.

 

We drove for a good long time through desert landscapes, just letting the scenery and heat soak into us. Eventually we came to something that did warrant a picture (in my book anyway). It was the bridge over Burro Creek. At first I had the camera set wrong, creating an odd duck of an image:

 

A quick few button clicks later and I was set correctly. And what a perfect opportunity to make an HDR image! Once again without my tripod (as always), the camera was balanced on my knee for three exposures which were put together to make this:

Not too shabby for 15 minutes worth of work post processing, eh? :)

 

And a candid shot from D. Me doing my thing:

 

We followed 93 all the way to Kingman. Here, we drove slowly through town looking for a burger joint to get a fix. We found an appropriate diner (Mr. D'z Diner) filled with 50's era memorabilia and lots of bad likenesses of Marylin Monroe and James Dean. The shakes were great, the fries were awesome, and the burgers were definitely passable.

 

After we finished the meal, we made the trek back home via I-40. Luckily we were following on the tails of a monsoon storm, so the weather was unbelievably nice as we departed Kingman (mid 70's). The dogs were passed out in the back, DaNece was drifting in and out of sleep to my right, and the road passed by in a blur.

 

All told it was a 7 1/2 hour trip, and a great little mental health day. No real thinking, just pointing the car in our direction of choice, and enjoying everything that whizzed by.