A few years ago, when I began taking photographs, I drove all around Washington County with my border collie Izzy, my first hospice dog. We set out in a bitter winter and came across Kinney Road, a country road with a big sky and some barns and farmhouses backlit by the setting sun. It was bitterly cold, Izzy would jump out of the country and lie in the grass, I wandered around with my tripod trying to catch the sunset, they were among my first photos, and they helped keep me sane and grounded, it was the darkest time of my life.

I think I was trying to kill myself in some ways, I wandered Kinney Road in the darkness, wearing dark blue shirts and jeans. Once a truck clipped my tripod and it almost took my ear off, and I can’t count the number of times cars speeding down the road nearly got me. I guess I have a lot more to live for now, and I can’t imagine doing that again.

Since we moved to from the first Bedlam Farm, I have not been near Kinney Road, something stops me from going back. But I may have found another place to capture the beauty of the rural sky, the rural sunset, Route 61, just a few miles from our farmhouse. I’ve driven it before but never stopped at dusk until tonight, when an ugly storm system began approaching from the West. Maria came along with her sketchpad, yelling at me to look back and get out of the road. Red stays in the car, in the back seat.

A gorgeous road, with a big sky and rolling hills. Kinney Road marked one time in my life, I think Route 61 will mark another. When artists and writers and photographers find a place they love, they return again an again. I think I have found another Kinney Road.