Aimless Driving

Since the concern for my dog stemmed from the intensity levels of the adventures, you would think it would only get more intense now that she was staying at home. WRONG! The complete opposite happened. Trying to move away from all of that nature jazz, I moved back into my car. Inside the car has always been my favorite place, especially behind the driver seat. Something about it lets me clear my mind of whats going on and lets me think without any interruptions. Driving around, just to drive around has lead me to find many 'holes' in the city where few people tend to go. With a Jeep, where the pavement ends, the fun begins. It does not get jumped, but it does drive over gravel, uncut grass, mud, water, DEEP snow, and a through storms! Caution.... Driving offroad does take some research and proper technique before execution in order to maintain the vehicle properly. Since the walking adventures died down, the driving adventures became more frequent. This worked quite well since I wanted to move away from nature photography. First on the list was to catch a storm. Everytime a heavy storm would roll through town, the immediate response was to grab the keys, fill up the car with gas, grab the camera, tripod, and extra batteries. After several months and a several hundred miles later, it all came togther one night. I had gone to my Alma Mater/University of Toledo to take some pictures. knowing the heavy cloud cover would ruin any chance I had at getting the buildings, I still went. While sitting on top of the parking garage, the radio called for heavy thunderstorms about 10 miles West of where I was. About 30 seconds passed and I was already out of the parking garage and headed towards the storm. Not wanting to get into the middle of the storm, I raced to make sure I would be in front of the storm to where the 'head' of all the lightning would be. The lighting was unbelievable for Northwest Ohio and I finally found a spot to rest. I set the tripod and camera outside the car while I stayed 'safely' inside, it was focused on a barn several hundred yards away lit by several street lights. Then at an instant the shutter was depressed, the lighting struck. The image took 3rd in a photo contest for the University and I made myself happy.