I took the opportunity to leather up and stretch the big Suzuki’s legs Sunday afternoon, of course with twenty-some pounds of camera gear strapped to my back. I’m a daddy of two now, so I have to learn to consolidate my hobbies if I want to get time to do them. If I could just find a way to train karate while I SCUBA dive with a controller for a nitro-burning RC truck in each hand, while riding one of my fleet of motorcycles and taking a picture, all while pulling a giant wheelie on my mountain bike at the tennis court. That would just about cover it, I think I could hold my favorite frisbee in my teeth. Instead of attempting the impossible, I have instead resorted to times like this to steal away for a little chunk of time, and pick and choose which hobbies get my attention for now. Sooner than I can imagine, my boys will be old enough to do many of those things with me.

This was another one of those days where I catch my self saying, “I love my polarizer!” On a nice sunny day, it gets rid of all that pesky scattered light and brings out the best in nature’s colors…especially the blue of the skies. It also helped that the fields were full of what I’m told is golden clover, as seen behind this threshing machine north of Bismarck! Note the wind farm on the horizon.

After reading about the abandoned town of Arena, North Dakota, I decided to head up there and see what I could see. I saw what was left of an old elevator, the lone house in town, and the church next door. All were boarded up. It was a beautiful day, even in leather racing apparel, and I made some other photo stops along the way. The fields and the sky collaborated to give me lots of color Sunday, and I was able to enjoy the photography and the ride.

I suppose you could technically say I went “nowhere” since the town of Arena doesn’t officially exist anymore, at least not as it once did. According to my GPS, I went “nowhere” fast…reaching 245 mph maximum speed! I’d like to take this occasion to say I WISH. I couldn’t do 245 mph if I wanted to. I’m not saying how close I got, however. I’ll keep that between me and the bugs splattered all over the visor of my helmet. As far as the other numbers on the display, well…they’re worthless too. I forgot to stop logging the trip when I got home, so it sat logging all day. I don’t know how long I was riding, how long I was stopped taking pictures, or even my top speed (244? hm…). Great day for photos and motorcycling, bad day for data acquisition. I guess I’ll have to go do it again. Darn.