On the Road
By stephen sakulsky
3 May 2008
These photos are a selection of 11 from 80+ photos of an on-going project called "On the Road..." As a reaction to an America where Britney Spears and the like rule the nightly news, I am attempting to show "America." With all its vast open spaces, its unique quirkiness and the places that truly make America, America. Places that most people either don't care to discover or plainly have never seen nor know exist... The entire project so far is broken into 2 slideshows with accompanying music and can be seen at http://www.sakulsky.com.
"...that so long as our efforts produce a world less and less fit to live in, our roads will be as they are now-routes of flight that arrive nowhere, Kafka roads that recede forever into Siberian wastes of the spirit, without rest and without end, and with only comforts in place of satisfactions."
-Wallace Stegner -
The Following are journal entries while On the Road:
03/11/08 (DAY 01)
LA - 930AM - 405 - 5 - 99
-178 - BAKERSFIELD - WALMART -
- Bought 1 chair, 1 box 'o bullets and cough syrup...???...
back on 178 - kern river valley
to Bodfish (GHOST TOWN)
178 - TRONA lots of pics... mecca of dead pan
big salt mining town mid. of nowhere...uber weird
178 ---> Death Valley
2 lane HWY NO ONE on perfect
IPOD PLAYING... Willie...
3/12/08 (NIGHT) - 3/13/08 (DAY 03)
Met some kid @ the saloon in Stovepipe Wells last night:
greyhound'n it to Death Valley/sleeping
under the stars... bought me a whiskey and got me high...(nice)
Slept in the car...1st night/try...
not too bad... the curtains completely
block out the light & vice versa...listened
to the ipod...nice...if i wasnt so stoned,
would have been great... drove from stovepipe
through Death Val. Amazing, beautiful!
drove to Death Valley Junction / Amargosa
opera house, then around to Beatty through Goldfield,
beer @ the Sourdough, then the 95 past shady random brothels to the
6 empty long beaut HWY to the
375 AKA Extraterrestrial HWY to Rachel
375 AMAZING only saw 1 car
little bar/resto in Rachel funny all about
Aliens / Area 51, had a beer/ coffee and
bought corny a mug. 375 - 93 -
93 - through the Great Basin into
the night up to 7K+ alt. pitch black
arrived in ELY, 10PM @ Motel 6
had to... need a shower
going to run out of $...
3/14/08 DAY 4- ELY - BURLEY ID
Drove the 50 "America's loneliest HWY" to Eureka
F'n beautiful huge valley man!
cuts through 2 or so ranges and across 2 valleys
then the 278 up to ___________ ANOTHER
beautiful HWY goes str8 up a valley
between 2 ranges
then the 80 (had to take this I-HWY in order to get to 233)
8 through a snow storm
to the 233, Amazing
again NE NV, huge plains w/ mountains
in the back drop then that turned into
the 30 in UT same thing but Salt Lake
below off in the SE distance w/ clouds...
jesus...saw so much cattle (3 Dead
cows) and elk/deer (2 dead) man
America is what these HWY's are about...
Vast, Awe, huge scapes... too bad
everyone can't see it... (EXPAND) now
in another motel in Burley ID, Shit snow might
have to scratch the whole thing and just
jam to corny's and finish it on the way
back (better weather...)
