Jessica Cyders Archives

July 31, 2013

Cold Showers and Sunsets

If travel wasn’t interesting, it wouldn’t be fun. Keep in mind, though, that the phrase “May you have an interesting life” is both a blessing and a curse.

I mentioned yesterday that I had a blast in Athens, but all good times have to come to an end. I waved goodbye to Curator Jessica at the Athens Museum around 7 p.m., which put me right on my planned departure time of 4 p.m., as calculated in Steinhoff Standard Time.

Heading west into the setting sun can be a bit challenging at times, but it finally gave up someplace about 80 miles from my starting point. When it decided to go to sleep, it went quickly.

No No-Smoking, no sale

I had hoped to get as far as Cincinnati, so I started looking for lodging in the Florence, Ky., area, west of there. The first place I checked had only one room available and it was a smoker. No sale.

The second wanted $101. The third was even more proud of its rooms: that chain wanted $139. I didn’t have Friend Anne along this trip, so I couldn’t even pull the old “we’re newlyweds who have had a spat and need separate rooms at a discount to save our marriage” argument.

Just as I was resigned to heading west another hour or so to get to the cheap seats, I spotted a [Name withheld] Motel. It had an older look and the parking lot was filled with at least two dozen 18-wheelers, most of them car haulers. The lobby was a bit smoky. One of the guys behind the front desk sported a fair array of jailhouse tattoos. I hope that’s what they were, because if they weren’t, he overpaid the “artist.”

“How much for a non-smoking room for one person for one night?”

“$53.96.”

Is it clean?

I can overlook a lot for the difference between $139 and $53.96. “Is it clean?”

“Yep.” (I wasn’t exactly sure his standards and mine were anywhere close, but I handed over my plastic and was awarded Room 251.)

It wasn’t bad. It had extension cords running all over the place to provide enough outlets for modern travelers, but I’d rather have that than no power. The Wi-Fi was fast enough and didn’t require a password. The AC sounded like a jet taking off every time the compressor kicked in, but it did put out cool air. The bed was great.

I set the alarm for 9:45 and slept like a log. I got up, checked my mail and figured I had just enough time to jump in the shower, pack up and be out by the 11 a.m. checkout deadline.

Tub had funky uni-knob

I turned the water on in the tub. It had one of those uni-knobs where you don’t know what the setting is, so I turned it full left and got cold water. I turned it full right and got cold water. I turned on both taps in the sink and got cold water. I was beginning to detect a pattern. I called the front desk. “Does this place not have hot water or does it just take a long time to get to 251?” I asked in what I hoped was a pleasant tone.

“It’s broken,” a harried female voice said, “We have someone on the way to fix it.”

When I got to the lobby, all the trucks had pulled out and there was a zoom of motorcycle riders getting ready to leave. The woman I supposed attached to the earlier harried voice was talking with some guests who were checking out. (She must have gone to the same tattoo artist as the night guy, by the way.) I overheard her saying to a coworker, “I’m not going to have anything in my drawer by the end of the morning.”

“I guess I’m not going to make your day any better,” I said. “The last time I stayed in a hotel without hot water was in 1958. What can we do to make it right?”

“I can knock $20 off,” she said.

“Look, I’m not looking for a free room. I slept very well last night. On the other hand, I’m going to have to smell myself for another six hours. How about we split the cost of the room?”

She agreed, so I got a good night’s sleep for $28.96 instead of $139 at a fancy joint. I don’t think I’ll be going back again, though.

Rain slowed me down

When I called Mother to tell her I was rolling west this morning, she warned me that I was going to run into a bunch of rain. I paused to put on a fresh coat of Rain-X on the windshield.

Traffic was light and running smoothly for the most part. My Waffle House breakfast had scarcely settled before the first splatters of rain showed up. The splatters put their hands together and turned into heavy rain. Fortunately, that didn’t last too long. The next three or four hours were just light, steady rain.

Rain at the rest stop snagged me

It wasn’t the rainfall while driving that slowed me down. It was the rainfall when I stopped to take a short nap at an Illinois rest area. I’ve written about how I usually set my alarm for 22 minutes, then wake up refreshed enough to log another three or four hours.

This afternoon I decided I wasn’t THAT sleepy, so I set it for 17 minutes and dozed off to the sound of the rain pounding softly on the roof above me. When the alarm went off, I liked the sound well enough to tack on another 12 minutes.

Twice.

If I hadn’t needed to get moving, I think I could have dozed to that for hours.

So, I’m back in Cape for a few days. I’m afraid to turn on the hot water tap.

July 30, 2013July 30, 2013

The Downard Sisters

I spent a most enjoyable day playing historic sleuth and running all over southern Ohio with Curator Jessica looking for (and finding) something I’ll write about when I don’t have white-line fever. I got a late start (what’s new?) and only made it just west of Covington, Ky.

I’ll tease you a bit with a quote: “I knew my grandfather about as well as any of his grandkids: I knew where he hid his whiskey.” When somebody tells you that over the phone, you HAVE to track him down.

One side trip was to the Athens Cemetery on West Union Street. Jessica challenged one of my ancient photos as not having been taken there. I, of course, had to prove I was right.

Erin and Jamie

While there, she took me to one of her favorite grave markers: one for two sisters, Erin Michelle and Jamie Leigh Downard. Erin was born in 1982 and died in April 1989. Her sister was born in 1984 and died in January 1989.

How did they die?

You have to wonder why two young sisters would be taken so close to each other. Was it a car accident? An illness? I guess that’s another one of those things I’ll have to look up the next time I get to Athens.

A sense of whimsy

This marker is unique, but not as heart-rending as the Downard sculpture. I’d love to hear the story behind the license tag etched on Kay Anne Blackburn’s stone.

July 27, 2013

Altenburg Full Moon

I spent the day roaming around in small coal mining towns I last saw in the early 1970s. It’s funny how I would catch a glimpse of the side of a building and recognize it immediately, then pass through a whole town without a flicker

Athens Historical Society Museum curator Jessica Cyders and I met with some members of the Little Cities of Black Diamonds to see what mutual interests we might have. I photographed the architecture in town of Shawnee in 1969 for an independent study course. It felt good to see so many buildings still standing. Some are a bit wobbly, but I don’t stand so straight these days, either.

Lutheran Heritage Center

The photo above isn’t from Shawnee. It is the Lutheran Heritage Center and Museum in Altenburg taken under the full moon. I described all kinds of technical machinations for shooting Tower Rock the other night. This is decidedly low-tech. I shot it out my car window. The shutter speed was slow enough that I had to turn off the motor to get it anywhere near sharp.

The moon provided some nice backlighting, but the right side of the building was a trifle dark. I moved car slightly so the headlights hit it. It would have been a little more evenly lit if I had aimed the car a little more to the left. I used that technique when I was doing a story on an old homeless guy who sold pencils on the street. I spotted him asleep on a dark park bench. Once I got the angle I wanted, I radioed another photographer to drive over and light him up.

Trinity Lutheran Church

I was was headed to drop Gerard Fiehler off at his house when we decided to see how the moon looked on the Trinity Lutheran Church. I thought a street light made the building look ugly and was turning around when I shot the photo of the center. While I was doing that, Gerard got out of the car to see if he could find an angle where we could get the moon without seeing the street light.

His diligence paid off. It’s not a great shot, but it’s pretty good for a situation I was going to blow off.

April 17, 2013April 18, 2013

Drops of Rain

I had four situations on a roll of film: the St. Charles Hotel, the Indpendence traffic jam, the actual assignment (I’ll publish it later) and this random shot of rain drops.

I probably shot the assignment at the airport, then cruised around looking for stuff to burn up the rest of the roll.

There were four frames of the raindrops, but I like this one with a drop making its escape at the bottom the best.

The key to shooting something like this is to shoot so that only the important part of the photo is sharp. I probably used a 105mm or 200mm telephoto set at a wide aperture so there would be very little depth of field – in other words only a little of the frame would be sharp.

Through a screen fuzzily

This looks like it was shot though the screen on our side porch. It’s interesting, but not interesting enough that I was going to spend much time spotting out some ugly scratches at the bottom.

Nikon D7000

I got a box in the mail Tuesday with a shiny Nikon D7000 in it. I mentioned that my Nikon D3100 started hiccuping on my way back from Cape in March. I thought it might have gotten a bit sticky from experiencing cold weather. It turned out that a piece had been rattling around for almost a year after I crashed on my bike. It’s been out of service for a couple of weeks and a couple of hundred bucks.

(By the way, if you are interested in buying those cameras, click on the links and I’ll get a piece of the action to help pay for MY camera. Also BTW, the first link to the Nikon D7000 is for a body by itself. If you want the basic Nikkor 18-55mm lens with it, you’d go here.)

It dawned on me that had it crapped out at the beginning of the trip instead of the end, I’d have been in a lot of trouble. That gave me an excuse to buy a second, much improved camera body. That will also mean I don’t have to switch lenses when I use the 55-200mm lens birthday present the boys bought me.

The only thing is that I’ve had it almost 12 hours and I haven’t had the nerve to so much as put the camera strap on it. The operating manual is about as thick as War and Peace and just about as easy to understand as the Russian language version of the book.

I long for the days when I could eyeball the exposure, focus on what was important and change the shutter speeds and f/stops by feel. The camera shouldn’t be smarter than the photographer.

Wow, half a century

I was talking with the Athens County Historical Society Museum curator Jessica Cyders this morning. She was putting together a bio for an upcoming exhibit and wanted to know when I got into the newspaper business. “April 17 – HEY! That’s today – 1963. I was 16 and didn’t even have my driver’s license when my first picture appeared on the front page of The Missourian.” Today would have been my Dad’s birthday, too. He would have been 96, which puts him on the verge of being old.”