I was just doing maintenance on my website and realized I haven’t posted anything in forever. The winter is a hard time for me as it is harder work harder driving and less opportunity to take pictures and less motivation to write. I’ll try to catch you up. I have been driving all over the western us dodging storms and sometimes driving in horrible conditions. The last couple of months have been hectic. I took a fairly long time off over Christmas and then weather kept me out for a bit longer. Winter and the cold weather make it hard to get enthusiastic about taking pictures and writing. Most days the best I could manage is get up and work. I did manage to take a few pictures since I started back after the first of the year.  They may seem a little random but I have been traveling around the west and snapping when I see something that catches my eye. I spent most of the last few weeks working in the southwest where I find more inspiration.

This is where the year started, in a major snow storm.
Eastern WA
The 10 minutes of sun I saw this week.
Eastern WA the evening before a storm.
Eastern WA the next morning storm arriving.
On my way to TX stuck at base of Raton Pass, 8″ of snow.
From 8″ snow to 70 degrees.

On my next trip out I spent most of my time in the desert southwest one of my favorite areas to travel in. I made a number of loads from copper mines to various plants that turn copper into products. I really like hauling copper it is easy to deal with and great people both at the shippers and receivers. The geology around mines is fantastic. The copper sheets I was carrying are called cathodes and they are created by electrolysis. The have an amazing texture and are really cool to look at.

Area near copper mine.
Malacite, copper ore.
Surface of cathode.
Edge of a stack of copper.
My “sunny” vacation day in Eloy, AZ.
Morning after the storm. Eloy, Az
New Mexico sunrise.