I’m possibly the greatest traveler on earth. On June 1, 2006 Trisha and I started on our way to Colorado Springs, Colorado to photograph the wedding of Josh & Jaime. We traveled half way across Arkansas… the entire way across Oklahoma (through the panhandle and Black Mesa State Park). So, driving along we are looking at the atlas and see that since we’ve left Oklahoma and are now in New Mexico we can simply take New Mexico Highway 456 and end up a lot closer to where we want to be. I was wrong. One should never read the map while driving. Highway 456 ran through some of the most beautiful country I’ve seen. Beautiful mesas surrounded us. Mule deer, jack rabbits and a few anteope entertained us on our drive…. until we saw the sign that said “pavement ends” then another that said “17 miles of rough road”. Right there…. we should have turned around and went back where we had already been, but we didn’t. We could not possibly imagine there was 17 miles of gravel road ahead of us. So, we traveled on a little ways further and saw the pavement start again. Here’s the glorious sight of paved highway…
We figured there must have been new highway put in since the signs were put up and we would be good. Another one half mile of pavement and we were back on gravel. Fifteen miles an hour in our car for 17 miles. Seventeen rough, beat you to death, washboard dirt road. It was an hour of togetherness we hadn’t planned on. Eventually we did make it to Colorado Springs (thus the reason we always leave early) and the wedding’s beauty was only outdone by the bride’s beauty.
Here’s a sample of some of my favorite shots. We started earlier in the day at the bride’s house with her getting ready, shot the wedding at New Life Church, spent an hour riding around with the bridal party and playing at a wooded park and then finished the day up at the reception.
It ends up that getting sidetracked only added to the wonderful time we had.
Best wishes to Josh and Jaime.
jb
