The Photography of Dr. Jeffrey P. Harper

In May of 2024 my wife and I joined a group of her friends on a golf junket to Japan.  A van/bus was rented and we drove, over several days and several overnight stop-overs, from Tokyo to near Nagoya - and back to Tokyo.  We had lots of fun and saw a lot of amazing things . . . and ate a lot of great Japanese food . . . lots of it! While the group played golf I set off to explore the surrounding area with my camera.  This entry, unlike others here, is not a chronological account of the whole trip, but "only" a collection of favorite images.

At a tourist trap bathroom stop I took this amazing photo of Mt. Fuji with late spring colors in the foreground.  Magical.

I spent one morning with a Japanese man, another "golf widow," exploring the temples we found on GoogleMaps.  Fantastic beauty. . .

Fantastical Japanese artistic expression.

A trip highlight was a frightening ride up a steep mountain on a cable-car.  The view was astounding!

Transportation options around an ancient royal Japanese temple complex.

Japanese use of color and aesthetics are impressive.

Japanese sense of humor . . . or?  "Marriage Rocks."

I was a bit embarrassed when out tour leader booked a dockside viewing of traditional woman pearl divers.  They seemed like they were just awakened from their naps and driven down to the port to perform for us.  It was interesting.

We stopped to marvel at a 19th century Japanese businessman's house. Beautiful.

Astoundingly beautiful temples at every turn.

Japanese woodworking skill on display . . . love this.

We visited many, many shrines . . . each different in special ways.

A seaside shrine with monks.

Japanese traditional temple aesthetic.

The Japanese love of Nature is evident everywhere.

Springtime in Japan means . . . FLOWERS!

We visited a famous Begonia garden.  Fantastic!

Springtime in Japan . . . many different flowers everywhere.

A field of bluebells.

Seen in a museum waiting room.

Gorgeous natural views . . . 

We stayed in hotels with great views throughout the week.

Another great hotel room window view.

Fantastic beauty . . . and craftsmanship.

Big straw knot.

Inner room of a Japanese temple.

Pagoda viewpoint . . . er . . . coastal city view.

Too many steps for me!  I didn't go up.

Small Japanese town urban environment.  

Sweet waterfall at a temple.

Small temple shrine.

We stopped at a small town along the way and discovered a covered walking street.

Small town sweet shop.

The Japanese lead the world in amazing, and beautiful packaging.

Busking with your monkey at the pagoda view point.

Japan is known for its beautiful gardens . . . 

 . . .  so many beautiful Japanese gardens!

I just love these contrasting textures and shapes.  Japan!

A sacred temple.

An ancient village restored for tourist enjoyment and appreciation.

Japanese tourists enjoying a tour through their cultural heritage.

Packaged and ready to ship.

My lunch, carefully selected from the corn dog family of fine and delicious deep fried foods. Japan!

I left Japan with wonderful memories and a ton of images . . . many more than I could post here.  I know I will go back to Japan.  It is a fascinating country try.

During the summer of 2023 I visited my daughter and her family on her forest farm in southwestern Maine from my home in Bangkok, Thailand.  It was wonderful to be in the cool, fresh air of the northeast USA.  My good Bangkok friend John has a cabin up the coast near the Canadian boarder.  We planned, while still in Thailand, to take a road trip from his cabin up through the Canadian Maritimes, a region neither of us had been.   We took only the very small farm roads from the southwest to the northern coast.  Along these wonderful New England roads I saw the most amazing old houses and farms.

An old Maine feed store. I love these old places with the weathered surfaces.

My friend John's cabin sits in deep primordial forest a stones throw from the Atlantic ocean.

John's magical forest.

John's land had so many different kinds of mosses and lichens.  Astonishing beauty.

A short walk through a state park lead to this rocky shore.  Fantastic!

We spent hours clamoring around and over these huge stones.

A wild and wonderful natural seashore.

The cabin is not that far from Milbridge, Maine.  We drove around the area visiting interesting places and scenes.  This collection of buoys and floats was interesting.

A lovely rural farmhouse near Milbridge, Maine.

Milbridge, Maine sits aside the Narraguagus River estuary.

Milbridge Bay is as idyllic a Maine scene as you can get.

A panorama of the view dockside at the community bandstand . . . where we would join the community for a nostalgia rock band concert.

Milbridge, Maine has a public community garden; if you put in time and labor then you can take flowers and vegetables out of it.  I love it.

John and I decided on a general route.  I made a couple online cheap motel/dorm bookings (it was the tourist busy season), and we saw a couple of "points of interest" on the GoogleMaps that we used to point us in a general direction.  Lighthouses seemed the common denominator.

Early one morning we loaded our stuff up and headed up the highway to see what we could see . . . and photograph, of course.  We more-or-less hugged the beautiful Maine coast, discovering these quaint fishing ports.

The West Quoddy Head Lighthouse was one of our first destinations.  We were not disappointed.

West Quoddy Head is the easternmost point in the contiguous United States.  Now you know.  It is also the point closest to the African continent in the United States.  Interesting.

We crossed over into New Brunswick, Canada near the small town of St. Stephen with it's lovely old church.

St. Stephen sits on the Saint Croix River directly across from Calais, Maine, USA.  Both of these towns were major industrial centers in the last century, due to their access to the Atlantic Ocean and short sailing to England and Europe. Evidence of their past manufacturing glory can still be seen, as in this old river power generating station and adjacent mills.

A commemorative riverside statue recognizing the mill workers in the factories of Calais and St. Stephen.

A beautiful street mural in St. Stephen with a view across the Saint Croix River to Calais, Maine.

Calias, Maine from across the Saint Croix River.

At one time St. Stephen rivaled Hershey, Pennsylvania as the largest chocolate manufacturer in North America, but eventually lost out.  In 2000, St. Stephen was given the title of "Canada's Chocolate Town." Who knew?  We did not tour the Chocolate Museum, but we did hit the gift shop for some tasty (and expensive) chocolate.

A short walk off of the downtown Main Street found us in neighborhoods of old "carpenter Gothic" Victorian houses, testament to the wealth this town once had.

We let GoogleMaps guide us to a very beautiful spot after an off limits nuclear power plant road thwarted our attempts to get to another lighthouse.  This is Dipper Harbour, New Brunswick near sunset.

A Dipper Harbour fishing boat.

Visually fascinating woven old tires for boat pier rub-rails at Dipper Harbour.

Dipper Harbour sunset.

A final Dipper Harbour sunset photo before returning to our little motel cabin.

A lovely seaside home on the back roads to St. John.

We moved on . . . to where the street photography in St. John, Newfoundland was very rewarding.

Lovely old row houses in St. John.

I am a big fan of old doors . . . . 

There were some lovely tree-lined lanes in St. John.

Classic red brick wall with old faded painted signage.

In addition to the red brick row houses, downtown St. John had some lovely old carpenter Gothic grand homes.

The St. John City Market (est. 1855) was one of the highlights of our visit there.  Did I buy a St. John t-shirt here?  You bet I did!

Not all of St. John is quaint and charming.

The downtown St. John cross streets all lead down a steep hill to the Bay of Funday.

We continued along the coast of the Bay of Funday in search of more photogenic lighthouses.  We followed the maps to Cape Enrage Lighthouse, New Brunswick, out on a promontory.  We paid an entrance fee only to then discover that access to the lighthouse was closed due to high winds.  Oh well.  This is as close as I got to use a long lens.

A fishing port along the road.  This shows just how big the tidal differences are in the Bay of Funday.  

The drive along the Newfoundland coast was fantastically beautiful.

The Hopewell Rocks on the Bay of Funday are described as a "must see" attraction in Newfoundland.  Indeed it was an extraordinary scene.  It was also a must see for several thousand other tourists on the day we were there.  We had to wait quite a while for our turn to access the photo vantage point.  Worth it . . . but very crowded.

The truly marvelous Hopewell Rocks.  We marveled.

No matter where in the world you go there will always be that one roadside house with the yard full of "collectables." Everywhere!  Newfoundland roadside wonders.

After having dinner in a nice restaurant in Moncton, we drove on and spent the night in a dorm room at a technical college in Springhill, Nova Scotia.  I must have been pretty tired because I didn't take any photos at these stops.  The next morning we ate in the college cafeteria before we drove in to Halifax, Nova Scotia for a walkabout.  I parked the truck in front of a cemetery across from a park, and fed the meter.

We found this headstone humorous: like what else would you find under there?

The Halifax city park was in full bloom!

The Halifax waterfront is beautifully developed.

The Halifax quay side display of old Canadian Navy ships was interesting.

There were many displays of public art in Halifax.  I loved this sailor statue (reminded me of my Uncle Ernie!).

Old downtown Halifax was clean and neat.

Our next stop was across Nova Scotia at the historic town of Fort Anne . . . the birthplace of Canada, settled in 1629.

The old fashioned interior of the Fort Anne Cafe was very sweet.

Fort Anne is, of course, a major tourist destination for Canadians.  

Beautiful old colonial architecture abounds in Fort Anne.

A rainbow crosswalk in Fort Anne, Nova Scotia.

A typical old house in Fort Anne.

Restored harbour light house at Fort Anne.

At the end of a long day, we caught the East Ferry to Long Island, Nova Scotia, then on to Brier Island.  This is a very remote place in Canada!

The view from the East Ferry along the rugged coast of Long Island, Nova Scotia.

Brier Island is on the far Northwestern tip of Nova Scotia and takes two ferry trips to get there.  It is an old fishing/whaling area full of delightful old cedar-sided dock houses.

Beached lobster boats, Brier Island, Nova Scotia.

Such a beautiful and moody place . . .  and very photogenic.  Brier Island.  We caught the big drive-on ferry across the Bay of Funday from Digby, Nova Scotia back to St. John, Newfoundland before driving back to John's cabin in Milbridge, Maine.  I don't know why I do not have photos of the 3-hour big ferry trip, oh well.

After returning to John's cabin in Milbridge, Maine, we took to the small roads to explore some of the small towns nearby.  Cherryfield, Maine, ironically known as the "Blueberry Capital of the World" was the perfect New England picturesque village.

We had good coffee and cakes at this sweet Cherryfield riveride café.

A beautiful old turreted Victorian home in Cherryfield.

Like a lot of small villages in New England, Cherryfield had its share of antique shops.

Nice yard art in Cherryfield.

Caddywampus old store in Cherryfield.  Looks like it was just moved there and puton a new foundation  . . . . unsuccessfully.

What you always hope you will find on a road trip: the perfect roadside diner . . . .

 . . . with the perfect lemon meringue pie!

One of the highlights of my visit was attending the Milbridge Days parade and lobster feed at the firehouse.

Milbridge, Maine is more multicultural than you might expect.  This was nice to see.

As Milbridge is a lobstering village, the parade had a lobster theme.  Sweet.

Oh! To be a lobster in the town parade! Memories are made of this!

I love a parade.  Yes, the Shriners showed up with their "street boats."

The highlight of the day was the lobster and mussel feed in the firehouse. 

John and I had a great time rambling around Maine and the Canadian Maritimes for a week.  Thanks John.

The unforgettable beauty of the Maine coast.

The Minburi Market is actually a collection of three very large open markets in the northern suburb of Bangkok.  My friend John and I drove there from his house.

My photographer friend, John and I love to skulk the old back alleys in and around the Minburi Market for textures and patterns.

I'm always rewarded here with finding one of my favorite photographic subjects: aged and rusting corrugation.

Pealing paint, rust, dilapidated corrugation . . . all the things I love to photograph.

This old neighborhood is just outside the actual Minburi Market wet market area . . . on the way from where we parked.  

Narrow elevated walkways suspended above a flooded field. So much to see.

Patterns on top of patterns on top of dilapidation covered by corrugation.  It doesn't get any better!!!

What the heck?  It seems we stumbled upon a Thai movie set.  The authenticity of this sold 1940s neighborhood played perfectly into a setting of wartime Japanese occupation.

A perfect period setting for a WWII movie.  At this point a young production assistant came over and said we would have to leave the set and not to take any photos.  Oops! Too late!

If you look closely you see many small details that reflect the spiritual interests of the people living in these old neighborhoods.  These votive items seem to have been there for a very long time and have acquired a patina of age.

A rudimentary, and seemingly abandoned, spirit house platform and beer offering.

We walked into the old wet market and discovered it abandoned for the day.  Very interesting to be in here with nobody around.

We walked over a bridge to get to the markets and saw this image:  a solar-powered khlong boat  "bus" and the new Pink Line Sky Train.

The Minburi Market is framed by several canals (khlongs). This boatman is waiting for a fare.

Life along the Minburi Khlong.

An old canal rice barge tied along the Khlong.  A lovely scene.

Shed houses on stilts in the canal . . . so fascinating.

Idyllic Thai canal life.

It was a very, very hot afternoon, so we walked quickly through several markets in search of the air-conditioned coffee shop. I have many entries elsewhere on this blog inside the wonderful Thai markets.

We did stop now and again when an amazing image presented itself.  Fresh fish with accouterments.

Marvelous patterns everywhere.

After a pleasant day spent in the Minburi Market, I took the recently opened Pink Line Sly Train home.

I saw this in my feed online and thought it might be interesting to go to the Bangkok Chinatown for Chinese New Year.  I had never been to Chinatown on Chinese New Years in all my years in Bangkok . . . plus, the Bangkok Chinatown is the largest Chinatown outside of China.  I took the Bangkok underground and popped out . . . 

[This trip was also an opportunity to test my new camera, the Fuji X-T5, in a variety of challenging lighting conditions: bright sunlight, deep shadow, and night street photography.  The X-T5 takes 40mp photos, but are posted here in only 850px on the long edge. You be the judge . . . but I am very happy with the results!]

 . . . I popped out a few blocks from the center of Chinatown . . . in the middle of a huge crowd.  It seems that I was not the only one with the idea.

Part of the crowd was congregating around this Chinese Temple.  We found out that one of the Thai Royal Family was due to arrive there soon to pay respects.  It was a big day in the Bangkok Chinatown.

I was hot and thirsty so I bought a pomegranate juice and was happy.

We cut through an alley to get to the center of the action.  The whole highly decorated area was a crush of people, many of whom were foreign tourists.

The many small Chinese temples were busy with devotees leaving alms and donations and being blessed by the monks.

Every imaginable kind of 'altar toy' was for sale in gold and red.  Fantastic!

This good natured monk seemed to enjoy giving water blessings to whomever stopped and donated.

We explpored deep down the beautifully decorated side streets of Bangkok's Chinatown.

Chinese New Year is a traditional time for fruit purchasing, apparently.

These ice blocks sitting in an alley looked inviting . . . as a shortcut over to the next street . . . and as a way of avoiding the crushing crowds.

Chinatown alleys always offer up surprise images, like this very old small industry.

Spotted amid the complex patterns of the alley was some kind of temple . . . let's explore . . .

Looking inside, we found this marvelous Chinese Buddhist Temple.  Serendipity!

The temple inner altar was fantastically decorated.

The inner temple altar in all its phantasmagoria!

Incense pot . . . 

The main altar displayed the pantheon of Chinese spiritual deities and revered monks behind glass.

The opportunities for amazing photos were endless here . . . I took many more excellent photos in there than I have posted here . . . perhaps I need an entry just for this marvelous place.

These were very low light (and smoky) conditions for photography . . . such beauty everywhere!

There were several small "side altars" around the inner chamber.

We spent quite a abit of time inside the Chinese Temple . . . and could have spent a whole day documenting this old, photogenic, spiritual space . . . but we left for the alley again and onward to the New Year celebrations about to happen.

Back out in the small alley . . . it is fun to explore for images here.

Many visual wonders to see along the alley walls . . . 

We popped out on the very crowded main street leading to the performance stage . . .

Moments before the street was finally closed to auto traffic . . . and vendors and 'selfie' takers took over.

Four local ladies all dressed up for a night of celebration.

Plenty of goodies to eat . . . healthy and otherwise!

As evening approached the crowd migrated toward a "main stage" for the nighttime events.

It became almost impossible to get to the intersection where the stage was set . . . but we somehow pushed our way through.

Revellers found time to pose with traditionally dressed street photo hawkers.

We finally made it to an area behind the stage where the handlers of the dragon were waiting to do their dragon dance down the crowded avenue.

The dragon head . . . staged and ready.

We roamed the side streets looking for interesting images to capture with our cameras.  We are never disappointed in Bangkok Chinatown for photogenic scenes.

A beautiful Chinatown scene . . . 

These small side street restaurants would become full after the street celebrations later in the evening.

The crows were becoming a crush on the main avenue . . . 

The anticipation was just killing him!!!!

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Night Arrives!

Night arrived at last . . . and we wriggled our way through this crowd to an area behind the stage where the performers were getting ready for the show.

Fantastic costumes everywhere back stage. . . .

A photographer's dream!

A wonderful array of traditional costumes.

The backstage area almost warranted its own blog entry.

New Years' revellers taking a load off their tired feet . . . and checking their phones for vital communication.

The backstage entrance light tunnel was popular.

There was no way to get close to the Dragon when it made its way out into the crowd . . . too many iPhone photographers!!!

I did manage this shot of the departing Dragon by holding my camera over my head.  Amazing.

After the dragon departed we decided it was time to beat the crowds back to the underground station, and headed out . . . but still with camera in hand for the fantastic night images.

Yes, we "fought" our way back through this crowd . . . but people were good and generous with our passage.

A beautiful array of lighting above . . .

The street food vendors were doing a brisk business after dark.  Here rice-cooked-in-bamboo . . . delicious!

People were out for a nice meal on the Chinatown streets tonight.

Long lines at this stall . . . it must have been good and tasty.

Preparing Northern Thailand spicy sausage . . . yum-yum!

We left the crowded main celebration avenue and walked along a parallel street . . . there was no shortage of photographically interesting things along this route.

A Thai Buddhist temple (Wat) lit up.

"Why not keep the shop open a little later tonight . . . maybe make some extra sales, what with the big crowds and all."

Why not set up a couple of card tables for those treasures you have for sale?

A real jumble sale.  This one was very sad to see . . . someone was very poor.  I looked for the seller, but could find nobody. I left 100 baht (US$3.oo) on the table as a donation.

This night busker had it all . . . even his own light show!

This Buddhist votive statuary shopkeeper had a brilliant way of lureing customers into their shop . . .  and it worked:

I bought the Ji Gong effigy (far right, top, third from right) for my collection.

At last, a shortcut back to the MRT underground station.

Then onto a crowded MRT underground train home. [This is the ONLY person on the train NOT wearing a mask . . . an American, of course!]

I have so many wonderful memories from that evening spent among the thousands celebrating Chinese New Year in Bangkok's Chinatown.  It was a visual extravaganza . . . and a photographers dream!

My big USA road trip took me on the small roads from Oregon south across the Nevada border and into the town of Winnemucca, where I washed clothes, showered, and cleaned out my camper at an RV park next to a casino.

Heading out on gravel and sand Nevada Highway 49 out of Winnemucca across dried lake beds and desolate desert landscapes.  My kind of place.

Ready for anything that comes my way in my brother's trusty 4X4 Chevy camper (now sold).

Nevada Highway 49 swerves across several alkaloid flats on the way out to the Black Rock Desert.

Wild country . . . with wild horses still running free.

The Allied Nevada Hycroft Gold Mine is along Nevada Highway 49 . . .  a very large mining operation.

The gold mine moved a lot of dirt around . . . they stripped the face off of quite a few hills to be able to see the color of the rock and sand beneath.  Huge scars.

Highway 49 passes through some truly amazing desert.  This volcanic spine was marvelous . . .

Here and there along the road were rock outcroppings in fantastic shapes.  Unfortunately, the sky was still full of smoke from the many wildfires out West that summer . . . making photography very difficult.

The desert.

Driving on these sand and gravel desert roads means you are always on the lookout for bumps and ditches . . . and occasionally scanning the horizon for something interesting . . . like an abandoned homestead.  I spotted this one off in the distance and drove out to in on a two track trail.  I always respect "Private Property" and "Keep Out" signs . . . but this place had no such signage.  I went in.

What was life like living out in this remote place?

These old abandoned desert homesteads offer great photo opportunities.

They used some very large wooden beams to construct these buildings.  Looks like something salvaged out of old mines.

The textures! WOW!  One of my favorite photographic subjects: weathered wood.

I spent quite a long time exploring this visually interesting place.

Stunning arrangements everywhere . . . just waiting for printing and framing.

I guess they decided NOT to bring the good chair along with them when they left.

Lovely light, shadow, and shape.

There were several houses on this site.  I imagined that there must have been a place name . . . a "town" name at one time, but I could find no mention of this site on any online maps I could find.

This house was larger than the rest of the cabins.  There was a mine opening on the hill above.

A piece of rusting mining machinery. I do not know what this could have been used for . . . sorting and separating something, I suppose.

The 'Big House' . . . looks like it had fibreboard and tarpaper covering at one time.

I poked my nose into the Big House . . . .

 . . . and the view from the inside of the 'main house'.  It was a mess . . . perhaps whoever had lived here left in a hurry . . . .

I walked down the hill to another abandoned old wood cabin.

Another house made of these very large wooden timber beams.

Fantastic old, dry timbers . . . the textures and patterns!

A picture tells a story . . . 

I had apparently stumbled upon the site of the National Sweatshirt Testing Facility (NSTF).

A perfect 'screen saver' photo . . . 

All I could think was that the flying insects around here must have been pretty big.

Yet another abandoned miners house from a bygone era . . . not all that long ago . . . .

It was early September when I was in northwest Nevada . . . and there is always some fauna that thrives at every time of the year on the desert.

The desert floor around the old mining community was littered with this white quartz . . . I wonder what they were mining for here?  I left the abandoned miner houses and drove back out on Highway 49 . . . to look for a place to set up camp.

This is what I was looking for: a track that led up and away from the road and into the wild desert.  I drove about a mile up this track before I decided that this isn't what I wanted . . . and I do not know why. But I was tempted.

The view to my left as I drove toward the Black Rock Desert was always a sharp escarpment, with ever-changing geology and brush covering.

I stopped here in wonderment!  There seemed to be giant petroglyphs on this volcanic hillside.  What language was this?  Of course, I knew it was just bald spots on an old lava flow . . .

Such an amazing desert mountain landscape . . . but look closely . . .

 . . . but look closer . . . and you see the remnants of an old mine entrance way up on the mountainside.  Astounding!

I drove for an hour alongside this rocky ridge . . . always scanning for something interesting . . .

I stopped and contemplated climbing up to this "dry waterfall ' . . . but it was much further away and much taller than I thought.

The shadows were getting longer and I felt the need to find my camping spot . . .

Long shadows on the desert hills.

In the five days I spent out of Winnemucca on the desert roads, I saw only two other cars . . . I caught up with this truck . . . but turned off before I got too close.

I eventually spotted this little track heading up into a gap in the rocky hills and thought it might be an interesting place to park my camper . . . 

GoogleMaps photo of my campsite . . . . a dream location for me!

I drove up the sandy track and found a flat place to park . . . . the next morning I took this photo of the fine place I found . . . with a grand view of the Black Rock Desert.

Looking away from the Black Rock Desert I had this view . . .

My incredible desert canyon view . . . I wasn't sure which way to point my chair . . . the dry lake or the rocky canyon!!!

My view of the dry lake included an active train line . . . a couple times a day long freight trains would slowly pass below.

My morning Grand View . . . I think I will go for a walk.

One morning I decided to walk down the sandy track and out onto the dry lake bed . . . for exercise . . . and curiosity.

I was happy to see this sign . . . glad the area was being protected.

At some point after I set up my camp, probably while I was staring at the mountainside, somebody rode a horse across my tire tracks on the sandy track.  An interesting walk indeed!

The marvelous morning light made for great photography of the desert flora.

These "desert reeds" was a complexity of beauty.

Wonderful complex patterns out here in "the middle of nowhere" . . .

Looking back up the track to my camper in the canyon.

Walking further, I crossed Nevada State Highway 49 as I approached the wide dry lake bed.

A short stretch of scrub brush with phone poles leading to the little town of Gerlach, Nevada (pop. 107).

 . . . and at last I stepped out onto the amazing surface of the Black Rock Desert.

I love these desert/dry lake bed textures as photographic subjects.  I was not disappointed here!

Such delicately thin wafers of minerals spread out underfoot . . . I tried to avoid stepping on them.

Salt or alkaline crusting . . . I do not know . . . I did not taste it.

Water had pooled here in the not too distant past.

Much of this vast surface had this texture . .  astonishing beauty!

Thin mineral wafers . . . 

I crunched around on these amazing surfaces for quite awhile before turning back to my camper.

I walked back to my camper by way of this little canyon . . . 

 . . . the only wildlife I saw during my five days in the Black Rock Desert . . . one lone bird.  There weren't even any insects.

What I did have in the place of wildlife was geology . . . lots of fascinating geology.

Back at my campsite, settled into my camp chair, I sat enjoying the rest of the day . . . reading, snacking, drinking lots of water . . . and, yes, checking my iPhone for messages . . . as there was very good (4 bars) Internet way out there!

A nice dust storm blew up mid afternoon . . .

 . . . and then a wonderful 'dust devil' blew across the dry lake bed. (Excuse the quality of this photo - a lot of dust in the air at this time).

The sunsets were magnificent!

The colors!!!

"You are in the forest, but you are on the desert."

A morning view out over the dry lake bed of the Black Rock Desert.

As I discovered, my 'lucky' campsite had not been so lucky for a former visitor to the spot.  There was the charred remains of a burned out motorhome not far away.  I left this message for future visitors, "Amor Fati."

I diagnosed the motorhome's problem as an 'overheating problem in the engine.'

After five days my camper batteries had gone down, so I folded up my sun shade and loaded the table, chairs, porta-potty, and BBQ back into the camper and headed back down the hill.  I had had a wonderful and relaxed time just sitting, reading, thinking, wandering around the desert, and enjoying the view.  Perfect.

And then back out on Nevada Highway 49 into Gerlach (pop. 107) . . . and civilization! I stopped in at the only cafe and had a 'real' breakfast and good coffee.  I also stopped in at the Burning Man Main Office to find a harried woman dealing with major complaints of  some of the attendees . . . the Burning Man event was just two weeks before . . . I intervened and counseled peace and understanding.  People calmed down.  My work was done.  I stopped at the little store and bought a large bag of Cheetos and a couple of Coke Zeros for the drive back to Winnemucca.

From Gerlach I headed south on Nevada Highway 447 toward Interstate 80 and then back to Winnemucca.  But I could not resist stopping and getting this photo of REAL AMERICAN FREEDOM! "Turn on, tune in, and drop out" anyone?

Ancient Pyramid Lake and the town of Nixon was my last stop before I entered I-80.  A shower, washing machine, and NFL games in the casino lounge were waiting for me.

A great trip!