Electra, once an oil boomtown,  is one of my many home towns due to my father's different job assignments with the Mobil Oil Company.   I left Electra years ago and no longer have any ties there, but we took this photo after a quick stop on one of our road trips. After all, what's more Americana than a road sign.  We were on our way to Utah and I'm standing on the west side of town as Highway 287 heads toward Vernon, Quanah and eventually Amarillo.  Once the  oil fields  dried up  so did Electra, although the town is still known as the pump jack capital of Texas. Nearby Archer City is where The Last Picture Show was filmed.  So if you saw the movie you know a little about the terrain and people.  Only two members of my graduating class of 43 students still live here probably because as Steve Fromholtz sang in Texas Trilogy, people left for the city, to get a good job.

Another reminder of the past  is the Grand Theater in Electra, where the town's youth did their courting on Saturday night.  It was built in 1919 and was originally used for vaudeville shows and silent movies.  Restored to its former glory, it's a Texas Historical Landmark and one of the few reasons to see this sad old town. 

An abandoned dwelling sets off the road in far West Texas as a storm  approaches.  The wide  vistas and big sky give you plenty of time to get ready for a change in the weather.  Scenes like this are a reminder of how solitary life could be on the Great Plains.

Highway 287 begins in Fort Worth and 338 miles later ends in Amarillo.  This was the home of the fierce Comanches and the huge southern herds of the mighty bison.  There was a time when only a brave, or fool-hearted, Anglo would venture here.  But even so, I'm guessing they enjoyed the beautiful sunsets.

Trees were scarce in parts of early Texas, so many early settlers lived in dugouts.  Some enterprising person found enough stones to build this prairie homestead.  When I see places like this I always wonder what happened to these people?

The  Calera Chapel, near Toyahvale in West Texas  was built in 1902 as Mission Mary. The church was founded by Father Nicolas Brocardus, who immigrated to the United States from the Netherlands in 1892 and moved to the Big Bend area in 1897. As a circuit-riding priest he served communities in the area for many years.  The original stucco building was abandoned for more than 60 years before it was restored to its present appearance.  The chapel is south of Balmorhea with the Davis Mountains in the background. 

This lonely outhouse is set next to the Calera Chapel. These  wildflowers paint a pretty picture and add some fragrance to the scene.  Crescent moons on the doorways were originally used to show the comfort stations were for women, or so the story goes.  Men would look for a sun on the door.

This 1970 Range Rover was parked beside the road in Post, Texas.  Since it was for sale,  I thought I'd take a gander.  This gentleman was also interested.  He said he was a truck driver and was from Russia.  Nice guy but  a long haul from home. 

Northern end of the Santa Fe Trail, at Fort Union, New Mexico.  The old wagon ruts from the wagon trains are still visible.  The elements are slowly wearing away the old adobe walls that once provided sanctuary for travelers and drovers after the long, dangerous journey from Independence, Missouri.

Another view of Fort Union.  Still a week or more to Santa Fe by wagon but the travelers knew they had survived the worst.

Mission Nuestra Señora de Purisma Concepcion is one of the oldest Spanish missions in New Mexico.  It was built between 1627-1633, probably by the Franciscans.  The village's women and children served as conscripted labor.  You can see the ruins in Mountainair,  a few miles from Albuquerque.  We sometimes forget the Spaniards were here building missions years before the Jamestown settlement in Virginia.

Blue sky and white crosses.  Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church, Taos. 

This beautiful door is the entrance to the church of Nuestra Señora de Dolores in Arroyo Hondo, NM.   The Spaniards settled here 1815 and the church was finished in 1823.  A lot of the artistry in the old Spanish churches was the work of Native Americans.

Sorry, another church.  The San Francisco de Asia Mission Church in Taos is much photographed.  I happened to like this window with a row of vigas protruding at the top.  Vigas are the large wooden beams that support the roof and attach to the outer walls. 

Mosque door surrounded by stuccoed walls.  I'm not sure why the rock was there.  Your guess. I love doors.

 We spent one New Year's Eve in Taos with travel friends Ric and Mary. When we awoke the next morning to welcome the new year, the town was covered with a foot of snow.  Undeterred, we decided to brave the elements and visit theTaos Pueblo.  

We trudged through the snow in our rubber boots to visit one of the oldest, continuously inhabited communities in the United States, the Taos Pueblo.   I like the invitation here of a warm fire.  Once inside, you might also be interested in some turquoise jewelry.

Red willows on the high road to Taos.  Interestingly, the Puebloans in Taos are called the Red Willow people, named after Red Willow Creek that flows through the Pueblo. In the Tiwa language, Taos means Place of the Red Willow.

This Penitente Morada, which was originally built in the 1700s and recently restored, is located up a winding dirt road in the village of Abiquiú, New Mexico.  This is a Penitente Brotherhood meeting place and the penitents are serious about maintaining their privacy, hence the no trespassing sign.  The brotherhood, once known for  ritual flagellations,  is a fraternity of lay Catholics.    

La Morada De Don Fernando de Taos, which dates back to 1860, is a less well known Penitente site.   A  Penitente morada, it has fallen on hard times with the decline in the brotherhood's membership.  This site is near Taos and a Spanish Historical Site.  Perhaps funds will be found to keep this treasure, and other moradas like it,  from crumbling into further ruin.

I've spent a lot of time traveling with Kathy and friends in New Mexico so I have many photos from that picturesque state. This is a shop in Arroyo Seco, New Mexico.  I always thought these windows would make a nice painting.

Two pickup trucks at Arroyo Seco, New Mexico.  This scene makes a nice piece of both art and found art.  I think the birds in the upper right corner are a nice touch.

A viga casts a shadow on an adobe wall in Santa Fe.  I like the contrast.  

These pelicans were having a leisurely swim at a bird sanctuary on Padre Island.  It's interesting to be able to get a close look at those long bills of one of my favorite birds.

A change of pace with these interesting creatures.  These anoles love to hang out in my fruitless persimmon tree.  The little red sac is either trying to warn me away or attract a girl friend.  Austin, Texas.

Mexican hat wildflowers in a field near Lampasas, Texas.  The blue in the background is a pond.

Ruby throated hummingbird in my front yard in Austin, Texas.  Most of the hummers I see are of the black chin variety who usually prefer theTurk's cap flowers instead of the feeder.  This one decided to sample the sugar water.

Monument Valley, Utah, was made famous by movies directed by John Ford and starring John Wayne.  It is now the Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park.  If you watch the movie The Searchers, you'll recognize some of these sandstone buttes.

Another view of Monument Valley.  You can get a close look at the formations, but only when accompanied by a Navajo guide.  After all, it is their land.

Near Fredericksburg , TX.  I thought the dead tree, weatherworn shed and rusty vehicle a perfect match.

If you drive the Silverthread Scenic Byway in Colorado and take a short detour,  you'll have an opportunity to see the North Clear Creek Falls.  The creek is in the Rio Grande National Forest and eventually flows into the Rio Grande.  In Texas, we'd call this a river.

This is near Grand Lake in Colorado.  I like the way the forest frames the mountain with the blue background.  Chuck Pyle sang, Colorado, I'm in your shadow.

The young moose is distracted while the mother munches away.  Rocky Mountain National Park.  

The once hidden colors of a slot canyon in Lake Mead.  You can see the high water mark on the walls.  Drought and too much water use is slowly emptying the lake.

The echos of our voices were the only sounds as our little boat slowly moved through the canyons.  If the lake gets too much lower you may be able to walk through here.

I'm standing on Medicine Mountain, ten thousand feet high, in the Bighorn Mountains.  A friend drove us here from Billings, Montana, to see the famous Bighorn Medicine  Wheel, which is behind me.  This was a sacred place for native Americans and if you concentrate you could can feel the ancient spirits as you look out over the plains.  

 I borrowed this photograph and narrative from an article, but the image is the only way to understand the size of the medicine wheel.  Twice a year, parts of the wheel will align with the solstice, although indigenous people only came here in the summer.  Here's the story:  "A mysterious pattern of stones sits at the summit of Medicine Mountain, nearly 10,000 feet above the Bighorn Range in Wyoming. Covered by heavy snows for most of the year, the stone configuration reveals itself and its purpose only in the summer months. The stones are arranged in the shape of a wheel, 80 feet across and with 28 spokes emanating from a central cairn. The cairn, a ring-shaped pile of rocks, is large enough to sit in and is surrounded by six others that lie along the wheel’s circumference.  This configuration is not unique to Wyoming. Rather, hundreds of similar stone wheels exist throughout North America but this is one of the largest."

Lily pads photographed in Wyoming by Kathy Hurt.

Kathy loved to photograph things that I often missed.  This is one of my favorites she took in Wyoming.

Another favorite of mine taken by Kathy. This is a forest recovering from a fire.

Flowers and old logs.  Wyoming photos by Kathy.  Taken in a new growth forest.

Aspen trees.  They look so majestic here.  Taken by Kathy in Wyoming.

Flowers and charred wood. Another nice shot by Kathy.

The Point Bolivar Lighthouse, Texas,  was built in 1872 and its beacon blazed away until the lighthouse was retired in 1933.  It withstood hurricanes in 1900, 1915 and Ike in 2008, just to name a few that have crashed ashore here.  When you arrive from Galveston on the ferry for a Bolivar vacation the lighthouse is always there to greet you.

Haceta Head Lighthouse, Oregon,  was built in 1894.   This was originally part of the traditional land of  the Siuslaw tribe who found the waters a good place to fish. 

Haceta Head State Park.  I like to ponder things and this quite beach was the perfect place. The lighthouse is on a bluff to my right.  In case you can't tell, I love lighthouses.

The Coquille River Lighthouse isn't the tallest but was important to mariners trying to avoid the shifting sandbars in the Coquille River and harbor at Bandon, Oregon.  Originally the lighthouse had a foghorn later replaced with a fog siren.  Louder I guess.

Standing 93 feet, the Yaquina Head lighthouse is the tallest on the Oregon Coast.  Take the time to walk up to the lighthouse and you'll have a wonderful view of the coast.  If you have the time to get off the beaten path, the Oregon coast is lined with these wonderful structures.

The Tillamook Rock Lighthouse was built on a huge slab of basalt.  One of its nicknames is Terrible Tilly.  It was completed in 1880 and closed in 1957.  Tilly was a pretty windy place I'd guess.  It's now privately owned and if you want a good look at it, take binoculars.

Lime Kiln Lighthouse is on the main San Juan Island. It still operates in guiding ships through Haro Strait.  It also houses an orca research center.  The lighthouse is in the distance, but I also liked the fence.

The Columbia River Gorge drive is one of best in the U.S.  Besides the awesome river, which separates Oregon and Washington, there are a number of waterfalls along the way that are easily accessible for photographs. The most popular is Multnomah Falls which plunges 600 feet and is separated by two drops.  The Benson Bridge shown here lets you see both above and below the falls.    

Latourell Falls, Columbia River Valley.  One of the many beautiful waterfalls that are easily accessible off U.S. highway 84.

Sunrise, Edisto Island, South Carolina.  Someday this barrier island will be covered by the rising ocean. The marsh between the island and mainland is home to several large pods of dolphins.

A sunset  at Cannon Beach, Oregon.  The two tiny figures on the beach are daughters Emily and Erin taking a stroll.

Another sunset at Cannon Beach.  Love these colors.

Night blooming cereus, from my backyard, illuminated by a flashlight.

Cedar waxwings, also from my backyard pond in Austin, Texas.

Pelicans at Padre Island.

Overlooking the San Luis Valley in New Mexico.  

Cactus.

Devil's Garden, Utah.

Mary Collins, Ric Spiegel, Kathy and me at the Rocky Mountain National Park.

Lynne Loeffler and Jay West, other long-time friends and traveling companions.  This was at Spider Rock in Canyon de Chelly.

What's more Americana than a Willie Nelson concert.  This was Willie's second July 4 party, 1974, in College Station.

Willie and Jerry Jeff Walker at Willie's second picnic.  Kathy and I, plus friends, sold programs.