It's time to wrap up last weekend's Austin trip and start lookin' forward to next year's photographer get-together 2.0.  To close out this year's edition, though, here's a few images from the drive home.  I love road trip photography.  I might even go so far as to say it's my favorite thing to do with a camera.  And unlike a couple years ago where I had to call up a buddy to navigate me back home when I got lost driving around out in the country side in the county I grew up in (I hadn't been back in a while, so cut me some slack, would ya?), now with a GPS in my phone I've got free rein to go anywhere without worrying weather I can find my way back to civilization... assuming I have enough gas to get there. The only thing I have to worry about with roadtrip these days is getting arrested for trespassing.  And lemme tell ya, there was a whole heck of a lot of it goin' on in these images.  My thing is, it's not like I'm stealing or vandalizing anything, and if the owners were around I would (well, might) ask permission, but considering they weren't and that this might be the last time I ever drive by these places, I felt the risk was justified.  Take for example these first two images. I was on a lonely old dead end country road, the land was surrounded by a 4ft barb wire fence, and there was not a soul in sight.  What wold you do?  I agree.  And I, too, decided to scale said fence to walk the property and get these two photos.  Some might say I was trespassing.  I prefer to think of it as "visually preserving American history".  In fact, when you (I) say it that way, it sounds like what I'm doing is not only justfiable, but noble and critical to preserving our heritage.  [somebody gimme a shovel... this pile's gettin' deep.]

Somewhere around Waxahachie, TX, I struck vintage automotive gold.  I saw a couple restored cars out front and naturally exited the highway and looped back around on the service road to take a few photos.  So far so good. I fired off a few shots of the red and yellow cars below...

... and then I began to whistle and inconspicuosly climb the 3ft padlocked gate to see what was behind the building of this vintage car slavation/restoration business.  Jackpot.  There was a plethera of old gas station equipment, signs, automotive parts.

I walked a little further and hit the motherload.  Way out back, hidden by a rusty old aluminum fence and some trees was a pasture of vintage automotive corpses... a final resting place for icons of American history.

I was a kid in a candy store, and I coulda stayed for a couple of hours if I wasn't providing lunch for the local chigger nation in my flip flops and shorts.  I got mauled... again.  But those few minutes were worth it.

Finally, this was closer to home back in Dallas just around the corner from the house.