OHIO TURNPIKE, OHIO - As the sun rose over Annapolis, the SUV was finally packed: digital cameras, video camera, computers, drills and tools, extension cords, and a few toys for a friend's children in Chicago, the teddy bear way in the back watching the land melt into the distance, all being trucked to the RNC in Minnesota, the land of Garrison Keillor and his Lake Wobegon.
Funny, the truck looked bigger before being loaded, maybe a minivan would have been better....but then again, minivans don't have four wheel drive, and look a little dainty for a road trip into history.
In the heat of the afternoon at a quiet rest stop in the middle of nowhere in Ohio, along the Ohio Turnpike, an elderly African American man in glasses in the parking lot wears a t-shirt with the message "No Drama with Obama." Along the turnpike the scenery speeds by in a blur, fields of corn their green leaves rising up to meet the traveler passing by at 75 mph. Old farms with their aging and broken down barns, the wood breaking free, keeps company with the quaint farm house, laundry hanging from the line, blowing in the breeze, are seen against a stormy Ohio sky, thunderstorms predicted on the satellite radio, in the Ohio Valley along the way ... there's lightning now off in the distance. Passing railroad crossings, and rural roads, overhead
the road with it's stop signs and street lights disappear through trees, and puffy clouds, a quick glimpse into a small town, along I-80 westbound to Chicago for the first of a two-leg trip to Minnesota.
Rod Lamkey Jr.
Staff Photographer
The Washington Times
