Backlick

I love driving. Okay, that's a lie. But I do love the scenery from the window of a car. Yesterday I spent quite a bit of time enjoying the scenery as I made my way up and back to the Baltimore, MD area for a wonderful baby shower for my wonderful friend Megan (who's having a boy, by the way). After oohing and aahing over cute sleep sacks and other baby-ness, I hit the road. It was smooth sailing until beautiful Springfield, VA (surprise, surprise) where I was promptly met with this gorgeous view:


Determined to make lemonade from these lemons that life just handed me, I decided this was the perfect opportunity for a photo essay on the glories of gridlock.

Abstract art on the jersey barriers. I'm sure it actually is useful markings regarding highway construction or some related jargon, but I love the angularity of the triangle mixed with the artistry of the numbers. The straight white line defines the picture plane and the grate below lends a certain reality to the abstract.

I wonder how Backlick Road got its name...?

I have some morbid fascination with dead/bare trees. (Just look at my profile picture here on the blog - trees I noticed in Williamsburg, VA.) The profile against the blue of the sky was striking.

And the sky. It had a streak of storm clouds above that hovered just above the fluffy cumulus clouds. Like two worlds at once. And not in an ominous, I'm going to bring on the storm of the century kind of way. Almost as though Mother Nature was helping me with this project and coming up with some cloud paintings of her own.

Thus ends my photo essay on the glories of gridlock. I hope you've enjoyed this and please cross your fingers that I'll never have to do this again (wishful thinking!).