We took a little drive yesterday on Route 66 looking for photo opportunities. Found the regulars, but also have a couple of new locations to go back and shoot.  I’m really loving my new Droid X phone, these images were shot with my cell phone – pretty amazing quality for a cell phone.

It’s Father’s day and I’m on a road trip with my two daughters to nowhere special, just out having fun and were driving old Route 66 and we come across this – Elmer’s Bottle Tree Forest. Needless to say, I pulled the car over very quickly and grabbed my camera. I need to head back here when the sun’s low and the light is good. Lot’s of fun and kind-of strange at the same time. This is why you always have a camera with you – you never know what you might come across!

“The roads of Redlands are legendary in the minds of the men’s and women’s professional peloton. Roads like Sunset, Wabash, and Garden are infamous, the names are usually spoken in sentences that include the terms ‘leg breaker’ and ‘searing lungs’, but now a new road that only needs to called ‘the bench’ will be added to the climbing legendary of the Redlands Classic.”  From the website  of the Redlands Bicycle Classic  http://www.redlandsclassic.com/

Last year I tried to make it our to the race and when I showed up, I could not find anyone or anyplace in Town that remotely looked like race was going to happen, so I left only to find out later that the race did happen but in a different part of Town.

This year I was determined to get it right and got out early to make sure I found a nice spot on the tract from which to shoot.  I have to be honest and say that after arriving I thought I might not enjoy the race.  It looked slow and not that action packed, but what I was seeing was just practice and not the real thing.  The first to race were the women and let me tell you that they hauled ass!  I could not believe how fast they were.  Scary fast!

Then the men took the course and although they were a little faster then the women, they weren’t that much faster, but there was 3-times as many of them on the track which made it even more crazy.  I didn’t see anyone fall, but heard over a police officers radio standing next to me that in the mens race, there was a rider down.  Speed, shorts and asphalt can’t be a good combination.

All in all, a very cool race to watch and you can bet that I will be back next year.

6:18 am – I had my camera in the front seat with me and I took a quick grab shot of this bridge that I have always called – “Rainbow Bridge.”  Turns out it has a official name – “The Lilac Bridge”.  It’s hard to tell from the photo, but this bridge is very high, maybe a couple of hundred feet above interstate 15.  It has always marked the entry to San Diego for me.  I did a quick Google search and here’s a little background on the bridge.

The Lilac Bridge over I-15 at the southern entrance to Bonsall and Fallbrook makes a great gateway to San Diego coming down south from Riverside County. This is the famous bridge that has dramatic soaring arch construction. The Lilac Road Bridge is a very dramatic and attractive bridge. It looks like a giant scythe poised over the roadway. The way the arch joins the deck looks organic, more like the way a plant grows than something made by humans. The bridge is also known as the Rainbow Bridge because of its arched shape.   The Lilac Road Bridge is a reinforced concretearch bridge in San Diego, California, built in 1978. It was designed by Caltrans architect William Wells

While traveling in San Diego, I spotted this Bank with a very unusual mural on the wall next to the drive-up ATM. I made a quick u-turn. I just had to grab a shot of this. To my surprise, another mural on the back of the building. Very strange to find a Bank painted with such bright colors, it kind-of made me smile.  Not the best time of day for an image, but I think it worked.  Looks like the owner is a pretty fun person or is a good painter.

What I like about this image is the Montana feel or just the wide open spaces with the blue sky’s, rolling hills and puffy white clouds.  Well I actually shot it in Murrieta, CA.