Diary of a Mad Art Teacher... and photographer...: Road trip pictures

Wednesday found me traveling to the greater Eau Claire area, home of some fabulous shopping and also my old stomping grounds from the college years. Ah the fond memories..... Anyway, Eau Claire is one of my favorite shopping destinations.

Signs of spring

For those of you who don't live in a remote area, virtually all shopping trips are planned occurrences. There is rarely a spontaneous "let's go to Target" trip, as the nearest Target is a 2 hour drive- with good weather, little traffic and a tail-wind. And of course it depends whose driving! ;) No, we have to plan our shopping trips here and they are long days that are filled with an intense sense of purpose and usually some preplanning. I mean when you need to visit a minimum of 5 stores plus get lunch in there, and get back before the deer come out at dusk, this takes some motivation and a schedule. Not everyone does it like me; I like to get going super early (by 6am usually) and then get home by 6 pm, otherwise I just get too sleepy.

Anyway though I prefer to drive with another person along for company, this was a good trip to do alone, as I had many specific items that I was looking for. I ended up going to Target, Starbucks, Menards, Scheels All Sport, VS, The Gap, Pier One, Best Buy, Hancock Fabric, Target again, Kohls and a Natural/Health Food store. whew!!! Then, unfortunately, I realized that I had missed one thing and stopped at Walmart in Ladysmith. Which I generally avoid like the plague, but sometimes you have to do what you have to do.

So you are probably wondering what in the world this has to do with the scroll-down lovely that you are about to see! On my way to Eau Claire and back I traveled on Hwy E to get to Hwy 70 and just over the county line into Sawyer county there is a beautiful little creek that crosses under the road and it was so lovely that I stopped, turned around and went back to photograph it. It was overcast and grey in the morning, but still icy/lovely. Then the blue skies on the way home had me just knowing that I would be stopping again- for the contrast. So the following pix are a representation of those 2 stops. I have 2 pix that are virtually identical except for the time of day!