Lonely Favorites

Earlier this month, I took a five day trip to document and explore Highway 50 in Nevada to commemorate the 25th anniversary of its designation as "America's Loneliest Road." I took 4,919 photos in those five days. The edited photos were all divided into galleries to go with specific stories by the talented J. Patrick Coolican, which can all be viewed on the Highway 50 topic page on the Las Vegas Sun website. I, however, really wanted the chance to put together all my favorites from the trip, regardless of topic, into one place. I got it down to 39 favs, which is pretty good considering I started with 4,919 photos. They include such standards as the Nevada "long road shot," the requisite row of mailboxes, starscapes, shoe piles, big mac pinatas, fruit markets, ancient trees, rushing creeks, sad children, happy children, men with canes, coal trains, desert dunes, hitchhikers, glowing crosses, sunrise, sunset and, of course, big game trophies in the grocery store. So here are my lonely, and not so lonely, favorites from Highway 50.

I Love Goats

I learned many lessons after photographing goats on a ranch last week:
- Goats are very photogenic. They will gladly take pause from their busy day and pose for photos.
- Goats are hungry and love the taste of a nice L series lens.
- I love goats.

How Goicoechea Lives

There are my favorite photos from a recent trip to the loneliest part of Nevada (and possibly the country) off U.S. Route 50 near Eureka, Nevada. The ranch I visited, which is about 30 miles northeast of Eureka in the Newark Valley, is the home of State Assemblyman Pete Goicoechea, possibly soon to be the most powerful Republican in the state. He farms alfalfa and ranches on about 3,000 acres by day, and does all his legislative and reelection business at night. He also swallows his chewing tobacco instead of spitting it out. That's a hardcore third-generation Nevada rancher for you.