Driving to Salem

 Hi Everyone!

Well the rain is still non stop. Everything is drenched and my drive way has about 5 inches of standing water. The ground is sand here and it can only take so much rain. 

We will have rain until Sat. uuuhhhgggg. 

Yesterday we finally got an apt. for Mr. M. to get a long over due injections in his back. That also means we had to drive to Salem, OR. It is about 3 hours one way. We do take the back roads most of the way before getting on the I-5. It is just AMAZING to me to see people out and about with no face coverings and just mingling like there is no virus.  Oh well, can't fix stupid I guess and people will do what they think is OK. Anyway we made it the surgery center. I waited in the car, I wanted to take photos but it was pouring rain. Finally the nurse rolled Mr. M. out and we were on the road again. In normal times we go to Salem once a month and then stop in the town of Albany to shop and Winco and Costco. The two stores are right next to each other. Since covid we have not been able to do that. So we stopped at Costco. I will say that it is required to have a mask and most people were cautious and trying to keep a distance. It is difficult when a store doesn't have one way isles. 

We were able to get everything we needed and got out and headed home. 

I told you all of that, ha ha, to say that I take photos on these trips. Just shots out the car window. These are for me to paint, or to practice painting. I have been working on clouds and with all of the creepy weather, I got some good shots.
Also will share a bit of the drive with you.

All of the cloud photos were taken on one of the back roads after leaving I-5

If any of these photos will help or encourage you to paint clouds 

please feel free to save any of them to your PC.

The black part on the top of the photo was one huge black cloud that dumped buckets of rain on us.	I took this one for the light and dark.
a bit of blue sky off in the distance. I also like the movement of these clouds.	another shot with distinct lines of dark and light.
I just liked this big clouds.	I really like how these clouds go off into the horizon.
The only road out of Florence, that gets you off the ocean is Hwy 126.	Don't know why they call it a HWY it is a two lane road.
In summer it is impossible to get around tourists, lots of accidents on this road.	This day not much traffic, plus I try not to get cars in my photos.

The tress and bush are green and lush from all the rain we get here. As I mentioned before this use to be a rain forest. With decades of logging, brings less rain, less rain, less forest. It is a viscous circle. So called replanting, well you don't want me to get going on that. LOL 

Hope your day is a good one. Be safe my friends.

Nicole/DVArtist

Honor and integrity in art, in life.