2009 started out as a year of discontent. I was living near Portland in West Linn, Oregon. I had given the Portland area two honest years, but wasn't happy there. I wanted to leave, and in January I decided that once my lease was up I would take the summer to figure it out. I wanted to travel again and the plan was put in motion.

On June 20th my daughter Ella and I left Oregon for a long journey across the U.S. We drove across Oregon, up through Washington, through a small portion of Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming, where this was taken. I took a series of photos along the way, all of them from the car while we were driving. Sometimes there were such long stretches of highway where we were one of just a few vehicles and it was such a great feeling to experience the open road.

This was taken during an impending storm. The sky darkened to this wonderful periwinkle blue and I was lucky to capture this while the car was moving. I had the camera set up so I could just snap away without taking my eyes off the road.

I shot this image with my Coolpix digital camera .