December 14, 2004
Usery Mountain Recreational Area
Mesa, Arizona

Left Bisbee behind yesterday morning. Mike and Lorene headed East, back to Florida and Heather and I headed North to my gallery in Scottsdale and we found this wonderful campground with many varieties of cactus just minutes away from the craziness of Phoenix.
Miss you guys it was good fun camping with you see you in Florida!

Occotillo Catcus at Usery Mountain

Henry at Usery Mountain

Teddy Bear Cholla Usery Mountain

Teddy Bear Cholla 2 Usery Mountain

Usery Mountain 1

Usery Mountain 1

Saguaro Moon Usery Mountain

Henery with Green Ball Arizona

December 19, 2004
Turtle Bayou Texas

Back again. Been running interstate since dropping Heather off, yesterday, in Portales New Mexico at her Grand Parents home for Christmas. Made it just west of Fort Worth last night so today I got to run through Fort Worth, Dallas and Huston! At one point I jumped off and drove the frontage road between Dallas and Huston, for a while just to go 40 mph and gain some much lost sanity. Why we need to go so fast and see so little.
Picked up the 16×20 prints for V.R. in Huston from my friend, dealer, framer, Joan. As usual great work! I am looking forward to seeing VR for coffee tomorrow morning and giving them to him. He still has yet to see the two 40 x 50 inch prints that are going to the Long Horn Museum east of Huston Texas. Jerry, her significant other made the 40 x 50 prints and they are superb! Really enjoy the images that big and hope to do a few from the “Wrong Turn” series that large. Lots if itty-bitty 4×5 images and lots of big 40×50 inch images.
This feels very “anti-trip” having to rush through southwest Texas and Louisiana not getting to see the Newman’s or Sister Reddie, but the family and Christmas calls from Connecticut and I’ve only a few days to get there. If you all are reading this I apology for not getting to stop by and say hi. Sometimes the destination becomes more important than the trip or so it seems……

Joan Jerry and me with big print for the museum

DMK and the othe large print

Jerry in front of airstream and his Huston space

DMK in place of Jerry

DMK in Huston

January 3, 2005
The Wal-Mart I-81
Hagers Town, Maryland

Heather arrived on the 31st of December and we’ve spent the last few days regrouping and getting road ready. Headed out of Connecticut this afternoon, back on the road toward Key West with a side stop in Boca Raton to run the film from the portrait shoot of the Bludhorn’s at The Gallery at the Katonah General Store. Will be using my friend Mike Kravit’s darkroom.
Was a good rest back east, spending Christmas with family. Working at the Gallery doing the annual portraits of the Bludhorn’s and having sometime alone but it sure feels good to be back on the road.

Henry at Rest area in Pennsylvania

January 16, 3005
Key West Florida

Well I think Papa Hemingway must moan in pain as people walk into Sloppy Joes Bar and step on his face embossed in the dirty rug by the entrance. Perhaps he shifts slightly in his grave as people line up at his home for the tour? How big a cut does he get from all the t shirts sold to the multitude of tourists coming off the 2-3 cruise ships that dock for a few hours each day at the foot of Duval Street?
Driving down the Keys we were excited about spending a month or two here, even though the rv park was 3 times more expensive than any we had encountered before, (and we were to learn that anything else other than the space came with a price tag) making photographs during the day and working in the darkroom at night, having some leisure time on the beach, walking in the hot sun and exploring the old streets of key west in the evenings. Maybe even finding a local bar to spend the evening hours. And we did… Pepe’s on Caroline Street! Great food, great drinks and great people. Truly a local’s hangout and they loved having Henry dine with us. Our waitress even had doggie treats in her apron. Ate many good meals here.
Mike and Lorene arrived on Thursday and we’ve spent the last few days exploring together. Have had a good time being with them and will be sad to see them leave today but…….
What we found was that Key West and Santa Fe have much in common. A great history, lots of history and natural beauty but city fathers with greed in their eyes and hearts. Duval Street is more a circus than a cool historic street. Lots of T-shirts and trash that appeal to the tourists from the low end cruise ships. A multitude of open air bars offer up appalling loud live music that blasts out into the street and melt together becoming Hemingway’s scream as it pounds against your brain. Mixed among the bars and T-shirt shops are restaurants with high prices and not so great food as well as poster art galleries and stands hawking the tours you can go on.
In all fairness as you leave Duvall Street and roam the small backstreets that make up Historic Key West there are many wonderful old homes and small shops that make up the real key but your looking at $350.000 low end for a small 1-2 bedroom home with no land and it’s a fixer upper. Heading in the local paper “City to study dorms for local Workers”, seems that the support people can’t afford to live here anymore. Hello Santa Fe! But the small street are quite beautiful and years ago it must have been a great place to live.
Each night there is the Sunset Party on Mallory Square by the Marina. We did get to see the sunset- one night when the cruise ships weren’t blocking it. Quite a good gathering of street artists, performers and venders selling-for the most part local crafts.
Silverman, a self made mime was quite good and fun to talk to as well as the “Angel”.
Made good images of both. But then along came “The Ambassador to the Conch Republic” -self appointed I would assume. Dressed in a cheap suit and uncle sam hat. I asked, as I always do, but this time with a ten-dollar bill in hand, (as it was obvious he was pan handling) if I could make his portrait and got told quite rudely that I could not “he’d been ripped off too many times”. Now he didn’t seem to mind the multitude of people who approached and snapped his photograph without asking and then gave him a buck. The very first person that has refused to allow me to make their portrait the entire trip, a year and 40,000 miles ago. Perhaps it’s time for a new ambassador? But all in all the sunset party was a good time and the sunset we did see was spectacular.
Leaving downtown you’ll find home depot, kmart, boarders, and all the rest on Hwy 1. As with Santa Fe, the true local flavor has been diluted to almost nothing. Everywhere you go there is a generic melting of culture a sameness creeping across america . A greed and consumption that seems to swallow up the old and spit out generic high end shit. Onward toward Texas?

The Ambassador to the Conch Republic photo by Michael Kravit

stepped on Papa

Sloppy Joe’s now the origional was in Havana Cuba

Drinks at Sloppy’s and they are good!

After a few drinks at Sloppy’s

After a few mork drinks….

now it’s time to buy tee shirts

time for more coffee…..

Boats at Key West

Heather and DMK at Key West Camp

Henry and DMK at Key West

Dmk at Key West did a great 4×5 of tourists photograhing themselves with car see gallery oneday…

Did another good image here

Good time at the Keys

Chicken all over note the darts in this chicken

end of the road

Henry in the wind

Key West Home

Key West Home 2

Key West Homes and Shops

Traditional Key West Signage

Traditional Key West Sky

Henry’s thoughts’

on the road again