International Harvester: An International Harvester Fleetstar truck is well on its way to being reclaimed by nature. Various vines, bushes and trees consumed all but the front end of the truck. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com
Beyond Recognition: This work truck was consumed beyond recognition as it sat in a state of rusty decay. It appeared to have some large metal objects in the bed of the truck, which also deteriorated. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com
By GARY WARREN
Photographer
Formerly of Los Alamos
This edition of Post From the Road is a little different than most of the posts in that it features a roadside “attraction” that caught my eye while traveling in Pennsylvania two years ago. I started to include it in a post from that trip but instead filed it away for another day.
I guess that day has come. We are at home for a few weeks and I was thinking about the post for this week and the Pennsylvania photos came to mind.
The scene that caught my eye while traveling on the back road in Pennsylvania that day were a few old vehicles that had been sitting in a wooded area behind a building that appeared to be a garage or service station. The vehicles were barely visible because they were engulfed with plants of all sizes. My phone told me we were in North Bethlehem Township, Penn. but it felt like we were in the middle of nowhere.
These vehicles had been neglected and forgotten for so long that weeds, bushes, ivy and other foliage were taking over and were being reclaimed by nature. I had to stop and check out the scene.
As I walked around the area photographing the vehicles, I began to wonder who left them there and why were they left to deteriorate and literally become a part of nature. I will never know any of these answers but I did enjoy seeing the old rusty, broken down vehicles that were in such a state of deterioration and photographing them, or at least what I could see of them.
I suppose we see similar scenes throughout the west but most of the west is arid and dry. We don’t see vegetation growing so rampant that it consumes vehicles. It is a different world when we travel to the eastern U.S. because the landscape is so dense and forested. We are used to wide open spaces and the ability to see for miles and miles but in the east you can only see to the next row of trees and vegetation!
We traveled around this area in mid-May two years ago. I can only imagine what the scene would look like by mid-summer after a few more months of growth of the trees and foliage around the vehicles.
We see scenes across the country that make us wonder and ask why but that’s part of the journey as we travel the back roads of America. We never anticipate these events but when we see something that captures our eye and imagination, it is time to stop for a few photos.
Editor’s note: Longtime Los Alamos photographer Gary Warren and his wife Marilyn are traveling around the country, and he shares his photographs, which appear in the “Posts from the Road” series published in the Sunday edition of the Los Alamos Daily Post.
Almost Gone: I believe that this is a Chevrolet van but the trees and foliage have made it difficult to see. While this vehicle was not covered in rust as some other vehicles, it appeared to be more consumed by nature than most that I saw. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com
Once Upon a Time: The vehicles shown here were found behind this former business building. It appears to have been a service station or a garage that repaired cars and trucks. If walls could talk, these walls would have some stories to tell! Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com