Road trip in the hills of Kansas

[jhawk1000]

After brutally cold days before and on Christmas, our weather finally gave us a break and today was a day with temps in the mid-50s Fahrenheit. We loaded our three dogs into our SUV and headed to the Flint Hills. There are lots of old and iconic structures which are still around but slowly wasting away. We first went to an old school called the Bechet school near Florence, Ks, then to a Stone Arch Bridge at Clements, then backroads to Cottonwood Falls which has a beautiful French Renaissance Courthouse. It started out as just a small trip to let the dogs run without leashes and ended up in most of the day trip. I took 2 cameras, a Fuji XT2 with a brand new Viltrox 23mm 1.4 V2 and an Olympus OM-D EM-1X with the adapted 50-200mm 2.8/3.5. This post will be with photos from

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Fuji and Viltrox. I must say that I am very highly impressed with the Viltrox 23mm 1.4. I also have the Viltrox 85mm 1.8 Mark ii and it is equally impressive.

 

[jhawk1000]

Here is the rest of the trip with the images from the Olympus OM-D EM-1x.

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[John King]

Nice collection, Mel.
Bittersweet for you, I surmise.

 

[jhawk1000]

Nice collection, Mel.
Bittersweet for you, I surmise.

Very bittersweet. But I am slowly getting my life back together. I am doing things to keep active although I must admit, photography is not as important as it once was.

 

[John King]

Very bittersweet. But I am slowly getting my life back together. I am doing things to keep active although I must admit, photography is not as important as it once was.

That will probably return, Mel.

Strange as it might seem, specially to you, now, divorces are often more traumatizing than the death of a spouse.

A divorce is a pretty personal comment by the divorcing person about the divorced person. From very personal experience, I can tell you that it still hurts badly at times, even 40+ years on. Death comes to us all, oftentimes completely unexpectedly, as in Linda's case.

Give yourself plenty of time to grieve the death of your beloved Linda.
It will take time for the raw shock of it all to dissipate to the degree possible.

Lots of us here care deeply about you, and empathise with you and the utter shock of Linda's death.
I'm certain that your personal friends and family care even more about you.

Be easy on yourself, my friend. Do not make hasty decisions about anything until you have had time to fully comprehend and accept this dreaded thing.

 

[jhawk1000]

That will probably return, Mel.

Strange as it might seem, specially to you, now, divorces are often more traumatizing than the death of a spouse.

A divorce is a pretty personal comment by the divorcing person about the divorced person. From very personal experience, I can tell you that it still hurts badly at times, even 40+ years on. Death comes to us all, oftentimes completely unexpectedly, as in Linda's case.

Give yourself plenty of time to grieve the death of your beloved Linda.
It will take time for the raw shock of it all to dissipate to the degree possible.

Lots of us here care deeply about you, and empathise with you and the utter shock of Linda's death.
I'm certain that your personal friends and family care even more about you.

Be easy on yourself, my friend. Do not make hasty decisions about anything until you have had time to fully comprehend and accept this dreaded thing.

I agree that divorce can be hard. I have gone through that process in the past and The divorce was good for me since it allowed me to meet and marry Linda 6 years afterward. I had steeled myself to being single for the rest of my time but then this younger lady met me at a party and she hung around with me. About a year later, we started a relationship, she moved from her home in Iowa and we married and it was storybook time for me until her accident. She felt the same way toward me and I often wondered why a beautiful younger lady had decided to end my single lifestyle but I have been thankful for all the years we were together as one. I am better but we were more than husband and wife, we were best friends always and it is taking time--something I don't have a bunch of at my age.