Get The Lowdown

So, Is This Where J-Low Hangs Out, Too?

Photograph copyright: DAVID McMAHON

Low-flying planes? Mate, I’m well over six foot – so does this sign mean I have more case to worry than most other tourists?

This shot was taken though the window of a fast-moving SUV in Alaska last year. We had just crossed the border at Poker Creek as we traversed the Top Of The World Highway. We were still a few miles from the little town of Chicken when I spotted this sign.

Okay, so it’s not the sharpest image I shot that day, but it’s certainly one that brought a smile to my face.

Visit TNChick's Photo Hunt. Today's theme: "Low''.

Baby, It's Gold Outside

Yes, It's A 22-Karat Photo Opportunity

Chicken, Alaska. Photograph copyright: DAVID McMAHON

Soar Point

Alas, The Triplane Ain't My Plane

Photographs copyright: DAVID McMAHON

Last week, I was in Alaska for a few hours, taking the Top Of The World Highway back down into Canada and the Yukon. We pulled into Chicken, which is less than 40 miles from the border at Poker Creek, fo a quick lunch stop.

There I watched a man on a quad bike traverse a flat area near the picnic gazebo. Behind him on the bike he had three children, and one of them was flying this beautiful kite. Its bright colours caught my eyes, but I didn't immediately realise that the kite was in the shape of a World War I triplane.

It was so evocative of the Charles M. Schulz cartoons of Snoopy with his leather helmet, picturing himself as a World War I air ace, taking to the skies against the Red Baron.

Before I could approach the group to ask if the kite was home-made, the father left on the quad bike, blowing kisses and calling out "Love you" to the children.

Unfortunately, strangers can no longer approach children and strike up a conversation with them. But as they ran as fast as their legs would carry them, the kite bobbing up and down in the clear sky behind them, I was able to take these shots with my 300mm lens.

What I really wanted to tell them was to follow their dreams. To tell them that I was a kid once. To tell them that I used to fly kites. To tell them that I dreamed about becoming a novelist. To tell them that when I wrote my first novel, it would include a short but significant segment about a child flying a kite.

More than anything else, I wanted to tell the children in Chicken, Alaska, that dreams can come true, just as the human spirit can soar.

Visit MamaGeek and Cecily, creators of Photo Story Friday.

Handle Bard

Not Your Average Doorknob, Is It?

Photographs copyright: DAVID McMAHON

These shots were taken in Chicken, Alaska, a few days ago, as we traversed the Top Of The World Highway. The early afternoon light provided an interesting shadow against the wooden door of one of the washrooms.

Yup, that and the fact that the door handle isn't exactly one you could buy in a store.

And the handles were similar to those on the two facilities below - where the shadows they cast on the wood are strangely redolent of elk or caribou too. Just for the record, the sign on the ladies' toilet says "Hens" and the one on the right says "Roosters".

Which is kind of appropriate when you do a Chicken run.

(The Odd Shots concept came from Katney. Say "G'day" to her.)

Verse And Worse

Random Wit, Errant Rhyme. Not A Literary Crime

Ol' Blue Eyes sure hit those notes on "My Way"

I tried a-singin' on the Alaska Highway

I hummed his tune as I drove through Chicken

A-wonderin' when the plot would thicken