Niarada gate

I left the company of familiar faces, loved ones and neighbors at the yearly barbecue on Flathead Lake and drove back into the the normal world of my solitude. Even at the barbecue I was somewhat of an outsider as I'm not a club member. In some ways I couldn't wait to return to privacy of my car and the long drive, and in other ways I felt a sense of loss. I wouldn't see most of these people for another year.

I stepped out of the car as my attention moved away from the party and the weekend's events to the landscape that surrounded me. Feelings of solitude and loneliness moved in and out of me with the wind that blew across the prairie only to be blown away in the end, leaving nothing in their place.

I've photographed this gate before. I've never gone through it. I don't belong here for very long, but this gate gives me a transient sense of home. A place I found a long time ago riding my bike alone on some of these same roads.

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