Something We Came Across

Lunar Lander

Our first night in Birch Bay we had ventured out to find a store to buy food and beer when somewhere we took a wrong turn. Somehow we ended up heading south when we should have been going east. This was around 8 at night and surrounding the road there is nothing but dark fields, pretty much everything is dark. All of a sudden, around a small bend in the road, way off in the distance, directly in the center of the road, a spectacular bright white light appeared. Like moths, we were drawn in. As we approached it from well over a mile away it just keeps getting brighter and brighter as we get closer. Our first contact was one of amazement and bewilderment of just what exactly we were seeing. We drove around the traffic circle over and over again just admiring the amazing sight of this super bright light illuminating the white rocky mound in this otherwise pitch black landscape.

The light was sitting in the center of a recently constructed traffic circle directly next to the BP Cherry Point refinery where Blaine Rd and Grandview Rd meet. The refinery was a massive eerie backdrop to this light. Everything surrounding you seemed to be a commentary on excessiveness. All the excessiveness was rather beautiful though. This light was much brighter then any thing you would ever need, it might have made sense if someone was actually working out there but the light was sitting alone with its engine running all night.  Stretching down the road away from this traffic circle were hundreds of cones with blinking lights flickering away. Off in the distance was the refinery with towers covered in lights looking like skyscrapers in the night time skyline of a small city. There were plumes of steam rising in the air illuminated from below and open flames lighting up the night sky. The contrast between all these lights surrounding the darkness was as beautiful as it was unsettling and unnatural feeling. You could easily pluck this setting and place it in the right gallery and have a very successful show.