Horsing around at West Chicago McDonald’s

As a photojournalist for nearly 20 years, I am always happily surprised when I come across unusual scenes to photograph.

Near the end of a busy day of photographing three Sept. 11 memorials in three towns, I pulled into the McDonald’s at the intersection of North Avenue and Route 59 in West Chicago to find two women and their horses also pulling in.

I grabbed my camera and headed toward the drive-up window, where I hoped the riders would take their horses. But Shelby Watts of Wayne and Alexis Muuss of Bartlett decided that was not a good idea.

Instead, they parked their horses in two parking stalls.

Perhaps I didn’t get the photo I had originally envisioned, but I still was able to make a nice image of the two women with their horses “Calvin” and “Ivy” eating french fries and apple slices with the ubiquitous McDonald’s sign framing the shot.