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United States - 2012 July
Thumbnails. No border: thumbnail links to a 640 pixel image. Pink border: thumbnail links to bigger image. Blue border: left hand half of thumbnail links to bigger image; right hand half links to image description on the Wikimedia Commons.
Art Institute of Chicago
Reynolds, Gainsborough and Turner are household names but Kanaoka? Why does his name appear on the frieze - the institute does not appear to have any of his works.
Kose Kanaoka is a distinctly obscure ninth century Japanese artist.
Carbon filament lightbulbs in the entrance hall of the Institute
The original trading room of the Chicago Stock Exchange has been reconstructed here.
America Windows, 1977, Marc Chagall
The Drinkers, 1890, Vincent van Gogh.
Nighthawks, 1942, Edward Hopper. Within months of its completion, it was sold to the Art Institute for a mere $3,000.
Originally this railroad ran beside Lake Michigan. Then
Grant Park was created on land reclaimed from the lake and the Art Institute was extended over the railroad into part of the park.
Chicago street views
The Bean
Not my image but I have one of the same subject. It looks quite insignificant on Google streetview - interesting that two wiki nerds should both spot it
In civilised units that is 34°C at 21:22 hours. In fact the weather was hot even by US standards. Ten days later
USA Today was reporting that the night time
low temperature in Death Valley, California was 107°F (89°C).
Leaving Chicago
Union Station, Chicago
California Zephyr
The California Zephyr is number eleven in Wikipedia's world list of
longest train services and the longest in the USA. It runs once a day from Chicago to Emeryville, just across the bay from San Francisco. See the
timetable using quaint 12-hour clock times and the
route guide.
Mississippi
Crystal Lake - note the house on stilts - we are presumably within the Mississippi levees.
Looking upstream to the bridge that takes Interstate 34 across the Mississippi.
Now in Burlington, Iowa looking back to the bridge by which we have just crossed the river.
Every few minutes the train would give out its "
lonesome hobo squall" as it approached a grade crossing (Brit: level crossing). This is
North Adams Street, Mount Pleasant, Iowa.
I originally thought it was North Cherry Street about 600 yards to the east and provided
this link to Google's current satellite view saying it is worth looking at because it shows a freight train with over 90 cars. The current state of that satellite view does show a train but it is much shorter.
Ottumwa
This was announced as a cigarette break stop and a chance for non-smokers to stretch their legs.
The corridor is eight feet off the ground. The Americans don't seem to know about yards - road signs say "… 500 feet ahead".
Not sure what this revolution detector is for - possibly to detect skidding or stuck brakes.
The church of St Mary of The Visitation on the corner of North Court Street and East 4th Street, Ottumwa, Iowa.
Photo on Panoramio.
Nebraska
I am looking forward to meeting someone from Nebraska and telling them that I have visited their state. We went to bed in Iowa and when we woke up we were already into Colorado.
California Zephyr, Day 2
Mid-West Gas & Grocery Store, 105 South Main Street, Fort Morgan, CO
The Suncor Energy refinery, Brighton Boulevard, Commerce City, CO
About 5 miles southwest of here is Aurora, a suburb of Denver. While we were asleep on the train 600 miles further west and 16 hours later, James Holmes entered the Century 16 Cinema in Aurora, killed 12 people and injured 58 others.
News story 1.
News story 2.
News story 3.
Wikipedia:
the crime and
murderer bio.
Big 10 Curve
The "Big 10 Curve" west of Arvada, a Denver suburb. Winds can be so strong in this area that hopper cars welded to the rails and filled with sand sit on an adjacent track to act as a windbreak.
Looking back to Denver and the curves we have just negotiated.
Plasser und Theurer seem to have the European monopoly on ballast tamping and similar track maintenance equipment. Plasser American probably also have a monopoly.
Blue Mountain Estates, looking like a typical Alpine village, seen from
here.
Taken from
about here, I thought I was taking the
Rocky Flats Plant (read about different Federal agencies doing battle with each other) but in fact this an unidentified gravel or cement works. The Rocky Flats Plant was about a mile to the southeast and very little trace no remains.
Rockies
Gross Dam and Reservoir. Water supply for Denver. Most of the rain falls on the west of the Rockies and Denver is on the east so various water capture points on the west lead water through a tunnel and to this reservoir.
Volunteer park rangers provide a narrative between Denver and Grand Junction
Works gang
Fraser - Winter Park, CO
Gore Canyon
Gore Canyon through which we are about to pass is seen in the in distance
Gore Canyon ?
Grand Junction
Clifton
It took half an hour with Google maps and street view but I am confident that the map links on this image point to the building in the foreground. View is looking northwest.
California Zephyr, Day 3
Reno, Nevada
Incredibly, as recently as 2005, the railroad through Reno crossed eleven downtown streets on the level -
full story. Here we see Lake Street and Evans Avenue crossing over the railroad.
Poor quality - train decided to move just at the moment of shooting
California
https://ssl.panoramio.com/photo/67652868
View out of the rear of the train.
Truckee
California 2012 itinerary
I created the above before we set off to the USA. Partly because of the unfortunate fatal accident suffered by Prospero (my tablet PC) - see ++++ - but mainly because California turned out to be much bigger than I thought, the only places on the list that we managed to visit were the last three.
San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge
The massive pillar behind which the sun is rising looked to me like a late addition but it is part of the original design. Cables-wise the structure is two separate suspension bridges and this pillar, called the Center Anchorage corresponds to the land side anchorages at either end.
Jason Jenkins caught this view
Griffon Hotel, Steuart Street
Ferry Plaza
Going to collect RV
Cabrillo Highway
Half Moon Bay
Cameron's Restaurant & Inn
Cabrillo Highway
Waddell Bluffs
I think these loops are a second line of defence against falling material.
Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz is a bit like Blackpool with palm trees. It was a Sunday and busy so we just drove straight through after seeing the recently created
roundabout - a very unusual feature in the US. See
this article.
Moss Landing
Jetty Road, Moss landing. We watched these people for at least half an hour trying to get these two horses into an horse box - they just would not go. The people were still trying when we left.
Monterey
Cannery Row
Laguna Seca
This building is known as the White House!
Monterey
Monterey Bay Aquarium
Jellies
They call these just "jellies", not "jelly fish" because, however big they are, they still count as
plankton: sea animals incapable of swimming against a current.
Not a jelly but Roger's face repeated multiple times in a demonstration of jelly symmetry.
Note the Buddhist monks at top right.
Pacific Grove
Yankee Point
The Big Sur
Bixby Creek
Point Sur
Elephant seals
San Simeon
Morro Bay
Los Alamos
Solvang
Gaviota Pass
Ventura
Railway station
Surf
Malibu
Palisades del Rey
La Brea Tar Pits
Looking very incongruous, this three storey building stands just opposite the tar pits.
This mess is on the sidewalk (Brit: pavement) just outside the tar pits site. I think it is a tar pit that has escaped.
Pit 91
Clothes ruined by being worn in the dig.
Beverly Hills
Beverly Hills clearly has rigid planning rules. North Santa Monica Boulevard forms a sharp divide: to the south is typical downtown (Brit: city centre) building; to the north expensive housing typical of outer suburbs.
Movie star maps - updated every ninety days!
Randal Haworth
For some time I have been receiving e-mails from Ferrari Beverly Hills such as
this one. The one asking "please share your thoughts on your new Ferrari California" was addressed to Randal Haworth so it did not take any detective effort to work out that they must be intended for
Randal Digby Haworth, plastic surgeon of Beverly Hills (
Wikipedia article). His e-mail address is RH
.svg)
DRHaworth but Ferrari had left out the D so the e-mails come to me.
Cheekily, I decided to drop in on him unannounced to tell him about the e-mail confusion. He was gracious enough to come into the reception area of his office, chat for a few minutes and be photographed with me.
There are at least three other plastic surgery clinics in the block at 436 North Bedford Drive.
Randal with …
The man himself (the one on the right!).
Image is from
this page - search for
Haworth (obviously!). Randal Digby seems to go in for being photographed with people. Here he is with Tim Blum who runs the
Blum and Poe Art Gallery in Los Angeles. The website on which I found this image seems to consist of nothing but people at receptions and the like. Then I found out that that is what
Patrick McMullan does.
Image is from
this page (again search for
Haworth) of Randal with Ana Haworth, presumably his wife, seen in the Blum and Poe Gallery probably at the same event as the previous photo.
Sunset Boulevard
Hyatt Hurts - protest against the hotel chain outside the Andaz West Hollywood Hotel. The hotel has erected a screen between the hotel and the sidewalk (Brit: pavement).
Hollywood Boulevard
The closest we got to seeing the iconic
Hollywood sign on the hillside. See a
parallel in Romania.
Diversion to Burbank
Dockweiler State Beach
Carson
Robert A. Cinader Memorial Fire Station
The
tiller ladder is reversed into the station. Note the second driver steering the rear wheels.
Inscribed
in memory of our fallen brothers FDNY.
For example the men based in
this firehouse.
Los Angeles International Airport
Flight home
seat back display
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