See also Segway in St. Petersburg, Russia and not a Segway at the local airport

Two guys on the White House roof. Looks like a telescope rather than a weapon.

The 51st State bar, 2512 L Street North­west near junction with Penn­sylvania Avenue

Even in cities, telephone distribution is still overhead - at least in this corner where there is space at the back of buildings

the Potomac, Washington, DC

the Pacific Ocean, Palisades del Rey, below the flight paths of Los Angeles International Airport

the Hudson, Ardsley-on-Hudson, NY. See message cast into the plate at the bottom of the photo.

but not directly to the Chicago River thanks to …

TARP Drop Shaft No. DS-M57

Fencing is labelled "Long Fence". I think that is a company name.

On 2012 Jun 29 Washington experienced a severe storm, classified as a derecho. See this news story. I assume these fallen branches are remnants of that storm.

I would save the Union.
My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery.
If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that.
Lincoln's letter to Horace Greeley

These guys reminded me of some even more monumental ones that I had seen in Helsinki.

These boxes have the names of news agencies. I think they are perm­anent connection points for when inter­views are being recorded.

The fire hydrant appears to have a radio antenna on it.

Sphere No. 6 (Sphere within a Sphere), (1963-1965) by Arnaldo Pomodoro in the Hirschhorn Garden.

Sphere with Sphere (1982-83) by Arnaldo Pomodoro in the grounds of Trinity College, Dublin. See this page for two more Pomodoro links and the rest of our Ireland trip.

Note the curved sounding board over the ministers' gallery. Compare with Brooklyn.

Compare with "no dumping" photos in other parts of the USA. Historically Chicago probably had worse problems than other cities. They built the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal to divert the sewage to the Mississippi instead of dumping it in Lake Michigan. It is still not fully cleaned up - see this 2016 article in the Chicago tribune.

Roger explains his problems to Dr. Bob Hartley.

Clearly the building was designed as a music school

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.

Picture of Dorian Gray, 1943-1944, Ivan Albright. Used in the 1945 movie version of the story. Shot primarily in black-and-white, the film features two inserts in 3-strip Technicolor one of this painting and the other of the portrait in its original state.

Nighthawks, 1942, Edward Hopper. Within months of its completion, it was sold to the Art Institute for a mere $3,000.

American Gothic. Right beside it hangs …

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.

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).

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.

Leaving Chicago

near Princeton, Illinois

near Galesburg, IL

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Gore Canyon through which we are about to pass is seen in the in distance