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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.
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.
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