Norwalk is an historic settlement in Connecticut,  on Long Island Sound. Chartered on September 11, 1651, a town quickly grew, based on shipping and the harvesting of oysters. The New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad had pushed tracks north from New York City along the coast of Connecticut in the 1850s, to the serve the growing commuter communities to the north of the city. Where the Norwalk River flowed into Norwalk Harbor and on into Long Island Sound, a swing bridge was constructed. To enable ships to pass upstream, the centre portion of the bridge (carrying the tracks) pivoted through 180 degrees. On 6th May, 1853, the 8.00am New York to Boston Express approached the swingbridge around a curve; unfortunately, the driver, Mr F W Tucker,  missed the signal telling him the bridge had just been opened to let the steamship ‘Pacific’ pass through. Over 200 people were onboard the train and the locomotive and the first three baggage and railcars hurled into space. There were 48 dead, 8 missing and many injured. This was the very first railroad bridge disaster in the USA (the appalling Tay Bridge Disaster, on the Firth of Tay, Scotland, which caused 60 deaths, did not occur until the night of 28th December, 1879). F. W. Tucker was held to be at fault.

The bridge you see here is in the same position as the original, but was built in around 1895, and derives its strength from a Warren truss form of construction, with its distinctive cross-bracing. It has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places, and is the ONLY four-track swing bridge in the country. The line was electrified in 1907, and now forms a vital part of  Amtrack’s Northeast Corridor, as well as carrying Metro-North Railroad commuter trains into and out of New York’s Grand Central Station, and CSX freight trains serving the New England region. Here we see a northbound Metro-North train crossing the bridge on its way to East Norwalk.

The picnic tables and shrubbery are outside the Maritime Aquarium, on the west bank of the Norwalk River. The Norwalk Aquarium has many fine exhibits, from Harbor – or Common – Seals (Phoca vitulina) to Cownose Rays (Rhinoptera bonasus), and runs tours of Norwalk Harbor and Long Island Sound on board the Aquarium’s research vessel ‘Oceanic’ (ticket kiosk and boarding dock below the bridge).

Some of you might be wondering if there is any aviation connection that I can work in here. Actually, there is! The Hawker Hurricane used a twin-spa wing with Warren inter-spa bracing, and both the famous Italian Fiat CR32 and CR42 fighter used interwing bracing of the Pratt-Warren type!

The Livingston RailRoad Bridge’s length is nearly one mile long and cost nearly a million dollars.  It goes over the Hudson River and connects Rensselaer and Albany.  It contains two abutments and 19 piers, and is approximately 2020 feet long.  Constructed by the Albany Bridge Company in 1866, and owned by the New York Central Railroad and a 1/4 each by the Hudson River and Albany and Boston Roads. 

It is a rotating swing bridge that includes an iron turn-table where piers and abutments were driven to the bottom of the river, nearly 33 feet deep.  The limestone piers stood 80 feet above water and are held together by iron cramps.  Whereas the head stones are dowled together with iron dowels.

The bridge was replaced in 1998 for $50 million dollars.

The Michael Davitt bridge is a swing bridge which connects Achill Island to the Irish mainland at Achill Sound. It is named after Michael Davitt. The first bridge was opened in 1887 by the National Land League which he founded.

In 1947, that bridge was replaced as it was too small to carry vehicular traffic safely. A new bridge was built along the south side of the original.  In September 2007, work began to replace the bridge for the second time and was completed in 2008.

Cows!

Grey industry - Salt mining can be found over much of this part of Cheshire

Traffic!

After arrival at the Anderton boat lift, we decided to see how much it would cost to take our boat down to the Weaver Navigation. Just how cool would it be to take our boat down instead of the trip boat? Err… with a cost of £0 for our boat or £7 per person on the trip boat well, the Yorkshire in us won out – decision made!

Anderton boat lift - the view from the Weaver

(I have a ton of boat lift pictures so I will save picking out the best for a future entry…)

Once on the Weaver Navigation (allegedly a river – pretty much a large canal without a towpath) we headed up to Northwich in search of somewhere to moor for the night and some tea.  Our first stop was near Town Bridge – a swing bridge in the town centre, providing easy access to the town centre and The Penny Black.

Town Bridge, Northwich

After enjoying the ‘spoons Tuesday steak club we decided to move a bit further up, just outside of Northwich beside Hunts Lock to escape the ‘bustle’ (traffic noise) of the town centre.

Hunts Lock and Railway Viaduct

Despite the incredibly secluded look in the picture above (our boat is just visible in the dusk light – down from the second bridge arch) we were only a few minutes from a large housing estate containing the Blue Barrel where me and Ruth escaped to for cheeky pint!

Summary

Weather: Drizzle/Cloudy morning, clearing to fine by dusk

Destination: Hunts Lock, Northwich

Locks: 0

More photos

Canon 5D Mark II camera and Canon 24-105mm f4 IS lens. Exposure Details: 1/8 second @ f8 ISO 400

Late afternoon light and very little breeze provided great conditions for this image of the Swing Bridge and Boathouse in Lorne on Victoria’s Great Ocean Road. Nestled by the shoreline, at the mouth of the Erskine River, both structures are icons of the township.

I suspect that, for many folk, the above photograph is as much about memory and nostalgia as it is about the bridge and building. I composed the image in such a way to make a pleasing arrangement of the various focal points (bridge, building, boats) and their reflections. I hope the design of the image serves to bring the individual elements together in a pleasing and cohesive form.

Initial image processing was conducted in Adobe Lightroom 2, prior to final tone and contrast adjustments being applied in Adobe Photoshop CS5. A predominantly warm split tone was added to further enhances the nostalgic nature of the image.

© Copyright All Rights Reserved

Glenn Guy, Blue Sky Photography

There’s too much to tell, so I’ll caption some pictures to make it an easy read.

Day 1: Christchurch

View of Christchurch's Cathedral Square from the top of the Cathedral tower - pretty much spent the day walking around and exploring the city.

We found the Botanical Gardens...

the Arts Center (or "Centre," as they spell it here)...

and the $5 bus that's now $7 - what a deal.

Day 2: Christchurch

We had pretty much seen all the sights in the city the day before, so we decided to go on a little afternoon hike on the outskirts to take in the view. Afterward, everyone that was in town went out to dinner at one of the Thai restaurants near the hostel to celebrate the start of the trip - lots of fun!

Day 3: Christchurch –> Kaikoura

The morning was spent picking up the vans at the Spaceship rental office. On the paperwork, the drivers of each car were labeled as Astronauts - my car consisted of two astronauts and a space cadet, since Shauna isn't 21 yet.

Then we headed North to Kaikoura - beautiful views and a bunch of seals (look, there's one laying on the rock on the left) - definitely a great way to start the trip.

Day 4: Kaikoura –> Nelson –> Abel Tasman National Park

Woke up early and started the morning right with a sunrise at our campsite on the beach.

Then, went on a nice bike ride back to the seal colony (small town - as you can probably tell, the seals were the big attraction).

I got really close to one! It was pretty short-lived though, they're a bit faster than they seem.

Day 5: Abel Tasman National Park

Woke up at our campsite in Abel Tasman National park and started on a ferry ride and day hike. The first stop for the ferry was this place, called "Split Apple Rock." Pretty cool, huh?

At one point during the hike we took the low tide route instead of the high tide one, thinking we were ahead of schedule. Turned out that wasn't exactly true. We ended up climbing across rocks along the coastline for a while then walking in as much as thigh-deep water the rest of the way across. Definitely made for an exciting day!

Pretty views.

Day 5: Driving down the West Coast to Franz Josef Glacier

The ride from Abel Tasman to the glaciers was supposed to be about 7 hours, so we looked up a bunch of things to do in towns along the way. The first stop was New Zealand's longest swing bridge!

The next stop was the "Pancake Rocks."

Then, we took a break at the Monteith's brewery in Greymouth! Afterward, we went to Hokitika to look for the natural green stones on their beaches and headed down to look for a campsite near Franz Josef.

Day 7: Franz Josef Glacier

We spent the day on a glacier tour. It was a lot of fun, I had never been to a glacier before (surprising, right?) but I loved it!

When we were at the bottom it looked so manageable to climb, but as we got going these cracks and valleys were everywhere and it ended up taking all day to get to a point that seemed so close at first!

Day 8: Lake Matheson and the drive to Queenstown

We stayed at a campsite near Fox Glacier after getting back from the Franz Josef trip so that we could wake up early to see the sunrise down the road at Lake Matheson.

After the Lake, we started on the drive to Queenstown - another long one. We ended up stopping in Haast and at a place called Puzzling World in Wanaka to see the sights.

Our campsite for the first two nights in Queenstown was called Twelve Mile Delta. It's set up by the Dept. of Conservation and apparently it was used for filming as "Ithilien" in the Lord of the Rings.

Day 9: Nevis Bungy

The second highest bungy jump in the world (the first is somewhere in Asia I believe).

All along, I'd been telling people "No way I'm doing Nevis, I'm a chicken!" but on the drive to Queenstown I changed my mind. I made the call and had to do some smooth talking for them to let me on the trip my friends had set up already, but I was in.

Definitely the scariest moment of my life but I'm so glad I jumped, absolutely worth it!

Day 10: Milford Sound

We took a tour out of Queenstown to see Milford Sound in Foirdland. It was beautiful! Long day of sitting on a bus - 4 hours each way - but we got to go on a cruise of the sound for a few hours and it was great to see.

Sunset view over the mountains on the way back to Queenstown. (Someone showed my that my camera has night/sunset modes - whole new world of opportunity.)

Got to meet up with Kate that night too! She was over from Brisbane, travelling the South Island for a week or so during the same time I was.

Day 11: Queenstown –> Dunedin

As expected, there were tons of sheep but the drive to Dunedin was the first time we got out to see them. Me, Beck and Shauna hopped the fence and ran after a big herd - they're pretty fast! And there was poop everywhere so it was a pretty short lived chase.

When we got to Dunedin we were too late to see the penguins, so we went on a search for Baldwin Street - the steepest street in the world!

Day 12: Dunedin –> Oamaru Penguin Colony

The next morning we went on a tour of the Cadbury Factory, then drove around the Otago Peninsula for a little while. It was a beautiful day so eventually we made our way to Tunnel Beach - right at the base of the peninsula - to check out the scenery.

There was really a tunnel to get to the bottom!

Obviously an opportunity for jumping pictures couldn't be passed up.

Stopped to do some jumping at the Moreaki Boulders on the way to the penguin colony..

We made it!

And even managed to sneak some pictures as they waddled up the rocks.

Day 13: Lake Tekapo

We spent the morning there walking around and checking out the views from the top of one of the mountains nearby. Really pretty! And I'm pretty sure they said that the lake was formed by the nearby glaciers.

On the search to find a campsite for the night we came across more big fields of sheep. We were able to recruit a couple other vans to join in the chase and we herded them - I'm sure they didn't appreciate it, but we had a lot of fun!

Then, we had a nice little photoshoot with Tangaroa.

Day 14: Castle Hill –> Christchurch

We spent out last morning in Castle Hill, before heading back to Christchurch to return the vans and catch our flights up to Auckland.

Kelly

We got off the bus a little while later and walked up to the road where we thought the trail was… however we wound up in a place called Tunnel Gully which was definitely not where we were heading toward.  We stopped at the sign with a map of the park on it, and were immediately confused.  For some strange reason unknown to me, the makers of the map had flipped around the map to make north point downwards instead of upwards.  We eventually figured out that we had walked the wrong direction and had got off and the wrong bus stop… And got to walk a long way to find the correct trailhead!

We finally reached Kaitoke Park after asking for directions from a nice lady outside her house.  The trail began at a VERY steep incline and I was pretty out of breath.  I stopped to take pictures every once in a while…. but realized that I didn’t have my CF card in my camera and realized it was still sitting in my computer at home.  NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!  So I didn’t get to take any photographs of the amazing scenery on the trail today, which was VERY disappointing.  I had even been considering bringing along my point and shoot that morning but decided I didn’t need it.  Dumb idea.  So I hiked today without taking photographs.  Some of my friends took some photos and will probably put them on Facebook so at least I’ll have something.

Anyways, we took the Ridge Track through Kaitoke Park, which is about 7.5 km long.  It was a cloudy, drizzly day, but that worked out great because we didn’t feel so hot when traversing the ridge.  The trees around the trail were really awesome-looking, there were a lot of ferns and it reminded me of walking through a jungle/rain forest at times.  The beginning of the track may have been steep, but it leveled out after a while, then started a large decline towards the end.  Don’t do this trail if you aren’t in good physical shape.

After a few hours, we came across our main goal of our hike:  Rivendell.  The Lord of the Rings was filmed in Kaitoke Park around the river at the end of our trail.  It was basically just a small river, and was hard for me to tell what was in the movie, since it looked NOTHING like Rivendell in the movies.

Ummm… yeah not sure how they got this:

From this:

But it was a really nice river to stop at, there was a Maori family swimming in the river (one guy was washing his hair with shampoo hmmm)  and a few other families were hanging out.  There was also a cool swing bridge over the river that we HAD to go on!

After hanging out in Rivendell for a while, we decided it was time to leave.  However, we were stuck in a dilemma as how to get back, exactly.  We really did not want to take the Ridge Track back because the incline would be EXTREMELY strenuous and we were already tired from walking all day.  The bus did not go all the way up to the Rivendell entrance.  A taxi would have been kind of expensive, plus we didn’t have a number for a taxi service and didn’t know if they even came up to where we were.  And walking back via the highway would have been pretty long and we might not get back to the bus stop where we began our trip in time.

Solution?  Hitchhiking.  Since we had such a large group (9 people) we split up into three groups of one guy and two girls (for safety of course)… started walking along the road and stuck our thumbs out.  The first group of us actually walked up to some people in the parking lot and got a ride from them.  The rest of us walked along the road, with Alex, Freya and Emily ahead and Bill, Amanda and I following behind.  After walking about 15 or 20 minutes, a car pulled over and let us for a ride.  It was a French couple who had been living in New Zealand for two years.  They were very nice, and kept speaking French in the front seat.  I wish I could remember more French from high school.  They even took us right to the Upper Hutt train station.  We were happy we got lucky with such a good ride.

Bill, Amanda and I walked to a cool cafe called Mayfair (which used to be a movie theatre back in the silent film days) where I ordered a delicious passionfruit and mango milkshake.  Freya, Emily and Alex arrived in Upper Hutt soon after us.  They got a ride with a mom and her twelve-year-old daughter.  Leah, Lizzy and Jarad arrived last.  Even though they got a ride before any of us, they were only dropped off at the bus station where we had been originally!  So they had to take the bus the remainder of the way to downtown Upper Hutt.  After hanging out in the cafe for a bit, we looked at the time and realized that the train back to Wellington would leave in about 5 minutes or we would have to wait another hour, so we finished up our milkshakes and raced back to the railway station!  We made the train right on time.  I sat on the left and watched the scenery go by.

It was an awesome day, I’m pretty tired from all of that walking however.  Hitchhiking was an interesting experience, I’ve never done it before.  I feel like I should go back and take photographs sometime since the scenery was so awesome.  Maybe someday!

We did Rivendell this weekend, and next weekend we are heading to Mordor to visit Mt. Doom.  Also known as the Tongariro Crossing, of course.  And I’m not forgetting my wallet or CF card this time!!!

The canal was restored recently, courtesy of the taxpayer, but seems to be little used. It has a sea lock (but no other locks) and a swivel bridge. Here are some photos taken on a very wet and windy day.

In the 1920s my mother had been a baby carried around on a makeshift carriage through the Himilayas on my grandfather Bob Gorrie's forestry work.  A family story tells that some high up British diplomat was piqued to discover that some British baby had beaten him into Tibet!

Derek Amey, who now lives in Australia, has set up a brilliant overland website covering many trips and bus companies from the 60s and 70s.  http://www.indiaoverland.biz/]

SUNDAY 19TH DECEMBER, 1976

“Up early – Derek’s bus trip to Chinese border (ie Tibet).  Misty to begin with.  Lovely scenery into foothills – wooded winding gorges, green rivers; stopped at one which begins in Tibet and flows into Ganges!  Stopped at fantastic waterfall – another division between Tibet and Nepal.

Saw brown mountains of Tibet peeping between green slopes at border.  Bridge with Chinese guard in green sentry box at the other end.  Had passport stamped on Nepal side. [Kodari]

Stopped for lunch by river and hot spring baths (grotty concrete affair) – good KC’s packed lunch.

Stopped at swing bridge for fools to rush across (ie I didn’t!)  Grandmother, mother and happy kid – old woman with huge earrings in ears and big discs in nose.

Saw rice paper factory at side of road – mill to grind corn then muslin screens which woman used to sieve water and pulp mixture (bark pulp and ground corn) then left to dry in open air and then paper peeled off.

Lovely villages – mellow orange brick and dark thatch.  Women breast feeding by road.  Little kids carrying even littler kids!  Got back sixish.

Went to Shangri la with quite a few of the others – so service slow.  But nice when it came – shared a Tibetan dish with Di (like omelette) and also Buff Bean Curd (Buffalo meat) Nice.”

These people indicate Belize City is not a very nice place—many call it a s__thole. Apparently, their opinions are formed by their experiences with attempted robberies and fraud, with unclean hotel and eating facilities, and the constant soliciting encountered throughout the city. I can only hope that these opinions are somewhat dated and that we will find more friendly and interesting people on our journeys. We may try some unique food in the city but our expectations are not high. I’d like to try the local Belikin beer and I’ve heard the seafood (Conch sandwich?) may be excellent and that local taco-like sandwiches are excellent and unique. Rice and beans are the staple.

So for our first visit to Belize City, we plan to take the Western Road through the City to the Southwest to head toward the inland Blue Hole about 30 miles south of the city. We may stop short at a large lagoon on the way. We will also be looking for opportunities for later visits to take our bikes on buses which can get us to several interesting sites about 30 miles northeast of the city. Among these are the Altun Ha Mayan sites and the Baboon rescue facility which also provides the opportunity through jaguar habitat in the Cockscomb Basin wildlife sanctuary, although I am loath to encounter a jaguar in the wild without my own proper protection and that I know jaguars are primarily nocturnal. We may be able to see jaguars in special circumstances in this prime habitat of Belize.

Amanohashidate is one of Japan’s Top 3 views.  Along with Miyajima and Matsushima, it is considered beautiful.  In my previous posts, I have mentioned both Miyajima and Matsushima.  I was awestruck by the beauty of Miyajima and let down by Matsushima.  For the third year in a row, I went to visit one of Japan’s Top 3 views.  This time, I went with no expectations at all.  I was looking for a nice relaxing day and to just explore a remote area of Japan.  Getting to Amanohashidate is much harder than Miyajima and Matsushima.  Miyajima is difficult because you have to take a ferry.  Matsushima is difficult because it’s located outside Sendai.  Amanohashidate, however, is located far from Kyoto, and Kyoto is the nearest major city.  In fact, Kyoto is closer to the Pacific Ocean, and Amanohashidate is located on the Sea of Japan coast.  If you are travelling from Tokyo, expect to travel for roughly 5 hours.  Bring a fully charged iPod and you’ll be okay.

Amanohashidate is famous because it’s a 3 km sand bar.  Translated, Amanohashidate means “Bridge in Heaven”.  The most famous thing to do, when visiting Amanohashidate is to venture up one of the nearby mountains, stand with your back facing the sand bar, and look at it from between your legs.  This gives the impression that the sand bar is actually in heaven, or heading to heaven.  You can do this on both sides of the sand bar, and it isn’t too expensive to head up.  When you do head up, be sure to take the chair lift.  It’s one of my favourite things to do in Japan.  These chair lifts are not like your traditional ski lifts.  Rather, they are simple chairs with almost no safety features whatsoever.  It can be a little scary at first, but it’s such a peaceful ride that you’ll feel almost as if you were floating in the chair.  Unfortunately, the views of the sand bar aren’t great from the chairlift.  If you head up from Amanohashidate station, you’ll have a little luck as the top of the hill has a small, and I really mean small, amusement park.  It’s probably great for kids, but for adults, it’s nothing special.  You can easily spend an hour just relaxing and taking your time wandering the area.

When you finish looking at the sand bar and get tired of seeing the same static views, Chionji is the only notable temple around the station.  It’s somewhat large for the population, but it isn’t bad.  I’d say it’s worth checking out, and don’t worry about time.  If you arrive on the late train, you’ll still have plenty of time to walk around the entire area as the first trains back to Kyoto aren’t until around dinner time.  The temple itself, however, isn’t special.  The main point of interest is probably the omikuji, fortunes.  They come in small wooden fans which are pretty cute, and I’ve never seen them in that form before.  From there, you can take a look at a type of key/lantern.  Located next to the bridge leading to Amanohashidate is a key that looks similar to an Egyptian Key.  Of course, it doesn’t look the same, but this key is supposed to bring luck for ships.  Many people climb into it and enjoy a picture with it.

Heading to Amanohashidate, you’ll have to cross a bridge.  This is a famous point for photos.  It’s an old swing bridge that opens up many times a day to allow the tour boats to pass.  It’s nice for photos, but after you’ve seen it once, there isn’t much of a point to wait for it a second time.  When you do cross the bridge, you’ll be on Amanohashidate.  This 3 km sand bar is easily traversed by bicycle, but if you feel up to it, feel free to run across.  It appears to be somewhat popular for locals looking for exercise to run up and down the sand bar.  You could also go for a nice swim as the beach is quite beautiful.  The water is very clean and there are various showers located along the beach.  Do note that the showers are turned on during the summer season only.  Also, be aware of traffic.  The sand bar is closed to cars, but motorcycles up to 50cc are allowed and maintenance trucks may travel along the sand bar on weekdays.  Located in the middle, there is a small shrine and various haiku passages.  A famous Japanese writer was inspired to write several haikus while in Amanohashidate.  If you didn’t bring your own bicycle, don’t worry.  Just rent one from one of the many souvenir shops next to Chionji Temple.

One of the last few things you can do is to take a boat ride to the northern shore.  While I never did this myself, it looks nice and it’s a good way to burn time.  The other is to head to the sento.  There is a nice looking sento located next to the station.  A sento is a Japanese public bath house.  The prices for bathing in this sento are a little expensive, but apparently there is a free foot bath in front of the sento.  If you need to pick up some gifts, Amanohashidate is famous for its black bean snacks.  While this is not for everyone, it is an option, and some of them are delicious.  They also have a few varieties of sake and shochu.  Amanohashidate also has a regional beer, but I never tried it.

Other than that, there really isn’t anything to do.  I’d suggest bringing a picnic and enjoying it on the beach.  Amanohashidate feels very remote and other than a few souvenir shops and touristy restaurants, there isn’t much to do.  Once you’ve seen the sand bar, that’s it.  Unlike the other two Top 3 views, there is much less to do here.  I do feel that it ranks in at number 2 compared to Matsushima, but by and far, Miyajima is still the best.  The best thing to do is to make the most of your time when you are in Amanohashidate.  Enjoy being out of the big city.  Relax at the beach.  Read a book.  Talk with your friends.  Enjoy a beer on the beach.  Do everything that you should do when you are on vacation, mainly relax!

Amanohashidate Information:

Japan Guide:  http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3990.html
Wikipedia (minimal information at best):  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amanohashidate
Wikitravel (the best guide, but still not great):  http://wikitravel.org/en/Amanohashidate
Official Site (Good information on events and tours, but no information on the sites themselves): http://www.joho-kyoto.or.jp/~center/english/shop/amanohashidate/

このblogは英語のblog。もし私の英語は難しい、日本語のquestionは大丈夫。

I’m reading one magazine and I saw this Victoria Bridge. It is one of the oldest swing bridge in Australia built in 1889. Its span is covered now by a lot of shops and market stalls. You will enjoy your vacation there.

Photo courtesy: http://www.geo.ed.ac.uk/scotgaz/images/p2568.jpg

The night setup, otherwise known as adaptive re-use of a space.

OSCEOLA, Iowa – A couple of things happened this afternoon that were reasons to pause and think for a while.

The less prosaic events were delays, a few of which were considerable. Two were the result of stop signals on the Burlington Northern Santa Fe-owned tracks, while a third was the result of tugboats traveling on the Mississippi River.

From what I’ve been told, the theory is that the freight companies (such as BNSF) own the rail lines, but Amtrak has the right-of-way. Having said that, if the Amtrak train gets to the decisive point later than the freight train, that right-of-way is lost.

The same apparently happens when the freight line switches aren’t working properly, which is what happened to us between Mount Pleasant and Ottumwa, Iowa. So we sat there for a while and listened to the conductor announce every few minutes that we were still sitting there not moving.

That much was fairly evident, it has to be said.

As for the tugboats, that at least had a bit of drama to it. The rail crossing over the Mississippi is a swing bridge, which means the span rotates 90 degrees instead of rising up in two parts. We waited for a while, but once we got moving the view was spectacular:

Perhaps the most moving images, though, came a few minutes prior to that. I looked out the window at one point and saw a vast body of water. I figured initially that it was a lake, but something nagged at me that it was something else.

Indeed, a few minutes later one of the conductors came on over the public address system and announced that this was the area that got slammed by heavy flooding earlier this summer. This water was still left over from those storms.

Initially, all I saw were flooded fields. But then we passed a few submerged trees, followed by a number of abandoned houses. That was when it really hit me.

Somewhere on this Earth are the people who used to live in those houses, and whose cars or furniture or televisions might well still be there with no hope of ever being saved.

I can’t imagine what it’s like to have so much of the essential nature of one’s being taken away like that. I can only hope that whoever those people are, they’ve settled somewhere and are on the way to fully rebuilding their lives.

Unfortunately, there were just enough trees obstructing the houses that I couldn’t get a good picture. But I did get photos of the algae-filled water surrounding some of the trees that we passed.

Soon after we left Burlington, it was time for dinner. The choices were the same chicken or steak as on the Capitol Limited, trout in a white wine-butter sauce or cheese tortellini in pesto. I went for the chicken with a baked potato on the side. Both were a bit dry, but not too much so.

In addition to dinner and catching up on the day’s newspapers, the other way I’ve been passing time tonight is by watching the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics. It’s been tough, because the wireless signal has been limited at best.

But I managed to see the first few minutes of the broadcast, about 20 seconds of the American team’s entrance and most of the Chinese team’s entrance. Even with the poor quality picture and sound, the energy in the stadium as Yao Ming carried the flag came across loud and clear.

As I write this, the torch has just entered the stadium on NBC’s tape-delayed broadcast (enhanced further by the processing delay on the Slingbox I’m using to watch the show). I already know what’s going to happen, and I hope the signal will make it through to the lighting of the cauldron.

(It did, barely. And the cauldron-lighting was just as spectacular as what I’d read about online earlier today.)

I’m also not too optimistic that I’ll be awake when we get to Omaha and Lincoln, Nebraska, both of which I want to see. The former because I might get a higher-speed signal there, and the latter because if I read the map right we pass right by the University of Nebraska’s football stadium on the way into the station.

Unfortunately, we’re more than two hours behind schedule at the moment. We were supposed to be in Omaha at 10:29 p.m. Central Time. We’re aren’t even yet at Creston, Iowa, where we were supposed to arrive at 8:41 CT. The ETA for Lincoln was 12:08 a.m. CT, and who knows when we’ll actually get there.

What we do know is that we gain an hour’s sleep overnight when we cross the Nebraska-Colorado border into the Mountain time zone. We also know that breakfast starts at 6 a.m., and that it’s once again first-come, first-served. If the wait to get in is anything like it was on the train to Chicago, I’d better be up early.

So that will do it for tonight. I leave you with this picture of a house near the station in Mount Pleasant, Iowa. With the Olympics starting tonight, it’s pretty apt.

Once on Topsail Island however, the wide beaches are inviting, the water a Carribbean blue, there is boating, fishing, water skiing, kayaking, wind and water surfing, scuba diving and just plain relaxing. Not an unattractive way to spend the Fourth of July, plus the four town fireworks display on the holiday itself.

Going to be an interesting week on the island and in Surf City, Topsail Beach and North Topsail Beach. There is always room for a few more. Wish you were here!

Huzah! Spring is here! And early in spring with cool evenings and low humidity usually makes for good nighttime photography. Here’s some snippets. I think I’m changing up my photo hosting away from picasa. These are hosted on flickr, and I’ll blog about that later.

For larger resolutions and a few alternative takes and edits, click here

My subject for the night was Cleveland’s bridges. More specifically my most favorite bridge of all, the Center Street Swing Bridge

Aww, I just wuv this wittle guy.

God, I hope homeland security doesn’t catch wind of this photo. That’s the base of the guy, he pivots on it.

Cars zipping by on its grated….road? bed?

Also featured is the Veteran’s Memorial Bridge (Blue) and the Old Superior Viaduct (Stone)

Want to steal and climb on….

Background: Old Rail Bridge Middle: Cleveland Shoreway Foreground: Superior Viaduct

Swing Bridge with the Stonebridge Condos Development.

I can never seem to get this shot in a satisfactory manner. Its the quintessential Cleveland skyline shot. I tried a slightly different angle than most people, but it still didn’t yield a great happy result.

That’s All! Stay tuned for me, I’m feeling good about being an active photographer this spring!

While waiting for the Taxi-boat at the peer, our presentiment about the weather started to become reality … it started to drizzle and subsequently (after we have already left the island) the heavens opened! We had to cover ourselves with a canvas cover, which kept flying into the air because of the wind blast. Most of the passengers (except us ) got soaking wet. After about twenty minutes the rain stopped and surprisingly the sun came out. When we arrived in Belize City you could actually say that it has become quite a hot day.

As we did not plan to stay there over night, we decided to leave our backpacks in one of the lockers at the harbour and go see some sights. After walking around for more than an hour, my overall impression of the city was quite disappointing. Besides the fact that everyone told us that we should not walk around town by night and in some parts even not by day, there was no sight that was really worth seeing. The only places of interest that are worth mentioning here were the old swing bridge and Dit’s Restaurant. The old swing bridge was built in 1923 and is the only working bridge in the world that is operated manually. It swings open twice a day and as it is on the major road the whole traffic gets jammed. Dit’s Restaurant is definitely one of the best sights in town … everyone who finds himself in Belize City should stop by and eat a big, tasty slice of the luscious coconut pie. – Delicious -