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more photos, how about that! Gee, I've only been a month and a half remiss in making a post ... that's nothing, right??


Want an old sign?? Here it is - circa 1956!


Scenery and palm trees.


The stereotypical postcard photo. Somewhere along the eastern shore of Oahu along highway 83.


Hawaii is famous for its rainbows.


Sunrise on the beach.

( more here )

And that's all for now! Next up ... oh, who knows - I'm busy but I will get some more updates in here soon!

what's one supposed to do when they're unemployed? well, I went for a week's vacation with Maressa!

We stayed on the island of Oahu, at the Turtle "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" Bay Resort, even - because someone is awesome enough to get us Motel 6 rates at the fanciest place on the island. How she did that, I will never know, but dang, we lived in style for a little while!

I only took about 1000 photos over the whole week, most of them on two days that I spent exploring the old highways of the island while Maressa did her non-road-oriented thing ... apparently she just isn't as excited as I am at the prospect of three embossed cutout highway markers on one small island!

Wait, why am I marrying her again?? Clearly I need to marry Dale.

That brings the total known to five - there's a pair in Michigan, which I took photos of last November (photos I'll get to at some point yade yada)... and then three on Oahu and I've heard there is one left on Maui and two on the big island.

That means more trips to Hawaii are needed. And we shall take them, because we both love the place completely with all parts of our bodies, including our pee pees.


The view from our hotel at sunrise on the second day.


Explodingly orange koi fish. This is one of my favorite photos of the trip; when I took it, I was hoping I got *something* - I managed to take the photo at the one moment when the fish surfaced for just a second.


Yet another sunrise from, hey would you look at that, the exact same spot!

( and more! )

and that's it for now - the first half of the trip. Next up, lots more old highway signs from the fourth day!

I am behind these photos because I am working on a slew of other projects, so here's some from ... this weekend? Like, including today, the very day they were taken? Zero day turnaround? Unheard of!

Andy and I took a trip out to the desert this weekend ... we essentially did US-60 (I-10) out on Saturday and US-66 and 466 (I-40 and CA-58) back in on Sunday. Here are a bunch of scenery photos... I processed them first because Maressa loves scenery but, for some reason, doesn't care about the subtle differences between button-copy signs and the kind with reflective sheeting.

(Wait, why am I marrying her again???)

on with the show.


Oh all right, here's a highway marker. It's painted directly onto the road, though. Route 66 at sunset, somewhere around Essex.

( a moment of silence for the tragic absence of further highway sign photos )

who knows what I'll post next. It may even involve real highway signs on real poles.

we pick up in St. Louis and head north into Illinois to check on an old highway sign, and run into an impressive tornado system (of which we see nothing due to intervening heavy rain), after which we dash back to Houston to catch a plane.


Clouds over Peoria at sunrise.


The reason for the diversion. This sign dates back to 1940. It has hung on the Centennial Bridge from the day it was built. When they refurbished the bridge in 1996, they simply repainted the sign - to green! - and put it back up. Green matches the new green guide signs that replaced the old white ones.


Large thunderstorm over the Quad Cities area. This was the beginning of Iowa's super-nasty flood season last summer.


Lightning at sunset, somewhere beside US-71 in Missouri.


A scene from the Louisiana bayous.

( and more... )

And that's it for this trip! Next up ... another trip to about the same area, but focusing more on Alabama and Tennessee and not going much further west than Shreveport.

first of two trips in the span of two months covering just about the same area: Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, and thereabouts. Here is the first half, from Houston to St. Louis by way of rural Mississippi.


The Greens. On a rural road in Mississippi is this mailbox. Coincidentally, digital cameras perceive old mercury-vapor (white) street lights as green.


A large industrial concern, just before dawn.


Nothing to see here, just the oldest highway marker left in existence. 1920s.


Fisheyed sunset, somewhere over southeastern Missouri.

( more from the south )


How about after 35 hours?

up next: a sudden diversion to the Quad Cities, and all ideas of getting sleep are put aside.

slogging through the backlog. I'm actually visualizing the end, which will please Alex greatly, because then I can start working on other projects!

So here's a Sierras trip from last May, including some Bay Area photos. After this will be Midwest (May), Seattle (June), Midwest again (July), Midwest again (November), and New Mexico (December). And then I will be done. All caught up. This whole "being unemployed and not going anywhere" thing sure is helping me catch up quickly!


Our friend the Bay Bridge. View from Yerba Buena Island.


Woodlawn Cemetery. Where various people cease to be, and - no matter how I try to adjust this photo - angels fall forward.


Mmm... pointy.

( always more! )

That's all, til the next time!

before we get to my Midwest and Seattle trips ... here are a batch from some California travels in the spring and summer of 2008.


One of my very first shots with my new fisheye lens. My friend Jeff was selling the lens, and he let me try it out before offering it to me at a great price. This photo was taken literally no more than two inches away from the signs. I was convinced, and ended up buying it from him before the end of the day.


Andy beholds the steep mountain dropoff beside the highway.


Moving along to a second trip with Andy into the desert; here is an old sign in Escondido.


Flowers at sunset - somewhere in the agricultural regions near El Centro.

( more from California )

next up, my Bay Area and Sierra western foothills trip of May, 2008. I skipped that one, to get in the two southern California desert sets... then, after that, some midwest action, including the time I got to within 15 miles of a level F4 tornado that kicked off Storm Season 2008 in Iowa!

The last of the Sierras, and a day in Death Valley ... where it - snows!?

I'm only 9 months behind now, since this trip was in late March of 2008. Maybe I can even catch up by the time Livejournal kills itself horribly, and/or I get a job.


Taking the back way into Death Valley. This prepared me for my Iceland trip, where some of the roads were, ahem, somewhat less than paved. Except in Iceland I had a 4x4 - here, just a shitty subcompact. At least 125 miles of gas ... maybe ... unless I got lost.


Death Valley itself. Now 35% more death.


A bunch of pretty flowers. Yes, there are living things in Death Valley.

( did we die? click to find out! )

Musical selection of the day: Stargazer by Rainbow. Ritchie Blackmore and Ronnie James Dio doing their best Kashmir impression. I had not heard this song in about seven years, then I remembered liking it, so I found it on the Tube That Has Everything... and hey, there it was - and, indeed, it is just as good as I remember!

Next up ... definitely not Norway, and not Nue Jersye from last April since I already processed that. Maybe some more miscellaneous California, before getting into my first of two midwest trips of the summer. Memorial Day in Missouri. Yep, that's coming up.

posting more photos, before Livejournal implodes upon itself for longer than half an afternoon...

Here are photos from March '08, showing why it is necessary that I go back to the Sierras more often!


Old US-395 near Trona. Very long exposure (three minutes!), with the mountains illuminated by city lights, and the cars going by on the road.


A reflective branch. Find Richard Nixon's face, win a prize. It's not quite as badass as a tortilla shaped like Jesus, but it's there!


A halo around the sun - US highway 395 at 7600 feet altitude.


The diamond-ring halo. Click for the large image (7600x3800 - over ten megabytes!) - I stitched together eight wide-angle shots, from straight ahead to nearly straight behind me. The image shown here takes up about 165 degrees vertically. The big "ring" halo is about 46 degrees in radius, circumscribing the horizon and going through the sun, and the rainbow diamond is the familiar 22 degree halo around the sun. The first time in my life I had seen both at the same time!


Old US-40 across Donner Pass, in the middle of the night. The street lights of Truckee provide the apocalyptic glow of the low-hanging clouds.

( more from the Sierras )

next up... more Sierras, and Death Valley - on the one day of the year that it rained!

until that happens, I will continue to post photos.

quick technical aside - I can't get LJArchive to work. I have had that program since version 0.943 back in 2005 or so, but have not fired it up in a year or so. Now it attempts to "download sync index" and runs away with the count. After it got to "1320500 of 2261" I put it out of its misery. Anyone else have this problem??

Today's post is ... miscellaneous. I'm just going through a bunch of random Southern California trips taken in January-March of 2008. Some old signs in Los Angeles, a lunar eclipse, and some even more random odds and ends.


The lunar eclipse of February 20th, 2008. The view from my balcony, in a break in the clouds. If anyone wants to see a good, solid sharp photo of a lunar eclipse, click that link for a photo take August 28th, 2007, when the skies were clear!


Silhouettes of trees, somewhere in the mountains on highway 79 near Julian.

( more random stuff )

and that is all for now... next up, we elegantly skip the legendary Norway trip since I have already processed and posted those photos ... and move on to a Sierras/Death Valley trip in late March of 2008. Hooray for being less than a year behind in my photos!

Fuck!

I got my sorry ass laid off. Or no, no I did not. How's this?? the entire company went under - an investment by a venture capitalist fell through at the last minute, and therefore it suddenly became no longer viable to do the "pay the employees for their labor" thing. And I got dismissed - call it not a layoff, call it what you will, it remains still the exclusion of me from your payroll... so it is what it is, now ain't it?

twice in a year. I'm getting used to this. Oddly, I'm not incredibly stressed. I've survived it once, therefore I pronounce myself qualified to survive it again. I mean, sure I'll toss back more whiskey tonight than is healthy for me, but hey ... there's always tomorrow, and tomorrow I'll go out and start the process of getting me a job.

now, let's all have some photos! Today is Mexico. Two trips in January of 2008. The first, to Ensenada and La Bufadora, with Andy, and then the second, across La Rumorosa pass between Tijuana and Mexicali.

I've already made two posts (here and here) about these two trips. May as well review them now. I was, at the time, unemployed and drunk ... coincidences have a funny way of happening, don't they?


La Bufadora. The blowhole. Waves crash against a cave with particular refracting properties, and shoot straight up - occasionally drenching a cameraman or two!


On the way back from Ensenada... gotta love the wisps of fog in the mountains.


Coming back to San Diego - driving fast on interstate five!


Green signs go by in the night.


that's right ... 58 arrests with no acknowledgement of the legitimacy of law. 107 pounds of private property seized without due process... and, hey, look at that, zero drunk drivers - the real criminals - taken off the roads. Thanks for doing nothing, now gimme my tax dollars back.

( mas! mas! )

These days, they're killing each other ... and the border remains somewhat unsafe. Yes, I want to do highways 3 and 5 via San Felipe, and maybe go as far east as Nogales... and yes, yes, I still want to go all the way down to Baja someday. Highway MX-1. Cabo San Lucas. Maybe they won't kill me, maybe they will.

I'm laid off, but that matters little, as I will soon find another job. I have a beautiful woman who loves me and that is far, far more important in the grand scheme of things.

next time - some highway 395 photos!

because these photos just don't post themselves. I'd better not fall an entire year behind! So here is the last of that late, great Colorado trip from New Years, 2007-08. Utah, Nevada and California.


Nope, this is not the Great Salt Lake - this is the Bonneville Salt Flats in winter, when there is a thin layer of collected rain and melted snow... and people drive in it.


Mountains in Nevada, starting to glow in the last rays of sunset.


Well past dusk. Hooray for a fast lens!


Donner Lake, the next morning.


Clouds over the east bay. The view from I-680; and yes, that part of California is greenest in ... January.

( more from the west )

And that's all for now!

I'll have more California photos coming soon - from my US-395 trip from last March. But, next up, will be Mexico - two trips in January, ya know before they started killing each other to impress the United States with the quality of their narcotics. Guys, seriously ... calm down. Come January 20th, we're not gonna be on drugs anymore.

now approaching being precisely one year behind in photos... better get a move on things! Here is some sexy Colorado and Utah.


The first rays of sunrise, and the fast-moving clouds. An old, abandoned alignment of US-6 and US-50 near Thompson, Utah. A two-minute exposure at earliest dawn.


Just a tad later - sunrise over the red rocks.


I-70 in Utah - the least likely of all interstate highways. Once upon a time, I-70 ended in Denver - then the decision was made to punch it across the least hospitable of the Rockies, to connect to I-15 and serve as a major truck route from Los Angeles to points northeast.

And they pulled it off... first, in 1986, across a path never traversed before, resulting in the legendary 110 mile stretch of no services between Salina and Green River - then in 1992 across Glenwood Canyon in western Colorado...

and to this day, I-70 between about Richfield and Cove Fort, Utah, is nearly completely unused, excepting of course the heavy deer traffic. They even upgraded it to four lanes in 1991, not that two lanes weren't enough. Nowadays I-70 dashes across the red rocks, straying far from civilization; given the smooth curves and harmless grades, it is now possible to get from nothing to nowhere at a hundred and ten miles an hour, ensuring that nowhere on the interstate highway system are you more than an hour away from the nearest gas station.

( why yes, there always is more! )

And one last one:


Mountains just west of Salt Lake City, as seen at the sunset. In the foreground: the Great Salt Lake.

that's all for now! Next time - Bonneville Salt Flats (a 48 mile long dead straight section of freeway), some Nevada, and the return to California, approaching the time where the rental car employees questioned the sanctity of their maker.

back to the photos! I haven't posted in a while, but here we pick up in Colorado, December 2007 - where a snowstorm has just subsided, and we thus prepare to cross the Rockies, praying that it does not pick up again and render unto us blinding whiteout conditions (but of course it does!).

I am going to Michigan this upcoming weekend to check on an old sign gantry, and then the weekend after that (Thanksgiving) it's off to visit my friend Dale in New Mexico, and also check out some scenery in Utah. The winter is upon us, and it will be amazing. Then I'm planning a southern California desert trip with Dan in December.

And just in case you all feel like I am neglecting my beautiful bride and going off on my own thousand-miles-an-hour insanities ... fear not, she and I will be going to Hawaii in March, because it will be cute and romantic and we'll stay in the best hotel on the island of Oahu because someone (nope, not me) scoured Orbitz and got us an insane weekly rate at the best hotel on the island. That's right, we rule - luxury hotel at dirtheap rates.

Oh, what's this about me wanting to take a photo of an old Hawaii state highway 75 sign?? You know nothing!

Enough with the tropics - here, as I said, is the freezing cold of wintry Colorado, wherein I promptly get myself stuck in a snowbank.


Red rocks in winter. Colorado state highway 149 - just barely on the western side of the Rockies, after we cross on US-50 across Monarch Pass.


This deer is about to eat me, I am sure.


Ouray, Colorado. Looking back (south) at Red Mountain Pass that we just crossed. This is the photo where I set up my tripod in the middle of the road, and while I was taking a 90 second exposure, a deer walked about two feet behind me!

( and more! )

So this was all the state of Colorado. Next up - a trip across Utah on US-50, I-15, and I-80... exploring Salt Lake City, looking for old interstate shields.

big, rectilinear sword-wielding props to bart_calendar for being awesome. He knows why.

now where did we leave off? Last winter, epic Rocky Mountains trip. In a few weeks I'll be taking a trip to Utah and Colorado and then New Mexico to visit the Dale Mark Experience, and I also have potential trips to Mexico (San Felipe and Nogales), British Columbia (Rockies ridge, including Yukon and Northwest Territories) and Hawaii with my beautiful fiancee in the works. That is all to be planned. Perhaps I will run out of vacations and experience rectal death. Hooray!

For now, let's look at the pictures of the distant past. December 2007.


18x18 I-90 shield. 1958 specs. And, more interestingly, an embossed arrow to point the way. Yep, at some point this was the US-16 freeway. The gantry is on the old alignment of US-16, and it points to the new one - circa 1954 or so. Then it got changed to I-90 in 1960 or thereabouts, thus the old-spec shield.

This is the sign find of the day. There are only two shields with the small numbers left in South Dakota, and this is definitely the only one that is the first-generation specs. We'll see the other one (1961 specs, 24x24 shield) in a bit.


The Badlands - a sudden mountain range in the western half of South Dakota. These days, a tourist attraction - back then, in 1866, an impermeable obstacle that prevents one from reaching the west.


Black Hills, South Dakota. Long exposure, perfect placement - couldn't have dreamed of it being any better, with the meteor intersecting the star trails just so. An eleven minute exposure, shivering my ever-loving balls off, under the most exciting of conditions: 6100 feet, -8 degrees: the most perfectly clear and starry skies I have ever seen in my life.

( let us see more! )

next up... back to Colorado - and this time we successfully cross the Rockies, as we endure the whitest of deaths, as the snow comes down and we plow forward at a whopping three miles an hour in snowblind conditions at 11,300 feet - snow tires, what are snow tires? We have an economy car; we don't need nothing more!

Total fucking white death; what deranged pictures those will be. Snow! Snow! Get it!

first, a question...

anyone want to tell me how to disable the artificial shutter noise on my Blackberry's camera?

Okay, I know it is not officially possible. The feds mandate that any time I take pictures in a women's locker room or whatnot, it make an audible noise, so I can get slapped like the jackass that I am. Fair enough. Now, someone please point me to a l33t hax0r firmware patch that elegantly overwrites that sound clip with all zeroes or something.

---

Now that that is out of the way ... the photos! East along I-80 in Nebraska, then north along I-29 into South Dakota, then westbound on I-90 - all the while looking for old signs.


First thing in the morning. US highway 30 eastbound in western Nebraska. We follow 30 for a while because it's a mile or two away from I-80 and more likely to have old signs. It may or may not be dementedly cold.


Catch of the day! Over and over again, I scoured downtown Omaha for old interstate highway markers, and by the third time, I finally found one. This one goes back to 1963 or so, whenever I-480 was built through here along old US-75. It's in an industrial area and I can't for the life of me remember where. For a while, it was the only old-style interstate shield anyone knew of in Nebraska ... but then Jeff Royston found one that I had missed, about four blocks away while trying to get a picture of this one.


The blue US-77 bridge in Sioux City. South Dakota is the far side, and Nebraska is where I'm taking the picture from. If anyone remembers that cool bridge photo from Norway</i>; well, here in Nebraska was where I started to get an idea that bridges looked good with fog and lighting like that.


Residential neighborhood of the damned? I was just going for the embossed speed limit sign and upon review, the houses behind it look completely deranged and perfect for Halloween.

( more from down on the farm )

Next up ... more old signs in South Dakota, and some more traditional scenery, courtesy of the Badlands and the Black Hills before we head back into Wyoming and Colorado and attempt to cross the Rockies again.

new batch of photos. Been a bit sporadic* recently with the updates - basically, I've been pushing through a sequence of replica-sign orders.

hey, anyone want a Washington US-395 shield?

*yeah yeah I know... I'm a year behind and I'm noting a delay of a week?

Here are photos from Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, and Nebraska. I woke up in Wyoming after being awake for 80+ hours, experiencing near-total biological failure and thus getting a lease on a $26 motel room and my continued sanity.

I headed south to visit my friend Brian (cluebyfour), then was about to turn back west to take photos of the Rockies... before noting that a Snowstorm of Usual Occurrence was blowing through and it would be at least two days before the roads were somewhat less than total death. Thus, it became a frolic through the farmlands for a few days.

Oddly, I didn't see much during this day, but got some cool photos as it got dark. Sometimes it's best just to say "fuck it" to sleep and see what you can come up with.


A wintry evening in Colorado.


Wreath and lamp post. I don't remember which town on US-24 in eastern Colorado this is, but I think this photo randomly came out well.


Foggy night in farmland Kansas.


Hey look, an old sign. I happened upon this one in the middle of the night, and got the long-exposure shot out in the middle of the frost-bombed fields. In the western end of the state, where the highway department rarely goes, plenty of old signs remain, like this interstate shield with the small numbers.

( you know what's behind here! )

This is where we leave off, as we spend the next day scouring interstate 80 in Nebraska for old signs.

we start with photos in Montana, as I decide where to go on my vacation after Thanksgiving. I have a four-day weekend - the first day will be spent doing the traditional turkey-like activities, but in the interest of maintaining civil dignity and domestic peace, I will leave Maressa to do Black Friday all by herself ... in fact, I will run away as far as possible. I'll likely take Monday off just so I can hit Utah and maybe Oregon too.

For now, here is a day in Montana, in December of 2007 - with some North Dakota and Wyoming thrown in for good measure. The main task was to drive I-94 from its beginning all the way out to the North Dakota border (just to say I've driven it) and then come back on old US-10, which still exists beside the freeway that replaced it, in bits and pieces. US-10 is now long-forgotten, as are many, many signs that were left there before it was decommissioned in 1986.

these photos have been brought to you by my monstrous Vegas winnings. Ninety cents playing the loose sluts!


Old US-10 bridge at dawn. Glendive, Montana. The bridge dates back to 1922 and is no longer in service.


Now here are some old signs! Painted directly onto the side of a bridge - go ahead and try to steal them! They're in Miles City. Some of the oldest highway shields in existence. The bottom one is ROUTE/22/MONTANA, which is Montana highway 59's old number.


And here's the very last of Montana at the end of the day.

( and the rest! )

and that's it for Montana. Next up: Wyoming, Colorado, and then - noticing the imminence of an old-fashioned Rocky Mountain snowstorm... east to Kansas and Nebraska to wait it out.

having gone through Iceland and ... goats ... here are some photos from December 2007... that is how far backlogged I am. Snow photos are the best kind of all. It's finally getting to fall and winter, and I look forward to a new season of travel without my various appendages boiling off my body!

there will be no momentous announcements here, or photos of my beautiful bride. Bitch and/or moan all you want - ain't my fault I live an uneventful life.


Montana is the state of Inflatable Biker Santa. Ladies and gentlemen, it does not get any more badass than this.


Interstate Ninety. Appropriately, I'm doing ninety. The storm behind on top of me, threatening wind and rain and snow, is doing ninety as well. This oughta be fun, especially since I am obligated to stop at every exit to look for old signs...

( click for more! )

next up: I-94 and old US-10 in the eastern half of Montana, with perhaps a photo of North Dakota or two... and then, down to Wyoming and Colorado. Vegas this weekend with aforementioned beautiful bride, dear friends of mine, and farm animals. Let us get completely diagonal and wholeheartedly ignore decency ... but before then, maybe some more photos of old highway signs.

Your general excitement is impressive.

thank you, everyone, for all your good wishes - I get to marry the girl of my dreams, and it will be glorious!

no momentous news in this post... we're just going to have to suffer through the photos. Sorry, folks - we can't all be winners.


Sunset. The majestic body of water in the foreground is nothing but a small stream whose primary purpose is to provide sheep with water. As I took the sunset photos, there were sheep bleating about sixty feet away!


Waterfalls and raging rivers in the sunrise.

( more sunset... and some cows too )

that's all for Iceland! Next up, we go back to the beginning of the unprocessed photos... Rocky Mountain trip, Winter 07-08. Montana! Colorado! Omaha! Moo!

Now is one of those times.

I asked Maressa to marry me.

She said yes.

All is well. Let us look at some Iceland photos while I do the happy dance over and over again.

---

Here's half of day 4. This day had a spectacular sunset, and I am pleased to note that I did not get to those photos because I am lazy and easily distracted. So here's morning to about mid-afternoon.


A reflecting lake on a foggy morning.


Blue skies, white clouds.


High clouds with the fisheye lens.

( and more day four )

next up: late afternoon, sunset, another overcast interval, some waterfalls, and the drive back to the airport the next morning.

now 35% more awesomeness!

brought to you by seven hundred billion dollars of poorly thought out economic decisions.

35 people, out of 80, got laid off at my work on Friday.

I survived. For now. Gonna batten down the hatches... I think I'm pretty indispensable, mainly because my salary is low compared to that of more experienced engineers, but just in case, it may get interesting in the next few months. *polishes resume*

let's make like everything is completely ordinary, and look at some Iceland photos.

---

We start with the second half of day 2, which extends well into the night and brings us the northern lights!


Same ship as the last time - and now it is illuminated by the sunset. Look at that, I shot directly into the sun, and I managed not to fail completely!


Strange tower at sunset.


Behold the northern lights. From on top of a mountain pass, with a terrifying opaque fog creeping up behind us - we outraced it, and we got this perfect view!


Green rainbow.

( more, including more northern lights of course! )

more photos... brought to you by the girl whom I love the most. I'm going to marry her someday.


Eighteen percent? Ain't nothing! Try 43% later in the day!


Infinite regression of sheep.


The good ship Garðar. Built in 1913, and washed ashore in 1981... and left there.

( and there is always more! )

Gonna leave it off here since I gotta get me some work done during the days, and that requires some sleep during the nights to get ready for it... coming up on the second half of Iceland Day Three is the Puffin Road (what we managed to capture of it!) and the Northern Lights!

wait for it... wait for it!

we all do! And that's why I'm processing them!


This is why they call it Iceland. Jökulsárlón - a glacial lake, with bits of glacier always breaking off and floating into the sea. This is the first thing in the morning.


Swirling madness. Clouds above Jökulsárlón, in the first rays of dawn.


Dettifoss - the biggest waterfall in Europe!

( more ice and all that )

Next day ... more northern lights, more scenery... and most of all: more goats!

in celebration of the Large (resisting urge to swap two letters) Hadron (there we go!) Collider not causing all reality as we know it to implode upon itself spectacularly... here's Iceland day 1.

this turns out to be the least exciting day, as far as pictures go, but hey you get to hear about how we got the door fucking blown off the rental car.

Wait, you did what!!??

Yeap, the wind in the Iceland, it's something to behold. Must have been a constant 100 mph... I needed to pee (please, hold the jokes) so I opened the car door, and wham, it gets ripped out of my hand and blown against the fender... there is entertainment value to be found in driving another three thousand kilometers on a door that didn't close all the way!

Less containing of entertainment value is how much the damn rental ended up costing us. Let's just look at some pictures.


Hooray for geothermal activity. Iceland is basically a giant pile of volcanoes.


The waterfall Gullfoss. In infrared - for both the strange colors, and more importantly the long-exposure waves.


An ancient farmhouse. I do mean ancient - it may very well date back to the 17th century. Note the ominous, fog-shrouded, sharp cliffs.

( more from the land of ... rain? )

next up... Iceland Day Two, featuring more fun in the inlands, more terrible dirt roads, more old signs ... and, of course, more sheep!

gonna punt the winter-2007 trip photos one more time because I'm jumping ahead and doing up some Iceland!

That's right; four days in Iceland, and here are...

none of them.

This set of photos is just the flight between Minneapolis and Keflavík - nothing here from the ground quite yet, but here's some clouds and some northern lights too!


Clouds at sunset. Not long after having taken off from Minneapolis, so I am figuring somewhere over Ontario.

( more from the air )

next up: real Iceland. Iceland is awesome. Iceland is cool; and by cool, I mean totally sweet.

and for those who wonder how things are going on the relationship front? Ladies and gentledudes, take "excellent", multiply it by twenty, and wonder no more, because it is amazing.

... my first incursion into technology in four days.


sunset, over a majestic lake puddle that sheep drink out of.


and the northern lights!

---

After two successful gas refills, my bank promptly shut off my credit card, figuring that a criminal mastermind had stolen it and gone to the hotbed of illicit activity that is rural Iceland (motto: "more sheep means more to love").

There's gotta be something I can do about this. I called ahead; I did everything right to ensure that I had a credit card while I was there - and I was still treated like a common thieving scumbag.

"Fraud protection" has really gone off the deep end; in most jurisdictions it is now more accurately defined as "harassment", really.

Glad I planned ahead and had emergency cash - but planning for gas breaks during daytime was a tad on the interesting side.

my flight isn't for 3 1/2 hours - time to go get plowed on my last few kroner!

damn I'm back into things. Come on over and jump right in. This is one game that everybody wins! Two and a half days before Iceland, here I go with something from the grim winter of the wild west. California, Nevada, Oregon, Idaho, and Utah - last December, right before Christmas, in the orange lights and the snow.


The Sierras, in southeast Oregon.

( and more! )

And that's all for our run from the bay area to Idaho in one night and one day and a bit of another night. Next up, we pick up in Arco, Idaho - and head north into Montana on US-93. Lost Trails Pass - if that name doesn't conjure up images of romance and desolation for you, then you are a sad excuse. Inflatable Biker Santa, old signs along US-10, and of course snowstorm after snowstorm.

shit, dudes, it's like I haven't posted here forever!

And yes, things are excellent in my world. There does exist a girl whom I love to pieces... things go well along that front. For now, here, have some pictures. A pair of Nevada/California trips from last December. The 8th, and the 21st of the month. Behold the winter!


Donner Pass on I-80. Cars screaming down the bend, well past midnight.


Old I-80 shield in Sparks, Nevada. The "west" and the shield are older than the "to" and the arrow. Yep, at one point, that's all that was up. Old US-40 was signed as I-80 for a while until the freeway was built. The sign goes back to the early 60s.

You wouldn't believe it from the context, but this gantry is down among the casinos and the civilization and the filth. But, getting real close with camera pointed at the sky, I can hope to capture a bit of wildness.

( more of California and Nevada )

next up ... my monster winter-break trip, all the way east, from California, to Omaha, Nebraska. Old signs! Snowstorms! Lots of glorious photos ...

they of course will take their sweet time - between my Iceland trip and my favorite girl, there'll be a lot of time in which I will not be uploading them, but damn if I want such a delay like I had now.

So, whenever I get around to them, you will have them. Iceland in four days, Rio Grande Blood yeah!

this sums up everything you need to know about the south, really.



It's a grocery store. I nearly ran off the road when I saw it.

she loves me
she loves me not
she loves me
...

why yes, she told me so herself.

time to celebrate by doing what this blog does best, which is of course random scenery photos.


Every once in a while, my camera decides "insane space purple" is the correct white balance setting. Who am I to question its judgement?


Old sign of the day. 1940s white guide sign, on a side road to an old California state route 161 alignment. Forgive the terrible angle of the photo - the road is more mud than anything else (seriously, look who's inhabiting the sidelines!), and there was no place to go for a straight shot, unless I wanted to sink ass-deep.


Our friend the red-tailed hawk. The very first time I ever managed to get close enough to one to get a sharp picture at this high resolution!

( take a wild guess what's behind here )


One more of the sunset. This time at a far more reasonable pace, from a far more reasonable place. Don't mind the power lines; I like the photo.

That's all for now. Next up, more California, including the legendary Leesburg Road, which is basically that Bolivian highway, except without the massive traffic. I saw one car on that road... and it was flipped over!

musical selection of the day: Frank Sinatra - New York, New York
dadaist mood indicator: asimportance of nuclear safety in the discussion overbig that

some photos from California and Nevada. This is my trip from early December, during which I bled elegantly from the face buttocks leg. It was more impressive than it sounds; those who were there can attest to that.

This is the first day of the trip... strange clouds over the I-15 corridor between San Diego and Vegas turn into snowstorms in upstate Nevada.


Interstate 15, heading towards Vegas. Just north of Baker. Mountains illuminated from behind, with ominous clouds ahead. This random Thursday (I had Thursdays off at the time, being unemployed and all) was one of the best cloud days I'd ever seen.


And here's me missing out on what's turning into a spectacular sunset. Why? Because there's no exits for 22 miles between Primm and Sloan, Nevada, on the road to Vegas! Goddamn it! Note to self, always take old US-91, which runs parallel to the freeway for that entire stretch. I took this photo backwards out the side window, while doing 105 to try to get to the next exit.

( here's some more )

And that's where we leave off. Next post: more Nevada, and then Oregon and California.

---

(9:51:30 PM) AgentSteel53: I AM GOING TO ICELAND
(9:51:31 PM) AgentSteel53: SO FUCK YOU
(9:51:41 PM) assless chap: YOU WANT TO FUCK ME IN ICELAND?

No news (is good news) on the girl front. And I'm going to Iceland in two months. Awesomeness.

musical selection of the day: Albert King - Crosscut Saw
dadaist mood indicator: experinece eshbasedir enervating

photos!

on my day "off" from work. Well, the deal is, I actually get the fourteenth off for free and use the fifteenth as a vacation day (cheaper airfares on the non-holiday weekend for my trip to New Orleans)... so, in exchange I had to work the fourth. So I did. Got some H-matrix action in. We're productive.

---

Okay, here be something from Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, and Oklahoma - the second half of my Thanksgiving, 2007 trip. Saint Francis, Kansas for some old signs - the rest for some grimmest of winters!


Saint Francis, Kansas. Look at that, a cutout US-36 shield. There are five of them left in this little town, the last one before the Colorado line... looks like every time they send out the fraggin' wagon to replace signs, they make it nearly to Saint Francis and then decide "screw it, it's too far, let's break for lunch" and turn around, and thus these 1960s signs remain intact.


Dawn. Moon behind the tree. Western Oklahoma in a frostbitten winter morning.

( and more! )

And here's where I return back to Steph and Patrick's place in Oklahoma City and I gorge myself down on pumpkin pie some more. Next up: I think a trip to Nevada and northern California, if I remember correctly.

---

Fireworks and met the neighbours. 'Til the next federal holiday ... moose out!

Kansas photos! Because it's Sunday afternoon and I am hung the fudge over; y'all missed out on me pouring enough alcohol down my intake cavity last night to post about cute girls, so I'm just gonna say "it goes well" and avert all your questions elegantly by posting a bunch of random photos of the Midwest as a distraction.

Thanksgiving, 2007.

Flew into Oklahoma City to hang out with my wonderful friend Stephani, who is a sweetheart and made me pumpkin pie repeatedly. Seriously, you wanna get on my good side? Here's how: prop my mouth open and force pumpkin pie down my throat, and I will love you forever.

Road trip from the Friday to the Sunday of that weekend. Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Kansas again, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, back to Oklahoma. No sleep 'til the frost line.


Old sign in Nebraska! This one goes back to about 1966; and what it's doing surviving on the mainline, I will never know. It's the only state-named US shield I know of in Nebraska, and one of maybe 20 total left in the United States. The lights in the background, by the way, are a passing truck.


Behold the bizarrescape. Looking off an old US-77 bridge just south of Lincoln, Nebraska. The snow is coming and the air is purple-grey and the sodium lights are bright red, especially when reflected off the bricks of the old millhouse.


Winter wonderland. Marysville, Kansas. US highway 36. I love small towns in winter. There's something beautiful about everyone getting together and putting up all the lights for a few weeks, just to spread the cheer and make everyone happy - including the random strangers who pass through in the night.

( let's get snowed in! )

fuck. George Carlin died. Seriously, God, that's a shit-ass way to proceed with the old scheme to get three badass people off the earth at the same time. Bo Diddley, George Carlin, I don't fucking wanna know who's next.

Results like these do not belong on the resume of a supreme being.

Rest in peace, you crazy motherfucker.

mmm... girls with really random senses of humour.

Look, if dates go well, you know I don't tell... so quit yer askin'! Put half a liter of Wild Turkey in me and I'll see what I can do, but sober wisdom says just to smile and keep quiet. It works for Buddha and it works for me.

Let's just look at some Wyoming photos from one particular Sunday last October.


Just a single cloud in a deep blue sky.


Danger! Moose! A real live bull moose at Lake Moran, just outside Grand Teton National Park. Yes, this was the first bull moose I ever managed to get a photo of, and I got it totally in the wild. I was happy.


Continuing in a series of "pictures I barely got", here's sunset, somewhere in Idaho. I took this one out the side window of the car while doing some unimaginably high speed down highway 26.

( now 35% more scenery )

that's it for Wyoming! Next up - Thanksgiving trip to Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas.

Photos from the last weekend of October, 2007. After my weekend trip to Oregon and Washington, my next trip was to Wyoming, with some Idaho, Utah, and Nebraska exploration thrown in as well. But mainly the scenery is Wyoming, and here is Friday (when I left after work and drove all night), and Saturday.


Moonset, sunrise. Flaming Gorge, Wyoming. A side street to highway 530 in the southwestern corner of the state along the Green River.

( visual blitzkrieg )

Next up, we continue on in Wyoming and get to Grand Teton National Park.

continuing on my trip to the northwest last October... yesterday we saw Washington photos; tonight, here's Oregon. Down US-97 and then across the Cascades and back, before driving east to US-395 and back to Boise where I had work the subsequent Monday.


This has to be one of the best random shots of a highway sign I've taken. Southern Washington - just north of the Columbia River, into the teeth of a pretty sunrise. Just kidding on the state-named I-84 shield. Good luck finding an Oregon I-84.


I'm gonna stand at the top of the world, yeah! Old US-28 at 5200 feet altitude, up in the snow, well past the trees, crossing the Cascades, with a view of the Three Sisters to the south. The third Sister is barely visible, as it is almost directly behind the most foreground one.


Under the clouds at sunset: US-395, proudly connecting nothing to nowhere, since 1934.

( Oregon? oh yes! )

That's it for that weekend. Next photo batch will be Wyoming from the weekend immediately thereafter.

link to what I am listening to right now: Thin Lizzy rules!

these photos are from October '07, when I went to eastern Washington and Oregon. Part of my tasks for my previous job - before they unceremoniously fired me for not holding up the American economy singlehandedly - they flew me out to Boise for two weeks and on the weekends I was free to go wherever.

So, I did!

I hit the plane on a Friday afternoon, all the better to get as many weekends in remote locations as possible, landed in Boise just after dusk, and drove up nearly to Spokane before the day broke. Then I explored eastern Washington, before crossing the Columbia river into Oregon, and then back to Idaho.

That was the day the fires broke out in San Diego. I kinda sat them out; I flew out to Boise two days before, and went home well after they were contained.

Here's the first day... Idaho up to Washington and down almost to Oregon but not quite. The second day will be Oregon and back to Idaho.


Hey look at that, an old sign! Red glass cateye reflectors date this back to 1931, when this bridge was built. When I found this, it was the oldest sign I'd ever seen; since then I've seen a sign in Mississippi that went back to the 1920s. So now, this is second-oldest, and hey it's got the badass glass reflectors. It's even on a modern state highway - US-195 in eastern Washington. It works, and they haven't bothered to replace it yet. I fact, they've put in new bolts to keep it there! Good thinking!


How's this for a spooky old road? Old US-97: Blewitt Pass, last maintained in 1964. It's a dark and stormy night, the leaves fall as they may, and here I go up the mountains! Stay tuned to see if I survive 31 degrees, a sudden snow shower, fogbank after fogbank, and the deeriest and elkiest dang road in the history of reality! This photo was done with the a flashlight for foreground lighting off the leaves, and perfect deep blue skies for the back.


And the pot of gold at the end of the harrowing road: an old I-90 shield! 21 by 18 inches; this one may very well go back to the 1950s. Note the white "TO" and arrow. They definitely match a white US-10 shield, which was the road that preceded I-90 back in the day.

( always there be more )

That's it for today. Next up, shiny Oregon!

here are some from my trip to Vermont this last April. Similar areas covered as some of the previous trips - New Jersey, most prominently. This trip, like the last one of which I posted photos, featured the wondrous navigational skills of Dan, who is just about the only person brave enough to on a road trip with me, knowing full well we may not stop before Christmas.


How 'bout an original New Jersey Turnpike gantry? Note the badass art-deco mounting for the two black guide signs. This is on the Turnpike Extension, which is I-78 heading east from the Turnpike to the Holland Tunnel. The Extension was opened in 1956, and this gantry hasn't been touched since then.


How 'bout another one? Incredibly, two have survived all these years. They are located at exits 14A and 14B of the Turnpike Extension, and if you would like to steal them for your own private home use, go ahead and try - they only weigh five thousand pounds each.

Credit goes to Steve Alpert for the discovery of these two gantries, as well as a slew of other signs in the northeast I've been featuring in the last few days.


The Mid-Hudson Bridge in Poughkeepsie, New York. Yes, they do light it up in many colours at night, and here is the view from the Supposedly Forbidden Area, where the fence is long missing, and that's my excuse, officer, in case you're patrolling on this night... fence, what fence? Well, lucky for me, there was nobody around at the time ... officer, what officer? I got this photo from forbidden land, and I'm damn proud of it!


And here is the purpose of my trip to the east coast. A Vermont/US/2 sign! How did this sign get into this state?? Note the brand new, shiny installation bolts: this sign was put up no more than a year or two ago! The town of Waterbury needed a US-2 sign, so they found one in the back room and put it up. "Well hey Morton, they don't put Vermont and US no more, better scratch those off!" So there goes most of the old black vinyl, leaving only the digit 2 in black. Too bad fifty years has rendered most of the sign faded, and when they scraped off VERMONT, they got brand new shiny white background. Dang, what a rogue of a sign. Thank you, Waterbury, for giving old signs new life!

( let us go to Vermont! )

That's it for my New England and Other Northeast excursions. Next up... Wyoming - the land of the moose! I'll start processing those photos this weekend.

With that, I am setting my alarm for 3.30am and going to sleep. Gotta drive Andy to the airport all bright and early tomorrow!

Day two of a northeast trip from many, many months ago. Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts.


What do we have here? The last remaining original black (not green) exit gantry from the US-6 freeway through Providence! This one goes back to the 1950s. At some point, it housed a system of lights that illuminated the text from the inside, but I think it's been quite a few years since that has worked. Hell, you can't even take this road to Olneyville Square anymore. It's still called Harris Avenue, but it's a little residential street now.


The famous Shell sign on Memorial Drive in Cambridge, MA. It is redder and yellower than you. Under perfectly clear skies and ideal lighting. I lived in Cambridge for five years, and not once did I see it like this. I go back to visit for three days, and voila. Maybe I spent all that time not looking, what with class and all. Note to self: don't let surroundings pass you by!

( old signs, anyone? )

photos from an East Coast trip I took in September of 2007 with Assless Dan. New Hampshire, New Jersey, and a few other new places... but mainly it's old signs that we were looking for.


Start in Boston, and then head to New York City - by way of Concord, NH, and Wilmington, DE. What's that they say about the shortest distance between two points?


Old AAA (auto club) guide sign in New Jersey. There are a bunch of these, and they go back to the 1940s. This one points to the enchanted forest of turkeys.


And here's the enchanted forest of turkeys.


The Throgs Neck Bridge. Brought to you by the Committee For Near-Identical Photos: here is Dan's photo, taken approximately 30 seconds before, and fifteen feet away.

( up and down the east coast )

And that is where we stop, for now. Next up, more Connecticut, and the exciting state of Rhode Island (now 35% less land area).

getting back to the photos... here are some from September, 2007 - damn, I'm behind! This was the time I went up to the bay area to take photos of the Bay Bridge, see BB King with Bryn, and talk my way out of a speeding ticket.


Up the 101, and back down again. Brief excursions along various non-101 Bay Area freeways, and a quick trip across the mountains to Watsonville.


The Anti-Bay Bridge. The bridge that nobody seems to know about, given that it's not the Bay Bridge, and certainly isn't the Golden Gate Bridge. It's getting replaced, and that's all that people seem to know about it. It connects Yerba Buena Island to the Oakland side of the bay (best known as the side that is awesome).


Bizarre sunset in the East Bay. To be specific, in the parking lot of a BB King concert. Fires in Plumas County (about 100 miles to the northeast) caused the whole sky to turn Apocalypse Brown.

( up ... and back down again )

Let us behold day 6.




The shortest place name on Earth. Å. This is why I wasn't too worried when I didn't get a photo of the sign for Å i Lofoten - because here is Å i Andøya.


And here is the å for which the town is named. "å" is Norwegian for "small stream".


A halo, somewhere over the island of Langøya.

( more photos! )

And with that, we say farewell to Norway. The best vacation of my life, and if I'm lucky, Iceland in September will be even better. I hereby resolve to go to a continent I do not live on at least twice a year.

I hope you all enjoyed this sequence of photo posts. Next up, I'll post some photos from ... New Jersey.

In celebration of me purchasing tickets to Iceland for Labour Day ... here's more Norway. Day 5. I may or may not get Day 6 done tomorrow night; Friday night I fly up to the Bay Area for the weekend, so hey we may very well go back to the usual state in which I am way behind on my photos. Enjoy the surplus while you can!


Starting from Alta. Highway E-6 for a while, then an excursion to Straumnes, where there is much snow to be found. Then onwards to the inevitable Tjeldsund bridge. Told ya we'd be back there a lot.


A fishing boat, under completely overcast skies. I love the red of the buoys contrasted with the grey of ... everything else.


And, just to prevent the stressful effects of suspense, here's a photo of the Tjeldsund bridge.

( how many more can we squeeze behind here? )

actually, they're not... that's why we have to go there. Norway day 4 photos!!


Day four features a trip to Kirkenes, the easternmost town in Norway. Further east than Istanbul, even! A bit of beholding of our dear Russian neighbours, and then, heading back west, getting caught in whiteout conditions over the Eaštoroaivi mountain pass, then attempting to make a run on Nordkapp - the northernmost point in continental Europe - and getting stuck in a tunnel instead. Refusing to die, we instead go to the manliest place on Earth: HAMMERFEST!


On the left side of the image: Most Sovietest Russia. Doesn't look very exciting, does it? Or very different from the Norwegian side, for that matter. These barren trees are ours. Those barren trees are theirs. Fear! Loathe! Two minutes hate! We must do everything in our power to protect Our Desolation from Their Desolation.

And who knows which is which, and who is who.

This photo is in infrared. With a tripod and all. A few hundred feet down the road is a big sign that says "no tripods"! Hah. Long exposure shot and all.

If you gaze long into Soviet Russia, Soviet Russia will gaze back into YOU!


Life well north of the Arctic Circle. One village, two village, red village, blue village. Total population: 2. When the news is slow and the fish aren't biting, they occupy their time by throwing paper airplanes at each other across the fjord.

This place is not listed on the map. The closest I can pinpoint it to is to note that each house is on the shore of the Vestertana ("west Tana") Fjord.


Sunset, near Lakselv. Excellent light - never mind the absence of direct rays!

( Rocket to Russia )

Day 3 - ready, set, go.



Day 3 features us exploring inland, into the Finnmarksvidda. So let's see about the etymology of this word: "Finn" is Finn, to reflect the locals; "Mark" is Mark, like the lead singer of T-Rex; and "Svidda" is the land of snow, ice, and a whole everloving shit-ton of reindeer and not much else - except for that one guy with his airplane.

No, I didn't get a photo of the airplane - I was about five kilometers away by the time the logistical sexiness of the guy with the airplane dawned on me. Let's think here; we're about three hundred kilometers from anything approximating civilisation - and here's a guy with a little airplane (a Cessna 152 or the like) parked in front of his house. From where does he take off? And where does he land? Well, there's a really flat and straight section of highway 93 running past his house... and a car comes by once every 45 minutes, if that...

now that's badass!

We start not too far away from familiar Nordkjosbotn, and then head southeast into Finland and Sweden for a bit, before crossing back into Norway. The sky remains overcast for most of Day 3, and thus the scenery is correspondingly bleak. This is about as "middle of nowhere" as it gets.

Then, a mad dash back to the coastline, where the weather is supposed to suck less, a crossing of the Tana river - the unofficial boundary between "the hinterlands" and "the even-more-hinter lands" - up to Vadsø, a brief excursion into a snowbank, and hey, the northern lights, just to say we did.


Rainbow skies, just west of Vadsø. This, by the way, is right after I plugged a snowbank. I tried pulling over, and, well, the snow may be deeper than it looks at first glance. SINK!

There was a very nice active phase right overhead, with wondrous dancing spirals of green... but I had no time to look; I was busy standing in the middle of a dark road wearing an American-made orange reflective vest... waving my arms, flagging down a cute Norwegian girl in an Audi A6, for whom it was apparently second nature to pull a dumbass tourist in a subcompact out of the snow. 255 horsepower and survival gear is par for the 70-degrees-latitude course.

given all the social anxiety I have, I find it damned reassuring that, when the bodily wastes impact upon the rotary ventilation, I can put it all aside quickly, and summon the requisite assistance to get the job done.

The lights flashed overhead, and I was busy tying a rope to the A-pillar of my car. D'oh! No photos of the best moments - they danced overhead, and I could just get a brief glance. The rope was secured...

"look at the northern lights!"
"this one is pretty good, yes"

pretty good - well, someone clearly has lived north of the Arctic Circle all her life, and therefore gets a display like that once every nine days or so. Lucky girl, you, Camilla from Vadsø... especially in 2013 when the sunspot cycle next hits its peak - and the aurora increase in intensity by four or five orders of magnitude relative to now. Count your blessings, every morning and certainly every night, that you've got a surplus of what us residents of San Diego (latitude 32 degrees) will travel six thousand miles to see!

( day three is the place to be )

Look at that, I'm making progress in processing these photos.


We pick up from Day 1 near Nordkjosbotn, and dash south in the middle of the night on highway E-6, to where it hits E-10. E-10 west, across the Tjeldsund bridge, all the way to the village of Å, and then back along the same road, because Norway is - like Alaska - very sparsely connected. E-10 all the way east to... well, almost to Kiruna, Sweden, because there is a big snowstorm blocking our path! Retreat again, down to Narvik to get gas, then up again on E-6 - almost back to Nordkjosbotn, actually, but we're branching off on a slightly different route. The good thing is that even though I covered the same spots over and over again, there was different light and weather each time, making it highly interesting.


The same northern lights as the previous night - still visible, as the sky gets brighter with dawn. The village of Steiro is on the other side of the fjord.


The Tjeldsund bridge, in late afternoon. E-10 is Kong Olavs veg ("King Olav's road"), whose modern incarnation was built in 1967 over an old Viking trail from Luleå, Sweden to Å.


Don't be fooled: this isn't a sunset in Norway. It's actually in Sweden, as we look back westward on the way to Kiruna. Originally the plan was to go through Kiruna and into Finland, but then nature intervened.

( let's day two - and say we did! )

Picking up in Tromsø, we proceed to learning to drive stick shift in ten minutes on the road to Hansnes, and then march onwards to Nordkjosbotn and a spectacular northern lights display.


you may note that Hansnes and Nordkjosbotn are in opposite directions. I drove to Hansnes, turned around, went back to Tromsø, verified that I was all right at stick shift by driving around downtown some, and then headed south to - and past - Nordkjosbotn. Memorise these names, and the spelling thereøf. There will be a quiz låter.


Traditional dusk. Actually, this very first night was just one of two times I got a sunset without it being absurdly overcast. (The other time was ... the second night!) My ability to avoid rain and snow was pretty iffy, but it sure led to some very interesting conditions!


World-famous glowing trees of Norway. Actually, don't tell anyone but there's some car headlights involved. On the road to Nordkjosbotn, in the very last light of the setting sun.


This is what we're here for. Northern lights over the villages of Seljelvnes and Nordkjosbotn.

( hit the lights )

... or, having been there, let's look at some photos!

I've decided to get on these now! - before I forget where everything is and how to spell it correctly! Wyoming and New Jersey and Oregon can wait. Norway cannot.

Here's photos from ... well, not from anywhere on the ground in Norway! These photos were all from my insane amount of flying, from San Diego, to Chicago, to Oslo, and finally to Tromsø.


Northern lights! We're not in Norway yet, and there they are. Mission accomplished, a whopping eight or so hours into the expedition - before the first official night, even. Don't mind the Brownian star tracks: I managed to keep the camera still relative to the airplane quite nicely, but the airplane of course was moving. Note the purple fringe on the right in the northern lights. Green is the usual colour - purple is rather uncommon!


About one-third of the way from Oslo to Tromsø. Hooray for CS3's "auto colours", which is a very simple algorithm that does a great job of cutting through many, many layers of atmosphere. That nearby peak in the center is at least forty miles away.


Landing in Tromsø. One can see the runway at lower right.

( more, as is the custom )