Loose_Grip/Pete's photos with the keyword: USA

There are lots of fine wood-framed 19th century homes in the New Orleans Uptown area but back in 1977 some of them were in worse condition than others! With the hot & humid subtropical weather in this part of the world the undergrowth quickly takes over. HFF to everyone. Enjoy the weekend.

Is it a window or a wall? The New Orleans Superdome as seen from the Hyatt Regency. HWW to everyone. Have a great day.

I'm not 100% sure where this was taken but it was definitely on the Mobil Oil West Texas Geology Fieldtrip. It looks like a canyon cut into sandstones and shales with maybe flatter lying volcanics on the skyline. It may be part of Cow Heaven anticline in Big Bend National Park. It was certainly taken from the roadside because we didn't hike into the bush at all on this trip. Lots of bare rock walls around these parts! HWW to everyone. Enjoy the day.

The beautiful gold and silver of the Denver & Rio Grande Railway on the locomotives and baggage car contrasts with the light covering of snow on the approach to Glenwood Canyon in the Rocky Mountains west of Denver. The conductor allowed me to take this view from the open door of our passenger train travelling from Denver to Salt Lake City (where we changed in the middle of the night to an Amtrak train to San Francisco). The lead locomotive is F9 diesel 5771. This was the last private long distance passenger train in the USA but it has long since been taken over by Amtrak. We were moving homes via San Francisco & Australia after a 2 year assignment in New Orleans to live in Medan, North Sumatra, Indonesia.

Terlingua graveyard in West Texas on the northern edge of Big Bend National Park. The discovery of cinnabar, from which the metal mercury is extracted, in the mid-1880s brought miners to the Terlingua area, creating a city of 2,000 people. The only remnants of the mining days are a ghost town of the Chisos Mining Company and several nearby capped and abandoned mines. The population today is 78! Terlingua features in Wim Wenders' movie Paris, Texas. HFF everyone. Enjoy your Easter weekend.

The Window & the Chisos Mountains looking west from the lodge in the Chisos Basin at the centre of Big Bend National Park out towards the Chihuahua desert. The Chisos Mountains are mainly of igneous origin and were erupted and deposited during the Cenozoic. The oldest rocks in the mountains are volcanic ash, mixtures of ash and clay, sandstone, and conglomerates.

The early morning view from Norway House at 2501 Vallejo, San Francisco. The Fort Mason Center with the red roofs is on the bay front to the right & Alcatraz is the island in the bay. The main hill left is Angel Island State Park. We were staying at the Norwegian Sailor's Mission although we were not Norwegian or sailors! In fact it was very reasonably priced & open to anyone but this was not generally known. It had been recommended by our neighbour in New Orleans who was a retired Norwegian-American sailor.

The Permian El Capitan reef complex in the Guadeloupe Mountains on the Texas-New Mexico border. After the flight from Dallas to El Paso we transferred to the tour bus for a geological field trip around West Texas. As an undergraduate I wrote a long essay on carbonate reefs referring to the Guadalupian El Capitan as the prime ancient analogue of modern build-ups. It was a real buzz to actually visit it and hit the rocks with a hammer!

Another shot from my second trip to California via a 1250 mile railway journey from Denver to San Francisco which started on the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad to Ogden. After a bus ride from there to Salt Lake City city centre we changed to Amtrak & from there to San Francisco we took the Southern Pacific route through the Sierra Nevadas via the snow-covered Donner Pass. This shot was taken looking east from the open end-of-carriage connecting door in eastern California

The other end of the train seen in the previous post! Denver & Rio Grande Railroad "first generation" F9 diesel 5771 up front with Budd stainless steel observation car "Silver Sky" visible on the tail-end of the Rio Grande Zephyr at Grand Junction station, an intermediate stop on from Denver to Salt Lake City. This train was the last non-Amtrak long distance train in the USA after the Southern Railway stopped running the Southern Crescent from New Orleans. It was a great railroading experience and had a brilliant 1940s-50s atmosphere. We changed at Salt Lake City during the night but the Amtrak train bore no comparison although the journey through the mountains & onward to San Francisco was certainly spectacular.

Denver & Rio Grande Railroad Budd stainless steel observation car "Silver Sky" on the tail-end of the Rio Grande Zephyr at Grand Junction station, an intermediate stop on from Denver to Salt Lake City. D&RG "first generation" F9 diesel 5771 is at the front. This train was the last non-Amtrak long distance train in the USA after the Southern Railway stopped running the Southern Crescent from New Orleans. It was a great railroading experience and had a brilliant 1940s-50s atmosphere. We changed at Salt Lake City during the night but the Amtrak train bore no comparison although the journey through the mountains & onward to San Francisco was certainly spectacular. The train & engine were withdrawn in 1984 & the locomotive is now preserved at the Colorado Railroad Museum in Golden. We were en route from New Orleans to San Francisco, Australia & ultimately Medan in Indonesia where I worked for 2 years for Mobil Oil Corp. I booked the journey myself through Mobil's travel department & they took some convincing that I really wanted to travel by train. "But it is so much slower & I could be in San Francisco within hours by plane & anyway who in America, especially working for an oil company, would even want to travel by train and anyway we don't know how to book it, it's not in our system!"

New Orleans tramcar number 922 glides along the central reservation on St Charles heading through the Garden District towards downtown. When we lived here I either walked into the office or took this tram which was a real buzz, given the alternative commuting options. The subtropical nature of southern Louisiana is clear from this view. The palm trees thrived in the hot & humid climate. For a few weeks in January/February it could get cold as the weather fronts, normally stalled in the north of the state, pushed through. Then very occasionally even a frost was possible which killed the banana trees instantly although the palms were sturdier.

A shot from our Amtrak railway journey from Salt Lake City to San Francisco on the Southern Pacific route in 1979. This was taken from the open end-of-carriage connecting door. We were passing through the snow-covered Sierra Nevada in eastern California between Truckee & Colfax but I can't be any more precise on the actual location. HFF to everyone & have a great weekend.

Jackson Square and St Louis Cathedral in New Orleans' French Quarter. The 18th century square was designed after the famous 17th-century Place des Vosges in Paris by the architect and landscape architect Louis H. Pilié. It is the site where in 1803 Louisiana was formally made United States territory after the Louisiana Purchase. HFF to everyone. Enjoy your weekend.

I bought this 1973 MG B Roadster from a Mr Swindell of Prattville Alabama... I hadn't been there long but thought it might be ideal for the southern Louisiana weather. Yes & no. Mainly no. New Orleans is semi-tropical so hot & humid for most of the time and raining a lot of the time. Being caught on the freeway with the roof down in torrential rain is not a great experience. Nevertheless the MG was a fun car to drive. This shot was taken at Lakeside shopping centre off Veteran's Boulevard I believe. The MG is in the company of many 1970s classic American motors none of which I can identify

My second trip to California was via a 1250 mile railway journey from Denver to San Francisco which started on the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad to Ogden & after a bus ride from there to Salt Lake City city centre we changed to Amtrak. From Salt Lake to San Francisco we took the Southern Pacific route through the Sierra Nevadas via the snow-covered Donner Pass. This shot was taken from the open end-of-carriage connecting door in eastern California between Truckee & Colfax. Note the caboose on the tail end of an eastbound freight train heading uphill.

The Golden Gate bridge seen from the Marin County end looking south. We were returning to San Francisco from a visit to Muir Woods redwood forest. I was attending a geophysical conference in SF & took an afternoon off, rented a car with a colleague & explored the countryside north of the bay area. HFF to everyone & have a great weekend.

The massive motors of a Saturn rocket outside the Houston Space Centre, home of NASA Mission Control in 1979. This is probably no longer on outdoor display. From Google Earth there is clearly now a very large hanger at the Rocket Park.