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High in the mountains, there's a tunnel ahead.


There's light at the end of the tunnel


Another tunnel


Another light at the end and another tunnel.


Can see the end already


Finally, flat land!

cool! Thiis thread reminds me of those "flip cards we had as kids.. ASnyone remember them.. They looked like playing cards but as you "flipped" them the pics moved and told a story.

From times past....something that all us travelers should remember....I remember these signs on almost all our nations two lane highways...before interstates.

Oh my gosh, the Burma Shave signs. Where did you find this memory of the past?

These are reproductions of original signs put up by the Rt. 66 historical society in Arizona. These are between Kingman, and Seligman. Still, they brought back a lot of memories.

How well I remember those old Burma Shave signs.

It was a day of tragedy. I was driving to my writing group along the river road when I saw people running ahead. There was smoke rising, and the sudden realization that the IH 35 Bridge crossing the Mississippi River in Minneapolis had collapsed.



Taken later, I had no camera with me at the time.

After searching for the dead, and caring for the living, the task began to build a new bridge. They worked through the night.



Remarkably in just around a year, the new bridge had been built!



On the bridge that horrible day, a group of school children were stranded on a bus. Courageous bystanders, aided by a youth volunteer on the bus, carried the children to safety, lifting them up where the bridge had separated and where no one knew if it would fall or not. Others were pulled out of the water and rescued. A year later, at Intermedia Arts in our city, those same youth on the bus painted this mural on the front of the building.


Build Bridges: See the helping hands of the people holding the bridge aloft. They were especially proud of that car they painted there.


Not Fences: Again, the people hold aloft their bus symbolically on that fateful day. So many lives were saved because people just acted rather than waiting.

I'm so proud of those kids!

Thank you Labrys! That was a very uplifting story made vivid by your gorgeous color photos. I love taking in all of the different stories here. It makes me closer to you all.

The best time to visit the San Francisco Bay Trail is in the early morning if you want to fully enjoy seeing the different species of birds that seek sanctuary there.






Some species, like the Egrets, are actively devouring the little fishes and crabs that thrive in the shallow eddies of the wetlands.











While others, like the Blue Heron, will stand still for long, long, periods of time just staring into the water, waiting patiently for that perfect catch to appear.

The Endless Natural Cycle

Pitcher plants are fascinating carnivorous plants. The tall tube collects water on the inside near the base.


Flies and other insects are attracted to the pitcher plants and wonder around on the outside before investigating the fatal tube. This fly is beginning a potentially fatal investigation.


Once an insect gets down into the tube they are unable to exit because of downward pointing stiff hairs. Eventually they end up in the liquid which slowly dissolves the insect and the plant feeds off the nutrients provided by the insect. This fly is about to become plant food.