Last of the best of the holiday snappix

Image overkill

Yes—In the last post I said that it contained the last of the photos—but this was a blatant lie as there was another big 'ole batch still on the camera which I enclose below. This lot depicts the last leg of the trip on the Amtrak 'California Zephyr' train through California, Sierra Nevada, Colorado and on through the midwest to Chicago, Illinois.

I re-watched 70s classic 'The Silver Streak' last night and afterwards overdosed on IMDB trivia—finding out all sorts of useless info, like the fact that the train shots were all done in Canada and was the very same one we rode on The Canadian trip. This because Amtrak would have nothing to do with crashes and the like. If you haven't seen it - it's a hoot (plot holes and all). Naturally, Richard Pryor totally steals the show.

Anyhoo. Here's the last pix with captions for incidental context...

The awe-inspiring Redwoods at Muir Woods, just north over the Golden Gate Bridge

Sea mist makes for beautiful sunbeams through the leaves

Bark detail. These are the last original trees, some well over a thousand years old and still growing

The atmosphere here was phenomenal. So quiet and uplifting. Fact Fans: This wood is also known as the Forest Moon of Endor in Return of the Jedi...

Museum of Modern Art peeps out of the evening mist

Immaculate restored VW Rabbit; note on window expresses the passer by's love and an offer to buy said sky-blue cutey

More mist outside Indian restaurant. Bit dodgy having camera out here what with all the scary beggars.

Building site reminded me of the monolith excavation in 2001: A Space Odyssey

On the Zephyr Train; Throughout the first afternoon we chased a little fluffy cloud as is slowly grew into a behemoth anvil



Clouds brewing

I love how the pastels came out in this one

Clouds and lightning were at their height here; a wall of grey. Naturally I was manic like a kid on Tartrazine

Just an eighteen-wheel 'Semi' on the horizon

No comment other than my love for decals

We really had our fill of quality sunsets/sunrises on this trip. This, in Nevada

Why do we love seeing our star peep under the horizon so much?

This is dawn, about an hour before reaching Salt Lake City. The Salt Flats seem to stretch for hundreds of miles

Flood plain in full flood

Big industrial complex





'Parachutes' - The name given to these amazing rock formations on the way towards Colorado

View of the Colorado river canyon as taken from our brown 80s-tastic Amtrak observation car







Road and rail weave across the Colorado river. Our conductor informed us of how it doesn't reach the sea any more as the water-hungry Californians bleed it dry with car washes, air-con and irrigation. He was a lot wittier than me though.

Boxcar at Omaha

Gravel hopper at Omaha

Boxcar at Omaha

Oil Tanker at Omaha

Oil Tanker at Omaha

Caboose Loose Aboot this Hoose

Restored Union Station at Omaha; Nice lump of Art Deco



Couple of wrecks round' back of Uncle Jesse's lot

Stormcloud + Sunset = Nuclear Test lookalike

The Scariest Most Unroadworthy Cab In The World™ takes us over the Brooklyn Bridge back to Manhattan in time for our flight home (sob)

View out of the wing on our Virgin 747-400

Wheee! Bye Bye Newark!



Views of Manhattan and the Five Boroughs as we turn about and head for the atlantic