I don’t know about you, but after seeing Jan’s latest work, I feel the need to go visit Wallace Falls. This series is just stunning.

• Before the Plunge
• Generating Condensation on the Lower Falls
• Looks Enticing, But Too Cold For a Shower
• Upper Wallace Falls

Done any traveling, and have pictures you’d like to post? Photos don’t have to be of the high desert, but I’m fond of remote areas that take some work to see. If you have something like that, drop me a comment and we can discuss putting something up. If you already have your own blog, I’d be happy to link to appropriate posts. I would like to post at least one teaser image per post.

Are you a Wanderer? Let’s see where you’ve been.

Not exactly. I still won’t be writing much, and I’m not reading anything current. Rereading Louis L’Amour and Dick Francis mostly. You shouldn’t hold your breathe for a reply to your e-mail either, it won’t be soon coming.

I’m sure the e-mail notes and e-cards I’ve been receiving are very nice, but I’m not reading them.  As I mentioned, I’m taking time off. I’m not reading e-mail, I’m not reading blogs, I’m just watching the scenery go by. Life’s too short to spend it all behind a computer, and I’d hate to miss out on the good part.

If you’re wondering why blogging is erratic… you must be new here. If however, you’re wondering why blogging has been light, I’m in the last couple weeks of a significant project. This will of course be followed by several weeks of sitting around in a stupor wondering what happened. I like to call this “vacation”. Not entirely coincidentally, this vacation will fall over a major holiday, so that will suck out any blogging ambition I might possibly have…

On the plus side: I’m planning quite a bit of wandering in the next few months (Can you plan wandering?), so I should be able to post a lot of photos.  Midwestern travel mostly, but of course I have to get there too, so we’ll see what I can find along the way.

Despite predictions to the contrary, Fall colors aren’t too bad. Random locations in Giles County Virginia.

Any movie buffs visiting today? Recognize this location?

Need a hint? Picture the second picture with water instead of grass in the foreground.

Still nothing? How about Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey? Dirty Dancing (1987) was filmed here. Obviously the water level has gone down. Apparently this lake’s water level plummets every few decades, then comes back. Nobody is quite sure why.

Update: Here’s their website, in case anyone is curious. Mountain Lake Hotel.

Here’s a few pictures of my weekend traveling. Taken from the Farley Waystop on Highway 100 in Giles County. I believe it’s Walker Creek, but I’m having trouble verifying that. The map says that the convenience store I saw is the town of Bane Virginia. Now that’s a small town.

As with a lot of my photos, these have had minor edits in PhotoShop. In this case, slight adjustments to color and contrast. Nothing a good photographer couldn’t have gotten right with a camera.

Trackposted to Blue Star Chronicles, Pirate’s Cove, Rosemary’s Thoughts, The Amboy Times, DragonLady’s World, The Populist, and Shadowscope, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

BLDGBLOG: Derinkuyu, or: the allure of the underground city

Meanwhile, Robert, my co-reader of Weisman’s book, pointed out that the discovery of Derinkuyu, by a man who simply “broke through a wall and discovered behind it a room that he’d never seen, which led to still another, and another,” is surely the ultimate undiscovered room fantasy – and I have to agree.

What a fascinating idea. Underground cities lying hidden under current cities and towns. Some beautiful photos of the various sites. I’m not interested in traveling to see a lot of the famous landmarks and structures that most tourists want to see. The Eiffel Tower for instance holds no interest for me. This on the other hand, I’d travel to see.

Everything is green in Virginia in the summer, and most of the other time too. That’s supposed to be a good thing. It never seems quite right to my eye though. Here’s the Washington State that I know and love.

I’ve posted other pictures of the Columbia before. They are here, and here. The photo in the second link might not seem like the Columbia, but it’s there, in the distance.

Something about the weather has been making me think of fall. Fall to me reminds me of the Cascade Mountains, so I went in search of photos from one of my trips into those beautiful mountains. This is one of the many high lakes off of the Twisp River in North Central Washington.

I’m looking forward to seeing where this goes. He only has two posts up so far, but I love good outdoor and wilderness photography like the first one.

Jan Bussey has been playing around at Deception Pass. It’s a beautiful place, I’ve been there a number of times. Unfortunately for me, I’ve never been able to take the kind of photos that Jan’s gotten. She’s recently posted Deception Pass 1, Deception Pass 2, Deception Pass 3, and my favorite Rocks in the Water.

Unrelated trivia: Deception Pass is also the name of a great book by one of my favorite authors, Earl Emerson.

Marengo Cave was a fascinating side trip that I’d highly recommend. Very well run. The tour went off without a hitch on their part. My flash batteries went dead as soon as I walked into the cave, but that of course wasn’t their fault.

There is an amazingly beautiful reflecting pool when you first walk into the cave. It looks bottomless, and you’ll never believe how deep it is. Photo three is my poor attempt at showing it’s depth.

Trackposted to Blue Star Chronicles, Webloggin, Perri Nelson’s Website, The Amboy Times, DeMediacratic Nation, Right Truth, and Conservative Thoughts, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

More wandering at Patoka Lake, Indiana. I spent several days on the shore, and I never ran out of things to photograph. Here are couple of random photos that I liked. If I’d stayed longer I might have rented a boat, that seemed popular, but for this trip walking was enough.

Trackposted to Blue Star Chronicles, Webloggin, Perri Nelson’s Website, The Amboy Times, DeMediacratic Nation, Right Truth, and Conservative Thoughts, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

I found the Indiana Railway Museum in French Lick, Indiana. Home of Larry Bird for any Celtics fans. The trip takes you ten miles through some very pretty country, then reverses back to the start. If you move to the back of the train in time for the reverse trip, you can look over the shoulder of the conductor who sits on the back platform (front?) as a lookout at road crossings. Nicely low tech.

Traveling through the 2,200 foot Burton tunnel was an interesting. All lights are out as the train passes through this almost half mile of tunnel.

It’s a beautiful train ride, but take a good camera and fast film because most of the track is overshadowed by trees and the light level is a little low. Here are a few of my favorite photos.

Trackposted to Blue Star Chronicles, Webloggin, DeMediacratic Nation, Right Truth, The World According to Carl, and Right Voices, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

Went on a bit of a road trip last week. I saw Patoka Lake among other things. It’s a very beautiful reservoir in Indiana. Here are a few shots I took with my digital camera. I haven’t gotten the 35mm developed yet, they should be even better. I’ll post some of those when I get them back.

Taking a three day weekend, so this will be the only post of the day. I spent Saturday driving across Virginia. DC and Maryland traffic is even crazier than I remember. When exactly did someone driving seventy in a forty mile an hour zone become a moving pylon for faster moving traffic? I survived obviously, though I may have lost part of my car in the potholes of D.C.

He falls 12,000 feet with a partially opened parachute. The video of the fall is a little nauseating, he’s spinning pretty fast. His friend’s video shows the fall from above, and it’s a spectacular crash. In terms of his life, and his friends, this is a truly lucky man.

World exclusive skydiver video… watch the incredible footage here! | the Daily Mail

I’ve never parachuted, (and I’m not going to either), I just don’t need that much excitement in my life. I realize that crashes like this don’t happen very often, but that’s all that would be going through my mind as I prepared to jump. I’d likely have a heart attack before I got out of the plane.

While not in this class of accident, I have been in some fairly exciting horse wrecks. Unlike this gentleman, my friends (and family) never seem to jump in and lend a hand. Mostly they stand back and laugh. I’m sure they’d call for medical attention if it was needed, but sometimes the hysterical laughter is a little distracting. You’re trying your best to keep yourself and your horse in a nice vertical relationship (ground – horse – rider = good, ground – rider – horse = bad) and all you can hear is cackling. Of course some of my more infamous incidents happened in remote areas, so medical attention isn’t always an immediate option. I tore up my back while riding in the Pasayten Wilderness once and then had to get back on the horse and ride 18 miles to the truck. That’s one time a good friend parachuting to the rescue would have been welcomed.

h/t Boing Boing

Trackposted to Perri Nelson’s Website, Rightlinx, third world county, stikNstein… has no mercy, Woman Honor Thyself, The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns, Adam’s Blog, basil’s blog, Pirate’s Cove, Stuck On Stupid, Cao’s Blog, Jo’s Cafe, and Right Voices, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

After my last post, it occurred to me that I didn’t put up a photo showing why my father like that trail so much. Here’s two reason why he loved it. The view… and the view.

Trackposted to Wake Up America, Perri Nelson’s Website, Faultline USA, The Random Yak, Adam’s Blog, basil’s blog, Maggie’s Notebook, Blue Star Chronicles, Planck’s Constant, Renaissance Blogger, Common Folk Using Common Sense, Dumb Ox Daily News, and Jo’s Cafe, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

I was discussing good mountain trails with someone the other day, and I promised to post a few pictures of one of my favorites. I like this one because it was one of my father’s favorites. Click on the photos for larger versions.

This is Hoodoo Pass, Washington State. The first picture is taken from the bottom of the last climb. The trail is barely visible crossing the upper edge, below the cliff.

This was taken looking back from one switchback short of the summit, the trail is visible almost the entire width of the photo.

Here’s a perspective shot for you. That’s four ridden horses and two pack mules entering the first switchback. Coincidently, they are passing where photo two was taken.

More photos of the Hoodoo

Trackposted to Perri Nelson’s Website, Faultline USA, The Random Yak, Adam’s Blog, basil’s blog, Maggie’s Notebook, Pirate’s Cove, Blue Star Chronicles, The Pink Flamingo, Planck’s Constant, Renaissance Blogger, Common Folk Using Common Sense, Dumb Ox Daily News, Conservative Cat, and Right Voices, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.