USA 2024

Day 1 – Seattle

The Olympic Sculpture Park during an early morning run
The Olympic National park in the distance with snow on the mountains
The Space Needle from our hotel’s roof terrace
Lake Union from the viewing platform of the Space Needle
One of the many ferries that cross the Sound
Part of Downtown Seattle, with the monorail running towards us
Closeup of the monorail
There are two levels at the top – the open viewing platform, and this glass-bottomed lower level which used to host a restaurant (currently closed) – we got a drink and snack from the little café on the upper level
Views across the glass floor and across Puget Sound
Next to the Space Needle is an art museum & sculpture garden showcasing Dale Chihuly’s large, colourful glass works – we’d thought it sounded quite interesting but it turned out to be absolutely stunning. Not knowing what was coming, we were bowled over as we went from room to room.
The 5-metre tall Sealife Tower
A whole series of pieces on the glass ceiling create a wonderful spectacle and glorious colours
Mille Fiori (“a thousand flowers”) brings together a range of works, and looks stunning and very different from a range of angles
Float Boats…
…sits alongside Ikebana
From the indoor exhibits we gradually move outside
Seattle Union Station. start of our journey
Empire Builder, Amtrak train number 8
Crossing Salmon Bay Bridge, the waterway being the route in/out of Lake Union and Lake Washington
At Everett we turn away from the coast and head inland
The Skykomish River
Dinner time
The light begins to fade as we gain height on the first evening, heading for the long tunnel under Cowboy Mountain

Day 2 – eastwards

Next morning finds us in Montana and heading towards Glacier National Park
Time for breakfast
As we gain height, we are following the Flathead River
It’s chilly outside, with some ice on the lakes
Essex, Montana
A freight train heads downhill towards us
Nearly at the top
Heading downhill
Time for a short stretch of legs at Shelby, Montana
Great Northern 2584 is a 4-8-4 “Northern” type steam locomotive built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in March 1930 for the Great Northern Railway (GN) as a member of the S-2 class, now on display at Havre, Montana. These huge locomotives were required to pull the popular trains over the route we’ve been following.
Our cabin is centre of picture (on the upper level).
Less dramatic scenery, but still interesting to experience more of the country.

Day 3 – arrival in Chicago

Third day, and we’ve arrived at the Mississippi in St Paul
15 minutes to walk the length of the train a couple of times on a bright but cold morning.
We followed the Mississippi for quite a while
Milwaukee and we are almost within touching distance of Lake Michigan but never quite see it from the train all the way to Chicago.
Chicago: European cathedrals were the inspiration for some of the buildings in the early 20th century.
The tiniest glimpse of Lake Michigan over the walls from the Chicago River – the river originally flowed into the lake but its course was reversed to carry the city’s polluted waters away into the Mississippi and leave the lake clean.
From the same point, looking back at the city.
The Fire Department had been out fighting a fire in the kitchen of the restaurant in this revolutionary pair of towers.
The meeting point of the waterways.
This tall building is decorated with a map of the waterways and city (note the water meeting point seen on the previous photo, towards the top) with a bright “you are here” marker.
The railway bridges across the river are mainly bascule bridges, but this is an impressive one lifting straight up to allow for the passage of what must be some quite substantial boats.
In the other direction, looking back to the city including what is officially Willis Tower but still generally known as Sears Tower, the world’s tallest building from 1973 to 1998.

Day 4 – St Charles to Bossier City

Stephen’s first parkrun in the USA, and Lucy’s second.
Cornerstone Lakes parkrun has been operating a year, and did have some locals but a good few visitors from the UK.
Stephen finished 7th, his best yet (due largely to the small field).
Time to head south, fuelled by a Chicago deep-dish pizza – very nice it was, too. The offerings at Gatwick and at Reykjavik were good, but this was much the best airport offering so far
We’ve reached Bossier City, home from home for the next few days, and with some canine company

Day 5 – Bossier City to Mount Pleasant

I started Sunday with an early-morning 10km run
Every driver waved to me (including the Sheriff), and on the roads without sidewalks every driver gave me loads of room and passed slowly – I wish the drivers of Bossier could give Suffolk drivers a lesson or two..
I ran to this park, and somewhere on the circuit of the park I reached my southernmost ever point run. Just after sunrise it was very humid but only warm rather than hot.
After the run, breakfast at the Waffle House.
Later in the day, we travelled in Diane’s RV, towing the Jeep, to Mount Pleasant in Texas, where we hoped to see the total eclipse the following day.

Day 6 – solar eclipse

Plenty of space at the RV park – we never did play the frisbee golf.
The day of the eclipse started very cloudy, as forecast, but we remained hopeful the forecast improvement would come, with the best weather predicted between 1 and 2pm, the critical hour. With the moon having started to eat into the sun, the clouds are breaking up, and Lucy is checking on progress.
A number of times the sun disappeared behind clouds, but not for long, and the amount of blue sky continued to increase.…
This was the fourth total solar eclipse for Lucy and Stephen, and the first for Diane. One can see other people’s pictures, but it doesn’t compare to experiencing it oneself.
Still a fair bit of cloud about, but it is generally clearing.
The moon continues to make its presence felt. At this stage, it is a little dimmer (but the human eye adjusts), but colours do start to change.
Some of our fellow campers are well equipped, but most are like us, just enjoying the spectacle with nothing more than a pair of eclipse glasses.
Then suddenly, darkness falls and the eclipse glasses are not needed. A brief diamond ring…
…then proper totality. It’s a really emotional experience, slowly watching the sun be eaten, the quality of light changing, colours changing, the temperature dropping, the birds starting dusk chorus in the middle of the day, even the traffic stopping, shadows becoming weird, then it accelerates rapidly, sudden darkness and the 3-4 minutes of totality: the corona visible, and here the sun peeking through a valley on the moon, birds and insects leaping out, planets and stars suddenly visible. And a shared experience too with all the reactions of fellow observers.
Not a great photo but a broader perspective during totality, showing how close the remaining high clouds still were. Venus joins the sun high in the midday sky.
After totality, it’s a calmer time as the light and the heat gradually return. Time to wander around the campground and see the multiple images of the crescent sun being projected through “pinhole cameras” formed by gaps in the overlapping leaves of the trees.
More dancing crescent suns

Day 8 – Bossier

On day 7, we packed up and Diane drove the RV back to Bossier City through some very heavy rain. We had a quiet afternoon watching the rain fall.

After the eclipse, it rained for about 36 hours, amounting to 250mm in places, accompanied by flood warnings and a tornado watch. Back in Bossier, in a dry afternoon before more rain, I repeated Sunday’s 10km run, but with a lot of water about – this was a dry field earlier in the week.
We did a number of indoor things in amongst the storms, including a visit to the aquarium. An alligator had been reported near Diane’s home, which we didn’t see, but there was a baby at the aquarium.

Day 9 – Space Center

Our final day, we travelled from Bossier City down to Houston for a visit to the Johnson Space Center.

The entrance hall of the Space Center at Houston
We took a “tram tour” across part of the site, one of several options, in our case opting for a trip to the historic Mission Control Center. There was definitely not time to do the whole place justice in a single day, but this was a great option
It was remarkable to feel a part of history with so much of the early control and monitoring equipment retained or restored
The building itself is still in active use and we were required to keep the noise down to avoid disturbing those at work
“Faith 7”, the tiny Mercury 9 spacecraft of Gordon Cooper. He orbited 22 times over 34 hours, and thus travelled longer and further in space than any American at the time.
Gemini 5 was the third manned spaceflight of the Gemini programme. Gordon Cooper and Charles Conrad orbitted 120 times in just under 8 days in August 1965, making it the longest spaceflight at the time.
The Apollo 17 Command Module, last of the Apollo missions
A replica of Explorer 1, the first American satellite in orbit.
The 1-Gravity Trainer for the Lunar Roving Vehicle
Touching a piece of the Moon
The 747 outside has been carrier for a quite a few trips
The nose of the Space Shuttle
A SpaceX Falcon 9
Skylab
Inside Skylab
A final farewell to the Space Center – time to travel to the airport for our flight home

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