From the December 1976 dregs. The distant landscapes were annotated as “death valley sandstorm”. Some slides have become discolored with age; will probably try converting to black & white.
“Cahokia was bigger than Paris—then it was completely abandoned.”
Although this pre-Columbian archaeological site beneath St. Louis has been known for quite some years, only recently is its vast size becoming clear.
Read about it here, and, of course, Google for more.
The great American word mapper, based on Twitter data analysis, shows us the relative regional popularity or frequency of some 100,000 American English words.
Sometime after sister Jan moved to California, she flew back to Iowa to gather up her left-behind Dodge Dart. I then flew to join her to help drive the thing back in about August 1976. Before we learned that the car’s gas gauge was faulty, we ran out of gas (OOG) on the road several miles from Las Vegas. Here we document the wait, around sunset, for roadside assistance.
Starting to nibble around the edge of my old color slides. Not nearly as numerous as my black & white negatives, and stored in pretty much total disarray. Here is my phototog friend Bill, his truck, and friend Mike — the same crew that did Mexico — on a Death Valley weekend in December 1976. In discussing this with Bill yesterday, he recalled our terrified screaming as we hurtled down a twisty road with the the smell of brake fluid in our noses. And then we blew a head gasket. On another trip, a cylinder cracked in a snow storm near Mammoth.
Rain turns to snow. Fog omnipresent.
Just as we are about to retire our 2016 National Geographic calendar with its Route 66 theme, old friend Herman happens to send along this reminiscence of iconic, historic Route 66 as published by Al Jezeera, with excellent photography by Gabriela Campos.
Francis and some of his cattle:
Previously undiscovered and unpublished (probably for good reason); reviving the lost art of swine photography:
