The Japanese Garden at UBC

Sunset on Jericho Beach

The next morning. Starbucks serves half and half as well as full cream! 

Making a run at the border. The mark on the ground shows the actual line. The car in front of me is in two countries. 

Waiting for my work permit. This is the inside of the Canadian border crossing building at Blaine.

SUCCESS! Canadian goodies are a welcome gift from my new colleagues at UBC. American goodies are a welcome gift from my movers. 

Dinner with George!

Our new home - Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada!

Looking over Yakima to the mountains beyond. Two volcanoes are visible in the distance.

Two big peaks!

Adams and Ranier

Leaving Mt. Adams behind. Ellensburg is just ahead.

Ellensburg and the Kittitas Valley. The Cascades rise in the distance. 

Snoqualmie Pass is the route on I-90 through the Cascades from Kittitas County to King County and the Seattle Area. 

A stop in Mill Creek, WA to see the Vet. Here dad walks the dogs in a county park built on marsh land. The floating board walks sink at certain points and water bubbles through. It is a really beautiful place and a great surface to walk on. 

We reach Bellingham, WA and visit one of Tracy's favorite places in the world. A small beach in the southern end of town. 

Bellingham Harbor

Lovie contemplates the sea.

We stop to see Nancy! A dear friend. 

The inevitable cake and ice cream.

The Snake River canyon carves its way through southern Idaho. The city of Twin Falls sits on the canyon edge, just across this bridge. The picture below is a close up of the lip of the canyon, just to the left of the bridge. 

This image shows a typical organization of big box stores with parking in front. The only difference is there is a thousand foot drop just outside the front door. Amazingly, there is little more than a chain link fence separating the edge of the parking lot and the canyon's edge! Also notice the "tree ordinance" for beautification is being strictly observed. Important given that there isn't a view to speak of!

Further upstream, the Snake River Valley trades the drama of the canyon for spare curvaceous forms in pastel colors.  

Just outside of Boise the check engine light came on. Here we are sitting in Nampa Honda, waiting for the diagnosis. Fortunately for us it was only an oil change - two hours of CNN later we were on our way.

North of Boise and into Oregon, the soft forms give way to a rougher landscape.

More dramatic rock forms and a dry landscape until...

...we hit the Blue Mountains of Oregon. Rain and trees and winding roads. 

The range ends as abruptly as it started. Here the highway transitions from altitudes of 2,000 plus feet to 700. This happens very quickly and dramatically. Just beyond the white car closest to the camera is a diagonal scar on the hillside. This is one of several runaway truck ramps. The ramps are full of soft soil and gravel and are designed to stop a truck with failed breaks. This ramp had been used recently!

Admittedly this is not the safest use of my phone. Here is a view from the cockpit, looking out onto southwestern Washington. Next stop, Yakima. Then the final push to Bellingham and the border. 

A different view further down the road.

One of the locals gives me the stink eye! Makes me think of this. 

The long road into the state of Utah on Interstate 80. A temperature of 100+ outside makes this stretch of concrete seem all the more desolate.

More amazing rock formations.

Stopping at a "scenic turn-out" netted a view of the "Devil's Slide". A parallel ridge formation with a flat chute in between. This picture does not do it justice. 

Falling! A parachutist drops into the heart of Ogden, Utah. 

The last distance marker before Idaho. This area of Utah feels extraordinarily lonely and remote. No gas or food for miles.

First stop, Cheyenne. The capitol of the state of Wyoming. 

Esther  Hobart Morris was a proponent of the act in 1869 that gave the territory of Wyoming the distinction of being the first government in the world to grant women equal rights. Ms. Morris now surveys Cheyenne from a position squarely in front of the capitol. 

The Medicine Bow Mountains, as seen from an elevation of 8,640 feet (2633 m) above sea level, the highest point on I-80. The ridge and the Wyoming Summit Visitor Center are located between Cheyenne and Laramie.

At the Wyoming Summit Visitor Center a statue stands in commemoration of the sesquicentennial of Abraham Lincoln's birth. The work was installed in 1959 and was sculpted by Robert T. Russin. In Cheyenne I saw an old hotel sign that looked like an Indian. 

Here we see playground equipment from the American west. The swing-set is being shot at close range by the jungle gym. This is happening even though it is clear the swing-set is smiling and peacefully offering two swings to his jungle-gym neighbor. 

Chicken Pot Pie in Laramie. 

Laramie is home to the University of Wyoming. The University was founded in 1886 and has an annual enrollment of 12,000 plus students. 

Here is my best Hockney impersonation. The picture shows the dome of the Wyoming basketball arena and the conical museum designed by Antoine Predock.  Wyoming - the land of the geometric solid.

Crossing the Continental Divide...Twice! The Divide is marked at the eastern and western edge of a small basin. Water flows toward the Atlantic (e) and Pacific (w) on either side of the divide. The exception to this rule is located between the two edges of the divide. There is a small basin from which no water escapes. 

Strong winds and open space make Wyoming an ideal place for wind generators.

A huge piece of digging equipment with a walker base. Unlike the more familiar tractor tread locomotion found in most cranes, this behemoth sits on a platform like footing. It acts like a small building. When it is time to move, four outboard "feet" push down on the ground, pick up the machine and its footing and inches it forward. It is a slow process, but the machine is very stable.

Rock formations near Green River, WY and Flaming Gorge National Park located in Western Wyoming. 

Castle Rock sits on the north edge of Green River. This is one of the land forms the famous Powell expedition saw as it set out from Green River to navigate the Grand Canyon. 

Lovie looks at the Green River and ponders an expedition of her own! 

No town could match Dodge City's reputation as a true frontier settlement of the Old West. Dodge City had more famous (and infamous) gunfighters working at one time or another than any other town in the old West. It also boasted the usual array of saloons, gambling halls, and brothels established to separate a lonely cowboy from his hard-earned cash. 

Dodge's two person jail sits above the location of the cemetery. A reproduction of the storefronts of Dodge City. At high noon one can watch a reenactment of an old west gunfight! DRAW!

Freedom! A reprieve from the road. Lovie and Koda enjoy a romp in Garden City, Kansas.

Flat, flat, and more flat! A corn-field with a 180 degree dome of sky. Below, Truckers fuel up on a patch of striped tarmac. 

The wide horizon of the American bread-basket...

Heat and wheat! A water gauge shows how little water there has been recently. Golden wheat into the horizon. 

The secret for a slimmer you. 

Entering Colorado, as seen through a bug smeared wind screen. Have to bust hump to meet dad's plane at the airport. 

POPS!

Racing away from the airport. The rear view shows some foreboding skies over Denver International Airport. Nothing but blue skies ahead! Tomorrow....WYOMING and UTAH! 

In 2007, Greensburg, Kansas was hit by and EF5 Tornado estimated to be 1.7 miles across. Eleven people lost their lives and 95% of the buildings in the city were destroyed. This image was taken shortly after the tornado hit. 

Instead of giving up, the city decided to rebuild and redefine their community. Greensburg has begun the process of recreating itself as a sustainable city.  Above is the city Arts Center, the first LEED platinum building in the state of Kansas.  

City Hall is designed with large overhangs and clerestory glass. 

One landmark that survived the storm is the "World's Largest Hand-Dug Well."  The pictures above show the minimal remains of the well's surface structure and the doors to the stair case within. The well measures almost 200 Feet in depth and nearly 40 feet across.  

Sunday morning sees me driving north out of Ardmore. The landscape changed almost immediately. Rocky and rolling. The vistas are long and the terrain rough but beautiful. 

Boomer Sooner! Norman is just south of Oklahoma City and home to Oklahoma University. The school is home to nearly 30,000 students. The Bizzell Library building sits at the heart of campus and exemplifies the architectural style of the school. 

The Oklahoma City National Memorial commemorates the victims of bombing while the museum teaches of about the dangers of violence. The memorial was designed by the Butzer Design Partnership in the early nineties. 

A field of empty chairs commemorates the victims of the bombing. 

 A fence was originally installed to protect the memorial. Over time, tens of thousands of individuals have left mementos behind. The barrier has evolved into a memorial in and of itself. 

Kansas! Waiting in line to collect a ticket for the Kansas Turnpike.

Wichita, Kansas. A Midwestern City with a lot of old building stock. It also felt like they rolled up the streets on Sunday afternoon. 

Wichita also has a few moments of interesting oddness. A book matched double-barreled parking garage and a curved mod pedestrian bridge topped my list.  

We leave Houston as it does its best imitation of Singapore - a steamy green commercial center. Here is the view from the Hilton looking at part of the Galleria shopping district. 

Bayou Bend - The heat and traffic beats a path north out of Houston (100F/37.5C).

"Big D" Looms on the horizon. More concrete and heat as I-35 winds its way into the city center.

We pull off the freeway long enough to see the Wyly Theater by Rem Koolhaas. 

Our first pit-stop. Two confused girls look for home. 

Finally, the end of Day 1 looks a lot like the beginning - Just in Southern Oklahoma. On to the La Quinta Ardmore and hopefully some different landscape tomorrow.