March 17, the rest of the way

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Pyramid Lake, at the top.  The Truckee River starts at Lake Tahoe, goes through Reno, and ends at Pyramid Lake.

A few irrigated dots on a dry, dry, dry, dry landscape.

A tiny bit of visible moisture, in a dry, dry, dry, dry landscape.

A few more irrigated dots.

I saw several instances of whatever you call this.  Strip mines?  Pit mines?

We are a cancer, eating away at the planet, and no mistake.

We can't even see the bottom of that dark pit.  How deep must it be?  [shaking head]

This is the north end of the Great Salt Lake.  Well, ok, I'm pretty sure this is where it would be if it were *really* full, but it's not that full, and I suspect this is Salt rather than Lake...........

Here's some actual visible water. 

In the Extreme Microbes class I took, we learned about organisms that can live in extreme conditions.  "Really salty" is one of those extreme conditions.  The halophiles (salt-loving bacteria) who live here are pink, and when there are enough of them, the water looks pink, too.

Flying east, it gets dark fast.

Chicagoland.

All that gold, under the wing, is Chicago proper.

The perturbations on the horizon in this next shot are downtown Chicago (with the darkness of Lake Michigan behind).

On the ground at Midway, waiting for our flight to Detroit.  Getting ready to partake of the Opal apple I bought in the food co-op in Reno.  It was nice.  I would eat these, if we could get them in Ann Arbor.

Goodbye, Chicago!

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August 16 -- south of the lake

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One last glimpse of the lake.

Lots and lots and lots of coal cars.  At present, we burn an unconscionable amount of irreplaceable fossil fuel to get us through our days..............

Huge piles of what I presume is coal.  And one little bitty solar panel (at right).  Wouldn't it be nice if there were way WAY more solar panels, and we burned a LOT less coal?

I told you, on our way here, that there were lots of factories along here that were clearly in operation, and that one clue to that was the number of rolls of steel we saw, waiting to be shipped elsewhere.  Here are some of them.

I like the colors on the side of this building.  I think they would make a good quilt.

Piles of coal, and wires..........

Some of the factories along the southern shore of Lake Michigan seem abandoned. 

Some are in much better shape.

River.  I shudder to think of all the pollutants that are flowing by here, right into the lake...........

Some of the factories look very well taken care of.

Coal cars, coal cars, and coal cars.  And wires.

And there endeth the pics of our Chicago trip.  I would have said I took a lot more pics on the way home, but I didn't.

We had a wonderful time in Chicago.  We'll go back.

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August 16 -- leaving Chicago

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Waiting for a taxi to take us to the train station.

Looking up at our hotel window.  What a great view we had from that window!

A couple of last glimpses of the park, through the taxi window.

Still enjoying Chicago architecture.

We saw a lot of buildings which clearly used to have other buildings touching their sides.  Windowless expanses of brick.

I didn't notice when I took the pic, but on "the big screen" I saw that this one has had a few windows punched through on the lowest levels.  I wonder what is inside on higher levels, that they haven't gone to the trouble and expense of adding more windows up there........

I don't know how much I would use a balcony over a busy street, but I would love to have windows, if I spent much time in there...........



Here we are in Union Station.  One of the grand old stations!  So much space, contained (to be heated and cooled....).  So much decoration!

Extremely fancy decorative lights.

Detail on one of the lights.

Looking straight up.

Very similar view, but the camera chose a completely different exposure.

I think this was on the base of one of the lights.

Because AmTrak views me as a senior, we were allowed to wait downstairs very near to the trains, and were able to get on before the bulk of the passengers.  The waiting area near the trains isn't nearly as nice, but we did want to pick our seats and sit together.....

That turned out not to be an issue.  The noon train, on Sunday, August 16, was not crowded.  We were sorry there were no "quiet coaches," as we had enjoyed a quiet coach on the way to Chicago.  But the coach we sat in was not too noisy.

Here we are, pulling away from the station.  That round building reminds me of the "corncob" apartments on the river, a bit north of here.  I wonder if it, too, is housing.  I am not sure how much I'd like to be looking at the train tracks............

We can just barely see there are trees around the bottom of that building.

This next pic was taken just after the previous one.  The big cross-shaped electrical-wire poles(?) are present in this picture, but they are much less visible than in the above.

Power plant?

We took the train from Ann Arbor to Minneapolis, once upon a time.  We rode in a double-decker car like this one.

There is our familiar cluster of tall blue buildings (center), seen here from the west.  I wonder if that left-most building is the bridge hotel?  It might be.....

I was glad to get the previous shot, because a train passed between us and the buildings closer to the lake.  And then there were more train cars in the way of what I wanted to look at.

Luckily, I can crop out the part I wanted to look at, and lose the train car.

I have no idea what this is, but it is large............

Repeated shapes.  I bet these are spare train wheels.

Gritty industrial ... bridge? ... and pleasant housing and gardens.

Lots of trees.

Closer crop of the above -- another round building.  Housing?  I wonder.....

Big street, lots of trees.  You go, Chicago, planting and maintaining so many trees!

Wires, and zig-zaggy red stairs.  And trees.

Expressway.

Leading to Lake Shore Drive!

We saw lots of parks and gardens from the train. 

Many people had a LOT of plants on their properties.

Hmmm.  ??  What's this?

Ah.  Tail-gating before the baseball game.

Home of the White Sox.

One last peek at the Chicago skyline before we head east toward Michigan.

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