Alan and Mick's Excellent Adventure

Grand Canyon

2005-11-06T13:16:00.000-08:00

Spectacular and awe-inspiring beauty. The Grand Canyon is in the background... ;-)

Harnedy Rd., off Main Street, U.S.A.

2005-11-05T04:23:00.000-08:00

The pictures above are of a Service Station in a small town called Indian Springs in Nevada. It was built in the 1920's by Tim Harnedy, my grand uncle (my grandfather's stepbrother; my great-grandfather married twice and some of the elder children from the first marriage had left for America before or shortly after my grandfather John Harnedy was born). At the time the station was one of very few stations on the (rough) road between Las Vegas and Carson City. Later the State Government paved the road (now US 95) which helped business significantly and later the Federal Government built an Air Force Base literally behind the town. Actually there are 2 official sites, Nellis Air Force Range and Indian Springs Auxillary Field. The Mythical "Area 51" is sandwiched between the range and the Nevada Test Site, original test site for the US atom bomb, about 40 miles away.

Tim Harnedy only had one child, a daughter, none of her children live in Nevada though they do own some land in the town.

The 3 trees in the picture above correspond (I think) to the 3 small trees in the black and white picture above.

The road below was named after Tim Harnedy.

2005-11-04T10:33:00.000-08:00

Doesn't really need a title.

No sign of the Road Runner

Click on above o read the sign. Where I'm standing is 282 feet / 85.5 meters below sea level. IN the photo below actual sea level is marked on the side of the mountain

you Irish guys never do what you're told to!

2005-11-04T09:29:00.000-08:00

Death Valley is a popular place for car manufacturers to test their models in development/prior to release, while there we saw Hyundai testing a heavily disguised SUV and a convoy of Porsches.

Above is the 2006 Porsche 911 (Model Code 997). Note round headlights disguised to look like those of the current model.

The disguise is more noticable in the Turbo Model, below. The Turbo has a deeper grill and air vents for the rear brakes. Less noticable is the new front bumper with LED parking lights in a horizontal bar through the air intake. The fog lights are moved to the corners of the bumpers.

The testers were not happy with me taking the photos, though photos of these cars are already on the web, (exclusive first photos of these cars would be valuable, - I had no takers, in fact the legendary Brenda Priddy got there before I did).

Yosemite National Park

2005-11-03T10:13:00.000-08:00

El Capitán (called Agathla by the Navajo) is a 3,000 foot vertical rock formation in the Yosemite Valley, which is very popular with rock climbers.
If Michael Scanlon could see me now! I'm sure my old geography teacher would be fascinated by the Half Dome, and the rest of the valley. A perfect example of glacial erosion. Another picture of the iconic Half Dome is below, it features of the California Quarter along with Johu Muir and the Bald Eagle.

The Brideveil Fall (above to the right and below)

2005-11-01T09:44:00.000-08:00

Is it a bird, is it a plane, no...it's Hallowe'en!

Grace Cathedral has featured in many films including Bullit and Hitchcock's last work"Family Plot"
Halowe'en party goers, presumably.

"Ponch calling Jon, over..."

The weather this day was initally beautiful and we plannned to cycle over the Golden Gate to Sausalino and Tiburon and get the ferry back, however the fog came in quickly as seen below
The fog then lifted, to just above the bridge...

2005-10-27T09:53:00.000-07:00

Portland, Oregon and the trip south to 'Frisco

2005-10-24T09:22:00.000-07:00

read the sign below

Haliaeetus leucocephalus, click on the picture if your Latin isn't up to scratch
Ladysmith, Vancouver Island is famous for being the home of one Pamela Anderson. We couldn't find the library named after her...

if this is the end of the page click here to see the rest -

Vancouver Island

2005-10-21T09:10:00.000-07:00

see below...

Rain, Coffee, Microsoft, and a pointless tower

2005-10-17T09:04:00.000-07:00

Mick, Alan and Tom from the Hostel answer their critics at the Mariners' stadium Safeco Field. Below you can see both Safeco Field (top) and the Seattle Seahawks' stadium . Safeco Field has has a unique retracting roof that, rather than fully enclose the stadium as the roof of the Millenium Stadium does only acts as an umbrella for the stands and field, so even when protected from the rain the field still feels like an outdoor field.

I can't believe I didn't take a photo of Seattle's most popular/hated attraction - the original Starbucks

2005-10-15T08:45:00.000-07:00

The Flat Iron Building - the first Skyscraper

2005-10-14T13:55:00.000-07:00

New York, New York...

Malcom X Boulevard in Harlem

Seinfeld fans will be familiar with Tom's Restaurant (also the inspiration for Suzanne Vega's "Tom's Diner" - as in "Doo doo doo doo, doo da-doo doo") The restaurant is noting spectacular, though the big bowl of soup for $2 is hard to beat.

It's not like the inside of the Seinfeld restaurant though.