"... the wheeled cart that allows a film camera to capture travelling, panoramic shots. It was 'bonkers' to discover how close the tracks ran to the rivers; on the west coast they were so close to the sea they were practically in it. There’s a snobbery, too, about certain states, which is both political and aesthetic. The central states are often dismissed as the 'flyover states' — miles and miles of cornfields worth seeing only from 35,000ft. But, Edwards says, the 'middle of nowhere' often gave her the most exciting shots. 'You could just see such a long way.... And when you did see something significant, it made it almost more unbelievable that it might be able to exist so far from all other activities.' The emptiness sometimes made her feel anxious.... 'Have I got enough shots? Is this interesting enough? Where is everybody? Where are all the animals?'"
From
"Why I spent 180 hours on a train across America (with my dad)/Katie Edwards travelled 10,000 miles on Amtrak, taking 20,000 photographs on the way. She tells Laura Freeman what she saw out of the window" (London Times).
Edwards grew up in the Lake District in England, which makes me think of William Wordsworth and his dedication to walking. Walking, you can always stop and look at whatever you want. It's easy to take photographs (or, if you must, write a poem in your head, stomping out the meter). But I like Edwards's train photography project. It was easy to catch sight of many more things, but difficult to get the shots at the right time (and to deal with reflections in the window glass).
I like seeing the outsider's view of America:
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Great train riding video on the same track.
Billy Strings Watch It Fall
Billy Strings is an amazing talent, and I hope he makes it.
See America's bad sides of town. Go by rail.
Eudora Welty (One Writer's Beginnings) describes how neat travel by Pullman is, but the description is about at night in bed.
Prof, i think a few years back when Slow TV was a thing, you posted something about an 8-hr show that consisted entirely of the view out the windshield of a Scandanavian train somewhere. Remember that one?
JSM
Loved the shot of oil wells near Salinas. Very nostalgic for me. When I was very young, my grandmother lived in Salinas, and there were oil wells everywhere in California.
The most interesting thing is that she wore a bounce card on her back to block window reflections. That's ingenious, ridiculous, and hilarious.
She's right that Amtrak is slow with many delays. I don't think I'd cross America again by rail.
Those pink flowers on the Cali coast are ice plant.
Same. When I was a kid and we'd drive through, those oil wells were everywhere, randomly placed.
about ten years a friend took the California Zephyr from Iowa to Reno, and back.
I asked him how many delays?
he said they pulled in to Reno 25 minutes late (about 2.5 days).. I was IMPRESSED!
he Then said, that on the return trip; they pulled in to Osceola 13 hours late..
that was more what i expected
That most likely was about the slow TV trend in Norway that started with the 7-hour Bergen-Oslo train ride as seen from the cab. I've taken that train many times but seeing it from the cab is even better. You can see the whole thing here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xisVS_DKpJg
If we slash train fuel burn by 5 to 7% how much would we reduce the industry contribution to overall climate change? Asking for the United Nations.
People who drive through Nebraska on Interstate - 80 miss the best part of the state: The Sandhills.
The BNSF runs through the Sandhills through the Middle Loup Valley.
I urge all Althouse Community members to visit Nebraska's Sandhills: especially the Niobrara River. And since I'm now the Special Knox County Attorney, visit Verdigre or Crofton.
"Trains are for moving freight and communists." - Iowahawk
"I urge all Althouse Community members to visit Nebraska's Sandhills: especially the Niobrara River."
I have.
I've taken that train. And at the risk of Althouse thinking I'm a bad person (probably too late), I admit to also doing the train from Oslo to Åndalsnes.
She's right about the "flyover states." I drove through Kansas on the way back to Michigan from Arizona taking the blue highways. I thought it was one of the most beautiful states I had ever been through--big sky for miles and miles.
"Where is everybody?"
This reminds me of an article my wife read years ago that included the following story told by a woman from Hong Kong who came to live in the US. As best I can remember from my wife recounting the story to me, a woman from Hong Kong married a US citizen and they lived somewhere in the Great Plains. At some point, her parents came to visit from Hong Kong, flying into a metro airport that was some hours away from where their daughter and SIL lived. Parents were met at the airport by daughter and SIL, and they all loaded into their car for the drive to where they lived. Parents were unusually quiet on the drive, so the daughter asked if everything was OK, were they overly tired, etc.? The response: 'Where are all the people?'
Shelby Foote had a line or two in the Civil War series noting that part of the transition from "The United States are" to "The United States is" was thousands of men marching and fighting in parts of the country they probably never would have seen but for the war They knew they had a country because they had been to it.
If you're taking 111 photos per hour, are you actually seeing anything?
Ditto, Aggie. Love the video, just bought the Album as MP3. Almost forgot to use the portal but caught myself at the last minute. (You are welcome, Ann. Don't spend it all in one place)
I always wanted to ride a freight train, never did. I did spend most of a year in 66 and 67 hitchhiking around the country NY-CA twice, bus back both times. All up and down the east and west coasts. Lots of fun, interesting people but I've got that out of my system.
I'd still like to ride a freight train but I'm too old now so that won't happen.
John Henry
I took two English friends on a tour of California before the Democrats ruined the state. A few years later, they reciprocated, which included a visit to Waterloo 200 years after the battle.
When I think of Eudora Welty I always think of e-mail
John Henry
From the middle of May for nearly two months, my wife and I rode our bicycles from Astoria, OR to Portsmouth, NH.
(Per Dave Begley, the Sandhills are indeed beautiful, but not quite on the way for this trip. Nor was Madison — best route to the SS Badger to get across Lake Michigan took us north, through Steven's Point.)
Except for 30 unavoidable miles of interstate, we were on backroads the whole time. If you really want to see the US, it beats heck out of anything else.
This land is your land
This land is my land
This land was made for you and me
Looking at her Instagram, she did some similar train window photography in the U.K. in Cumbria, England and Scotland.
Those oil wells are in San Ardo by the Salinas River where my grandfather was a wildcatter in his youth. Family lore has it that he was known as the King of San Ardo, but with a name like that I would have expected him to be much richer.
And I thought the guys who rode their motorcycles from Seattle to San Antonio were crazy. If it made you happy, more power to you.
When I was 17, I borrowed my father's station wagon, and a friend and I drove from New England to the Rockies, and then south from Glacier National Park to the Grand Canyon, and stops in between. Took us a month. No Interstates east of Chicago in those days. When you stopped for gas, or lunch, you learned that the natives were not exactly like the folks you grew up with. That was a learning experience. I don't think you'd get that anymore.
My experience with trains started a little later, because my (first) wife had a fear of flying. We discovered the Autotrain from Northern Virginia to mid-Florida, which was a good way to travel then (I see from the web that it's still running).
Regular passenger rail was a challenge, and I don't know whether it's improved. Poor service was partially (at least) due to the fact that the freight railroads own the tracks, but the government requires them to allow passenger trains (Amtrak) to operate over them, which the freight RRs don't like. At one time, Amtrak had priority over freight trains, but only if they weren't running more than ___ hours behind schedule. The Amtrak trains were often behind schedule. I figure that capitalism would have a solution to that problem, but I am retired and neither know nor care what it is.
A few years back we took the Empire Builder from Portland to St Paul. While we were passing through Glacier, our breakfast table companion was a retired railroader, who knew every inch of the line, and had many interesting stories to tell. We arrived at our destination three hours late.
I guess my comment is in comment heaven.
It could be in that other place.
I went through once following a relative's directions on quick back way from Colorado to Sioux Falls SD. Suddenly in the midst of strange, never imagined hill forms, Beautiful.
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