Bill's Blog

Various and assorted images, in no particular order, from Apalachicola, in Florida's panhandle...

Ghost sign

159-161

Remodeled window

Need your intergalaxy transport repaired? Apalachicola is the place for you.

Bench For Sale

Two images of, apparently, unused doors. Hope there isn't a fire.

Grand old hotel we stayed at.

Waiting for sunset

Former County Jail, now a storage area.

Small for these violent days. Back in the day, the second floor was cells and the first floor living quarters.

Look real carefully at the bottom of the marker. The jail was built in 1949.

Built entirely of bicycle wheels. Didn't see any alligators.

Sunrise exercise

A sidewalk brick. No office in the surrounding area.

Taranto's is for sale

A door less traveled

The tap room at The Owl

Outstanding cuisine

August 25-27, 2018

Day 1:

Day 2:

August 23 & 25, 2018

Many years ago, when I was but a young boy, traveling was not as easy as it is today. Families had big lumbering cars called station-wagons. Windows were cranked, keys were turned, mirrors were manually adjusted and car air conditioning was an awesome new thing most of us didn't have.

Most difficult of all, if you needed to communicate with someone, you searched the road until you saw a blue sign. You approached it and sometimes even had to wait in line, hoping you had change.  People could be looked up and then numbers pushed. The connection was usually scratchy and, if you talked more than three minutes, you needed more coin.

We all know what happened to these old devices: they joined VCR's, photographic film, Blockbuster, maps, and manual transmissions, lost as detritus in time.

Fortunately, a few of these old relics still exist, mostly hidden in out-of-the-way places as reminders that The Good Old Days required effort. Here, from Apalachicola, FL, is a historical relic:

Apalachicola, FL
August, 2018

August 16-17, 2018

On a pier someplace in south Florida...

Boat cleat worn white

Web minus spider

Tallahassee evening Storm Clouds from beginning to end...

Beginning...

Middle...

End.

 July, 2018

My new "little" camera is a French- made DxO One, replacing my venerable little Canon. Pardon me while I wander into camera geekdom: the DxO One is a miniaturized pro- quality camera that shoots RAW, JPG and "Super RAW." It weighs 3.8 ounces, is just under three inches tall and, according to the manufacturer, the lens is made "with six aspherical elements, offering an exceptionally high level of precision while also optimizing acutance."

What makes the DxO unique is that it has a built-in Lightning connector that plugs into an iPhone. The iPhone becomes the viewfinder, focus tool, setting adjuster and flash for the DxO. Click on one of the links in this blurb for more about the camera.

The very best thing about the DxO is its size and portability: Chase Jarvis said it, "The best camera is the one you have with you."

As with all new toys, there is a learning curve. In this case it is fairly steep because the DxO is radically different than any other camera I have used.

The learning curve:

Augusta, GA:

City skyline

Storm over the city

After the storm

Great Hilton Curio property in Augusta

Veranda during the storm

Atlanta airport:

Under construction

Morning Dew

Rain through a hotel window

Home:

A friend

Upper Tampa Bay Park.
4th of July.
Temperature right at 90 degrees and at least 1000 percent humidity. Nice day for a stroll in the park.

June-July, 2018

Various and Assorted;

(all these, and more, are full-size at my 2018 Gallery)

Starting with the Bahamas and The Infamous Birthday Cruise...

Moving air around is important!

Very green

Drtiver and assistant

Always important to have a good pilot.

Looking down at night

Miami

Stormy First Night 1

Stormy First Night 2

Dancing for Dinner

Preparing appetizers

Miami Early Morn

Moving on...

Awaiting mail. Tallahassee.

Tallahassee Gate

Construction

Somewhere on the West Coast of Florida. Old steam Train Locomotive wheel makes up the background.

CLOWN!! Daytona Beach

Daytona Beach in the Round

Pier in the round

Better Days behind the Wynfield, Orlando.

These last two were taken with my new DXO One camera (camera guys, look it up). Definitely a learning curve.

Rainbow at home

Augusta, GA skyline

January - June, 2018

Cruise- looking back to where we were

Cruise Sunset

Cruise- last day sunset

Sunrise through our front door

St. George Island- working toward sunset

St. George Island- end of sunset

St George Island- ocean side sunset

St. George Island- sunset through the brush

St. George Island- getting close to sunset

St. George Island- same shot, later towards sunset

St. George Island- lensball sunset

Daytona Beach- bird and sunrise

Daytona Beach- birds in flight sunrise

Daytona Beach- watching the sunrise

Daytona Beach- palms at sunrise

Daytona Beach- sunrise from a balcony

Daytona Beach- homeless awaking for another day at the beach

January - May, 2018

(This is the thirteenth post in a series about a cross- country train trip we recently completed)

(Click here to go to my Galleries for full-sized images, the ones below are thumbnails)

Last of the San Francisco images:

Starting with two scenic's

Alcatraz as the fog burns off

Famous San Francisco Fog

Then some more walls:

Legs (must be chilly in the winter)

PAY ATTENTION TO THE WALL

Nice tile work

Three birds (hint: look closely at the tile work)

A Famous Record/ Music Store

And a street scene

Street Drummer and his kinda sorta fan base.

And, finally, two more night scenes

The streak in the middle is the bumper-to- bumper night traffic

That's it for the city. Now on to our last stop: Napa!

December, 2017

(This is the twelfth post in a series about a cross- country train trip we recently completed)

(Click here to go to my Galleries for full-sized images, the ones below are thumbnails)

Miscellaneous San Francisco...

Store signs:

Wall murals:

Building fronts:

Jack Kerouac corner

A Custom House

Musee Mecanique
(Penny Arcade Museum):

She moves, she talks. The thing of kid's nightmares.

Etc.:

Can't go to San Francisco without taking a picture of the water.

Just after sunset

San Francisco is a beautiful city, but it can also be a very disturbing city. Looking out the window of the <very nice> Hilton we stayed at, less than a block away are the not-so-nice Hotel Mentone and Coronado Hotel. Look carefully at the sidewalk in front of the hotels. Those are tents and tarps belonging to homeless folks who cannot even afford the Coronado and Mentone. It is an encampment that has obviously been there for a while. Within a block of a very nice hotel and blocks from one of the richest shopping areas in San Francisco.    



December, 2017

(This is the eleventh post in a series about a cross- country train trip we recently completed)

(Click here to go to my Galleries for full-sized images, the ones below are thumbnails)

A quick stroll through Chinatown.

One of my favorite parts of San Francisco. Always alive and vibrant. This trip seemed like we were visiting old favorites instead of heading off in new directions...

Chinatown has some of the best doorways.

Dragon steps. We have visited this building, multiple floors full of little shops and stalls, before. Unique. Unfortunately one of the shopkeepers told us the building has been sold and was being demolished.

A Chinatown landmark soon to be gone.

Looking down is interesting.

Fa lun Da Fa? Whatever it is, it's good according to the umbrella.

THE Heart of Shanghai

Great painted walls.

Do you know how to tell you are in a good Chinese restaurant? When you are the only one's speaking English and you can't read anything, including the menus!

Sam Yup fascinates me. I think I have another image of this same sign posted several years ago.

Great facades on buildings!

On a side street hidden away. Not exactly sure what this is, but the colors are great.

December, 2017

End of Day: San Francisco

(This is the tenth post in a series about a cross- country train trip we recently completed)

(Click here to go to my Galleries for full-sized images, the ones below are thumbnails)

Chinatown is next...

December, 2017

(This is the ninth post in a series about a cross- country train trip we recently completed)

(Click here to go to my Galleries for full-sized images, the ones below are thumbnails)

A walk around San Francisco's Union Square...

Union Square was decorated for Christmas

The building is on a hill, making the perspective shift a little strange

Just above the door you can just barely make out Native Sons Hall.

This is at the corner of the building.

No more rhythm at Ruby Skye

New and old signs

Saks

An "unusual" statue

It was SantaCon weekend (25000 dressed like Santa doing a pub crawl). Union Square was a busy place.

Yellow flower just hanging out in Union Square

My two favorite people

And again

December 9, 2017

(This is the eighth post in a series about a cross- country train trip we recently completed)

(Click here to go to my Galleries for full-sized images, the ones below are thumbnails)

San Francisco:

December, 2017

(This is the seventh post in a series about a cross- country train trip we recently completed)

(Click here to go to my Galleries for full-sized images, the ones below are thumbnails)

The last, fifth day of our journey took us through Utah, including a stop at the Biggest Little City in the World, over the infamous Donner Pass, and down into California to just outside San Francisco. 

High desert before Reno

Side Note: 'Mid-morning pulled into Reno to an underground platform. The conductor made an announcement that we would be here for a few minutes for those that wanted to stretch their legs and for the smokers (Amtrak trains are completely non- smoking and the infrequent stops are the only opportunity for a few puffs). He warned everyone getting off the train, however, that whatever they did, DO NOT GO UP THE STEPS. Wander around the platform, look down the tracks, but DO NOT GO UP THE STAIRWAY. Because, he explained, if you went up the steps you would be in a casino. And you would have just enough time to put two quarters in a slot machine, come back down the steps... and see that the train had left.  

Following the Truckee River to the Donner Pass

Just across the California line, last stop before the big pull over the Donner Pass

Donner Lake- the infamous Donner Lake

Taking poetic license with color

Speeding by Donner Lake. Many jokes about what occurred there and the need to get by quickly.

The equally infamous Donner Pass

Peaking the Donner Pass. It took three locomotives.

And down into the California lowlands.

Old buildings beside a siding while we waited for yet another freight to pass

Last leg: across California and into Emoryville, just outside San Francisco. End of the ride.

Next stop: San Francisco, courtesy of our family Uber driver!

December, 2017   

Getting from here to there, our cross- country train excursion, was an amazing trip. I have been posting images and the story through a series of blog entries. The images in the blog are thumbnails... cut down images to fit in a blog. As such, they lose a lot. Now you can see them in my Galleries as full images. Click here to go to the From Here To There gallery. I'll continue to add images, all the way through the days in San Francisco and in Napa.

From our balcony on the Carnival Victory

January 28, 2018... a good day.

(This is the sixth post in a series about a cross- country train trip we recently completed)

(Click here to go to my Galleries for full-sized images, the ones below are thumbnails)

Running into night on a high-speed train

December, 2017

(This is the fifth post in a series about a cross- country train trip we recently completed)

(Click here to go to my Galleries for full-sized images, the ones below are thumbnails)

Vivid western sunset...

Stopped in maintenance yard

Side Note: In typical Amtrak style, just at sunset the crew announced that we were going to stop for twenty - thirty minutes to swap a locomotive. Evidently there was a problem with one of the two pretty Amtrak locomotives so they were going to put on a freight locomotive (a bit of scorn entered the announcer's voice when he said that) for the next day's pull over the Donner Pass. Twenty to thirty minutes turned into an hour or so... with no power. They had to turn off everything except emergency lighting when they did the coupling, including the heat. We sat in semi- darkness and grew rapidly colder, finally wrapping ourselves in blankets. We were no longer in the mountains but it still was chilly. Finally they got things sorted, power came back on and off we went... led by the aforementioned ugly freight locomotive.   

December, 2017