Rural America

What's a dazzling urbanite like you doing in a rustic setting like this?

                - Gene Wilder to Cleavon Little, Blazing Saddles, the funniest movie in the 
                history  of American cinema IMHO

Having a wonderful time. Mrs. C asked me if I remembered the first time I came here with her about 45 years ago. I do. The first memory was her father, a stern, conservative Lutheran farmer. I had two strikes against me: Catholic (by origin) and a New Yorker. The way I won him over was that I could recite the Lord's Prayer in German (Vater unser, der Du bist im Himmel. Geheiliget werde Dein Name) so I couldn't be that bad. I foolishly climbed the windmill and expressed passing interest in cattle. Good thing he didn't find out I was at Woodstock.

This is beautiful, rolling, gently colored country. Mrs. C's family are the most delightful people you could hope to meet. (She's not so bad, either.) I enjoy every trip here.

We Interupt Our Regularly Scheduled Programing

I still have some California material I want to post but this is worth a diversion. There was a full moon rise last evening. This was taken from my office window. The territory in the foreground is East St. Louis, Illinois. The Mississippi is just off the bottom of the frame. Although it was cloudless the air wasn't exactly clear. Wish the moon were sharper.   

We Didn't Get The Eclipse In North America

But we did get this. Rise of the mid-summer full moon, Webster Groves, Missouri, 27 July 2018, about 8:50 PM.

Moab

This is not Missouri (or, Toto, Kansas). We traveled a good way yesterday and ended our journey in Moab, Utah. It sits between two spectacular national parks, Arches and Canyonlands. There is road construction in Arches, the traffic has been terrible and the forecast for Tuesday is 101 F / 38 C. We hope to be at the gate at 7 when it opens.

Dinner last night at the Moab Brewery. There are many odd things hanging from the ceiling, including beer-laden skydivers. There was time for a brief drive along a quiet part of the Colorado River afterward.    

Strawberry Moon

I have it on the authority of The Weather Channel that the full moon of June is called the strawberry moon, not because of the color but because it is a good time to pick the fruit. I guess that depends on where you are.

So the family went downtown for dinner last night, then to the east steps of the Old Court House to watch the moon rise through the legs of the Arch. Worth the effort.

La Luna, El Cocinero Y El Capitan

Almost time to go home. We went to dinner last night at the restaurant of a boutique hotel just down the road, Capitan Suizo. Our old friend, Jujo Molina, has become executive chef. He offers a tasting menu on Friday nights at a very reasonable price.

A just-barely-not-full moon was rising over the palm trees as Jujo and his staff served us culinary delights. There was a saxophone player making sure our blood pressure stayed low. It's going to be hard to leave tomorrow.    

Sorry no post yesterday. I shot some video of the sunset Thursday evening but I don't know a thing about editing them movin' pitchers and it took me hours to figure out the basics of iMovie. Then it took three hours to upload the clip to Blogger, and then it didn't work. It may show up here yet.  

Spring Moon

The beautiful late-19th Century Compton Hill Water Tower and the reservoir beside it have been out of use for decades. You can climb the 196 steps to the top on the first Saturday of the month, April through October. It was open into the evening last night so people could see the rising of the spring full moon. The observation deck was packed, the shots could have been better, but this will do.  
                                                              

Moonrise Over The Mississippi

The October harvest moon was fat and rich as it rose over the Mississippi River and Illinois last night. Taken from my office window.

Our St. Louis Cardinals won what amounts to the quarter finals of the baseball playoffs last night, beating the Los Angeles Dodgers. Since 2000, the Cardinals have been in the playoffs 11 times, appeared in the World Series four times and won twice. This is the fourth year in a row they have reached the National League championship series. Considering that there are 30 teams in Major League Baseball it is quite an accomplishment. Next we play San Francisco for a place in the World Series.

      

Power House And Moonrise 2

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Same power plant, same moonrise as yesterday's photo but a completely difference approach. The previous pic was taken from some distance away with a 24-105mm lens at 55mm and f 16. (The latter really wasn't necessary.) Today's was shot from closer in with a 100-400mm bazooka at 160mm and f 4.8. Both are HDRs.

You can see this smokestack and flag on the far right of the building in yesterday's photo. By the way, this plant is right on the Mississippi (I think they bring fuel deliveries by water) and within view of the Arch. And, of course, tomorrow being Thursday we've got the Big A itself.

Power House And Moonrise 1

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This, ladies and gentlemen, was St. Louis' first major source of electricity, the Ashley Street Power House. It was built between 1902 and 1904 and is still in use today. It provided the juice for the 1904 World's Fair. (Did you know we had the Olympics the same year?) It's a wonderful piece of Edwardian architecture and strange enough that you might expect to see it in a Terry Gilliam movie. The rising moon looks like it was burped out of one of the smokestacks.

Another but very different view of the same objects tomorrow.

Black Flag (Full Moon)

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There was a full moon Saturday night. Moonrise was about 5:50 PM, a reasonable hour, so I went out looking for a place where I could shoot it with the Arch in the picture. Driving back and forth on the overpasses across Interstates 44 and 64, looking for a spot to set up the tripod, nothing seemed to work: no sidewalk, tall fence, bad angle. As I drove slowly on the Mississippi Avenue overpass across I 44, I saw the pale yellow globe, fat as a big potato, rising over downtown. That was where I had to make my stand.

The result was a failure. I couldn't come close to exposing for both the moon and the Arch. My hands shaking in the cold, I could not get my tripod and big telephoto lens locked down tight enough for a 1 second exposure without bad shake. To salvage the shoot I tried to get just the bright disk. The sky was black in contrast to the city light below. After downloading the pictures, the moon looked like the emblem on a simple black flag, laden with much more meaning than the Jolly Roger.

Trmporarily Tamarindo: Why To Be Here (Plus Confused Religious Symbols, Thursday Arch Series On Wednesday And A Visit To Philly)

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So why bother to come all this way? The images above were shot a couple of minutes apart on opposite sides of the sky last night (and thanks for the help from our friends at Adobe). Plus, it's way below freezing at home and a snow storm is moving in.

We took a day trip yesterday but less than we would have liked. It's been taking us so long to get our butts up and out of here in the morning (well, we are on vacation). We were going to drive to Liberia, the big town in the region, and Guaitil, known for its pottery production. We only got to the former. It has some interesting architecture and a pretty new main church. The statue below is supposed to be the the Sacred Heart of Jesus, I think, but it looks pretty Hindu to me, what with the flaming topknot and brightly colored lotus in his hand. The elliptical wire halo looks, I don't know, Copernican.

The town of Filadelphia (W. C. Fields alleged epitaph: I'd rather be in Philadelphia than here) is not far south of Liberia. The arch at the entrance to town suggests that there is something of archeological interest there but none of the guidebooks mention it so we didn't stop.

Today's agenda: booze cruise.

Big monuments today on Downtown St. Louis 365.