Memphis Pyramid

I took this zoomed picture from my hotel room when I stopped in Memphis Tennessee on the way to Newtown Pa. I have no idea what the pyramid is for. You can also see a big Elvis poster on the right.

Odd Shot in Brussels

I felt compeled to take a picture of this odd looking mask in a Brussels shop window. Imagine being on a bus or train and someone wearing this sits next to you. :-0

To see the other Odd Shot links please click here.

Funny Car in Paris

I took these pictures in a car dealership in Paris in 2006. The front view of this Toyota reminds me of a Disney movie.

Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula, Brussels

I like this cathedral. I posted another picture of it here.

Austin View

George Washington looking toward the Texas state capitol building in Austin. I think the statue is George Washington.

To bike or not to bike

I've been thinking about getting a bike. The last bike I had was a blue Schwinn beach cruiser that was stolen from the bike rack at a shopping mall in 1981 when I was 14 years old. I hope the old saying is true.

Speaking of bikes check out this strange statue in Brussels Belgium.

Place des Vosges

While walking through Place des Vosges in Paris last February I saw this very unusual sculpture in a gallery window. I don't know the artist's name, but there were lots of these in many sizes.

More NYC

Until yesterday I thought all Home Depot stores where huge orange rectangles in giant parking lots. Not this NYC neoclassial Home Depot. The deli watch cat is a bonus.

A day in New York City

Today I took the train from Trenton NJ to NYC. I didn't have a plan so I just took the subway from Penn station to the Greenwich Village and walked around. When I was a kid I was a big fan of Shaft and in that movie John Shaft had espresso in the Caffe Reggio, I did too and a chocolate cannoli in the same seat as he did so many years ago. It still looks the same. Then I had the recession special at Gray's Papaya. (two hot dogs and a drink for $4.95). I walked a little more and discovered it's not easy to find a restroom in the city. I ended up at Columbus circle and finally Central Park. It was fun but I cut it short so I could beat the crowds. I think I could get used to this.

Nashville

This is the Tennessee state capitol building in Nashville. I was only able to spent a little over an hour in the city. So I walked fast and took lots of pictures. The Tennessee capitol isn't as grand as the one in Texas but it's on a hill and has very nice views.

Update. We are staying in a hotel until Wednesday, that's when we move into our apartment. The bad news is we won't have internet or tv in the apartment until Tuesday 5/26.

Get on the Buss Gus.

This drive has been brutal. I'm too tall for my car and I'm only six foot one. Never again! Unless I get a car that's more comfortable than my Toyota Corolla. Still I would rather do this than ride a Geyhound bus. Greyhound does have cool looking stations like this one in Jackson Tennessee, it was built in 1938.

On a positive note there's only a few more hours of driving left. I drove from Knoxville Tn. to White Marsh Maryland Wednesday(near baltimore I think?), Now I pick up my wife and cats from Philadelpia airport and wait for the movers, they have a Friday to Thursday delivery time window.

I plan to make my first Newtown daily photo post this weekend.

Elvis & BB

Memphis reminds me of a King competition Elvis vs BB. There are statues and memorabilia everywhere. The wife was right. :-( I took too much time taking pictures today, plus terrible traffic, now I'm behind schedule and I'll never live it down. Yes Vicki you were right as usual. Now it's after midnight on Wednesday morning and I'm only in Knoxville Tn. I did however get some good pictures of the outside of the Rockabilly hall of Fame, Sun studio and the Tennessee state capitol Building. (Today's pictures are still Memphis)

Monday I drove through north Texas, all of Arkansas to Memphis Tn.

Tuesday I stopped in Jackson,Nashville and I'm sleeping in Knoxville Tn.

Wednesday I plan to see Virginia for the first time.

I hope to get more miles on the car and less on the camera tomorrow.

I can't wait to get to Pennsylvania and get caught up on the other blogs.

Bye for now.

Hello from Memphis Tennessee

Lots of driving, mostly in heavy rain then lots of walking and taking pictures. This computer i'm on is tiny so I can't tell if the sunset over the Missisippi river looks okay. Elvis has a bird on his head. lol that's priceless.

Thanks for all the comments I'll reply to them when I get some time. Now I have to find something to eat,shower,sleep then hit the road again.

Talk to you soon.

Reflections of Texas.

This is my last post from Texas. I leave for Pennsylvania Monday morning. It was a wonderful time here. Good food and great people, especially our wonderful church, Calvary Chapel of Grapevine. I won't miss the heat or the crazy drivers though.

I look forward to seeing new things and meeting new people and sharing those expirences in my Newtown Pa daily photo blog that I'll start next week. I'll still be posting here, and since I have tons of Dallas photos, I'll keep the Dallas blog going too.

So I'll be on the road the next few days and I hope to post pictures of the different states I go through when I stop at motels. I probably won't have much time to visit other blogs until I get settled. So stay tuned; this should get interesting.

Remember the Alamo

This monument to the Heroes of the Alamo is on the grounds of the Texas state capitol in Austin.

"The Alamo played a critical role in the Texas Revolution. In December 1835, Ben Milam led Texian and Tejano volunteers against Mexican troops quartered in the city. After five days of house-to-house fighting, they forced General Marín Perfecto de Cós and his soldiers to surrender. The victorious volunteers then occupied the Alamo — already fortified prior to the battle by Cós' men — and strengthened its defenses.
On February 23, 1836, the arrival of General Antonio López de Santa Anna's army outside San Antonio nearly caught them by surprise. Undaunted, the Texians and Tejanos prepared to defend the Alamo together. The defenders held out for 13 days against Santa Anna's army. William B. Travis, the commander of the Alamo sent forth couriers carrying pleas for help to communities in Texas. On the eighth day of the siege, a band of 32 volunteers from Gonzales arrived, bringing the number of defenders to nearly two hundred. Legend holds that with the possibility of additional help fading, Colonel Travis drew a line on the ground and asked any man willing to stay and fight to step over — all except one did. As the defenders saw it, the Alamo was the key to the defense of Texas, and they were ready to give their lives rather than surrender their position to General Santa Anna. Among the Alamo's garrison were Jim Bowie, renowned knife fighter, and David Crockett, famed frontiersman and former congressman from Tennessee.
The final assault came before daybreak on the morning of March 6, 1836, as columns of Mexican soldiers emerged from the predawn darkness and headed for the Alamo's walls. Cannon and small arms fire from inside the Alamo beat back several attacks. Regrouping, the Mexicans scaled the walls and rushed into the compound. Once inside, they turned a captured cannon on the Long Barrack and church, blasting open the barricaded doors. The desperate struggle continued until the defenders were overwhelmed. By sunrise, the battle had ended and Santa Anna entered the Alamo compound to survey the scene of his victory.
While the facts surrounding the siege of the Alamo continue to be debated, there is no doubt about what the battle has come to symbolize. People worldwide continue to remember the Alamo as a heroic struggle against impossible odds — a place where men made the ultimate sacrifice for freedom. For this reason, the Alamo remains hallowed ground and the Shrine of Texas Liberty."

To visit TNChick's Photo Hunt click here. Today's theme: "In Memory''.

Skywatch Friday over the Seine

- -------------------------------Click the picture for a much better view-----------------------------
Hello all. I took this photo in February on a bridge between Île de la Cité and Île Saint-Louis in Paris. On the same day that I took this one.

To see all the Skywatch Friday posts from around the globe click here.

Sepia Scenes at a Grapevine Farm

This is a tractor at Nash farm in Grapevine Texas.

To see other sepia scenes post please click here.

Watery Wednesday at the University of Texas

I took a walk around the University of Texas when I was in Austin last week. It's a very nice campus with lots of things to photograph including this grassy area and fountain.

To enjoy all of the Watery Wednesday posts from around the globe click here.

My World Tuesday Disaster

Please click to enlarge

I've lived in the Valley Ranch section of Irving Texas for the last two and a half years. During that time almost every time I come home from somewhere I have to descend down a hill on MacArthur Blvd into Valley Ranch from the Los Colinas section of Irving. From the top of the hill the most prominent structure in sight was the Dallas Cowboys indoor training facility which is located a few blocks past my apartment complex. This thing was huge and dominated the view from the top of the hill until the big storm last Saturday around 3:30pm. The storm was reported to have winds over 70 miles per hour and torrential rain plus thunder and lightening. I was on the computer when the storm hit. It didn't last long but it hit very hard. After it passed I remember hearing more sirens than I ever remember hearing before. I wondered what they were for and even said a little prayer for those who need help. Then I ventured out to take some pictures of the cloudy sky and forgot about the sirens. A couple hours later we went to dinner in Carrollton. On the way back we always pass right by the Dallas Cowboys training facility. This time when I looked for the big familiar building all I saw was a heap of twisted metal and tarp. The whole thing was destroyed at that moment the sirens that I heard earlier made sense. Instead of going straight home I made a left and saw all the police cars, news trucks, lights and cameras. I drove around to the back side and took a couple of pictures of the damage. Then I started to wonder if the Cowboys football team was in there when it collapsed. Later I heard on the news that indeed a practice was taking place at the time and there were injuries, some severe but none fatal. I just read that one of the coaches was left paralyzed. What a tragedy. This wasn't even the strongest storm I've experienced here.

I pray for those injured and their families.

The ironic thing is I planned to get some pictures of the training facility this week before I move to Pennsylvania on monday.

The training facility is the big silver white thing with a blue star in the bottom two photos and the mess in the second. I acually took the weather map picture during the storm.

To see all the great my world tuesday posts click here.

Mellow Yellow Monday in Waxahachie

This is my first Mellow Yellow Monday post it's one of the many Victorian homes in Waxahachie Texas. Today was also my first Monochrome Monday post on my Dallas blog. So I hope this proves that Waxahachie looks just as normal in color as it does in B&W, just a few decades behind the times. lol.

To see other Mellow Yellow Monday posts click here.

To see what I'm talking about regarding Waxahachie and Monochrome Monday click here.

Waxahachie is known as the gingerbread city.

Waco window

I took this picture of a window in Waco Texas. I don't know the name of the building or even what the rest of it looks like. Maybe I'll be able to put some clues together by looking at other photos, but for now this is just an old anonymous Waco window. I wonder if anyone is in there.

Walking in the Blanton

This week's photohunt theme is walking.

While In Austin Last weekend my wife and I walked around an art museum called the Blanton.
It was at the university of Texas. In the past few months I've been to the Louvre, the Met in NYC, and the Kimbell in Fort Worth. So I was getting a little burned out on spending hours looking at the old masters. The Blanton was a breath of fresh air. It is relatively small with a nice mix of art styles. The featured exhibit was called Birth of cool California art, design and culture midcentury. It was very interesting and dare I say cool. What wasn't cool was the no photography allowed in the exhibit. That was downstairs the upstairs had a nice mix of European,old west,Greek and modern art. I also liked the way the inside of the building looked and was set up with lots of natural light.