h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Watkins Glen State Park, New York – 15 September 2006

Glaciers pushed though here 12,000 years ago and left heaped up high mountains and very long gouged-out lakes. Some of the lakes are 40 miles long and a mile wide. There are salt mines under the lakes where salts were deposited 400 million years ago. Cornell University scientists are still looking for neutron flashes deep underground in tanks of dark water.

The gorges in this area have been cut though soft shale in the eye-blink since the glaciers receded. Here are some pictures of on of the gorge/waterfalls called “Buttermilk”
http://good-times.webshots.com/slideshow?ID=554074124

We have an appointment here to apply for Mrs. Phred’s old age benefits. We arrived at the small local Social Security office at 8:58 AM for our 9 AM appointment. It's been "hardened" against terrorists.

The Wackenhut security guard is armed. He unlocks the thick glass office door at precisely 9 AM and we enter to log in to our appointment on a screen with REALLY BIG fonts for old people.

A few seconds later he buzzes us into an interview room though a steel door. The counselor is behind a large sheet of bulletproof glass. There is a slot to push though Mrs. Phred's birth certificate...

We went to the 215 foot Taugannoock falls today with friends who have traveled here to meet us. Late in the day I get a shot of a Monarch butterfly on a purple flower…it’s my best photo ever…
http://good-times.webshots.com/slideshow?ID=554163305

The Cornell ornithologists reintroduced peregrine falcons into the gorge several years ago. They tagged the falcons with radio transmitters. All the transmitters were later found in owl pellets.

They successfully introed peregrine falcons to Manhattan, where the tall buildings are like hte cliffs they like to live on, and there are many pigeons to eat.

Can you explain some of the pics in the second set? Especially the bouquet of yellow flowers drying over the water...

Nice Monarch photo. Very crisp focus.

I've never seen so much shale in my life! I like how they used it in bridges, etc.

The bunch of yellow yellow wildflowers appeared to have toppled over...it had been raining lightly but steadily for the past several days....

I love the photograph too. It's very difficult to photograph any wildlife, so well done.

I'm now beginning to realise why the area is called New England. So much of the scenery looks very familiar to me 3,000 miles away. Those gorges are spectacular.

The V shape at the top of the falls was a diamond shape until a huge chunk fell in about 100 years ago.

The place above the falls where my uncle taught me to swim now has a "no swimming" sign posted...I remember one year they were afraid to take us swimming there because they thought the creek might have polio in it...the big shale ledge in front of the swimming hole has toppled in during a flood sometime in the intervening years...

That's a very graceful arched WPA bridge over the creek.

The leaves here are turning quickly...none of the natives quite believe the early change...they talk of drought and diseased maples...the next few weeks should be interesting...

Phred, that is an absolutely gorgeous area. My list of possible places to live when I retire is growing.

The butterfly photo is spectacular. Congratulations.

We are wondering what sort of fall color we'll hve this year because of the drought. Lst year was mediocre.

New England is the only place to be in the fall. Period.

Although I think very technically NY is considered a Middle State, it shares more in common with, say New Hampshire, than Virginia.

I thought New England was those geographically-challenged states east & north of New York.

Yeah. And New York is lumped with New Jersey (shudder) and Pennsylvania and Maryland and Delaware and I think even Virginia. Odd bedfellows. Who made that up anyway?

Some bureaucrat with a map and a pencil, I guess.

There are peregrine falcons in San Francisco, living on the same food source. They also will take rats. The first falcons in SF volunteered to live there, no one introduced them. They were discovered living on the cross bar of the L in the Metlife building.

I liked the monarch picture too, but the little bumble bees in the next picture really spoke to me. I have bumblebees enjoying my autumn sedum right now, makes them almost drunk.

The tank of RV gas we bought ib Scranton 3 weeks ago is atill 3/4 full.

From here we go north 190 miles to Thousand Islands, New York and the west 150 m iles to Northern Vermont for the leaves...

To avoid any further geographical confusion, I suggest you try heading east instead of west, if you wish to reach Vermont from New York....

Excellent point....My training as a USAF navigator fails me again...I don't think Lake Ontario would agree with our RV...

Hi Mr. and Mrs. Phred,

Lovely photos of the marvellous Lakes and also of yourselves and friends. I enjoyed seeing them.

The butterfly was resting on a mauve buddleia (I think) There were also some beautiful homes and marvellous gardens - paractically herbaceous borders. There was one tree that seemed to have leaves that were changing colour, and somewhere you mentioned a maple. I wondered it that was a maple?

What a beautiful country the US of A is. You are all very blessed.

Kind regards

Christiane

I remember being 400 nautical miles (doublechecks) west of Oahu...heading for Wake Island at a liesurely 200 nauts per hour.......our heading was 273 degrees....Pilot, I cried, come right to heading 270...after a moments hesitation he put the big bird into a 357 degree 3-minute babk to the right...

Then there was the tome I came south from Colorado and wanted to turn toward Las Angeles...I read my plotter backwards and called for a heading of 090 rather than 270...It was morning and the pilot kept asking if I had any extra maps he could use to keep the sun from his eyes...I was so astonished by the sudden abrupt dissapearance of the Rocky Mountains that I ignored his pleas...