Street light, Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Street light columns near the river in Cedar Rapids, slowly drifting their LED selves from one color to another around the rainbow.

C is for Cookie

A rousing performance of "C is for Cookie" to an auditorium full of cheering kids at Sesame Street Live.

Abby Cadabby

Abby Cadabby, the new Sesame Street fairy monster, looking down on us and encouraging the kids on stage to help magic her plants into growing.

Cookie Monster

Cookie Monster, encountered at close range before a performance of Sesame Street Live.

Iowa City sunset

Rippled sky sunset in Iowa City.

Blue steel bars, Iowa City

This truck going down the highway had stacks of these big blue-painted grids of steel bars, but I have no idea what they might be for.

Bridge construction barge, Iowa City

Another view of the bridge construction barge, having moved to work on a different river project, carrying its crane and other vehicles along with it as it goes.  Its name, apparently, is Poseidon.

Bridge construction barge, Iowa City

There is a new pedestrian bridge under construction on the Iowa River, to replace the one this picture is shot from. Unusually in my experience, the bridge construction appears to be getting carried out almost entirely from a barge that sits permanently floating in the middle of the river, moving back and forth doing things like setting up coffer dams and installing beams into the river bed.

Hydrants awaiting installation, Iowa City

Two colors of fire hydrant, awaiting installation near a construction site in Iowa City. I don't know what the difference between colors is intended to mean, but I was fascinated by the "icebergs have more below the waterline" feeling of seeing how much bigger a hydrant is as a component than we normally get to see them.

Mathematical Sculpture, Seamans Center, Iowa City

One view onto a long curving mathematical sculpture in the just-finished new wing of the engineering building at the University of Iowa.

Living room carpet

Texture of our living room carpet.

1880 Town, South Dakota

Another view of 1880 Town, with a church and a ranch at its edge.

1880 Town, South Dakota

In the middle of South Dakota, 1880 Town pops up by the side of the highway, showing a recreated version of a town from more than 100 years ago, featuring buildings collected and relocated for purposes of movie filming.

Receding glaciers, Glacier National Park, Montana

A last look at Glacier, with the smoke clear out enough to see what little remains of some of the glaciers up above on the mountain heights.

Sunlight and shadows, Glacier National Park, Montana

Sunlight casting streaming shadows through the clouds.

Sunlight and shadows, Glacier National Park, Montana

Sunlight casting streaming shadows through the clouds.

Barbarian helmet, Glacier National Park, Montana

Spotted on a motorcycle in a Glacier parking lot: thar be barbarians out here.

Smoke and shadows, Glacier National Park, Montana

Slanting sunlight casting shadows through the smoke in Glacier National Park.

Moose, Glacier National Park, Montana

Two moose, a male and female together, glimpsed from far away across the lake.

Fearless wood grouse, Glacier National Park, Montana

Going around the lake trail at dawn, there were many wood grouse hopping through the undergrowth at the edge of the trail. They seemed to be entirely unafraid of humans, allowing one to get quite close before loudly hop-fluttering just a little further off.

Wooden bridge, Glacier National Park, Montana

A wooden bridge stretching over a pebbled stream between two lakes near Many Glacier.

Many Glacier Lodge, Glacier National Park, Montana

Many Glacier Lodge is an Alpen complex of Swiss inspiration, with a mountainous wall on one side and a flatter region by the lake on the other. Here, everything is still grey and fading in folds of heavy smoke.

Smoky sunrise, Glacier National Park, Montana

Sunrise the next day, still an attenuated red, but the smoke is starting to lift a bit at this point.

Lights in Many Glacier Lodge, Glacier National Park, Montana

Inside Many Glacier Lodge, there is a riot of lights in different shapes and sizes, hanging at all different heights through the high interior of its lobby.

Sunset through smoke, Glacier National Park, Montana

Close-up of the smoked out sunset, dipping redly behind the limb of one of the bordering mountains.

Sunset through smoke, Glacier National Park, Montana

Sun going down over the mountains in Glacier National Park, deeply dimmed out by the smoke.

Atmospheric contrast, Glacier National Park, Montana

Here, at Many Glacier on the Eastern edge of the park, the smoke lightened up a bit, but still held deep and hard on par with the world's worst urban air pollution. The contrast here is heightened by the difference between what can be seen and the normal view on the panoramic sign below.

Into a smoky limbo, North Central Montana

We had the misfortune to be coming into Glacier National Park right in the midst of one of the worst fire seasons that Montana has seen. Major fires were burning in many parts of the state to our West, including in the middle of the park itself, where one of the historic lodges had just been destroyed a few days before. The skies had hung lightly grey above us for hundreds of miles, but on this morning as we approached the park, the smoke lowered down and we entered a boundless limbo of featureless grey, not even a hint of the Sun's location overhead.

Great Falls, Montana doppler radar

Infrastructure! This is the doppler radar for tracking weather all across this region of Montana. Each weather service radar covers and area a hundred miles or so in diameter, and they are (to the best of my understanding) where all of those regional "weather radar" plots come from.

Rooftop polar bear, Great Falls, Montana

I don't know why this polar bear statue and scene is on this roof in Great Falls, Montana, and frankly, I'm OK with random roof bears.

Mermaid at the Sip'n'Dip Lounge, Great Falls, Montana

Beyond its basic pseudo-Polynesian weirdness, the featured highlight of the Sip'n'Dip Lounge its its mermaid shows. Shows, however, might be a little strongly put: this is no fancy water-ballet titillation like the Weeki Wachee Mermaids. No, the lounge is simply built along side the bottom of the hotel pool, and during its open hours a woman in a (relatively modest) mermaid costume just kinda hangs out, swimming back and forth, occasionally tossing around plastic fish and seaweed. She wears goggles and is pretty chill, just kinda doing her thing on her side of the glass and waving to people who wave to her. In my odd personal taste, I really dug it, much more than if it had been some sort of more complex or sexualized performance. I sent a picture to my kindergarten-age daughter (who loves Ariel, but informed me this couldn't be a real mermaid, because they're make believe) and left her a thank-you tip in the big mermaid tip glass.

Blowfish light, Sip'n'Dip Lounge, Great Falls, Montana

In the midst of an unprepossessing motel in Great Falls, Montana is a remarkably funky and weird institution: the Sip'n'Dip Lounge is a tiki bar, surviving from its long ago inception on a combination of brazen strangeness (like this blowfish light), kitsch, and retro appreciation.

Boardwalk, Benton Lake Refuge, Montana

Another spot along this remarkable long beautiful boardwalk, seemingly stretching off to infinity. I have always loved suspended walks like this: they give me a feeling of a particularly special rustic construction beauty.

Boardwalk, Benton Lake Refuge, Montana

On one side of the marsh, a long boardwalk zigzagged across above the grasses, far off to the edge of the remaining pond where myriad ducks and other waterfowl were feeding.

Dried grasses, Benton Lake Refuge, Montana

In early September, the lakes of the refuge were small and shallow, and the marsh grasses all around crisped brown and even in the dryness of late summer.

Under assault by mosquito swarms, Benton Lake Refuge, Montana

Near Great Falls, Montana, we stopped at a migratory bird wildlife refuge. Immediately upon opening the doors, great swarms of vicious mosquitos flocked towards us, delighted to find mammals in their vicinity. The refuge was set up with a driving path suggested for exploring its ponds and marshlands, so retreating inside the car helped, but even so a hundred or so mosquitos followed closely.

Montana grain elevator

Unlike grain elevators I have seen in any other part of the country (which are basically tall metal or concrete cylinders), in Montana most grain elevators that I saw were these old rectangular wooden structures, tapering to an angled roof at the top.

Judith Basin, Montana

Judith Basin is a near-perfectly flat grassland, bordered eventually by hills and mesas, here partially hidden in the slowly thickening smoke from the wildfires we approached.

Long straight road, Montana

With nothing in particular to shape it otherwise, this long straight road in Montana rides many miles off into the horizon. Even in the Midwest, where things are much flatter and the roads are laid out on a grid, one almost never finds roads this straight for this long, because farms and villages and watercourses bend exceptions here are there. Up in the high dry emptiness of this part of Central Montana, however, no such forces of civil gravity obtain.

Rock cross, Montana

A cross lies up the side of a rolling hill by the side of a country road in Montana, formed of small white rocks and declaring this land's owner's faith in Christ.

Yellow mounds layer, Badlands Nat'l Park, South Dakota

Another view of the yellow mounds layer, curving up into other shapes and forms of higher and younger rocks.

Yellow mounds layer, Badlands Nat'l Park, South Dakota

Part of what makes the Badlands spectacular is the strong colors of the different layers of earth exposed as you go up and down its heights. The most eye-catching of these is the "yellow mounds layer," whose naming genesis is fairly obvious. These are one of the lowest layers in the badlands, formed when ancient seas drained away many millions of years ago and the mud at the bottom of the ocean weathered away into these yellow soils.

Goat, Badlands Nat'l Park, South Dakota

This mountain goat was one of a small herd lounging beside the roadside in the late afternoon sun, clearly quite happy and comfortable with its life in that moment at least.

Prairie Dogs, Badlands Nat'l Park, South Dakota

In some areas of the Badlands, vast prairie dog towns stretch near, beside, and even across/beneath the winding main park road. The little creatures maintain a careful guard, but are clearly accustomed to humans in their environment.

Pockets of life, Badlands Nat'l Park, South Dakota

Despite the fact that it looks moon-barren from farther away, up close the Badlands reveals pockets of life embedded into nooks and crannies all around.

End of Trail, Badlands Nat'l Park, South Dakota

There is no particular reason I could discern why this trail ends here: one could certainly keep on going on the ridge it follows, and in the Badlands, unlike many National Parks, you are invited and encouraged to wander off the trails and through the wilderness if you wish. Nevertheless, we are clearly informed that we have reached the END OF TRAIL.

Hidden arch, Badlands Nat'l Park, South Dakota

An arch worn in the rocks of the Badlands, hiding down below the viewpoint at the end of a short trail.

Badlands Nat'l Park, South Dakota

In the Badlands, the sharp edges of the dry rock formations against the crisp blue sky makes the boundaries of the hills around look flat, practically like cut-outs in a diorama.

Catpacks, Badlands Nat'l Park, South Dakota

On to a more light-hearted subject: I was just fascinated by these two dapper young women touring dapperly together in the Badlands National Park, cats on their backs looking rather nonplussed by their adventure.

World-Wide Delivery in 30 Minutes or Less, Minuteman Missile Monument, South Dakota

Grim army humor in a dark reflection of Domino's Pizza ads, on this mural saved from one of the deactivated missile command posts.