Driving Across America

Last week I was in Taos and then Thursday and Friday at Great Sand Dunes National Park (100 miles north of Taos in Colorado). Thursday night after an evening rain it cleared, the moon set, and the sky was spectacular. With no nearby light pollution, the Milky Way appeared nearly solid in places. And the Perseid meteor shower provided fireworks — a few of the many “shooting stars” we saw were just amazing.

Two weeks ago I was on my way home from Virginia with Emily and her two Sweeties, Kiley (7) and Alex (5). As Kiley and Alex put it, we were “driving across America.” (From northern Virginia to Albuquerque, about 1860 miles.) I took a few photos of America with my iPhone along the way.

First, Tennessee (other states will be in subsequent blog posts).

Click images for a gallery of larger versions. [Note: There is a caption for each photo. It may not be visible in RSS readers.]

The Tennessee State Capitol in Nashville, built between 1845-1859.

Another view of the Tennessee State Capitol.

The House Chamber, Tennessee State Capitol.

Replica of the Athens Parthenon built for the Tennessee Centennial in 1897. It was raining hard, but I sacrificed to get you this shot.

Sun Records Memphis, the birthplace of Rock and Roll. Elvis, Jerry Lee, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison and others all first recorded here.

Martin Luther King Jr. was on this balcony at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis when he was fatally shot. He had just left the room on the left and was walking to the stairs on the right (not shown) to go down to his car.