My Iowa Commute
 

The point of this thread is to dispel the misconception that Iowa is flat and nothing but corn and bean fields. Parts of Iowa are actually very beautiful. By far, the most pretty is the eastern border, along the Mississippi. I decided to take some pictures along my commute from Iowa City to Cedar Rapids last night, to show you guys where I live.
If you thought driving and talking on the cell phone was dangerous...you'd better appreciate the risks I took for these shots!:eek: (I just put the camera on the steering wheel and kept pressing the button, so actually, it wasn't that bad.)

.

These were taken in Cedar Rapids:

We may not have majestic mountains to look at every day, but we do get some great meteorological shows nonetheless. Here is the backside of a thunderstorm that I took a couple pics of on my way home from Minneapolis this past weekend. They were taken just north of Marion/Cedar Rapids. I was hoping to get a lighteneing strike, since they were occasionally hapening, but no such luck.

Well, that's my little part of the world, what's yours like??

Always with the backsides, eh? :lol2:

Nice shots... maybe I'll document my commute one of these days.

Nice looking place. I love this time of year. Everything is so green.

Lovely place.... looks a little flat though. ;)

(Relocated to Cities and Travel at LabRat's request.)

LR, I hope you weren't sensitized by my comment in the Bikes! thread ("I didn't know Iowa had a hill."). But thanks for sharing. It's really quite nice.

I've been considering making a little video of the first 4.5 miles of my ride to work. I want to attach a video camera to the front fender of my motorcycle, or to the top of my helmet. Unfortunately I don't have a video camera.

Maybe I'll try to take some photos.

G'wan, that's flat. Maybe a little wrinkled from the rain, and not as flat as Kansas. but flat as NJ.
When you don't see anything above the trees, it's flat.

Kansas and eastern CO is the flattest I've ever seen. I swear we drove towards a radio tower out there for hours. Creepy. Got a great picture of an entire rainbow though.

I've been keeping a camera in my car, trying to get some shots of the hot air balloons we often see being launched in Eagle. No luck today but Jim took a few pics of my "commute".

http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL162.../257952699.jpg

http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL162.../257957865.jpg

http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL162.../257952740.jpg

http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL162.../257952733.jpg

http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL162.../257952721.jpg


http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL162.../257952712.jpg

http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL162.../257952706.jpg

jinx, it looks like you have a nice commute.

Is that two dead in the last picture?

Looks like a dangerous road. Two lane country roads with heavy traffic like that last picture are statistically the most dangerous per mile driven.

edit: but to end on a positive note, it's beautiful countryside though.

The driveway on the left was probably a factor.

actually, that's jinx's commute...to the gym....

i took pics of mine on the way in this morning....muuuuuch more dangerous.....one of the roads is nicknamed the 'surekill expressway'....so. i'll put them up tonight if i get home before midnight.

as far as what appears to be crosses....i don't think so...i think it's a partially obscured sign...but i'll check next time we go.

Looks like good cycling country LJ and Jinx (bar the prospect of becoming a corpse that is) - no steep hills! I'll try to remember to take my camera with me next week and get a few pics of the route I cycle to and from work during the summer months - the left-hand-side-of-the-road driving should prove interesting/scary enough in itself.

ok..here's my ride in:

1st things first: traffic and transit at the 2's. got in the car at exactly the right time this am....
http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL162.../258179227.jpg

2nd things 2nd. My d&d guy, Jay knows my voice..."Camcho!"...(what's up in his dialect) "maddama!" ( chillin, havin a bud) "eck large coffe, just cream, mirbonni(please)"...."come to window"......"Abar!, Comcho!" (thanks, bye!).
http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL162.../258179226.jpg

entering the Turnpike at the Morgantown exit:
http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL162.../258179223.jpg

on the turnpike:

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/208/5...8c4787.jpg?v=0

ugh...traffic backed up 3 miles from the turnpike exit at valley forge is a bad sign....
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/254/5...026166.jpg?v=0


just after getting off at Valley Forge.....this truck reminds me of rich levy for some reason:
http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL162.../258179221.jpg

down the schuylkill expressway we go...and traffic was much lighter than usual...a glimpse of boathouse rowhttp://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL162.../258179219.jpg

closer to town...a cool old bridge:
http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL162.../258179786.jpg

a statue of someone....it's not william penn...he's in center city:
http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL162.../258179795.jpg

the phila zoo floats a balloon with a big girraffe on it. I assume they give rides...
http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL162.../258179793.jpg

center city looms:
http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL162.../258179788.jpg

i take 676 under it, haeding towards the delaware river, and the Ben Franklin Bridge:
http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL162.../258180554.jpg

the coolest mural at the bottom of the exit for 'the Ben':
http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL162.../258180546.jpg

this dude is like an old friend i see every day...even though i've never bought one of his pretzels or newspapers:
http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL162.../258180543.jpg

over the bridge we go:
http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL162.../258180541.jpg

cherry hill......is flat as a pancake:

http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL162.../258180539.jpg


on the ride home, there was buku traffic, but it provided an opportunity for me to get a few shots of the new comcast building with it's ever changing light show:
sorry about the zoom blur....but these were the best i got:
http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL162.../258180562.jpg


they actually are multi colored lights in a psychadelic pattern....first time i've seen it do that.....usually its some basic geometric figure of one color or the other...

Brings back memories. I used to live in Center City.

It's actually abar, howjo.

I've been having a run of bad luck on my commute - there is always some turd going 35 for the whole first part and there are no passing zones. I can take the turnpike instead, but its just as risky (cops, traffic etc)

I'll check the crosses today but I think you're probably right.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.
And three kisses (one for each of you).

I LOVE seeing unfamiliar horizons, especially if I can relate them to a person I've actually interacted with.

More please. Your local coffee shop, your supermarket, the place you buy bread etc etc. I really get off on the foreignness of the details of people's daily lives :)

I can't wait to see HLJ's set of pics. Probably need to chew gum while looking at them...

Me first for the kisses!! *elbows jinx in the ribs and throws a doughnut to distract LJ* mwa dahhling!

Then you might be able to track me down.

You should be so lucky.

[Harp music indicates that we're entering a day dream]

I'm in the bedroom on a Saturday afternoon. I'm up on the top of the 20 foot ladder trying to coax the spiders down from the ceiling, when I hear a knock on the front door.

My wife answers it. As I come down the ladder, I hear voices - lots of voices.

"We're looking for HLJ."

"Excuse me?"


"We're looking for HLJ. Hung. Like Jesus."

"I'm ... oh, Jesus, you're Witnesses. I didn't know you travelled in such big groups."

Meanwhile, I've moved out on to the balcony, wondering if I can leap to that big Ponderosa Pine and slide down to the ground. I've seen squirrels do it -- but then I've also seen squirrels run under the tires of a school bus. Squirrels do not make good role-models.
[more harp music]

It's a hot afternoon.
HLJ is up a ladder at the behest of his beautiful wife.

He hears the doorbell, but heck, he's up a ladder. Not being sexist here, but the person not up a ladder gets the door, right?

He expects to hear familiar voices - his wife's certainly, raised in greeting. And whoever has called. So he is surprised when the first indication he gets of other people in the house is when the bedroom door opens to admit a topless woman and it's not his wife...

I guess as this involves real life people, I'll leave it there ;)

oy... duh. howjo!

SG -- I'll post those pictures as soon as possible.

... and PM me the rest of that story. I need to know what happens next!

I like seeing everyone's commutes, so I thought I'd join in as well. These are all on my Flickr page, so you can see larger versions there if you like. My commute will look a little different, because I walk. It's about 1.5 miles of total walking each way.

We start off at my house, where I just took out the recycling:
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1174/...29ee7ead96.jpg

Then I go down the street. There's a mixture of small older houses, and silly enormous McMansions. See the tall building in the distance? I'm walking about three blocks past that to enter the MetroRail system:
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1056/...d05b882d79.jpg

I cut through the playground of this elementary school, but it's OK since no kids are here this early:
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1043/...a81f3ff13a.jpg

This street of older houses hasn't seen any new McMansions pop up because the houses are all duplexes. To tear one down, you would have to buy out two families, and I guess the developers think it's too much effort:
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1095/...8a5992773b.jpg

I walk along this bike path for a short distance. You can see I'm starting to get into a built up area around the metro station:
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1396/...0cf332eff9.jpg

It looks like I'm in the city here, but I'm still in the suburbs, just a few blocks from my house. The metro station is three blocks ahead:
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1354/...0bd3e23403.jpg

Here's the elevator down into the ground to catch a train:
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1126/...1d545d6164.jpg

This is my Metrorail station. I just missed a train, so the platform is pretty empty. It will be packed like sardines in just a minute or two. The glowing sign on the left says the next train will be here in 4 minutes:
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1006/...146d83f3a6.jpg

The train! You can see it's become more crowded on the platform:
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1105/...5fcc4f7c12.jpg

I know where to stand on the train so I'm one of the first off and through the gates. This is coming up out of the ground in downtown Washington D.C. There's a huge mob of people right on my tail, so I take a quick picture and head up the escalator:
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1243/...d460cfec1a.jpg

Have any of you seen one of these R2-D2 mailboxes for the Star Wars 30 year anniversary?
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1010/...0ce7a5f25d.jpg

I cut through Franklin Square Park:
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1426/...162c386b4b.jpg

Go past this old stone church and a new construction site. There's construction everywhere in this city.
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1088/...af6e06021c.jpg

This is the Washington D.C. International Youth Hostel. It's right next to an abandoned building being used as a billboard, and on the other side is a brand new building that is going to be a hotel or condos or something.
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1019/...6148387f24.jpg

I bought a Christmas postcard from this place to send to Billy. It's right across from my building.
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1082/...e89a8a5935.jpg

And here's my building! I actually went across the street to take this shot. I don't normally arrive from this direction. I normally come in a back way and sneak through the loading dock:
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1376/...fac5d051f5.jpg

You're lucky nobody thought you were trying to take an inappropriate photo of that woman!

glatt -- it must be nice to be able to walk to work.

I really like this picture:

Thanks. I knew I had 4 minutes to kill, so I took a moment to actually compose a shot instead of taking snapshots like I did for the rest of them.

I know which websites you visit. :D

When I visited DC I was very impressed with the effectiveness of the Metro system. Our only public transportation system in Austin is buses, and they suck harder than you could possibly imagine.

I really like this thread! I don't have a true commute, but I'm going to try to remember to take pictures the next time I drive into the office for a weekend recording session.

I wish I could use the Metro for my commute.

But here are a couple of pics from my daily drive:

A church on top of a gas station:

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/8/122...18c3b3f6_d.jpg


And the exorcist stairs:

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/16/23...a42bce78_d.jpg

Wow - glad I stepped by to check this out again!
HLJ - I do promise my next creative writing session will include something naughty ;)

Glatt - fantastic. You live in such a beautiful area, the walk must set you up for tackling the Metro. It looks head & shoulders above the dirty old Tube, but no commute is ever going to be ideal when you're sharing someone else's morning breath, right?

Happy Monkey - you're not kidding about the stairs :worried:
Having seen them, I'm now going to worry if you ever go AWOL.

I literally am not kidding- they are the actual stairs from the end of The Exorcist.

OK - contryside time! - all this concrete reminds me of the 30-odd years I travelled up to London and back each day, and taking 3 hours in total out of the day to do it. So that's 3 hours x 200 days x 30 years - jeez, that's 18,000 hours, or 2 years of my life (!), just standing on a platform or sitting/standing inside a train....!

Now it's a local job - in the winter I drive there but once the daylight improves I cycle for 2 or 3 of the days in the week. When using my bike, I try for quieter roads - sure, 19 out of 20 cars and trucks give you a wide berth when they overtake, but it's the 20th that's the problem. So I keep bsuy roads to the minimum.

The other thing is, well, most of you won't know where I'm talking about (or showing you photos of) - so here's a map of the route I take to start with - red marks the way (plus a bit of pinky-mauve color on the way back where I deviate from the morning route). So here we go...

First picture - out of the driveway and across the road past Headley Court Ministry of Defence Rehabiliation Hospital (used for many of the Gulf War and now Iraq War trauma victims) - no photos though, not permitted - teh guards would be on you like a shot - a fantsatic building as well. Still never mind - I'm soon turning into the Tyrells Wood Golf Court and residential area (grand houses - the ones here in the second picture are the old stables that have been converted...

.

I await photos of the sewage works with bated breath!
Joking aside - how wonderful is the Ordnance Survey? I love it for it's pedantry.

Then it's past the Golf Club - the original manor house to the estate and as always there are alsways a few people there preparing to tee-off - no need to go to the office then....? The journey to work takes 35 minutes max - but it takes agood ten to fifteen minutes more to get home - why so much quicker in the morning - more downhill stretches - like the one in the second picture that runs through Tyrells Wood...

.

Have to disappoint you with the sewage works SG - and I must get on if I'm to do this in 35 minutes - already 7.30 am and I've hardly started! Now it's out of Tyrell's Wood, down the rest of the hill and then across the A24 into that little turning opposite in the first photo. That takes me down and towards Leatherhead - wher there are shops (of sorts...)

.

One good thing about the bike is that I can cut through the pedestrianised area in photo 1 and save aabout a mile of skirting around the town as the cars do - then I rejoin the road that takes me out towards Stoke d'Abernon and Cobham and mix with the traffic...

.

Still this road's not too bad - a few cars , but not so many that they have room to give me a wide berth - I can stay in top gear for a good mile or so (the first photo, which confirms I'm going in the right direction, is just past the sewage works - just for SG that one!) and then it climbs a bit under the M25 (second photo) so I have to drop down a couple of gears...

.

until I get past the Woodlands Park Hotel (back in the early 1900's it used to be the house where Edward the 7th took Lily Langtrey (his mistress). Now I'm well over halfway and after a bit of a drop, another climb and another downhill stint, I turn right and head through Stoke d'Abernon....

.

I am swooning with delight at all the green
Much as I loved Ali's pics of her father's house, this is why I love this drizzly isle.

I'll come back to these when I'm faced with grey London in the Winter.

Another turn and then I'm on the final stretch, enjoying the opportunity to pass all the cars that have to queue for ten to fifteen miutes to get through the traffic lights - another bikey bonus! A treat for my American friends as well here at the end of this road, just to the right on the far side of the road, is the American International School where US workers living in this area send their children - you'd have never guessed that now, would you...



.

But I have to turn left at thos lights - then it's just a few yards before I reach the office - 33.50 minutes - not bad - almost a record. maybe tomorrow I'll show you the route home....

.

Cheers Madeira

Enjoyed that as much as the overseas commutes - possibly because the familiarity is offset by some lovely scenery.

Cyclefrance, that's a great commute.

Did you take the pictures while moving?

If this was a competition, Cyclefrance would win.

But it's not a competition, so keep on posting everyone.

Although I really enjoyed it, I'd always vote for something I have little chance of seeing. Like big buildings and weird crazy people driving on the wrong side of the road, and locations from horror movies. I agree CF gets an honourable mention of course.
Now that I can agree with.

I agree completely. Which is why I like Cyclefrance's so much.:)

Did a few - but roads too bumpy to get a decent picture most of the time - if there's one thing the Brits are good at it's making lumpy, bumpy road surfaces!

Not really - I can't take the credit when mother nature's the artist - just lucky to live and commute amongst all this greenery. And variety is what makes our separate journey's interesting - to be honest I find the chance to see the journeys made by other people more interesting than my own - I do mine so often it has become too familiar (and I know when the hills are going to hit!) - seeing something new is more interesting for me. Difficult to see it as a competition when each contribution brings something new and interesting to everyone else.

Yup! There's one in the touristy Harbor District in Baltimore. It's the background on my phone... If I remember my camera I'll take a picture when I'm down there tomorrow (and some others, and post them to another thread).

Americans in Britain send their kids to American school??! Offensive!

Hey, stirrer :)

We're used to US Bases over here, no-one bats an eyelid. After all, we live secure in the knowledge our schools prepare our children for the oldest most venerated Universities in the world...

You don't want those kids coming back British, do you? ;)





Pete rode to work this morning. A car was right up close behind her and she's thinking, Here we go another driver/cyclist confrontation. Then he pulls up beside with a grin, "Hey, you were doing 45 (mph) in a thirty!"

Yeah! Keep them coming!!!! Thanks!! --We should change the thread title to Cellarite Commutes or something...

I had the best intentions this morning. I brought my camera and started taking pictures. About half a mile from home the battery died, just as a baby deer walked in front of my car.