In the foothills east of Tucson lies Agua Caliente Park, with it’s large palm trees and year round ponds feed by spring water.
Originally there were two springs, a hot spring and a cold spring. Over the years attempts to improve the flow of water failed miserably resulting in a combination of the waters, and a lower overall volume of flow.
The native Hohokam had a village here for nearly 1000 years. In the mid 1800s the Army had taken over the area for an encampment following the Gadsden Purchase of 1853.
In the late 1800s it was claimed by a settler who ranched the land. Later they advertised the ranch as a health spa. This pattern continued for 100 years, until the mid 1980s when the county took over the property to develop as a park.
The majestic palm trees were added in the late 1800s when it became a spa.
Our virtual travel tour takes us back to east to Connecticut. The oldest map in the collection is from 1964. The cover is a nondescript view of an early Interstate with the State Police posed in the median strip with minimal traffic.
In Connecticut the traffic has changed but the roads are the same.
The flip side has a collection of tourist attractions of the state.
For 1965 a colonial church is featured. The European history of Connecticut started in 1636 as a Puritan settlement known as the Connecticut Colony. In the famous Charter Oak incident this group refused to surrender local authority to the Dominion of New England, one of the first acts of self government in the country.
Connecticut Yankees have a history of having great ingenuity. There is no better example of this than Mystic Seaport.
The Mystic Seaport is the largest maritime museum in the United States, with a large collection of ships and buildings in a complete town.
The transportation modes of Connecticut is featured on 1972. Located between New York and Boston, Connecticut has always been a commuter state with a large rail network for getting into the larger cities surrounding it.
New England is known for it’s impressive fall foliage. While most visitors head to Vermont and New Hampshire, Connecticut offers some scenic fall countryside views. as shown on this 1983 map
Connecticut’s one major airport, located between Hartford and Springfield, Massachusetts is on the cover of the 1987 map.
The next in the series from 1989 is a scene from the Long Island Sound.
The Long Island Sound separates Connecticut from Long Island. There are a number of ferries that cross the water thus bypassing the need of going through New York City.
We once took the New London – Orient Point ferry providing great views leaving New London and crossing the Sound.
Since the late 1990s the maps have featured non identified scenes.
    Â
    Â
We leave Connecticut with a postcard view of a small coastal town.
For five months we had the good fortune of having an apartment on the 16th floor overlooking the Rio De La Plata and the city of Buenos Aires. Little did we realize when we arrived the view would constantly change depending on the weather.
It became routine to leave the camera on the kitchen table to try and catch sunrises as we woke up each day. This long posting features the best of what Argentina weather and a 16th floor apartment overlooking a ‘river’ can provide.
The sun, water, clouds, moon – all shape the changing view.
Back on the Rio De La Plata for a late afternoon cruise – this time towards the city of Buenos Aires. The city and suburbs runs for about 40 miles along the coast of the river, mostly lined with mid rise apartment buildings.
The shore itself has a number of parks and other features that add to the scenery. The highlights include the soccer stadium for River Plate, and the airport Jorge Newberry.
Early in our time in Buenos Aires I made a stop, and a posting, on the Palacio de Aqua Corrientes – the Palace of Running Water. This time we get a more in depth look at the building, and what it contains.
The exterior is of course amazing. Comprised of over 300,000 terra cotta tiles from Royal Doulton, it is the best looking building in the city.
While it still functions as a pumping and water storage station, as well as an office for the water company, it has a nice museum.
We caught up to a tour that was going to the library, crossing this great tile floor.
A large area off of the main water museum had an art exhibit from recycled materials.
From this space we had a view of the interior sections.
Including the giant water storage tanks.
The Palacio de Aqua Corrients – one amazing place.
An earlier post had a single photo of the Palacio de Aguas Corrientes (Palace of Running Water), but with a brief break for lunch from work one day I was able to go check out the small museum, and the most amazing collection of toilets you will ever see (not something I thought I would ever note in this blog) shown on the feature photo for this posting.
Completed in 1894, it is an amazing building on the outside, hiding the basic functions of water pumping and filtration on the inside. A small museum details the history of plumbing in Argentina 🙂
The outside of the building is amazing from any angle. Amazing architecture and a huge toilet collection, what else could you ask for.
With winter hopefully coming to an end soon it was a good day to check out Hocking Hills State Park, and the numerous waterfalls throughout the park.
For this hike we started at the top of the gorge, where the aptly named Upper Falls is located.
As we made our way downstream we passed numerous ice formations on the gorge walls.
While the icicles are all bumpy, the icy spots on the trail were perfectly smooth, and very slick.
The day was mostly cloudy but we did have a peak of the sun highlight the lower falls and rock formation near one of the trails exiting the gorge.
Much like snowflakes, it seems no two icicles are the same.
The stream continues down the gorge with numerous small waterfalls.
We reached the lower falls before heading off for other trails.
Broken Rock Falls is at the end of a short side trail. Despite the narrow path for the water to travel over the wall, it came down with significant noise.
We moved on to Cedar Falls where the path to the falls took us past more interesting formations on the gorge wall. It seems the ice here was ‘stuck’ to the wall, as opposed to the numerous icicles elsewhere, although there were some here too.
The light mist that comes over the edge causes the light coating.
Cedar Falls is one of the nicer ones in the park.
Another waterfalls was hidden around the corner from the main falls, and all of the people. Note the two logs framing the sides covered in ice as well.
Our final stop was Ash Cave. We saved this for our ‘grand finale’, however the cone at the bottom wasn’t nearly as tall as in previous years.
Still it is an impressive falls.
A close up of the ice ‘cone’ at the bottom with the mist of water barely visible in the center.
All in all it was a great day in the park, and my phone says I climbed the equivalent of 54 stories of a building! Exercise and photography, what could be better.
The Mid America Windmilll Museum located in Kendallville has about 50 water windmills from the last 100 years. These windmills were key to the development of farming in the midwest.
The museum has a barn with some of the windmill wheels showing how they function. The museum was originally built to showcase a local windmill manufacturer, but now has models from several different companies.
While most are the tall thin metal type, they do have one example of an English post mill.
The blades, or sails, have a variety of shapes.
The tails help stabilize and turn the windmill into the wind at the most optimum angle.
The tails also serve as advertising for the manufacturer.
Each manufacturer had a variety of shapes and sizes of tails and blades.
Some painted colorfully.
More symmetry – this time from the windmill blades.
The water windmill allowed farms with no electrical power to be able to pump water in the vast remote regions of the midwest.
The gears in the wheel assembly would turn the hub attached to the long pump rod inside of the pipe in the well.
This up and down motion pulls the water up.
These simple, elegant machines were the lifeline of the country.
A close up of the wheel mechanisms.
A wheel made to look like a Native American head dress.
An overview of the collection. Note the different manufacturers on the tails.
The museum also featured a small covered bridge.
The post mill stands out in the crowd.
Ironically the fountain in the water uses a modern electric pump, not the windmills. And the outhouse is just for decoration.
One final look at the collection of windmills at the Mid American Windmill Museum in Kendallville, Indiana.
Our day ended in Jersey City with a stop at Liberty State Park. As we entered we paid our respects at the 9-11 Memorial. With the late afternoon sun and lack of crowds it was a moving moment to see the names of those who lost their lives that day.
Nearby is the iconic view of lower Manhattan.
The former Jersey City rail station continue to be refurbished.
There were numerous sailboats out in the harbor.
Including a large sailboat for tourists.
The last of the day’s Statue of Liberty cruises was returning.
Later we were treated to a great full moon over Manhattan.
     
     
RDZ Photography 