A couple of years ago, I had the chance to spend a few nights in Portland on the company dime. As my days were spent in training, I could only get out at night. Without a tripod, some of the images are a little blurry, but I think the glow of the evening lights make up for it.
This little town surprised me. Jonesboro was established in 1779 and is the oldest town in Tennessee. Most of the buildings in the downtown area are on the Register of National Historic Places. In its early days, the town was the gate to the first frontier and the stage road West ran through it. Andrew Jackson practiced law here. And the town is loaded with ghosts. I actually toured the town twice. The first was a daylight walk. The second was a night walk with a paranormal investigator.
The Biltmore Estate is a house in the grandest sense. George Vanderbilt (yes, of those Vanderbilts) had this constructed in 1890. The house encompasses four acres. That’s interior space. Four floors housed George’s family, guests, and staff. At any given time, the house employed thirty-five people. There were parlor maids, chamber maids, butlers, grounds keepers, cooks, and many others. During the planning phase, designers built towers to heights matching the floors so that views could be chosen and showcased. A three-mile drive from Biltmore Village Historic District winds through the estate’s land. I felt sorry for the poor bastards. Biltmore House is one of America’s castles.
Mom and I took the guided audio tour. I would have had more interior photos, but a docent told me that interior photos would infringe copyright (wtf?). We saw 62 rooms from the Billards Parlor to the staffs’ quarters. Art from Renoir and John Singer Sargent hung on the walls. Fabrics and wallpaper patterns were restored to their original state. The images you do have from me are of the exterior and grounds. Still, that was more than enough. The only real unpleasantness was getting caught in a downpour while in the greenhouse. It made the walk back to the car…uncomfortable. After the Estate tour, we stopped at a coffeeshop. By this time the rain subsided. Mom, however, brought the umbrellas with us into the shop. You know, just in case, we got caught in another downpour.
I have been through a bunch of airports over the years, but I was never so surprised by as I was when I traversed terminals at Detroit Int’l Airport. My flight arrived a few minutes late. No problem, I had a three-hour layover. Yet, when I looked down the terminal, I saw one of the longest walks I have had in an airport. Maybe that three hours was going to be just enough time to get to my connecting gate in another terminal.
Like most modern airports, DTW has a mall in it’s central terminal. DTW’s is well appointed with chi-chi stores, sushi restaurants (I had my dinner there. Too expensive and not much better than my fave teriyaki hangouts), and newsstands. Along and above this indoor strip mall was DTW’s inter-terminal tram. Bright red and modern, several trams cruised an elevated track that runs the length of concourse A. Quite entertaining, as I watched trams enter and exit the concourse through the Land of Make Believe entrances along the line. Ding-Ding.
What caught my eye the most was a subterranean passage between concourses. I entered via the usual escalators. What I saw on the floor caused my head to pitch to the right. Colors danced on the polished stone floor. As the noise of Concourse A faded, I began to hear environmental techno music. The lights changed color to the music. Finally, at the bottom of the escalator I saw the full picture. For about fifty yards, colors danced on the walls. The passage is about 10 yards wide and was shaped like a gently flattened cylinder. Moving walkways travelled from end to end. From end to end beautiful colored lights back lit fine art glass panels curved to the shape of the passage
While in the tube (a three-hour layover gave me a lot of time) I heard several songs. The flashing lights and the otherworldly tones reminded me of Close Encounters. I was even more surprised that no one but me was taking pictures of this art piece. I did see a father and son videotaping, but they spent no more time than it took to get from one end to another. I (proudly) must have at least 24 exposures of this wonder in Detroit.