Dolphins?

North of Ormand Beach, FL, from a WWII watchtower, we saw these. Can anyone help with an ID, please?

Toy trains

We stopped at several toy train places throughout our travels. One especially nice one in Lancaster PA was put together initially by a man for his children starting about 50 years ago. He recently passed away, but before that had moved everything to a small mall (maybe it's actually in Strasburg) where Mike spent an hour or so looking at it. There is much more than is evident in this photo -- marching bands, circuses, parks, etc. -- and includes a firetruck and firemen in action putting out pretend flames with real water.

Rest stops

There's been some really nice rest stops and welcome centers to various states in the last three years. We now look forward to the welcome centers and will get back on an interstate, if necessary, to visit them. They've gotten more and more sophisticated, even in the short time we've been traveling about. We have seen a few, having been to 47 of the lower 48 during this time. (Some several times.)

Here's one in Florida entering along the Panhandle.

Sometimes there are downsides to these, however.

Earlier in the trip, one welcome center had posters of ten or so poisonous snakes so that we would know what they looked like … as if we were going to try to pet any other snakes we came across.

Letchworth Park

Western side of the Finger Lakes, near Geneseo NY. Spectacular place that way too few know about, including students at a college 15 miles away. We didn't until our motel asked if this place was why we were staying there.

In 1972 the water behind this dam rose to within inches of the top, filling a great wandering valley behind it. Back up the river maybe ten miles, a man signed the final papers purchasing an old hotel that morning. That afternoon it sat in 12 feet of water.

I heard from several sources that the dam (Morris dam) is 500 feet high and is the biggest east of the Mississippi. Below is one angle on the enormous valley that gives you a little perspective on how much water it took to fill the dam that high. It's really hard to believe when you're standing there that such a thing could ever have happened.

The silt at the base of the dam (it is a "dry" dam … meant only to control water in extreme times, otherwise it allows water to flow normally) is 50 feet deep.

Turkeyfoot, U.S.A. Yes, Places like this ...

… do exist. Northern West Virginia or southeastern Pennsylvania. (Check out the reflection in the car mirror.)

And not terribly far away, pretty close to Shanksville PA, where we visited the newly update Flight 93 Memorial, was one of the biggest and neatest auto junkyard I've ever seen. No disrespect meant by mentioning the two in the same caption. In fact, I think it shows how life goes on and no matter how far you think you are from everything, the world can suddenly be focussed on your backyard.

This shows only part of the yard. If you look slightly up to the extreme left, you can see how it keeps going and going. Here it is from Google:

The bridge nears completion

Addison County, VT

We headed for home via the new bridge. Almost, but not quite done. "Soon" they said.

Our welcome home

This is a miserable, pale comparison to the rainbow we saw as we approached Essex Junction … but it's the best photo we could take at the time. The purple was sharp and clear. Hard to see it here.