East Bijou Avenue, Colorado Springs

What is there to say about the strange landscape of the urban Mountain West that doesn't sound ironic or dismissive? John Brinckerhoff Jackson wrote  about it well, a generation ago. The problems and the systemic dysfunctions have metastasized since then. One symptom is traffic, and the amount of time a person needs to spend in a car to get to work or to accomplish any sort of task in a city like Colorado Springs. A section of the U.S. that might have benefited from what we have learned about urban planning over the last fifty years is politically, culturally, and temperamentally conditioned to rile at any mention of the the word 'plan'.  So what they get is a mess,  with all important decisions about the way people live their daily lives left up to the real estate industry. Why do Americans allow the real estate industry to shape, in the most basic sense, the way they live now? I rode out along E. Bijou on my bike, which felt a bit dangerous. Traffic moves very fast there probably because there are few places to stop. It is a worn-out part of town: strip malls and commercial buildings from the 50s-60s-70s. The newer and more "glamorous", if that is the word--or perhaps more 'branded'--sprawl happens further and further out to the north and east. Kind of like tree rings, except the inner rings of the community, with exceptions, seem to wither and die. They don't stay part of the organic whole. I met some great people on E. Bijou when I stopped to admire old trucks and cars. The late September sky was stunning, it shone like hard blue metal. To the West, the peaks of the front range were showing a dust of snow.

Schooners on Eggemoggin Reach

Nearly the end of sailing season. There will be many perfect days between now and Thanksgiving, but mixed in will be days when it's blowing NW at 20/25/30 knots and everything's rocking in Center Harbor. On  the downeast coast, leaving a boat in the water past early October--especially in a relatively unprotected anchorage like C.H.---means some sleepless nights. So it's time to haul. Which will happen this week: Scout will be hauled at Sedgwick Town Landing, on the Benjamin River, and stored at Bill Grant's for the winter. But I hope to get a few more hours in; or at least one good sail from Center Harbor to the Benjamin River.
One of the delights of sailing in our part of the Maine coast is meeting the schooner fleet in their natural environment. These photos are from the last couple of afternoons I was out on the Reach, late September.

                                               Lewis R. French.. or  Grace Bailey?

Victory Chimes? Reaching, on the Reach

Heritage. Sailed on her.

Lewis R French

I think this is Victory Chimes

Deer Isle Bridge to the NW

Heritage, again.

Brooklyn International Harvester Scout

"Found this gem in Brooklyn last time i was there… almost TOO pretty I know, but how can you resist?"--David Ross

Saw an older Scout in Colorado last month.

Chevrolet & Spinoza: Marfa Truck, Marfa Dog

Tom Michael, founder and manager of Marfa's NPR station, KRTS (Radio for a Wide Range) sent these photographs. The truck is and always has been one block east of the Hotel Paisano. The dog is Spinoza. Most Marfa dogs are chihuahuas; or, most of the dogs that come snarling out of their yards to chase after my bike are chihuahuas.

Couple of Colorado Ford F100's

Patrik Qvist, the Stockholm Chevrolet C10 & the flying Marfa Shed

This in today from our artist friend Patrik Qvist, another part-time Marfan. They do rust, in Sweden.

When we met Patrik, he was doing this beautiful flying shed project in his back yard in Marfa.

La Belle Province

October starts me thinking of home. J'etais nee au Quebec, moi. These photos were taken by Aidan O'Neill and Mary Behrens a few years ago on the Lower North Shore (of the St Lawrence) around Tadoussac, which is maybe the oldest European settlement in Canada. At Tadoussac the deep cold Saguenay R. flows into the St Lawrence, and the churn of waters there makes a feeding ground for white whales--beluga (see the last photo of the set).  One of the great road trips in North America follows the north shore of  the St Lawrence from Quebec City along the coast of Charlevoix County---to Tadoussac. Then cross over to the South Shore on one of the ferries (Baie Comeau or St Simeon---you'll see whales out in the river) and drive around the coast of the Gaspe peninsula. October is good. Go now. There are caribou in the mountains in the interior of the Gaspé. Doing a magazine story on the Lexus SC430 two-seater a few years back, we drove the car from Maine to the point where the road on the North American mainland littoral stops---which is on the north shore of the St Lawrence, a few miles past Natashquan, and a few miles (kilometers!) southeast of the Quebec/Labrador border.