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Playing with longer exposures, and a teeny tripod; it does wonders! Here are some photos looking North down Alder Street, circa 12:30 a.m. It was interesting to see how drivers in oncoming cars, as they came over the rise, reacted to seeing someone flat on their stomach on the pavement, wearing a headlamp, and aiming something at them on a tripod. They mostly went into swervy BMW mode, except one, who paused over-long, until I angrily waved them on -- sort of a "deer in headlights" moment. Don't miss my run-in with a Winnebago after the turn!

Difficult night passage

The current crop of super tankers are too big to fit through the Panama Canal -- that last wonder squeezed out of the 19th Century. They just go around South America; they carry so much value that it's makes more economical sense than using more smaller tankers that can fit through the Canal.

What brought the Panama Canal to mind? After the Alder Street photos, and just before bed, I took photos looking West down the alley off where I sleep. I wanted to show the bottleneck created by the new condo. As soon as I'd set up my camera on it's teeny tripod, I heard a loud rumble behind me which reminded this former Prairie boy of a combine harvester. Damned if it wasn't a huge, old, tattered, Winnebago motorhome -- coming towards me. WTF? No way! It was well after 1:00 a.m. in an upscale neighbourhood. But there it was, bearing down on me. I hustled up against a wall and let the lumbering RV go by. As soon as it was, I set up my camera again -- I wanted to capture some of this. The driver made it through, s-l-o-w-l-y, but he was swearing, and his "loser-bago," I'm sorry, that was uncalled for -- his Winnebago, audibly scraped the condo on his right, and the concrete Jersey barriers on his left, and he seriously bottomed out the back end. He continued West into the next block of the alley. Here's the photo:

[caption id="attachment_5345" align="alignnone" width="497"] Difficult transit through the Gatun locks.[/caption]

Here's another photo showing the empty lane. Note the "Caution Lane Narrows" sign on the condo. You can also see the Winnebago in the next block. It turned South at the end of that block to the sound of much grinding, and scrapping of body on pavement. This morning, as I rode down the hill, I noticed a new broken brick on the South-West corner of the condo, at about motorhome height. Click the images to enlarge them.

[caption id="attachment_5346" align="alignnone" width="497"] This must be what the little wiener dogs see when their owners take them for a walk.[/caption]

Next day photos of the condo's scraped brick wall ►