Breathes there a man with soul so dead......................

I am happy to be a regional writer. My region is the American West, old Mexico, West Virginia, New York, Europe, Australia, the human heart, and the male groin.

Well, dys, I must say, that is unique. <smile>

Florida is unique in that it's a multi-flora state. Ethnic diversity, you know.

Spokane is surrounded by mountains, with the Selkirks on the north, the Rockies on the East, the Blue Mountains on the South, and the Cascades on the West. and has a semi-arid climate. fascinating geology, sweppt by the Missoula Floods (15,000 years ago) which shaped the landscape of this region and also has many fascinating basaltic formations.

Houston is a mix of many ethnicities and citizens moving in from other states. The little corner I live in (a town called Tomball) is rapidly being citified from all directions. From Houston up highway 45 to The Woodlands then in a circular path that includes Tomball, all is new construction and influx of people. From Houston southwest, the same movement is taking place on our other side. It is estimated a million or so will soon have moved here. Just up the road from me a new complex of Walmart, Kroger, Chili's and several dozen other businesses have gone in, with about four new subdivisions all around my neighborhood. Then there's the big new church that they have the framework up for. Whew.

husker, Sounds beautiful. I could look it up, but I prefer to hear it from you. Will you give us a brief history of the Missoula floods?

Virginia is unique in that it encompasses so much history, and speaking of "blue" the Blue Ridge Mountains are awesome.

I'm not surprised at WalMart, edgar. It pains me to tell you that all I know about Houston is "Sam" and San Antonio's Alamo, because it's a shrine. I used to know the origin of the name, but I've forgotten.

Shame about all the Interstates, isn't it. They enable us to by-pass America.

Houston is also known as the Bayou City, for obvious reasons. We have a sultry climate - lots of heat and humidity. A ship channel, major airports. It's easy to dismiss us as a stereotypical Texas setting, but that's a mistake. The countrified redneck image has its place here, but so does almost everything else known to America.

The Floods that Carved the West



In a great geological catastrophe, a giant lake exploded through an Ice Age dam, and its waters swept across the Pacific Northwest; awesome signs of its passage are still visible to this day

Fifteen thousand years ago, during the last Ice Age, a glacial dam collapsed in what is now northern Idaho, releasing the waters of a giant inland sea known as Lake Missoula. Five hundred cubic miles of water rampaged westward at 60 miles an hour in a torrent flowing with ten times the volume of all the rivers on earth. The flood carved canyons, gouged out enormous plunge pools, made rivers like the Snake and the Willamette run backward and scoured the earth of eastern Washington right down to bare basalt rock. The flood may have happened not just once, but many times, as the glacier periodically crept forward again to recreate the lake.

Today the landscape of the Pacific Northwest still bears the signs of these cataclysms: the flood-scoured scablands of eastern Washington, giant rocks near Portland transported all the way from Idaho by the flood, potholes and plunge pools dug by waterfalls that would have dwarfed Niagara many times over. Today both government and private organizations are exploring the idea of creating a kind of tourist trail, so that visitors to the region can learn the story of the flood, and see the enormous footprints that it left behind.


More info and maps

West Virginia isn't the "Bubba" state that everyone thinks it is, either edgar.

The Bayou city? Wow!

Letty, you wrote a poem abt me...

Great, Husker. There is a place in West Virginia called Pinnacle Rock that is really odd. Folks love to dub it as "erosion--nature's cutting tool..." original, no?

Basalt is slate like rock, is it not? I do believe that my sister has a coffee table with a basalt insert. Quartz is also big in her area of Virginia.

Gautam, I have written several poems about you, my handsome friend. To which were you referring?

You know, Gautam, it is sad to me that all I know about India is what I read and see in the movies, and, of course, The Song of India.

Letty
slate is formed by the earths compression of clays and other deposits over hundreds of years. The heat, pressure, and movement of the earth over the years results in chemical changes and a metamorphism of the clay and other deposits into slate.

basalt is the commonest type of solidified lava; a dense dark gray fine-grained igneous rock

This very one Letty.

Who am I ? Having been living so far away from my country for so long, I slowly seem to be losing my identity.

Ah, yes, Husker. Lava, of course. I looked at your map. I was never any good at geography, not because I was not interested, but because it was never made appealing; too much memory work.

Gautam, you will never lose your identity, my friend. There is another name for the cast mark on the forehead of East Indians. What is it called?

"Keep Portland Strange" reads a popular bumper sticker.

We have some incredibly beautiful things: 7 mountain days, the Chinese garden, the Japanese garden, the Rose garden, Forest park.

Some cool things: the largest independent book store (Powell's City of Books), Pioneer Courthouse Square (Portland's living room), America's largest urban park (Forest Parkat over 5,000 acres), America's smallest urban park (Mill's End Park at 24 inches), wonderful, beautiful bridges, the Saturday Market.

Some weird things: The 24 Hour Church of Elvis, Voodoo Doughnut and Wedding Chapel, Tonya Harding, The Portland Cacophany Society (ask your dog for details), Chuck Plahnuik, and a million microbreweries (which might be the cause for some other things on this list).

It is a really fun place to live.

Hey, boomer. Keep Portland Strange? Fantastic, now I see why.

The twenty-four hour church of Elvis? He'll probably never leave that building.

What in the world do folks do at the Voodoo Wedding and donut chapel?

The Portland cacophony Society. Must be the local dog shelter or dog hotel.

Hee, hee. Microbreweries.

and Gautam. Who are you? A great inspiration for another poem.

Bindi? (sp?)