Response to Land Use Dynamics beyond the American Urban Fringe

David Theobald talks about the ways to determine land use change from urban to rural and explains different methods in obtaining data sets and information for analyzing patterns of conversion. One description that was interesting was his classification of development patterns of housing density. Urban, suburban, exurban, and rural are considered his four classes of urban housing density, in which, I think, is very much true considering the further away from town, the more rural it gets with less dense housing. Another term that he used was the urban fringe in which is is really noticeable in Nevada. For instance, you can definately see the transition from instant urban to rural in Reno and Las Vegas. Other urbanized states such as California, Florida, New York, and the New England area it is so hard to determine the urban fringe because of developing urban and suburban areas that continue to grow and merge into another city. Finally, I wanted to point out Thoebald's analyzing patterns such as collecting satellite imagery and aerial photos to point out these patterns as Gregory Dicum did in Window Seat: Reading the Landscape from the Air. Most of the book consisted of aerial urbanized satellite photos of easily determined urban fringes.

Route 66

     I wanted to comment on Chapter 5 in Route 66.  How is it that all even and odd numbered highways that were built in the United States in 1925 manage to miss the state of Kentucky as seen on the U.S. Highways Transcontinental Routes Map, Nov. 1925 (63)?  I don't blame Governor William J. Fields for protesting against Route 60 not going through a part of his state. Even with all of the Ozark Trails and other routes nearby, not one went through Kentucky. After the numbering system changed, Kentucky should of had the opportunity to have a part of Route 66 go through the state.  Also, throughout the book it was mentioned how Route 66 was the direct route from the east to the west, but I don't consider Chicago in the east. Perhaps if Route 66 did follow where Route 62 and 52 were built according to the map, then in my opinion it would of been a more direct route from east to west.

     

     The standard route marker that is shown in Chapter 5, has anyone else seen a standard route marker still being used today?  I have only seen one route, Route 101, south of San Francisco to Monterey, where the standard historic white route marker is still used.

Response to Peirce Lewis' Introducing a Cartographic Masterpiece:........

In this piece by Pierce Lewis, there is an amazing set of relief maps which show great detail of all elevations, cliffs, and valleys. Pierce Lewis talks about how in all mountain ranges, including the Appalachians, every minor hill is noticeable and detected. It's hard to believe a computer program could generate such an image without noticing any distortion. Also, he goes into explaining that by looking at these maps, no one can say that there is a boring landscape that's out there. "The map reminds us that there is no such thing as a boring landscape (297)." Truly, these maps are a work of art.

California's 12 Campsite Regions

Map of 12 California's Regions and its campsites. I thought this map was cool. Please click below:

1. Central Coast Campings 1
2. Central Valley Campings 2
3. Desert Campings 3
4. Gold Country Campings 4
5. High Sierra Campings 5
6. Inland Empire Campings 6
7. Los Angeles County Campings 7
8. North Coast Campings 8
9. Orange County Campings 9
10. San Diego County Campings 10
11. San Francisco Bay Area Campings 11
12. Shasta Cascade Campings 12

The Word "Like"

Just a thought here. I wanted to share about how I have noticed on the west coast, particular in California, that the word "like" is used entirely too much. I choose California because it is the central point of where all Hollywood television shows and movies take place and Hollywood has some of an influence on Californians. Coming from the east coast, Florida, I have heard the word "like" used, but not as much on the west coast. For example, I walk into get a coffee at Starbucks and overhear a female, about in her late twenties, say, "Oh, my gosh, that is like not true." "Did he really say that?" "I'm like so upset." "I'm going to call him like right now." These sentences were said with "like" used in every sentence. Another example, my sister-in-law, from San Diego, thinks she is on some kind of reality show every time I talk to her with her "like" words she uses about twenty times. I believe this does have a theme to it as far people from California using "like" more often and is described as a region. But, what defines the boundaries for this region?

The West Side Oil Fields of CA

  First of all, I do not like to read a geographical review without at least one map indicating where a place is especially if the review is talking about one of America's black riches, oil. What was Bret Wallach thinking? Places like the San Joaquin Valley and the Sierra Nevada Mountains are easily known, but not all readers know of places in California such as Buena Vista Hills, Elk Hills, or the Midway and Sunset Flats. 

  One thing interesting about the review that caught my attention was how Wallach described how the oil fields operated. The detail he goes into about oil wells pumping steam and how they extract oil. "Hugging the ground, the pumping units steam peacefully, except for a few shut-in wells that stand quiet and the one or two wells that are furious geysers with steam screaming out of one-inch pipe and densing in fifty-foot plumes." Also, on how oil travels through the rock layers and is embedded and hardened. 

    Another part of the story that I would like to discuss in relation to the theme "region" is the development of the west side oil field. The Department of the Navy owned its first territory on the oil field as a reserve to drill for Etchegoin.  The rise of oil companies such as Chevron, Texaco, Mobil and Shell had their own parcel of land and territories.  Later, it seemed to become a competition between claimjumpers when more and more oil wells were built.

State Boundaries

On my recent skiing trip to California, I thought of an interesting journey that will take some time to do, that is, cross every state boundary within the Continental United States and have my photo taken at each state sign. Doing this, I can say that I have been to every state, whether its just driving through, going to a particular city, or just going to a state border just to get the photo. So far, I have only three state sign photos to share, Nevada, California, and Utah. I have recently thought of doing Crater Lake in Oregon as my research point of interest, but the roads my be closed in the winter. By taking a trip up there, I can set my foot into another state, Oregon, and possibly Washington, to add to my collection.