Your city/hometown

[mmelindas]

Oh, the southland, how beautiful... here are some shots from the Bayou country that I took from the cab of our truck when were there...(no more trucking for us, a year was enough...)

[btchance]

I grew up in Mustang, Oklahoma. The Chisholm Trail passes through at the Western edge of town (a whole 12 square miles of town). It's also where Kendall Cross, the Atlanta Olympics gold medalist in wrestling grew up (he was on the same team as one of my brothers). We've also had a few famous football players come through here, but I can't think of the names right now, which is completely unheard of for someone who went to OU. Oh well, I'm not that crazy about football anyways

[Crankin]

My hometown is Newton, MA. Known for being the birthplace of the Fig Newton cookie and having a great school system. I have also lived in Miami, FL (ugh), Tempe, AZ, Philadelphia (briefly), and Tyngsborough, Boxborough, and now Concord, MA. The Old North Bridge (the "shot heard round the world") is 3 miles from my house. I live in a town where tourists come from all over the world! Still can't get used to it.

[songlady]

Hey Caligurl, I have been to the Herkimer Diamond Mine! My mother is from Middleburgh, NY. Not exactly next door, but in the area.

Ok, Rochester is the home of Kodak. We also have one of the largest Lilac Festivals in the country every May, beautiful sight! Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass lived here. We are also the home of Wegmans grocery stores, if you've ever been in one, you know how wonderful they are.

[shadon]

famous for fog, and currently rain.
known for the Summer of Love, Gay liberation, and good coffee.

"If you're goin' to San Francisco,
be sure to wear some flowers in your hair"

[kaybee]

Hey Melinda, did you ever drive I-10 between Baton Rouge and Lafayette over the Atchafalaya Swamp? We used to call it the "Cajun Autobahn" because it was hard to enforce the speed limit on a 21-mile-long bridge, and everyone took advantage of that fact. Sunrise over the Atchafalya is still one of my favorite scenes.

KB

[CorsairMac]

My City:

Albuquerque, New Mexico (yes we're in the United States).

Although Albuquerque (Abq) is celebrating it's 300th birthday this year, New Mexico hasn't been a state for 100 yrs yet. Orginally started by the Spanish Inquisitors -oops...I meant missionaries, you can still see parts of the orginal settlement in Old Town where the cathedral was built in something like 1723 and is still in use. Old Town is built in a series of "squares" out from the church and quite a few of the shops/restuarants down there are in original homes. We also have parts of the city that were built in the mid-late 1800s as "railroad" homes and a "wealthy" area built in the early 20s. Although the center of town is 5000' above sea level we let Denver call itself the "mile-high city" coz we felt sorry for them! (ok...that last part isn't true - we don't know Why Denver got the title...maybe because people keep forgetting New Mexico is on This side of the border). The western side of the city is fronted by volcanic cliffs and is the site of Petroglyph National Park. There are also 5 volcanos known as the 5 sisters located there which are considered dormant. The eastern side of the city is hemmed by the Sandia (means watermelon in Spanish) Mountains. They are considered the "foothills" of the Rockies and when the setting sun is just right - the mountains turn a bright watermelon red. We are also host to one of the largest hot-air balloon festivals in the world the first full week in Oct when we host anywhere from 750-1000 balloons for a week-long festival. Our avg temps in the winter range from 35-55 and in the summer from 85-110 with an avg humidity in the teens or lower. Most days we have clear skies with little or no cloud cover and the skies are blues you can't even imagine.

[fixedgeargirl]

Although the center of town is 5000' above sea level we let Denver call itself the "mile-high city" coz we felt sorry for them! (ok...that last part isn't true - we don't know Why Denver got the title...maybe because people keep forgetting New Mexico is on This side of the border).

The official NGS elevation marker for Denver is on a step in front of the capitol. Official elevation: 5280 feet above sea level.

[TsPoet]

This is too good an opportunity to pass up for my first post -
I live/work just outside the Hanford Nuclear reservation. WWII, plutonium was mined in Oak Ridge, shipped to Hanford Washington and refined then sent to Las Alamos and blown up.
We have over 80% of the world's (the whole world's) radioactive materials burried right here.
Come visit, you'll go away glowing from the experience .

Sue

[Waverly]

That's pretty funny, Sue. I assume, and am hoping, it is actually safe right?

Jessica

[maillotpois]

I grew up on a farm in Paso Robles (central coast of CA). Its big wine country now, but when I was a kid all there really was to do was ride my horse!

Now we live in Mill Valley, just over the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco. We live in a redwood forest on the shoulder of Mt. Tamalpais with hundreds of miles of great biking roads and mountain biking roads and trails around us.

Mill Valley is in Marin County, which is the birthplace of mountain biking. Mill Valley is the town where the character BJ Hunicutt from MASH lived. It is a pretty small town (about 13,000 people) with about five coffee places, some great and some so-so restaurants and two local bike stores. It is also the place where rock stars seem to retire. There's a great music club here and locals Bonnie Raitt and Huey Lewis will often show up to perform. Grace Slick lived here for ages and Sammy Hagar's daughter is in my daughter's class at school.

I've also lived in San Diego/La Jolla and Maine.

[TsPoet]

That's pretty funny, Sue. I assume, and am hoping, it is actually safe right?

Jessica

That's a good question
There are the "downwinders" who claim to have higher incidences of cancer and have been trying to sue the government for the past 50 years. There was the pathologist I sat next to on the plane when I moved here who told me he was comparing pathology samples from here to the rest of the country (and they are different) and there was an article in the paper last year with the title "Water in the 300 area mostly safe" (I work in the 300 area). I never read the article, just liked the title.
It is mostly safe here, no worse than riding your bike in traffic. Much safer than smoking. It's all relative. And it's really a nice, family-friendly place to live. Clean up efforts are in full-swing, now if we can only convince those selfish New Mexican's to take our wast it would all be good (I grew up in NM, the WHIP program was very controversial. Now I've heard the other side - and everybody is wrong on both sides).

Sue

[fatbottomedgurl]

I grew up in the San Fernando Valley, CA, home of the original "valley girl." We are known for Mulholland Drive, movie stars, and cruisin' on Van Nuys Blvd. Charles Manson lived where I "mountain biked" as a kid (he was in jail by then). Both Kevin Spacey and Val Kilmer went to my highschool, but a few years before me. Like, totally fer shure.

I now live just over the hill in Simi Valley, Ventura County, CA. Home of the Lone Ranger, Little House on the Prairie, Star Trek, and many other film sites. Currently overcoming its bad rap for aquitting the police officers who beat Rodney King which sparked the Los Angeles riots in '92. Ronald Reagan Presidential Museum is here too, you may have seen it when he was buried here.

As I get stronger I look forward to longer rides north into Camarillo, Santa Paula, Ojai. I hope someday to ride home from Monterey.

[fixedgeargirl]

My hometown is Crested Butte, CO, the Mountain Biking Capital and home of the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame. Also the home of the most lift-served extreme skiing (when there's enough snow ) and over 45 km of groomed nordic trails. The area was once summer grounds for the Ute Indians, who were smart enough to leave in the winter ! Originally a supply town for surrounding precious metals mines, the primary industry became the mining of anthracite coal after the fall of the silver standard. The Big Mine closed in 1953 and many of the second generation Slavic and Croatian immigrants were forced to leave to find work. Mid-westerners tired of regional heat began to snap up the cheap ($500 in some cases!) homes to use as summer residences. This began the shift to resort-town status, with the ski area opening in the mid-60's. Crested Butte Mountain Resort is now the locus of industry in town.

It is stunningly beautiful, there is only one (two lane) highway into town, and in the winter it is the only way in and out. The town is surrounded by National Forest and BLM lands, open space abounds!

I currently reside in Austin, Texas, the Live Music Capital of the World. It's not bad for a city . Lots of trees and public parks. A definite live-and-let-live attitude prevails. It's historic for all kinds of reasons. I've only been here 18 months, compared to 30+ years in CB, so I'm not nearly as well-versed in ATX lore . It's also very, very, very HOT in the summer. Lots and lots of triathletes of all stripes here, as well as an active and large cycling community. The heart of the city is the Town Lake Hike and Bike Trail, 10 miles long in the center of the city and attracts runners, riders, strollers, picnic'ers and others. Austin is also home to the largest urban bat colony -I think- in the world. An estimated 1.5 million Mexican freetail bats call the Congress Avenue Bridge home from late March until October. People from all over the world gather at dusk to watch the dramatic emeregence of a million bats taking off downriver on their nightly hunt for insects.

Other places lived: Bellingham, WA and Upper Skagit Valley, WA.

[CorsairMac]

This is too good an opportunity to pass up for my first post -
I live/work just outside the Hanford Nuclear reservation. WWII, plutonium was mined in Oak Ridge, shipped to Hanford Washington and refined then sent to Las Alamos and blown up.
We have over 80% of the world's (the whole world's) radioactive materials burried right here.
Come visit, you'll go away glowing from the experience .

Sue

I'm guessing we have the other 20% buried here in New Mexico - which is where Los Alamos is located! Here's trivia: Los Alamos was the site of the Manhatten Project and it was originally a military compound. I have 2 friends that were raised there and you couldn't leave or enter the city without the proper IDs/clearance.