The Ties that Bind: 37.11667 north, 121.96528 west - 21 Sep 2010 - by gins

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to ride a bit through the Santa Cruz mountains, my loop taking me past one of the tunnel entrances from the old San Jose to Santa Cruz railway. With each passing year, the very existence of this engineering marvel passes further into memory. But a century ago, the line was at its peak, connecting mountain resorts to families from throughout the Bay Area, and connecting orchards to their customers.

These tunnels and viaducts were the ties that bound us to each other, compressing distance and time. As I pulled out my Blackberry for the photo above, I was taken back to that time of steam engines and sawmills, while thinking about the same role cellphones play today. And, to my surprise, I did actually have a usable 3G signal deep in the mountain ravine.