Friday night filler

Sorry 'bout that. Here are a few shots cleverly manipulated to look as if they were taken outdoors:

Sundown near the confluence of the Green and Colorado rivers in Utah.

Spring-fed pool in a canyon along the San Juan River (also in Utah).

My friend Steve's houseboat, parked somewhere along the Mississippi River.

We drove her (the houseboat--all boats, even those whose engines blow up and leave you stranded in PEORIA, are "her") upriver from Rapids City, Illinois (pop 953; no rapids) to Dubuque, Iowa ("Home of America's River," which seems sort of presumptuous since the Mississippi is what, a thousand miles long and has (used to have) New Orleans at the bottom of it) and back. Not quite 200 miles. The trip was kind of a Gilligan's Island episode in which we traded the roles of Gilligan and The Skipper back and forth. And there was no professor.* In other words, we were surrounded--by danger! stupidity!

Somewhere in northern California: Would that our border patrol agents were as vigililant as Billy Bob! Guard well, noble hound!

*No there was no Ginger or Maryanne either. Heck, we'd have taken Lovey.

Update: Vigilgint? Vigiglant?