The satellite imaging and aerial photography materials at Microsoft Terraserver can be used to show the exact spot where Nita and Kit met...

The place where they ran into each other would have been inside the southwestern cloverleaf ramp where the Southern State Parkway meets the Meadowbrook Parkway, behind Roosevelt High School. I used to access this spot the same way as Nita's described as doing it in the book -- by crossing the athletic fields behind the school, going through the belt of wooded ground between the school's back fence and the Meadowbrook Parkway, and then heading into the overgrown, tree-filled depression inside the cloverleaf.

Some details of the surrounding terrain have changed somewhat since the 1970's, as you might expect; but Kit's and Nita's meeting-place remains unchanged, and can still be seen in the USGS's satellite imagery of 1994. In this image,at two-meter resolution, you can clearly see the whole interchange, and the track behind Roosevelt HS. If the track itself is pointing at the one o'clock position, the cloverleaf is sort of at the two o'clock position, above it and to the right.

A closer view of that lobe of the cloverleaf is here.

You can compare the photographic detail to the detail on the USGS map of the area here.

And on this version of the USGS map, you can see the library where Nita hid, and her secondary school.

Fascinating...

-- DD

[This message was edited by Diane Duane on 07 January 2003 at 12:56.]

I knew that you based the locations described on actual New York locations you were familiar with, but having never been to New York, I thought it was really neat to see the actual places. How cool!
Thanks, Diane!

Worlebird
------------------------------------
At the beginning of the week, we sealed ten BSD programmers into a computer room with a single distribution of BSD Unix. Upon opening the room after seven days, we found all ten programmers dead, clutching each others' throats, and thirteen new flavors of BSD.

Funky!

On a similar note, if anyone's interested in what Bray Head looks like, here's a photo I took in July last year:

http://members.optusnet.com.au/~mikewyatt/Bray.jpg

This is heading South from Dublin on the DART. Bray is the collection of white dots underneath the headland, and I guess Sugarloaf is one of the spiky mountains inland - I didn't get around to discussing local geography with the guys from the office. Bray Head is a lot more imposing when you get up close:

http://members.optusnet.com.au/~mikewyatt/Head.jpg

Nifty!!

Inside every cynic there's an idealist desperately yearning to be let out, and when they are let out they're usually a real pain and cause all sorts of trouble. --Chris Boucher

AAArg! I've been trying for years to find that place on mapquest!! I did manage to locate Nita's house, but I probably couldn't give the link here, because they've been bought out by yahoo, or somebody, and you'd need a password. Figuring out which cloverleaf it was was a real pain too. But the thing that drove me UP THE WALL was trying to locate that library. What's a library look like from space?!? I DUNNO!! uh oh. i think i just cracked! whoops, g2g, theyre comin to take me away!

--Dai Stihó

When we hear a fantastic claim we say, “that’s nice, prove it.”
- Michael Schermer, Skeptic Society

WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH

Cool!!!

Looking at Sugarloaf mtn. there was WEIRD, cause that woulda been something like the spot where Nita was standing when she timeslid... and the bay where Ronan had his Ordeal...or maybe it's just weird to my sleep-deprived brain.
---
No, it can't be just me... I looked at the closer picture... that just FREAKS ME OUT!!!!

Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.

[edited to consolidate double-post. --kli.]

This message has been edited. Last edited by: kli6,

OMG I go to these places ALL THE TIME! FREAKY!