JUST 10 miles south of San Francisco, the California coastal highway emerges from a landscape of subdivisions and suburban commercial strips to confront the Pacific Ocean in all its most imposing and treacherous grandeur.
After being deposited on dry land where the highway emerged from the water and rescuers launched their airboats and other shallow-draft vessels, Judy Martin dropped to her knees, put her forehead on the pavement and wept.
The highway emerges from the valley 1 mi north of Guide Board Corners, at which point it meets CR 114, a connector to NY 79, and curves westward as Valley Road.
John Ball, 45, who started coming to the Russian River in 1977 when he lived in San Francisco, recalled starting out in the morning's chill and deep fog, crossing the Golden Gate Bridge into Marin County, then driving north on Highway 101, and emerging from the mist around Petaluma.
It widens into a four-lane divided highway and emerges from the woods into agricultural areas, intersecting MD 480 (Ridgely Road) near Hillsboro.
The highway then became rural again, emerging from the mountains behind it.
Situated on an ancient floodplain, it is the first town eastbound travellers encounter after emerging from the Rockies along Highway 97 and acts as the gateway to the Peace River Country.
The entrance sequence, shown here emerging from the tunnel beneath the highway to the arrival at the big blue box, seems to have all the roadside glamour of pulling up at an out-of-town Ikea superstore.
Footage and photos emerging from the scene showed riot police clashing with protesters who shut down a major highway for hours, in a shift from the mostly peaceful demonstrations in the area since Castile's death.
Emerging from the woods, the line descends giddily into a pond and seems to resurface before climbing the far bank and getting itself straightened out, American fashion, as it heads directly for the perimeter highway.
