A Sort of Sunset and a History Lesson Too

On my evening walks I often pass an area in my neighborhood that is a long, narrow empty field and at this time of year, I could see the sun setting when I looked straight down the field.  I kept saying to myself that I need to go one evening with my camera to get some pictures of the sunset.  Well, last night was the night.  As tired as I was from the week of work, I set off with my camera to get some pictures.  However, a 'regular' sunset was not in the cards last night due to a humongous cloud obscuring the sun.  To my advantage, though, the light from the sun was glowing out from the edges of the huge cloud and it still made for some really nice photos.

Now, to fully appreciate where I was taking these photos, I must share the history of the this spot.  The reason there are no houses on this strip of land in the middle of a suburban residential neighborhood is because the locals fought off the developers due to the history of the land.  However, once again, developers are seeking to get their mitts on the land to build condos.  This strip of land was The Vanderbilt Motor Parkway Grandstand.  You can see a picture of the original grandstand in the following link.  If you go the link and scroll down, you will see Skimmer Lane which is where I took my pictures.

http://www.freewebs.com/limparkway/levittowngrandstand.htm


See these links for a little more history:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Island_Motor_Parkway
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chkD8_-Qnco

Finally, back in the day (which was over 100 year ago), you can follow this link to see the 'birth' of auto racing in this country and the crazy spectators that walked right onto the road!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUQQyPDgoHE&feature=relmfu

Photos taken with the Canon SX40 HS