Eeek! Has it been that long since my last post? Yes, it has. Unfortunately, my RL AV does not have quite as much leisure time as my inworld self. Nor is my RL AV as robust and ever young. Enough complaining.
Another reason for going quiet is that I’ve been bouncing around the grid doing some research for a couple upcoming posts. (It only seems like I just spill random thoughts here as they occur to me.) Today I’d had enough being good and diligent, in both worlds. As a break I decided to take a brief excursion around the roads of Bellisseria near where my Linden Home trailer is.
While browsing the map, I noticed a discontinuity in the appearance of a nearby river. That usually means a change in water level across a region boundary. Those are usually marked by interesting LDPW builds.
If I recall correctly, this sort of thing first cropped up in the construction of Zindra which has a large area with a substantially higher water table. Where two different water levels meet there are huge dams and surrounding works. One of them has an interesting system of tunnels that run out under the lake behind the dam, but I digress.
Time to go for a drive. First, choose the right vehicle. The roads are unpaved and none to good where I live so, the trusty Jeep is just the thing.
It’s a quick drive across a half dozen regions, mostly trailers turning to log homes near the destination. No stunning displays of parcel decoration, which is just as well because those usually grow my shopping list. I did get stuck briefly while crossing the tracks but trains are so in frequent it was a small risk.
Sure enough! A wooden bridge crosses the river just upstream of a waterfall that covers the water elevation change between Hooten Holler and Tinwhistle. It’s a very nicely landscaped fall that drops into a small pool before the river continues on its way west.
On the far side of the bridge is a comfy looking cabin that appears to have been furnished mostly by Notta Mole. There’s a picnic blanket near the cabin and a secluded table down the hill. At the bottom of the fall is a float tube rezzer so you can relax and drift below the falls. Which I did for some time.
It’s a delight to find these little hideaways dotted about the grid. There are probably all kinds of reasons the LDPW creates these public areas. In this case I suspect that the parcel by the falls was unfairly ideal to place a Linden Home on it. I doubt they want any one Linden Home to be radically more desirable than the others around it.
So that’s the excitement from inside Second Life for today! Yeah, OK. Not especially thrilling. But how nice to be able to go outside for a drive, stroll in the park, drift on a river without having to actually go out into the 35 degree heat!
Thinking Outside the Plywood Box 