It’s been just over a month since Google added 12 new US cities to Street View, and yesterday we got new imagery in another 13 cities, and interestingly, a US national park! Here’s some of the highlights, including links straight there:

• Albuquerque, New Mexico
• Anchorage, Alaska
• Austin, Texas
• Cleveland, Ohio
• Fairbanks, Alaska
• Little Rock, Arkansas
• Madison, Wisconsin
• Nashville, Tennessee
• Rockford, Illinois
• Richmond, Virginia
• Spokane, Washington
• St. Petersburg, Florida
• Tampa, Florida

Finally, Google have also added imagery for the few roads that run through Yosemite National Park, California, which enables us to see some pretty stunning scenery.

Here’s El Capitan, a 910 metre vertical rock formation that’s a popular challenge for rock climbers, and some spectacular Giant Redwoods living up to their name!

Read the full story at the Google Lat Long Blog, read more about El Capitan and Giant Redwoods at Wikipedia.

Update: As correctly pointed out by Matthijs in the comments, it turns out this is actually Gauntlet, which is beside X-Coaster. Unfortunately X-Coaster is brand new, and doesn’t yet appear in the Google images.

This is the X-Coaster at Magic Spring and Crystal Falls theme park in Arkansas, where a dozen riders spent half an hour hanging upside down on Sunday — 150 feet above the ground.

Apparently a power cut shut down the attraction, and once the city Fire Department had rescued the stranded thrill-seekers, one person was treated for, rather unsurprisingly, a sore neck.

Thanks to the Metro.

Remember how excited everybody got when we thought Australians were all driving flying cars? Well here in Arkansas, blazing down the I-30 towards Little Rock, we find . . . a Rocket-Powered Car!

This couldn’t be anything other than some crazy genius driving a four-wheeled rocket along the interstate, as it quite clearly has massive flames shooting out the back.

Thanks to Julian.

When we recently posted a Truck Crash, there was a lot of unexpected discussion in the comments regarding my use of the term “articulated lorry”. I thought it was perfectly normal, but it seems that many of our American readers had never heard the term before, and to them it was rather humorous. This then led to numerous offers of a preferred terminology for that type of truck.

While looking for an answer on the difference between all the names I, of course, visited Wikipedia’s page on what they like to call “Semi-trailer trucks“. It was here that I found this excellent picture of something I never even realised was possible: A truck pulling another truck, pulling another truck!

I was then even more surprised to learn that this is such a common occurrence someone has managed to find a three-way truck piggy back in Google Earth!

Of course, me being far from a trucking expert, my next question is this: is there a world record for number of piggy-backed trucks?

Thanks: SpiderX22

Another Stadium with Large Type in the end zone is the Donald W. Reynolds Stadium. The south end reads “Razorbacks” as this is the home of the Arkansas Razorbacks but the north end seems to read “SAS” - anyone know why?

Update: As a couple of people noted in the comments the north end zone normally reads “Arkansas”. The photo was probably taken as the text was being repainted.

Thanks: Weyrleader Zor

The IMAX Theater at the Aero Space Education Center in Little Rock, Arkansas is right next door to the runway of Little Rock National Airport so it’s obvious why they put the “IMAX” logo on the roof but I wonder how much soundproofing that place needs? (The airport is just to the north - spot the blue plane!)

Thanks: caknuck