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You are here: Home / Photo Blogging / On The Road – Albatrossity – Election Respite, Staying Chill Edition

On The Road – Albatrossity – Election Respite, Staying Chill Edition

by WaterGirl|  October 26, 202010:00 pm| 32 Comments

This post is in: Election Respite, On The Road, On The Road After Dark, Photo Blogging

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On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions. From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.

This series was created by Alain Chamot (1971-2020).

Submit Your Photos

Albatrossity

When Watergirl asked me to put together some photos to help jackals stay chill during the election week, I thought it was a brilliant idea. Then I tried to come up with photos, and found it difficult to imagine what images would help others stay calm.

I know what works for me, but I also know I have idiosyncratic tastes! So I tried to have a mix; mostly landscapes, lots of water and reflections, and some critters. Hope you all enjoy them!

On The Road - Albatrossity - Election Respite, Staying Chill Edition 9
KansasOctober 25, 2014

Kansas is not known for it’s beautiful fall colors, but prairies in the fall can be gorgeous, especially when combined with a stream, blue sky, and some reflections. This is a creek a few miles north of where I live, in late October a few years ago.

On The Road - Albatrossity - Election Respite, Staying Chill Edition 7
GalápagosMay 24, 2016

For me personally, beach time is very relaxing. And beaches in the Galápagos even more so, since they are often uninhabited and pristine. This is Cerro Brujo beach on the island of San Cristóbal, with one of our Study Abroad students pondering a swim with the pelicans, sea lions, and Lava Gulls in that aqua-tinted cove.

On The Road - Albatrossity - Election Respite, Staying Chill Edition 8
KansasDecember 13, 2017

Coyotes may not make everybody calm, but this lovely girl was watching the sunset at Quivira National Wildlife Refuge, and she looked so peaceful and contemplative that I had to include this shot. I know that Watergirl likes this image too, so this one’s for her!

On The Road - Albatrossity - Election Respite, Staying Chill Edition 5
KansasOctober 24, 2018

More fall colors at a local lake near my home in Kansas. Mostly oaks and cottonwoods changing color and reflecting in the almost-still surface of the lake.

On The Road - Albatrossity - Election Respite, Staying Chill Edition 6
ColoradoAugust 8, 2011

This one is for Alain, a shot of the Great Sand Dunes in the foreground and the Sangre de Cristo range in the background. If you look closely you can also see a flock of White-faced Ibises soaring over the scene.

On The Road - Albatrossity - Election Respite, Staying Chill Edition 3
MexicoMarch 24, 2011

More beach time. This one, in Tulum Mexico, was very relaxing, since beers and margaritas may have been involved. We stayed in a hotel where our back patio door opened up onto this beach. Every evening we would stroll down the beach about a quarter mile to a tiny restaurant with the best paella I have ever consumed. Dinner, beers and/or margaritas later, we would stroll back in the moonlight to our hotel and fall asleep listening to the surf.

On The Road - Albatrossity - Election Respite, Staying Chill Edition 4
NebraskaMarch 29, 2008

Sunset on the Platte River in Nebraska, with reflections of gold and copper, and sounds of Sandhill Cranes coming into the river to roost for the night. I can still hear them in my head, but if you can’t, maybe you should go there sometime in March after the COVID thing is over. It is magical.

On The Road - Albatrossity - Election Respite, Staying Chill Edition 2
KansasAugust 24, 2020

This is what many Kansas roadsides look like in August. There is a reason they call it the Sunflower State.

On The Road - Albatrossity - Election Respite, Staying Chill Edition
CaliforniaMay 28, 2014

I love this pine tree growing out of a sheer granite dome in Yosemite National Park. It persisted, and it endures. So shall we.

On The Road - Albatrossity - Election Respite, Staying Chill Edition 1
New ZealandDecember 27, 2015

Finally, of course it has to be an Albatross! This glorious creature is a White-capped Albatross, photographed on a spectacular blue-sky/blue ocean day near Stewart Island, south of the South Island of New Zealand. The world could use more Albatrosses. IMHO.

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Reader Interactions

32Comments

  1. 1.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    October 26, 2020 at 10:04 pm

    great pictures. you make a good advocate for road trips through the Great Plains

  2. 2.

    JanieM

    October 26, 2020 at 10:05 pm

    Breathtaking. And so varied! Going from the Sangre de Christo shot to the beach in Mexico made me laugh out loud. I will be coming back to this set again and again.

  3. 3.

    West of the Cascades

    October 26, 2020 at 10:06 pm

    The world could indeed use more albatrosses, and more Albatrossity. Thank you for the magnificent photographs – I’ve only had occasion three times to drive through Kansas and Nebraska, but each time have been struck by the beauty of the prairies and (in Nebraska) the Sand Hills.

  4. 4.

    arrieve

    October 26, 2020 at 10:10 pm

    All wonderful images, but that albatross! Just wow.

    I do feel calmer — thanks, WaterGirl!

  5. 5.

    WaterGirl

    October 26, 2020 at 10:14 pm

    I love the picture of the roadside.  I did not expect that!  Every time I have driven through Kansas it has been at night.  Except for the one time during the day when it was so windy I had to grip the steering wheel with all my might just to keep the car on the road.  So I surely wasn’t looking at scenery that day!

  6. 6.

    Lapassionara

    October 26, 2020 at 10:15 pm

    These are so amazing! We lived in Kansas for a while, and we made such good friends there. The  wheat fields turned green in the fall, after the planting, so the landscape was so lovely. Thank you for posting these.

  7. 7.

    zhena gogolia

    October 26, 2020 at 10:18 pm

    Kansas is very beautiful.

  8. 8.

    hitchhiker

    October 26, 2020 at 10:22 pm

    I once rode a bus across the plains from Michigan to Salt Lake City, in August. The young woman sitting next to me was from Nebraska, and when I asked her what the yellow flowers were, she gave me a look that said, “Are you fucking with me?”

    Sunflowers, in my world, are bigger than frisbees. They sit on top of 6 or 7 foot stalks. I’d never seen them growing like Queen Anne’s Lace along the side of the road.

    These are conversations you used to have on Greyhound rides, if you were young and going to see a guy you met once because you just couldn’t stand to be in Michigan for another hour.

  9. 9.

    cope

    October 26, 2020 at 10:26 pm

    These definitely hit the “chill” bone.  I feel better already, thank you.  These are lovely pictures

  10. 10.

    WaterGirl

    October 26, 2020 at 10:29 pm

    @Lapassionara: I keep trying to catch you to see if you got the message I sent you a couple of weeks ago.

  11. 11.

    VeniceRiley

    October 26, 2020 at 10:31 pm

    Kansas is off the list of places to visit.  Just don’t feel lesbisafe in the white plains or the south. Love the ‘tross.  What a magnificent bird.

  12. 12.

    J R in WV

    October 26, 2020 at 10:38 pm

    OMG these are great photos.
    Restful yet challenging.

    Thanks!
    Inspiring every time…

    ETA: Our tiny ranch in Arizona is above a valley with hundreds of thousands of Sandhill Cranes all winter. So the sounds they make, my cousin calls them the flying cocktail party, are with us all the time. So amazing. They ride on and around the center pivot irrigation units, enjoying the spray. Burbling away.

  13. 13.

    Yutsano

    October 26, 2020 at 10:40 pm

    I have a good friend in Lawrence. Maybe when covid is no longer a thing I should try to pop for a visit next fall.

    EDIT: I think my Rainier from the sky pictures would work here well.

  14. 14.

    BigJimSlade

    October 26, 2020 at 10:42 pm

    Bravo Albatrossity!!! Perhaps my favorite set yet!

    The coyote looks fantastic. We have coyotes around here, we see some early in the mornings roaming the neighborhood, here in the Santa Monica Mountains in the LA area. I’ve lost a couple cats to them when I was a kid (or cat here is indoor-only, but I grew up a few miles away with indoor-outdoor cats), and now as an adult I find myself wanting to appreciate them, but also seeing them as adversaries when they’re in the ‘hood. They grab people’s little dogs sometimes, too. I didn’t expect to find myself feeling so protective, but there it is.

  15. 15.

    WaterGirl

    October 26, 2020 at 10:45 pm

    @BigJimSlade: Albatrossity knows how much I love that coyote because I purchased a copy of her, printed on metal, and she is amazing on the wall of my living room.

  16. 16.

    WaterGirl

    October 26, 2020 at 10:46 pm

    @Yutsano: From up top:

    If you are reading along and think you might want to be part of this by submitting your own collections, contact me by email or let me know in the comments.

  17. 17.

    JanieM

    October 26, 2020 at 10:48 pm

    @WaterGirl: Have you read Barbara Kingsolver’s novel Prodigal Summer?

    If not, and if you love coyotes, you might like the book. It includes a thread of a plotline involving a woman who studies coyotes, and the material Kingsolver uses was taken from real research, which by chance I had read about in (IIRC) Audubon magazine a couple of years before the novel came out. Kingsolver credits the researcher in her acknowledgments.

  18. 18.

    WaterGirl

    October 26, 2020 at 10:53 pm

    @JanieM: I don’t know that I LOVE coyotes, but I certainly love that one!

    I read many of Kingsolver’s novels, but at some point she shifted gears and her stuff was no longer of interest to me.

    Animal Dreams is one of my favorite books.

  19. 19.

    Toni Tadolini

    October 26, 2020 at 10:56 pm

    What a lovely collection of beautiful and calming photos. Thank you!

  20. 20.

    WaterGirl

    October 26, 2020 at 11:00 pm

    Thanks, Albatrossity, for being our first Election Respite poster.  It had to be you – it’s Monday!

  21. 21.

    Auntie Anne

    October 26, 2020 at 11:12 pm

    Thank you, Albatrossity. Looking at the beach at Galapagos, well, it was the first time I felt calm this evening.

  22. 22.

    SkyBluePink

    October 26, 2020 at 11:15 pm

    What a wonderfully varied collection of calm!

    Beautiful photos, Albatrossity – as usual.

  23. 23.

    Mary G

    October 26, 2020 at 11:32 pm

    Two Albatrossity posts makes this horrible Monday better. I could feel my blood pressure dropping as I looked at them. The pine growing out of the granite reminds me of all the good times I’ve had around Big Bear Lake and in the Angeles Crest forests, and of course, of Liz Warren. Democratic ideas are alive, growing, and changing, while the rock is set where it landed.

  24. 24.

    BigJimSlade

    October 26, 2020 at 11:51 pm

    @WaterGirl: 😃😃

  25. 25.

    Benw

    October 27, 2020 at 12:00 am

    You’re a picture wizard.

  26. 26.

    stinger

    October 27, 2020 at 12:41 am

    Remarkable photos all. I can count the tiny raindrops on that albatross. Thank you!

  27. 27.

    A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)

    October 27, 2020 at 4:43 am

    @BigJimSlade: Our cats are indoor only too since we moved to this property about 10 years ago, after losing a lot of cats in a couple of years (some barn cats), but I can’t hate the coyotes, who are just trying to make a living like everyone else. Besides, we had a trail cam for a while and we also have bobcats and once a puma was filmed, so who knows who the cat gourmet is. I’ve always been fond of the coyote description by the Navaho, who call it “God’s Dog”.

  28. 28.

    A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)

    October 27, 2020 at 4:44 am

    The photos are wonderful.  The photo of the Platte river is magical.  I would love to hear the Sandhill cranes.  Maybe in a couple of years?

  29. 29.

    Geminid

    October 27, 2020 at 7:08 am

    Thank-you! Beautiful photos.           The Great Sand Dunes are near Alamosa, CO. A great town to visit! Plenty of flat walking, on the sidewalks or in the park along the Rio Grande. A large bird sanctuary a few miles from town, and a very large one 25 miles north, adjacent to the Great Sand Dunes. Alamosa has a Crane Festival in April.

  30. 30.

    Albatrossity

    October 27, 2020 at 7:08 am

    Thanks, all. I appreciate the kind words, and I really appreciate the feeling that these images may be helpful in keeping blood pressures down and spirits up.

    I’m really looking forward to seeing the rest of this series. Thanks, Watergirl, for this great idea!

  31. 31.

    Dagaetch

    October 27, 2020 at 8:31 am

    Beautiful photos Albatrossity; I didn’t have Kansas on my list of ‘places to go with my camera’, but I guess now it is! Thanks for sharing so many of your images with us jackals.

  32. 32.

    waynel140

    October 27, 2020 at 8:49 am

    I’ve been to Kansas. It didn’t look like that. I don’t have the eye. Magnificent photography. I’m in awe.

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