On The Road

Good morning everybody,

Today we’re off to Casablanca and Dakar! Oh the places we go on this blog, thank you so very much!

I’ve been around less than usual because we just got back from a 24 day cruise that started in Barcelona and ended in Buenos Aires. I don’t seem to have taken any pics in Barcelona or Malaga, our first two stops. But I do have some from the two places we went next: Casablanca and Dakar.
I’ll see what I can dig up from our subsequent stops too.

CasablancaNovember 17, 2019

The monumental Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca. The guide said the minaret is the tallest i the world (I think). The square out front holds something like 100K people.

On The Road – Dorothy A. Winsor – Casablanca and DakarPost + Comments (41)

Good Morning Everybody,

Once again, we’ve got a holiday treat from otmar, and we’re thankful!

Have a great weekend, everybody – travel safely and be full of good cheer and lots of patience. We’re all stuck on this beautiful blue ball spinning in the barren cold of space, so try to find something to admire (or at least tolerate) in everyone you meet, you never know what burdens folks are struggling with, no matter their appearance or attitude.

Once again, I was on the road for EU business. And again, I’m visiting the capital city of the member state that currently holds the presidency of the EU council. This means Finland / Helsinki.

I told my peer there to organize the meeting in the summer, but he insisted that we all travel to Helsinki in November. That’s not what the tourist guides recommend. So it’s quite dark, but thankfully not that cold (yet) and no snow.

I had little time for sight-seeing, so here are some of the snapshots I took while walking to/from venues.

Helsinki / parliamentNovember 11, 2019

This is the Finnish parliament. This week, they elected a new prime minister: a rather young woman who leads a majority-female cabinet.

I didn’t enter the building, I just passed by on the way to Finlandia hall.

On The Road – otmar – HelsinkiPost + Comments (14)

Good Morning Everybody,

Today we have a first-time submitter, which is wonderful, but begs two important questions:

1. What took you so long? :)
2. When will you next submit?

Have a great day, folks, we’ll see you tomorrow morning.

Long time lurker, first time submitter. I was in Acadia National Park (Maine) in mid-October for a photography workshop. We mostly didn’t get great sunrises/sunsets, but the daytime weather was perfect for photography, and we were there right before/at peak, so the colors were glorious. Acadia is relatively small for a national park, but it’s got so many varied places – seashore, lakes, woods, a couple ‘mountains’ (they aren’t that big but hey) – that you’ll be able to spend a week there and not see it all. I highly recommend a visit.

Acadia National Park, MEOctober 8, 2019

Sunset at Jordan Pond. This was basically the only day we got good color for sunset.

On The Road – dagaetch – Acadia National Park in OctoberPost + Comments (55)

Good Morning Everybody,

And yet another day of history. I hope you find this morning feature a respite from the storm, as I do. A rock of peace in a maelstrom of crap is a good thing.

Have a great day!

I’ve mentioned that we got two new puppies this fall. Born last February, they are 2 of a litter of 9 born on our friend’s goat dairy farm nearby. Our friends are retired now, have been keeping and breeding dairy goats for decades, and monetize their goats by selling offspring. They keep meticulous records and people come hundreds of miles to pick up a baby goat. Not so for the dogs!

 

The “sire” is half Great Pyrenees and half Lab. Mom looks like an Australian Cattle Dog, but is a WV country mutt so no telling her actual genetic background.

 

The puppies are nearly twins, black sleek coat, tall and rangy with a white blaze on CooCoo’s breast and speckled front legs and belly on BooBoo, the girl. BooBoo spends most nights outside, appears to not care a bit about rain and cold in spite of her sleek short coat, loves to prowl the ghostly hillsides late at night. CooCoo would rather sack out in our bedroom on one of the many dog beds, he is pretty much the image of a lazy hound.

 

Another dog is our white Lab mix Alice, who was a little plump before Puppies happened, but is now mostly muscle. Still big, though. And one picture of the late great Happy Dog, whom we lost last January. Happy came from our Vet clinic, which runs an underground adoption agency for hard to place dogs. Happy came to them from a client who rescued her off a chain at 3 am, and had a roaring infection of heartworm. She spent 9 months in their kennel recovering, and the next 10 or 12 years Happily running on our wooded hillsides.

 

After we suddenly lost Happy, we were keeping an eye out for another pup to keep Alice company. We have close neighbors with dogs, but that isn’t quite the same. So when Goat Dairy neighbors adopted the pregnant next door bitch, we volunteered to take one, or a couple, whatever.

 

 

 

These pictures are just cute pix of cute puppies, and a little dash of kitty.

 

The library, beside my playstation, a dog bed with Happy...September 30, 2018

Happy loved to hang with her people, and here she is hanging with me as I keep in touch with Balloon Juice and the rest of the WWW. As you can see, she is busy being very happy, which is how she got her name.

 

The Vet who cared for her those 9 months knew she was raring to go, a potentially hyperactive puppy who needed room to romp. She also knew we had the room, and allowed our dogs to run free and wild, so it worked out well.

On The Road – J R in WV – Puppies and KittiesPost + Comments (19)

Good Morning, Everybody,

Today we once again are near home, for a reader. Although many folks just think of this as “On The Road”, I hasten to remind that for the previous year or so, it was “On The Road and In Your Backyard” as there are only so many days we travel, and there are all kinds of interesting in our everyday lives.

So please, don’t be bashful and submit some pictures, folks!

These are not exactly pics from On the Road, since they are all local shots from my part of Kansas, all taken this fall. But I thought that folks might enjoy seeing some of them, since many of these guys can be seen pretty much anywhere in the country.

I’d also like to thank Spanky for mentioning that I have calendars of bird photos for 2020, and that these make marvelous Christmas gifts if you are a bird-lover. I realize that the BJ Pet Calendar is also a marvelous Christmas gift, but hey, doesn’t everybody need at least a couple of calendars? At any rate, here’s the information about those.

Iconic Birds of the World, featuring birds from Tanzania, Ecuador, Brazil, New Zealand and the good ol’ USA. at http://bit.ly/2qXi3i5

The other is Hawks and Owls of Kansas at http://bit.ly/2OHjJVF

Thanks!

Near Manhattan KSNovember 30, 2019

First-year male Common Yellowthroat. Warblers like this guy typically don’t stay around for the winter, so I think he was just traveling through, a bit later than usual but still ahead of the worst part of a Kansas winter season.

On The Road – Albatrossity – Fall and winter birdsPost + Comments (24)

Good Morning Everybody,

I hope this week’s beginning finds you well. Today we’re returning to one of my favorite locales for submissions – home.  Life isn’t always travel, and there are so many small things all around us that others will find inspiring, relaxing, encouraging, intriguing.

Let’s go!

Travel is wonderful but so is life in a place you love. So, here’s some pix from around the neighborhood.

Roarks Cove November 16, 2019

I had no idea when I planted that maple that it would perfectly capture the morning light like this. But it does and that is yet another reason to plant more trees.

On The Road – HinTN – Hanging in the hoodPost + Comments (26)

Good Morning, everybody,

It’s cold and rainy here, but that doesn’t stop us from enjoying the sights via someone else!

Today we’re off to London and Auntie Anne is our guide!

Before I forget, please submit photos, folks – we need content! Don’t worry about “hogging” the submissions, I’ll try to break them up as appropriate.

On that note, let’s explore London!

These pictures are from the London portion of the trip. We did four days on our own in London before the tour started – and fell in love with how easy it is to get and go everywhere via Tube. It was so neat to see the places I’ve read about all my life!

Trafalgar SquareAugust 21, 2019

Trafalgar Square

On The Road – Auntie Anne – London in AugustPost + Comments (14)

Good Morning, everyone!

I’m so happy to share this contribution this morning, though I’m biased by a deep love of Colorado.  Should any have the chance, the drive from Durango to Telluride via Delores, etc. is just amazing, especially if you’re a trout fisher or amateur/professional geologist.

Over our anniversary, my wife and I went on our annual climbing trip, climbing another three 14,000 foot tall peaks over three days. This year we were in the San Juan Range outside of Telluride, climbing Wilson Peak, Mount Wilson, and El Diente. The Wilson group is a collection of some of the tougher peaks in Colorado. All in all, a great adventure.

This first post will concentrate on our climb of Wilson Peak. WP is a classic triangular peak, and probably very familiar to most of you. From Telluride ski area it is the peak that forms the western skyline. It is also the peak featured in caricature on the label of Coors Light beer.

 

Both Wilson Peak and Mt Wilson were named for AJ Wilson, the chief cartographer for the Hayden Survey. I’m not sure what AJ did to rate having two 14er’s located within a mile of each other named after him, but it was an honor to climb the peaks.

Visually, the Wilson group is overwhelming. The peaks are rugged and the climbing position is spectacular. I have decided to break our trip into a couple of posts in order to share more photos of my home state.

On to the first climb!

Silver Pick BasinAugust 29, 2019

For our first climb, we climbed Wilson Peak.  We camped at the trailhead, and we were to only people in the parking lot.  We got up at an ungodly hour to eat breakfast and begin the climb.  By 4:45 we were on the trail, hiking by headlamp through the forest for a couple of mile.  As we broke out of the trees at about 11,200 feet, we were greeted by a spectacular sunrise.

On The Road – Wag – The Wilson Group, Part 1Post + Comments (28)

Good morning everybody,

And we’re off to Europe – wahoo!  I loves me some otmar on Friday.

Have a great weekend and we’ll see you Monday.

Back in the 19th century it became clear that the parish cemeteries of Vienna will not be able to cope with the projected growth of the city. Thus they built a large new one way outside the city, sized in a way that should be sufficient for the foreseeable future. For the full story, read the article on Wikipedia.

In Austria, the twin days of “All saints” and “All souls” Nov. 1st/2nd are the traditional dates where most people visit the graves of the ancestors. This years, we went as well.

It was a brilliant fall day, here are some of the pictures I took.

November 1, 2019

This cemetery is really big (590 acres). It has broad roads inside, private cars are allowed on all other days, and there is even a bus route of the Viennese public transportation system inside the cemetery.

On The Road – otmar – Vienna Central CemeteryPost + Comments (14)

Good morning, everybody. Once again, welcome to the new On The Road!

This was supposed to have published a ways back but apparently, didn’t. If so, my apologies, still working out the quirks!

Silver Falls State Park is Oregon largest state park. It’s a half hour from home now. We lived just across the road from the park for much of my childhood. I traveled the Trail of Ten Falls the first time at 5 years old. It’s a great walk year round. Fall color in October, Wildflowers April and May, Icicles and frost on cold winter days.

Silver Falls State Park, OregonOctober 14, 2019

The bridge is over Silver Creek about halfway along the Trail of Ten Falls. Google Silver Falls State Park and you will find many picture of the ten falls. Every step along the way has a few wonders.

On The Road – Kelly – Bridge Over Quiet WaterPost + Comments (10)

Good morning everybody,

And so it is Wednesday, and we’ve got Bill – wahoo!

Enjoy the pictures, we’ll be back tomorrow.

I’m mentioned that star trails are easy to shoot, and they are; however they take hours to shoot and often magnitudes more time to process them.  Here are three star trails photos, taken under differing conditions: very dark conditions with no moon to a light polluted sky with a nearly full moon.

Twin Bush, Pt. Mugu State Park, CaliforniaAugust 30, 2019

Star Trails at Twin Bush

 

I’ve shot the Milky Way at Twin Bush many times and thought that star trails with the Santa Monica Mountains as a foreground would make a nice photo. The cliffs along Pacific Coast Highway remind me a bit of the Red Cliffs at Red Rock. Prior to shooting at Twin Bush that night I shot the Milky Way at Leo Carillio State Park and met another group of photographers, it turns out they later shot in the hills above where I was shooting and you can see their lights behind the telephone pole at the right.

 

One of the challenges with processing this photo is the highway in the foreground.  The original stacked version contained car headlights shinning into the camera producing glare and airplane trails.  I spent several hours reducing these flaws in the photo to get what I thought was an acceptable product.

On The Road – ?BillinGlendaleCA – Star TrailsPost + Comments (15)

Good morning everybody,

Today we have a wonderful submission from Albatrossity.

Enjoy the day and celebrate the daily reduction in ever-shorter days; before you know it, the Solstice will be here and we can begin increasing daylight in pursuit of Spring.

In September I took a trip out to California to ostensibly go on a birding trip off the coast, but that got canceled due to high winds and the resultant imminent puking. But here are a few pictures from that trip, to help kick off this new blog site.

Four Corners September 5, 2019

Shiprock in the distance, Common Raven in the foregound

On The Road – Albatrossity – In the WestPost + Comments (43)