On The Road

Good morning everyone,

Enjoy!

Becoming One with Azalea – 1

On The Road – SkyBluePink – Buddhas on WalkaboutPost + Comments (18)

Good morning everyone,

Let’s get this week started well!

These were taken in February and March this spring, yes spring started last Feb when the first Wood Frog eggs were laid in our newly rebuilt tiny pond right outside the front door. These are the earliest frogs to wake up from winter hibernation around here, and are really shy, so I have no photos of them so far. They’re medium sized, brown and when stretched out floating on the pond surface about 4 or 5 inches long.

I’m sure multiple frogs laid these eggs over several nights, and there is one more egg mass that sank deeper into the pond, which is nearly 18 inches deep in the center. Those eggs will hatch later on since it’s colder down there. There are also some ferns and flowers in this set of photos.

All photos this time taken with a Panasonic Lumix FZ-1000 camera with a fixed Leica Vario-Elmarit 9.1-146 mm lens, 35 mm equivilent is 25-400mm so pretty long effectively.

Outside the front door in SW WVaFebruary 2, 2020

This is the first frog egg mass laid in the newly rebuilt pond of last August. We were thrilled to hear the Wood Frogs chirping and splishing in the pond back in early February, it wasn’t until we heard that music again after years without that we realized how much we missed the frogs and toads outside the front door.

When the weather is good (not too cold, not too hot, not too many bugs) we leave the front door open to hear the froggy action while surfing the innertubes and snarking on Balloon Juice. There is a second egg mass deeper in the water, and I think they have all hatched as there appear to be hundreds of tiny tadpoles swimming near the surface of the pond in the sunshine.

On The Road – J R in WV – Spring in the WV Woods, right outside the housePost + Comments (22)

Good morning everyone,

Have a great day and weekend; the alternatives are worse.

Here’s the next installment of images from the spring of social distancing in flyover country. We are now under a state-wide stay-home order starting on Monday March 30. There are two cases (so far) of COVID-19 in my home town, and apparently one of them was likely to be community transmission (the other was a professor who had been teaching a Study Abroad class in London). We can still go out and watch and photograph birds and landscapes, however, so that is what i plan to do. It is remarkable how other vexations can just disappear when you are trying to coax a bird into the right spot for a photograph!

Near Alma KSMarch 19, 2020

When this part of the state was settled, there were no trees which could be used to build fenceposts. There were plenty of limestone rocks in the recently plowed fields, however. So the early settlers learned how to build dry-stone walls, separating fields and pastures from each other. Most of those were eventually replaced by barbed wire fences and imported fenceposts, but some relics still remain. Here’s one, with a winter Flint Hills pasture behind it.

On The Road – Albatrossity – Springtime in Flyover CountryPost + Comments (27)

Good morning all,

Another highlight of our trip to Chile late last year was taking the “Ruta del Fin del Mundo” the “Road to the end of the World” and going to Tierra del Fuego and Torres del Pane National Park in Patagonia.  (Note: the name Paine is pronounced “Pie-nay” not “Pain” by Chileans)

Today I’m sharing a few of the pictures of the hour we spent standing among a herd of guanacos. We were actually looking for a puma and our guide Rafa and one member of our group got a brief look at one going over a ridge away from us but I didn’t see it. However, the scenery was spectacular and I’ll share some of that soon, but for today it’s the guanacos and ther wonderful babies, which are called chulengos For me they were the scene stealers.and we were within a hundred feet of them and they were all around us!

Patagonia, La Región de Magallanes y de la Antártica ChilenaDecember 3, 2020

“Ruta del Fin del Mundo”

the “Road to the end of the World”

On The Road – Mike S (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!) – Guanacos and chulengos in Torres del Paine, La Región de Magallanes y de la Antártica ChilenaPost + Comments (12)

Further south from Bombay beach and a few miles east of the Salton Sea’s shore is Salvation Mountain and Slab City. During WW2 this was a Marine training base, and after the war the land was given to the State of California. The State really hasn’t done much with the land except remove the old buildings leaving Slabs(hence Slab City). Folk have just kind of squatted on the land, formed a community and even built stuff. Salvation Mountain was built by Leonard Knight as his tribute to the Sinner’s Prayer. It was built with adobe and straw and covered in latex paint. You can climb Salvation Mountain by following the Yellow Brick Road up to the top. Further east of Salvation Mountain is Slab City, it features a preforming venue(The Range), a library and various art project. The area is home to both folk who drive their RV’s there for the winter as well as a hearty group of permanent residents that live in mostly rundown trailers.

Slab City, CAFebruary 9, 2020

Wide view of Salvation Mountain you can the God’s mailbox at the right.

On The Road – 🐾BillinGlendaleCA – Salvation Mountain & Slab CityPost + Comments (15)

Good morning all,

Another Tuesday, another day to be thankful for breath and good cheer.

Submitted March 6, in the beforetime.

Hello fellow Juicers,

Consider this part of the “On the daily walks” series. We are lucky enough to live near a handful of trails, so we only had to drive a few minutes to start this hike (but the drive cut out about 900 feet of elevation). This is in the Pacific Palisades area of the Santa Monica Mountains. Oh, regarding my nym (from the not-exactly-a-classic Kentucky Fried Movie), my real name is Mike, but I came up with that nym in a fit of divine, sarcastic inspiration while getting frustrated at having to come up with yet another username.

For the camera geeks, I’m using an Olympus O-MD E-M1, this time with their cheap, but decent, 40-150mm lens on it (it’s a micro four-thirds camera, so double those numbers for the full frame equiv.)

Enjoy and hang in there!

Temescal Ridge, Santa Monica MountainsMarch 18, 2020

A pano looking towards Mt. Baldy (50+ miles away) – I’m not sure just which one it is from this side :-/ Anyway, it’s got a nice pile of fresh snow :-)

On the left side, you can see part of Mt. Wilson (with all the transmitters on it), and a glimpse of the Hollywood sign, about 1/3 up and 1/3 from the left. The LA basin is on the right and the valley is to the left.

On The Road – BigJimSlade – Getting Out For a HikePost + Comments (23)

Good morning everyone,

Sunday evening I was doing some chores and found a calendar that requires a daily change of numbers and monthly change of month name. To my surprise, it showed March 5, the last time life was normal, before things went quite so cuckoo.

After viewing a recent post about the sport of geogaching, I learned what this bag hanging on an information sign on St. Augustine Beach was all about. Although not in my pics, the warning flag today was red. Unlike south Florida, our beaches aren’t closed. Yet.

St. Augustine Beach, FLMarch 17, 2020

On The Road – Nation’s Oldest City Guy – Geocaching, Florida StylePost + Comments (7)

Good morning everyone,

We have a treat today – wahoo!

Have a good and safe weekend, see you Monday.

Following up on Alain’s visit to the Udvar-Hazy Center, I thought I’d post some photos from our visit to this museum in Pensacola. We’ve been taking Snowbird Florida trips for six years now, and last year our destination was the Panhandle.

I’m an aviation buff, WWII piston planes especially. Every person we talked to around Pensacola said we had to visit this museum. They were right – there were more planes than I’ve ever seen in one place, from WWI to modern times … including a few I built as models as a kid.

There were WWI planes, Korean war jets, and a bunch of piston engine aircraft I’d never seen before that were designed too late for WWII and obsolete for Korea.

Pensacola, FLFebruary 22, 2019

F4U Corsair

On The Road – frosty – National Naval Aviation Museum, Pensacola, FLPost + Comments (23)

Good morning everyone,

We hurtle towards the next horrific milepost on this fever-dream path.

Thankfully we have your submissions to give a little joy and peace: distraction.  We need so many more submissions, so get cracking!

Again, with this new world,  local content – “your backyard” is our goal.  Less about far-away places we won’t be traveling to for a year or two at best, and more about finding more local joy.  Of course all travel photos and stories are very welcome, but since there will be a dearth of such new content this year, it makes sense to focus on sharing stories and pictures with a local focus.

Apologies in advance that the quality of pictures may not rise to the excellent quality so many BJers have submitted, but the subject matter is quite lovely. These are taken from and of our house above the Roseau Valley in Dominica.

Roseau Valley, DominicaNovember 11, 2019

Morne Watt which forms part of the Morne Trois Piton National Park, a World Heritage Site.

On The Road – Betty – Our Place in DominicaPost + Comments (33)

Good morning everyone,

Month 2 begins. Looks like this will be a tough one. Grid yourself.

In previous dispatches On The Road, we’ve visited all the missions in Los Angeles to the Mexican border, now we head north(or actually west for a bit). I grew up in Ventura County and have seen the exterior of Mission San Buenaventura many times as we past it on the freeway or surface streets, I’d never been inside. This visit was made on a return from a meetup of the local photography group’s visit to Mission Santa Barbara and the Santa Barbara Courthouse. Mission San Buenaventura is one of the smallest missions that I’ve visited, it takes up about 3-4 storefronts in downtown Ventura. It was founded in 1782 as the ninth and last mission personally dedicated by Father(now Saint) Serra. It was once much larger but shrunk to the chapel, a small garden and the gift shop.

Ventura, CANovember 23, 2019

Front of the chapel at Mission San Buenaventura.

On The Road – 🐾BillinGlendaleCA – Mission San BuenaventuraPost + Comments (14)

Good morning everyone,

Sorry for the misfire yesterday, and I think this is out of order. C’est la vie.

Sarajevo was a sharp contrast to the other stops in the trip, since although most of it is a modern city (especially having been rebuilt after shelling during the post-Yugoslavia wars), it had strong Ottoman influence, particularly in the Baščaršija, Sarajevo’s old bazaar and the historical and cultural center of the city that was built in the 15th century.

On The Road – Sister Golden Bear – Sarajevo, Bosnia and HerzegovinaPost + Comments (5)

Good morning everyone,

Be safe, and lift each other up. We’re all under crazy stress.

Leaving Budva for Dubronik, instead of taking the typical route along the coastline, I was interested in doing an inland detour to see Trebinje in the Serbian part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, since it’s one of the stops in the Rick Steves tour of Croatia.

As mentioned previously, back in 2012, the online maps of Bosnia and Herzegovina were oddly scant, but I did spot what appeared to be a highway leading up to the Montenegrin border, and it was logical to assume that it went on to Trebinje, since it was the only major town nearby. The good news, yes it did. The bad news, the road turned out to be a tollroad — and I’d gotten rid of the last of my marks a few days earlier. And no, they didn’t take Euros. Finally, with traffic backing up behind me, the toll taker finally allowed me through.

It turns out that I needn’t have bothered. Trebinje, a town of 30,000, turned out to be a fairly depressing place, since its economy tanked after the break-up of Yugoslavia. Although in fairness to Rick Steves, his tour visits the local Serbian Orthodox monastery, which would’ve been an interesting exposure to all three of ethnic groups in the former Yugoslavia.

On the other hand, Dubrovnik was as fabulous as its reputation, and I was lucky that no cruise ships were visiting that day — Dubrovnik is actually quite small, and having visitors two or three cruise ships at once can make it unpleasantly crowded

The main street in Dubrovnik, is actually a bit slippy from all the stones being worn down by centuries of people walking over them.

Unfortunately, during the Yugoslavia civil war the street was also a lethal place to be, since snipes in the nearby hills had a clean line of sight along the length of the street.

On The Road – Sister Golden Bear – Dubronik, CroatiaPost + Comments (23)

Good morning everyone,

Have a good weekend, we’ll see you Monday.

Actually being On The Road suddenly has become a thing of the past, and hopefully the future. In this plague year, in a country ruled by incompetents, it may be a while before travel is prudent, especially for those of us (like me) who are 60+ years old.

But it is spring in the heartland, and the birds are returning, or leaving, or passing through. Birdwatching and bird photography, especially here in flyover country, are actually excellent social distancing tactics. So I plan to continue to seek our birds and images here in north-central KS, and share them with Alain to use as he sees fit. For most of you, I’m sure, this part of the USA is almost like visiting a foreign country!

We were supposed to go to the AWP conference in San Antonio TX in early March. AWP stands for Association of Writers and Writing Programs (I know, you’d think a bunch of writers would actually generate an accurate acronym…), and a book that Elizabeth co-edited was going to be launched at a big party sponsored by her press (Trinity University Press). San Antonio had a coronavirus case early (a true study in incompetence, see https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/coronavirus-grand-princess-evacuees-texas/2020/03/09/9bf9e360-6142-11ea-b3fc-7841686c5c57_story.html), the conference was not cancelled outright, but sponsors pulled out, attendees stayed away, and the press cancelled the party because really, who wants to put on a party that nobody will go to. So we were halfway there, somewhere On The Road in Oklahoma, when it became obvious that it was really not a good idea to continue. We turned around. But the book is still ready to go, available on Earth Day 2020, and might appeal to a lot of jackals. Here’s some more information – https://www.terrain.org/2020/news/dear-america-anthology/

All royalties will be donated to organizations who are doing good work in this time of Trumpism (Union of Concerned Scientists, Natural Resources Defense Council, and the ACLU.

Needless to say, that was tremendously disappointing. But this conference was apparently the first harbinger of the waves of cancellations and life changes that we are now facing. Life goes on, and it is, as I mentioned above, Spring in the Northern Hemisphere!

So here are some images from the last week or so. More to come as spring progresses, and as we navigate through the disaster that the election of 2016 has bequeathed us.

Pottawatomie County KSMarch 13, 2020

Springtime in the Flint Hills of Kansas is a time of destruction, and then renewal. The tallgrass prairies of this region evolved with frequent fires, and depend on frequent fires to maintain a grassland ecosystem. Fire suppression leads to shrubby invasion, and then cedar tree invasion, and then no more prairies. So our ranchers here burn the prairies in the spring, and in a few weeks this darkened landscape will be brilliant green and productive.

On The Road – Albatrossity – Spring in the time of COVID-19Post + Comments (17)

Good morning all,

We return to Sister Golden Bear’s wonderful series of submissions. Enjoy!

From Sarajevo, I wanted to finish the trip with a visit to the Bay of Kotor, but didn’t want to double back through my previous route. Thankfully, in my research I discovered a scenic backroad — very backroad route through the mountains of northeast Montenegro.

I had a tense moment at the border because the car registration paperwork got stuck in the envelope from the rental car company and I couldn’t find it initially. Since smuggling stolen cars into Montenegro was not uncommon, it dealing with border guards who spoke limited English was…. interesting. Thankfully, we eventually found the necessary paperwork and I was free to go.

Bay of Kotor, Montenegro

Since this is the prettiest photo, I’m going to jump ahead and start with this one, which is looking down the bay towards Kotor itself. The bay coastal inlet formed by a drowned river valley that remains open to the sea.

On The Road – Sister Golden Bear – Montenegro – Forests and FjordsPost + Comments (17)