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.
Folks,
We’re trying a new feature here, so let’s see how it goes for the next week or so before it’s fully automated.
This post is for Balloon Juicers who are on the road, travelling, etc. and wish to share notes, links, pictures, stories, etc. from their escapades. As the US mainland begins the end of the Earth day as we measure it, many of us rise to read about our friends and their transient locales.
So, please, speak up and share some of your adventures, observations, and sights as you explore, no matter where you are.
Have at ’em, and have a safe day of travels!
OzarkHillbilly
Quinerly blows. Major x 4 really blows.
raven
We are trying to get the dates settled to go back to the beach after our ill-fated Thanksgiving trip. We’re fortunate that we rent a house owned by friends and they are giving us the 9 days we lost. The trick is to get there between idiot spring break and Memorial Day when the “Emerald Coast” becomes a nightmare.
Major Major Major Major
I’m just finishing early lunch at the same bakery I had my first meal at in Reykjavik, because I like it/symmetry. Then I’m headed to the bookstore for some souvenirs for friends and family, and back to the Airbnb to ‘check out’. Here is some murals and street art and a tip jar I saw last night at a hot dog stand.
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: Here’s hoping….
Baud
@Major Major Major Major: I thought you were there for three weeks.
OzarkHillbilly
@Major Major Major Major: I was able to see the pics this morn. That last bit of building art… Wow.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Major Major Major Major: What, no Mexican food; SAD!
?BillinGlendaleCA
@OzarkHillbilly:
Really blows, eh?
satby
@Major Major Major Major: see any Northern Lights yet?
Major Major Major Major
@Baud: nope! Five days.
@satby: we did not. Next time!
OzarkHillbilly
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Like a f’n hurricane.
opiejeanne
@Major Major Major Major: What did you eat that you really likes? The airport used to have a really great food court, but the last time we were there it was about half as big because the terminal needed the space. Fewer choices but still very good food.
?BillinGlendaleCA
Since Major^4 traveled all the way to Iceland and didn’t get a pic of the Northern Lights, here’s a pic of a rainbow.
Major Major Major Major
@opiejeanne: well, the nice restaurants in Reykjavik are excellent, and priced about the same as a nice restaurant in SF or NY once you account for the fact that service and tax are included. The pylsa of course (local hot dog treatment) is also very good, but then again I’m a huge street food fan. I spent a month here in 2005 and ate a lot of them then, since I was a student and the exchange rate was very bad.
Puffin is overrated.
Overall though the lamb is amazing. They say Icelandic lamb is unique on account of the weird grazing diet.
Once you’re outside of Reykjavik it’s all burgers, hot dogs, and pizza unless you’re somewhere ‘bigger’ like Vik. We had an exceptional meal in Vik actually. Restaurant called Halldorskafi. Schnitzel and a lamb sandwich of some kind.
I don’t know if it’s the time of year or what but there are bell peppers in everything here.
Iowa Old Lady
@OzarkHillbilly: Both their trips sound wonderful. Now I want to go to Santa Fe and Iceland.
satby
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Nice, thanks!
satby
@Iowa Old Lady: I know, right? Been to Sante Fe and I missed most of what Quinerly has highlighted, so now I want to go back. And Iceland for the Northern Lights tour is on the bucket list.
Gin & Tonic
I’m leaving tomorrow for a week of skiing in Big Sky, Montana. Can’t wait to get there, even though the forecast is calling for it to be colder than a witch’s tit all week – highs in the teens, lows in the negative numbers, and that’s base temps.
Sure hope OzarkHillbilly doesn’t call me out.
Quinerly
@OzarkHillbilly:
What a fantastic day yesterday! Total three hour hikes in the Petrified Forest’s Jasper Forest and Blue Mesa with not one but two off duty park ranger volunteers…John brought Ed along. Ed is a retired geologist so he got to use his fancy $5 words when we examined the pieces of petrified wood. Got to La Posada (Winslow, AZ) in time for early check in and late lunch….loved the prickly pear margarita.? This place is a must, a once in a lifetime destination. Explored the grounds, took tons of pictures. Most of the rooms overlook the train tracks and our room (the FDR Room) has a separate outside entrance with patio seating and train viewing. Poco watched the stopped and moving trains mesmerized.? Fantastic dinner in the Turquoise Room…”The Wild Wild Platter.” Crispy fried quail, a rare medallion of elk,and a deer/bison corn enchilada. Exotic currant sauces and coulis? were involved. Slept with the window partially open so I could hear the rumble of the trains. What a magical place! Have a great day everyone!
Quinerly
@Gin & Tonic:
He’s too busy trying to bust me. Montana is on my list for an early Fall pilgrimage sometime.
frosty
@Gin & Tonic: I had a friend from Montana years ago who told us the morning DJ would start with “Good morning, it’s up to a balmy five degrees!”
frosty
@Quinerly: We were less enamored with trains at an RV park in Williamsburg VA years ago. Our site backed up to the Norfolk Southern main line and we had 100 car coal trains going by every hour. Honest to FSM they made our popup camper shake.
Snarkworth, short-fingered Bulgarian
and wish to share notes, links, pictures, stories, etc. from their escapades.
I test-drove an Escapade once, but decided against it. Not enough cup holders.
FlyingToaster (Tablet)
We made it to the Manatee Park at 7:15; unfortunately the air was so much colder than the water that the few grazers only poked their noses up. And the air was too warm for us to wear our sweatshirts.
Climate change denialists need to bend down and kiss my shiny metal ass.
(And fuck iOS: quit changing denialists to denial it’s.)
Quinerly
@frosty:
6 tracks of them here. Maybe it’s something just so magical about this place. I’ve camped on the ground in NOLA in seedy campgrounds with a bunch of friends near the train tracks..for Jazz Fest. Last night was certainly different.
J R in WV
I posted about this before, but we stayed in a small hotel in a very rural French town, and they warned us about the train tracks, just across the road from the hotel. There was a crossing bar that came down across the road, and a bell that rang, while the two car long electric passenger train went through every 2 hours all day and into the early night.
We were thinking those 100 car unit trains of coal… not so much. Clang, Clang, bzzz rumble bzzz. It was quite cute, the little electric train, both ends pointed as if it was ever going to break 45 kph…. not.
Then there was a street level light rail train in a larger city, also sleek and pointy, even thought it was running through a crowd of pedestrians and taxis. It was quite a bit longer, though.
I spent weekends at my grandmother’s little farm in the country, and trains would pass by, even late at night, but they weren’t fast, nor loud.
I actually remember being taken on the last passenger ride from grandma’s tiny rural town, powered by a steam engine, I must have been about 5. We went through numerous tunnels, being in WV, and it was pitch black, as there were no electric lights on in the cars in the daytime. All wooden benches, No A/C. All gone now.