Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

We can’t confuse what’s necessary to win elections with the policies that we want to implement when we do.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

Trump should be leading, not lying.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

Jesus watching the most hateful people claiming to be his followers

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

We know you aren’t a Democrat but since you seem confused let me help you.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

“Perhaps I should have considered other options.” (head-desk)

Optimism opens the door to great things.

If you still can’t see these things even now, maybe politics isn’t your forte and you should stop writing about it.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

Giving up is unforgivable.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

“In the future, this lab will be a museum. do not touch it.”

GOP baffled that ‘we don’t care if you die’ is not a winning slogan.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

I like political parties that aren’t owned by foreign adversaries.

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

Democracy cannot function without a free press.

You are here: Home / Photo Blogging / On The Road / On The Road

On The Road

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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.

Submit Your Photos

Good Morning All,

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. By concentrating travel updates here, it’s easier for all to keep up-to-date on the adventures of our fellow Commentariat. And it makes finding some travel tips or ideas from 6 months ago so much easier to find…

Have at ’em, and have a safe day of travels!

 

Should you have any pictures (tasteful, relevant, etc….) you can email them to [email protected] or just use this nifty link to start an email: Start an Email to send a Picture to Post on Balloon Juice

 

Lots of pictures folks, please continue after the fold!

First, from planetjanet:

Where it was taken: Dubrovnik, Croatia
When: March 4, 2017
Other notes or info about the picture: Fortress Lovrijenac, also known as Blackwater Bay in Game of Thrones.

 

I am a on a business trip to Dubrovnik, also known as Kings Landing. They are actively filming “Game of Thrones” here. I have one picture attached of them filming one scene.

 

And now..some pics from BellyCat and kitten!

Where it was taken: Sarasota, FL
When: yesterday and today
Other notes or info about the picture: First encounter for 1 year old BellyKitteh with the ocean!
Also, these kind folks helped store and repair our Airstream when one of the shock mounts broke. Loved the chickens and Ringling Bros circus stuff.
The welding shop, next door, had tons of demolition derby cars and mud-bog whackadoodle projects, such as a four-wheel-drive limo (because, why not?). Owned by a 17-year-old kid who was great!
Can’t wait to see more from your trip!
And finally for this morning, a submission from arieve (mostly lurker). Seeing such a majestic creature literally brings tears to my eyes. Thank you!
Where it was taken: Jaipur, India
When: January 24
Other notes or info about the picture: This is Sampa, a rescue elephant in Jaipur, India. She¹s 52 years old, and after decades of carrying tourists up and down the mountain to the Amber Fort, she is now retired on a farm called Elefantastic outside Jaipur, where she has friends and nice food, and besotted tourists can visit and give her treats and take her for walks.
I’m still sorting through pictures from a recent trip to Abu Dhabi-India-Jordan, but I’ve been loving this feature so I wanted to send some pics.
arieve, thank you for this submission, and when you find some more keepers or travel again, keep us in mind! I know that many of us love to see the world through others’ eyes.
Have a great day everybody! I hope to share some more pictures tomorrow. And since John is travelling sometime this week, perhaps he’ll submit a travel picture or two!

Reader Interactions

22Comments

  1. 1.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Got another email from Poco.
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    This being a family blog, I can not repeat what he said.

  2. 2.

    Central Planning

    I’m off to Syracuse today, another short jaunt and back home. The mileage reimbursement for business is nice

    Anyway, since this is an open thread I need to mention a dream I had last night: Somehow I was sitting in a school cafeteria eating lunch with John Cole. In the dream we know each other (not IRL) and while we’re sitting there quietly eating, John says “Want to ride bikes to school tomorrow?”

    Apparently school is like an hour ride from wherever we live. I say yes, thinking about my road bike I haven’t ridden for years and how much my ass is going to hurt. Dream ends.

    The only thing I can think of is I saw someone post yesterday about John’s car breaking down on his road trip. Sometimes my brain is weird!

    ETA – we are adults in the dream, not kids

  5. 5.

    BellyCat

    Everybody’s asleep, so a little more time to scribble than usual. Spent the last 3.5 days visiting my MIL who is fantastic. A former catholic school girl gone biker-chick during the 1970’s, she is affectionately referred to as EMIL (Evil Mother-In-Law). My moniker (predictably) is ESIL. Also, my favoritest “baby” sister (now 46) crossed Florida to join us for two days, bringing with her much mirth, merriment, and bushels full of love for the little man — who loves her dearly in return.

    Slightly sunburnt, well-rested, and with a belly full of good food and laughter we headed out today for the trek to Tucson. With new shocks and stronger mounts now welded onto our 60 year old Airstream, the open road beckoned.

    That delicious feeling rapidly dissolved.

    Cole and I are apparently in a dead-heat for the Vehicular Failure Championship. While packing up, I glanced at the tires and saw that one of the dualies on the truck didn’t look so perky. I whipped out a digital tire gauge only to find that the fargin’ battery was toast. So, instead of getting on the road, I drove to three different places — you know, those things that used to be called GAS STATIONS, but which now are simply a front for you to guzzle junk food and beer, while your car chugs gas. Zero tire gauges to be had. One clerk told me, helpfully, that (despite having twelve pumps outside), they weren’t really a gas station, but a “market”. Jesus wept.

    One place did have one of those combo gauge/tire inflators which upon feeding a handful of quarters confirmed that the tire was totally flat AND the one week old tire valve I just had installed was leaking worse than the White House.

    So, it’s now 3:30 p.m. and I’m looking for a tire shop that can not only handle a dually (with big tires) but one that is just tickled-pink to drop everything at the end of the day to get some idiot back on the road.

    Amazingly, after only one rejection, the FSM smiled upon us — enter Callaghan Tire. Not only did they fix the almost virginal (but now totally fucked-up) valve, they replaced the valves on EVERY single tire (including the spare) with the all-metal type, with o-rings, instead of those ultra-crappy rubber ones that dry rot and are prone to ripping. Also giving me four additional metal valves for future installation on the Airstream. Bonus points for junking all the shitty plastic valve caps and putting metal ones on without me even asking!

    Then, they balanced every damn tire (for those who are counting, that makes SEVEN) and even let me put the final torque on each nut so I could get them off without an impact driver, or torrent of vulgarities, if I got a flat in the middle of the night in Tumbleweed Flats during a tornado.

    Two young guys (both Spanish and English speakers) busted their humps for a solid 2.5 hours. Not only were they super-friendly, they let BellyKitteh toddle all over the place — where his already slightly worrisome tire fetish (“round” = good; “rolling” = great!) morphed into a raging inferno. For extra fantasy points, he was also able to ogle gleaming, logo-tastic flatbed tow trucks tossing dead vehicles around like they were made of paper maché.

    It was with a mixture of gratitude and financial anxiety that I went to pay the bill once everything was buttoned up, bringing a little KY jelly with me just in case it might ease the pain. Thinking this could easily cost 3-4 Benjamins, I was dumbstruck when they said….

    $130.

    I shit you not. That was it.

    So, if you’re in Sarasota, look them up. Good people and quality work done conscientiously. And while you’re there, maybe you can even pick up my wallet for me which, 250 miles later, I realized was left on the counter. Gulp…

    #thejoysofwranglingtoddlersatthecashier

  6. 6.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @BellyCat:

    I realized was left on the counter.

    So you left them a nice tip. How thoughtless of you. ;-)

    Nice that you were able to enjoy time with your sis too.

  8. 8.

    BellyCat

    @raven: Standard steel wheels, thankfully.

    Split rims would have upped the “impossibility factor” nicely, though. May have to “embellish” the tale for future yarn-spinning. ;-)

  10. 10.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Bruce K: Probably the Addamses, I don’t think we’ve gone on any killing sprees…yet.

    The Manson Family was actually living pretty close to where I grew up, it’s when we first started locking our doors.

  14. 14.

    BellyCat

    @OzarkHillbilly: You know me well!

    It’s taken me a few years to convince MamaCat that one should never let facts get in the way of a good story. ;-)

  15. 15.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @BellyCat: Reagan once said “Facts are stupid things.” and when it comes to stories, he was absolutely right. Personally, I think a good story only gets better with every retelling. Or at least, that’s what I tell myself when ever I get one of those “Here we go again…” looks. :-)

  18. 18.

    Quinerly

    Loving all the pictures and stories. We spent a great day at Red Canyon, Utah and Bryce Canyon NP. A lot of snow on the ground. Beautiful contrast in colors with the reds, oranges, greens (trees), and white. Very few spring breakers…rangers said that wave will hit in about 2 weeks. Body of the hiker that fell from Angels Landing area in Zion while I was there identified. He was a 45 year old author from Florida. 2 kids and a wife. So sad.

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