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.
Good Morning All,
This weekday feature 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
Let’s go, after the fold!
First up, some wow from from hedgehog the occasional commenter:
Where it was taken: Jost van Dyke, British Virgin Islands
When: December 2016
Other notes or info about the picture: Leading into the Bubbly Pool at the east end of JvD, on the Atlantic side.
Next up, a bit of the world as seen by Xenos:
Hello, I have been going under the nym “Xenos” on Balloon Juice for some 10
years or so. I have been living in Luxembourg since 2010, and thought I
would share a couple travel photos.The first is our village, looking west into a sunset, with the hills where
the proto-Celts lived some 4,000 years ago in the background.
The second is a WWI memorial I recently came across in Lille. It depicts
five men executed for resistance activities by the Kaiser’s occupying army,
Each one is based on a historical person, but together represent the
classes of France, each martyred to tyranny. From left to right, a
stationer (petit bourgeois), a soldier, a laborer, a wealthy wine merchant
(haut bourgeois), and a student. The four on the left were condemned and
executed together, while the student had been summarily executed some weeks
earlier. It is a good reminder of what resistance can mean, and should
serve to stiffen our spines a bit given current circumstances.
Many thanks, and do send more! I had the wonderful opportunity to spend 6 weeks with cousins in Belgium in the early 1980’s and was very affected by the leftovers from WWI and II that I saw everywhere. Finding an old rifle with bullets, hidden in a garden shed, for example, brought it very close to home for me. I shudder to think those currents are strong again.
Next up, from Mnemosyne
Where it was taken: Disney’s Hollywood Studios, Orlando
When: 3/16/17
Other notes or info about the picture: The outside of the ride is beautiful, but the Tower of Terror is, well, terrifying! It’s a combination of haunted house and thrill ride. The Florida one is much larger and more elaborate than the California one, which is being re-branded for Guardians of the Galaxy.
And finally, two (of many more to come!) from Le Comte de Monte Cristo, flag Edmud Dantes:
When – Winding back the clock to April 2010
Where – St Chappelle, Paris
I loved the windows for the color and the light and age – by my recollection, these were from the 13th Century. There had been a long process of restoration by cleaning, and it was about 75% complete. The fun part was how to get there – it is in the Paris courts complex, so tourists had to pass through the metal detectors among the courthouse riffraff. The great moment I remember as a lawyer was seeing an obvious litigant standing down the steps below the iconic LIBERTE EGALITE FRATERNITE facade, shaking what was obviously some French court document and shouting into a flip phone. It confirmed for me the fact that courthouses are the same everywhere – only the languages and locations change.
When – from the vault, June 2006
Where – Miami
This is the one time I’ll show the folks at BJ all of us. It was a fun little combo trip we sprung on the girls – it was a three day jaunt to Key West, followed by a week on a Windjammer sailboat that wandered the Abacos in the Bahamas. Not a lot of passengers (under 100), it folded the following year.
Much more tomorrow from Le Comte de Monte Cristo, flag Edmud Dantes, and many others throughout the rest of the week!
Please keep sending in pictures. I have lots to get me into next week, but after that, who knows?
OzarkHillbilly
It’s nice to see bits of the world I will probably never see, and even nicer to hear the stories behind them.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
The resistance memorial is haunting.
We are rarely reminded of the thuggery of Wilhelm’s occupation forces, but they were genuinely awful.
WaterGirl
@OzarkHillbilly: Good morning, OzarkHillbilly. I am not often up at this time, are you usually here this early?
OzarkHillbilly
@WaterGirl: Yes. I usually get up about 4, sometimes as early as 3. Rarely as late as 5. I enjoy the dark hours before dawn, and then watching the world wake up.
raven
@WaterGirl: It’s the morning crew.
NotMax
@raven
So that’s why my ears were burning.
:)
rikyrah
I really appreciate the pictures. I love seeing places that I may never visit.??
frosty
Don’t worry about having enough pix. I can dig out some from our travels the last few years and it looks like others are doing a good job of it as well.
France: I’d hoped to get to some WWI battlefields 3 summers ago when we went to Normandy but there just wasn’t enough time! There’s always something you have to save for another trip. :-(
Quinerly
Loving the pictures! I will be chauffeuring Poco to the coast of NC in May. He’ll send you some action shots from the beach. Have a great day everyone!
laura
These photos are beautiful and haunting. And yet, needs moar Poco.
Quinerly
@laura:
?
OzarkHillbilly
@laura: Never enuf Poco.
Quinerly
@OzarkHillbilly:
He’s resting up for his next adventure. Loves the beach. Luckiest ex inner city street dog ever. It’s tragic that he can’t write his memoirs detailing his 2 year stint on the mean streets of South St. Louis and his rise to power after he got his dedicated chauffeur.
Elizabelle
I think we need a weekly Poco fix.
I do love this feature. Much preferable to discussing Republicans (although I realize we must stay woke too).
Nilnoc
Lille: Germans making war really are brutal. (Not that they have a monopoly on that.)
Trump: let’s make sure the 21st century German army is armed and ready. (Sorry to inject politics into this calming segment.)
St Chappelle, Paris: It’s a fooler. You enter on a lower level that has a statue of Louis and very small stained glass windows. Disappointment. Then you see people climbing stairs. You follow. You enter the glorious chapel surrounded by magnificent colored glass walls. You’re especially fortunate when the light is right. I took many photos, which did not do the place justice.
Tripod
Traveled south – I65 in Indiana always sucks, The Ohio River bridges at Louisville are now tolled, and Lexington reminded me of QC – hard scrabble provincial capital cursed with some bad brutalism.
hedgehog the occasional commenter
Alain, thank you for this feature!
Edmond: I was lucky enough when I was a sophomore in college (mumble) ago to do a study abroad in France. I visited St-Chapelle; truly my favorite place in Paris. Brought back some lovely memories.
Xenos: that memorial is truly haunting.
HeidiMom
@Quinerly: Did he come to you via Stray Rescue St. Louis?
Quinerly
@HeidiMom:
Yes! I was on my 2014 NM trip (first week of a total of 4) when I had to put Leo (Chow/Golden Retriever)to sleep. He had a tumor on his spleen that ruptured in the night and he collapsed. Had no idea he was probably sick when we started the trip. I have a good friend who worked for Stray Rescue (trains the dogs and prisoners for its Puppies on Parole program). She kept a look out for a dog for me while I continued that trip alone. Stray Rescue had Poco on tape wandering an area of South City on and off for two years…tried to catch him and couldn’t. It was freezing cold on 2/22 (just happens to be my birthday) when he ran into a dog groomer’s shop to get warm. The groomer called Stray Rescue and said basically this dog you have been trying to save just turned himself in. My friend called me and said, “We have a dog for you. He came in on your birthday….” The rest is history. Lucky ex street dog who now lives for car rides and vacations!
J R in WV
I’ll be in Arizona next month for a little while, if (a big if) I have connectivity I’ll try to send a few snapshots. I haven’t been there much in spring so I imagine there will be a lot to see new and different.
HeidiMom
@Quinerly: What an awesome rescue story! Lucky Poco, lucky you. Randy Grim is a hero of mine. To have built that organization from scratch — wow. Anyone who’s ever read one of their before-and-after stories will never give up on a dog; they show what’s possible.
Quinerly
@HeidiMom:
Fun fact…Randy was my dog groomer in 1990’s when I had Buddy (Chow/Akita). All he wanted to do then was sneak out of work and drive around the bad neighborhoods of North City and rescue pit bulls. I guess you have heard of “Quentin, the Miracle Dog.” That dog really put Randy on the map…and I believe on “Oprah.”
HeidiMom
Yes, I’ve heard of Quentin, and I have Randy’s advice book, Don’t Dump the Dog, and his biography, The Man Who Talks to Dogs. He had the kind of childhood that might have led him to become the neighborhood bully; instead he found solace in helping animals, and eventually overcame (or at least dealt with) a serious anxiety problem in order to help them on such a large, public scale.