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
Some pictures to start out the week, with many more to come!
First up, from Bellycat, an update on his family adventures:
Just finished a glorious week in Tucson, AZ with people living and working on the road full-time. Remarkable culture. Especially impressive are the families with children who are being homeschooled.
The kids are amazing — they can actually hold conversations with adults they just met! — and they love, love, love homeschooling. They play with each other regardless of age and stay in touch digitally while on the road rendezvousing every few weeks/months.
Food, drink, and road tips are readily shared among strangers and no repair is too small for folks to pitch in and help out.
The nomadic vibe is delicious and invigorating!
Next up, from BillinGlendaleCA
Where it was taken: The Getty Center, West Los Angeles, CA
When: March 23, 2017
Other notes or info about the picture: This is a panorama with UCLA in the foreground and Downtown Los Angeles in the background. It stretches from Hollywood on the left to almost the 405 on the right.
Cool!
So, that’s it for today. but I have a slew tomorrow and Wednesday.
Have a great day, travel safe, and please send in more pictures!
raven
I spent a lot of time in Tucson in the 70’s, nice pics!
BillinGlendaleCA
That shot also looks over the Los Angeles National Cemetery. Jeremiah Johnson was buried there and they used his grave as a backdrop for a scene in “Big Wednesday “. Later John Milius and Robert Redford arraigned to move Jeremiah’s remains to Cody Wyoming.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@raven: The LA National Cemetery is a bit to the right of that pic; my apartment I lived in for my junior and senior years was across the street from the cemetery.
raven
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I’m so glad I went down this rabbit hole.
The Committee for the Reburial of Liver-Eating Johnson: Memoirs of a Dyslexic Teacher.
raven
@?BillinGlendaleCA: And check this out!
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: Damn. Another book I have to read. Knowing as many teachers as I do, I’ll probably end up buying a # of copies and passing them on.
A couple of ne’er do well Ozarkistan buddies of mine used to go down to Tucson every (winter?) for the gem and mineral show. They’d make some money parking cars for the tourists, drink some beer in the Arizona sun, and Digger, who is a silversmith, would replenish his stock of precious and semi precious stones. It is quite the community down there.
Very nice panorama Bill.
Mary G
@raven: Quite the lineup of famous rascals plus one president!
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: DAMN!
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: I ordered one! What I would really like is to find pictures or video of the reinterment. I’ve heard that mountain men came from all over the west and it was quite an event.
rikyrah
The pictures are beautiful. Thank you??
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: My buddy lived there for 40 years but he just pulled up stakes and moved to Ft Meyers. We loved to go to Mexico to fish but that shit is not very safe these days.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@OzarkHillbilly: Thanks, the sky is still a bit off due to the stitching. The picture is pretty detailed(and large), if you look at the downloaded pic.
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: It has gotten better of late. I have friends down in Yelapa (across the bay from Vallarta) right now. They drive down every year, and did so through the recent troubles (E & L are truly fearless, but when you are 80+ yrs old, what do you have to lose?). I heard just a few weeks ago that they finally built a road to Yelapa. I am sorry to hear that. It was already getting a little filled up with tourists, now it will be a torrent of them.
Nothing ever stays the same.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
I never could hold a pano that straight.
Awesome!
meander
I have fond memories of a long-ago trip to the Tuscon area for nature hikes and bird watching. Quite a few birds make their only U.S. appearance in Southern Arizona, including a few hummingbird species. Some birding guides list backyards where feeders are set up, and so birders gather there to watch the hummingbirds feed, dart and squabble, and also share birding tales from the field. Some of the places I visited included Romero Canyon, Madera Canyon, the San Pedro River (near Sierra Vista), Coronado National Memorial, and the Desert Museum.
Part of the San Pedro River habitat straddles the U.S.-Mexico border, so I suppose that fragile and important habitat is slated for destruction by the wall…
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: We went to places on the Sea of Cortez in Senora.
raven
@raven: Sonora
J R in WV
We loved southern Arizona, Baja Arizona as some call it.
First went to visit a cousin who moved to a rural (VERY) spot SE of Tucson, as well as to see the Gem and Mineral Shows in Tucson the first half of February. After a while, we spotted a small ranch in the Southeast foothills of the Dragoon Mountains, which has Cochise’s Stronghold some 20 miles north of us. We worked for years to build a small home, off the grid, at about 5500 feet, some 1200 feet above the valley floor.
So as you can imagine, there’s a nice view of the valley and 6 mountain ranges, one clear over in Mexico. So far there’s a nice view…
Last December we got a letter from an international mining corp informing us that the minerals below our neighborhood are owned by the BLM, and that they were staking claim on thousands of acres, intending to mine “copper and other related metals”. Some centuries you can’t win for losing.
The house is really tight, R42, heat the whole place with a tiny wood stove. Great views, now, future giant open pit, not so much…
Steve in the ATL
Flew into Phoenix and drove to Tucson for my daughter’s freshman orientation at the University of Arizona (NOT Arizona State, I have to remind people back east). Love the road sign that that warns something like “swirling dust ahead” right before you drive through a mile of swirling dust. Thank goodness it was a rental car!
Steve in the ATL
@J R in WV: wow that sucks.
BellyCat
@J R in WV: Total bummer about your house. :-(
Currently in Sedona and collecting a few pics to post. The hiking/biking may be unmatched anywhere due to the red rock splendifora!
It is fairly remarkable that you can camp on BLM lands for free and enjoy views that a few lucky people are paying millions of dollars for to build multimillion dollar houses on.
We met a guy from Lithuania who thinks that there should be no government and my response simply is, “Then how would you camp for free on this land and enjoy the staggering views?”
Libertarians. Sheesh….
Quinerly
@BellyCat:
Love the pictures and story about Tucson. Are you going to make it over to check out Jerome? Wish I had had more time there. Saw that camping area in Sedona…it was specifically on my radar because of that horrific half day I got tangled up in the Grand Canyon Village. Was looking for lunch and ended up grabbing a bite in the bar because of lines. Loud mouthed table of Texans were singing Trump’s praises. One ass was railing about how Trump and company would privatize all that BLM land around Sedona and hotels and condos would be built in the future. I held my tongue, downed my $9.00 draft and fled. I did my Sedona jaunt on a cloudy Sunday 2 days later. Big mistake…got caught in a traffic jam, fled to some pueblo ruins, and Jerome. Looking back, I was off my game for much of that Grand Canyon leg of the trip. Keep posting! And, Alain, thanks for this thread. Poco sends his best and I will be chauffeuring him to “his” spring NC beach trip in May.
Quinerly
@OzarkHillbilly:
Pull up on your STL feed..big explosion in the neighborhood, 7th and Russell (east side of Soulard). Three confirmed dead.
BellyCat
@Quinerly: Will be checking out Jerome if we get time. I hear it’s like a southwestern version of northern Italy. Houses built on stilts on a hillside – – and most importantly – – way less touristy then the town of Sedona!
piratedan
@BellyCat: if you’re looking for a more accessible type of town like Jerome, I would recommend Bisbee. It’s spent the last 20-30 years re-inventing itself as an artists community that feels decidedly less slick than Sedona does. I understand that the tour of the Copper Queen mine is worth the time, plus the drive down is really quite pretty as Bisbee is nestled in some very nice high ground. If you need to get your touristy thing on, Tombstone is quite close by if you need to experience some semi-authentic western gunfight re-enactments. There’s also Madera Canyon for the birders, Outside of Sierra Vista is Karchner Caverns as well. Plus Tucson is still a semi-big city trying to masquerade as a small town, so it has that feel. If you’re ever in the neighborhood, let me know, I can try and steer you in the right direction.
BellyCat
@piratedan: Thanks for the Bisbee tip!