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 see what joy awaits…
First up, from Raven, on a fishing adventure:
Here’s some of the fish we caught today. Thespanish mackerel and bonita
were really fun. We caught tens of red snapper and had to throw them back except for one monster that got nailed by a shark. I was going to send a shot of the head but figured the morning crew didn’t need that. Here’s a shot going out of Destin Pass at sunrise, the fish and a crane that was hanging around while the fish cleaning went on.
Great shots and great fish – hope you get more on your trip!
Next up, from otmar:
Where it was taken: Carinthia, AustriaWhen: Easter SaturdayOther notes or info about the picture:I’m spending the Easter Weekend at my MiL’s home in rural Carinthia (southern Austria) . There are a lot of old traditions here: the celebrations kick off Saturday early afternoon at the “blessing of meat”. Every family brings a basket with ham, sausages, Reindling (a local cake), eggs, horseradish, and salt to the nearest chapel. The priest drives all over the parish to bless these baskets. After that everybody returns home for the first Easter meal.




August 3,2015 Boulder,Utah On the way north on Utah 12
Thank you – I miss exploring that part of the country!
Have a great weekend everybody. London pics bumped to Monday and so many more great shots for next week. But as always, do send in pictures and share your world.
Aleta
Nothing could be finer than fresh grilled mackerel.
John M. Burt
If you travel along Hell’s Backbone, you eventually come to Hell’s Neck, or else you’re going the other direction and you come to, um….
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
Nice shot of the crane.
The pic that really pleases me is the one with alll those pork products. Amazing!
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
Wonder what the language is on the archway inscription?
rikyrah
Love the pictures
OzarkHillbilly
“Dinner!” says the great blue heron.
Interesting about that first Easter meal. It looks suspiciously like the Easter breakfasts I had growing up. Right down to the reindling, which is very reminiscent of the poteca my mother learned how to make from my father’s Slovenian born mother, and Ma taught me (It’s all about the dough, Alain, once you get the feel for the rightness of it, you never forget).
@John M. Burt: One of the best books I ever bought was “Geologic Wonders and Curiosities of Missouri”.(I’m on my 2nd copy having wore out the 1st. the 2nd ain’t looking so good either) There is a whole chapter on “The Devil in Missouri”. It lists 25 Devil’s Backbones in this state. There is also the Devil’s Bake Oven, the Devils Boot, the Devil’s Courtyard,9 Dens, 2 Elbows, 3 Holes, 2 Horns, 2 Iceboxes, 3 Kitchens, 2 Promenades, 1 Punchbowl, 2 Racetracks, 1 Run, 5 Tables (4 of them Tea Tables), 1 Toll Gate, 1 Tower, 1 Wash Basin, 2 Wash Boards, 1 Wash Pan, 2 Wells, and 1 Red Devil Ditch.
That Devil spent so much time here it’s a wonder he left any room at all for the Bible.
SiubhanDuinne
All those food baskets in the church are covered with white cloths embroidered in red. I wonder what the significance of that is. Religious/specific to Eastertide? Or a national/regional tradition? Or something much simpler and more mundane?
OzarkHillbilly
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: For some reason Polish popped into my brain. Then I said “No, this is Austria…” but it ain’t German soooo….
gbbalto
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Per the google, the first few words of “Hail Mary” in Slovenian. Carinthia is just north of Slovenia, so makes sense!
ETA: A stunningly beautiful part of the world
Quinerly
Great pictures! Loved driving Utah 12 in March…Great coffee shop in Boulder, Utah. Escalante and Torrey are sweet little towns. Utah 12 is a must if ever in Utah.
SiubhanDuinne
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
I threw a few words of it into Google Translate/Detect Language, and it appears to be Croatian.
Sab
Slovenian or Croatian? Which is it?
SiubhanDuinne
@Sab:
They are apparently very closely related.
Link.
gbbalto
@Sab: Croatian: “Zdravo Marijo, milosti puna, / Gospodin s tobom”
ETA: Not that I personally know these languages. I got by with my tiny bit of Italian the time I visited those countries.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@OzarkHillbilly: We have a Devil’s Backbone here in LA. It’s the trail that goes up to Mt. San Antonio, the highest peak in Los Angeles County at about 10,000 feet. A couple of people have been killed this past winter hiking that trail. I guess it’s kind of narrow with steep drop-offs and with the volume of snow they got up there, folk slipped.
OzarkHillbilly
@SiubhanDuinne: Don’t ever tell a Slovene or a Croat that. You’ll have a war on your hands in nothing flat.
OzarkHillbilly
@?BillinGlendaleCA: That ol’ Devil, he sure got around, din’t he?
SiubhanDuinne
@OzarkHillbilly:
Came down to Georgia, too, or so I hear tell.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@gbbalto:
If I had the resources, I’d like to really engage in language studies in a rough box from the Greek border to all countries north, as far as Vienna. You get a mostly Slavic roots, but some Germanic mixes in there as well, and some stark differences between places that aren’t real far apart.
gbbalto
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: That would be interesting. The wiki entry for Slovenian shows how complicated it is for just that one language – shifting borders, attempts to forcibly suppress the language, borrowings, etc, etc.
raven
Nice pics Otmar. It’s blowing too hard to surf fish so we are going to take a drive to Pensacola and see what up.
OzarkHillbilly
@SiubhanDuinne: Dawg, I do so hate that song, and I like nearly all of CD’s older stuff. And then…. WhatinTheFuck happened to that Long Haired Country Boy?
MomSense
The photos are beautiful this morning.
laura
Holy Mackerel! Nice fishes Raven.
I’ve got croatian friends and an Australian by way of Austria sil and what unites them is Slivovits and the communal birch cup.
I did the drive to Sonoma County yesterday and had this travel bleg in mind looking at the still green and verdant hills, valleys and vineyards. There was a giant Blue Heron just sitting overlooking the Napa river along with scads of egrets like Raven’s pal.
Really enjoying waking up to see the places people go. But it needs MOAR Poco.
otmar
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Slovenian.
The chapel sits at the border to the bilingual part of Carinthia. The blessing itself was held mostly in German, but also had some prayers in Slovenian.
Juju
@laura: When I win Powerball I want to live in Napa or Sonoma. I envy you. Where are the pictures?
Alain the site fixer
@laura: yeah, pictures or you’re a Russian troll! ;)
J R in WV
@Alain the site fixer:
Did you receive the European pix I sent? Three compressed tar.gz balls…
otmar
@SiubhanDuinne: Why the red embroidery?
I phoned up my MiL: she doesn’t know why, for her it’s just the way it is. She recommended I talk to them, which I did. The lady there answering the phone had the following explanation: liturgically speaking, purple is the right color for Easter, but people preferred the brighter red. But you see both colors.
Google finds this: Das weiße Leinen erinnert an die Grablegung Jesu, das Rot des Stickgarns symbolisiert die Liebe und das Leben – Ostern ist ja DAS Fest des Lebens.
Translated: white background for the grave, red for love and life.
Some more links:
Weihkorbdecken, more pics from the chapel
The events in that area at the end of both word wars are pretty interesting. Abwehrkampf, Volksabstimmung, Partisanenkampf, Guiding the British, and the betrayal of the Cossacks by the Brits.
Alain the site fixer
@J R in WV: yep they run next week too.
laura
@Alain the site fixer: @Alain the site fixer: Okay, o-kaaay, I didn’t snap any due to the need to get to Santa Rosa and back to Sacramento post haste. Next time for sures!
However,me and the Mr. Are going to NYC on the 8th for the Giants Mets series and we’re staying in the West Village. Will definitely document and forward for your viewing pleasure.
I’m not even going to try competing with my neighbor to the South Billinglendale, but will endeavor to make it worth your while.