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
Folks – contact your congresspeople, multiple times and ways. Be heard today!
Today, from the great state of Maine, from p.a.:
Riverside Apts in Hallowell, Maine. I was on the bank of the Kennebec River for these shots.
4/16/17 Olympus digital p&s
Hallowell, Maine
Maine State House, Augusta
I believe that’s our first state capitol. I’ve seen most of them – from the outside. I’ve been known to drive hours in each direction just to get a glimpse of these gorgeous edifices.
Viet Nam Veterans Memorial, Augusta, Maine
Portland, Maine. This one has a title: Batting .500
Portland, Maine. Free Bacon should be in the Bill of Rights. Would claim fewer lives than the 2nd Amendment.
’tis true, for the most part, bacon DOES make everything better! But then again, so do mushrooms…
Thanks for some more view of Maine – I hope you share more over summer explorations!
That’s it for today – many, many more tomorrow, and I can’t wait!
Elizabelle
Free bacon. Mmmmm.
I’ll have a scotch with bacon on the side.
?BillinGlendaleCA
What is said about bacon is true; mushrooms, eh no.
EBT
You just talked me into a turkey bacon and cheese sandwich.
raven
Those two pictures remind me of the swell activity that Donut Dollies played with the troops in Vietnam was “name the state capitols”
Anne Laurie
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
You don’t want those mushrooms, just pass ’em over to me!
You can have my lobster, in return. Those two seem to occupy high spots in the ‘Foods People Either Adore or Deplore’ list…
raven
Probably not “name the state capitols” but you get the idea.
SiubhanDuinne
I always enjoy this daily feature. Thanks so much, Alain, for dreaming it up and maintaining it.
My grandfather “collected” them. I think he managed to get to 44 of the then 48 states (he died in 1947) and, like you, would go out of his way to drive to the capital and visit the Capitol.
Quinerly
?
Juju
@Quinerly: Are you in PKS yet?
OzarkHillbilly
Hmmmmmm…. Bacon wrapped mushrooms? Food of the Gods! My MIL always made us bacon wrapped dates. You have no idea how good that is.
Alain the site fixer
@OzarkHillbilly: devils on horseback I believe it’s called. Yummy stuff!
?BillinGlendaleCA
@SiubhanDuinne: I always encouraged my dad to do the same when we vacationed.
ETA: I’ve not been inside of that many, just CA, OR, WA, ID, and UT; but I’ve seen: HI, AK, MO, NJ, RI and MA.
OzarkHillbilly
@Alain the site fixer: Pure heaven. Anything that good, the Devil had to have had a hand in creating it.
Quinerly
@Juju:
Got here yesterday. Just back from sunrise walk with a wiggly Poco. Here through Monday then back to Grifton to work on the house for a few days. Let’s get together either in Greenville next week or come to the beach. Isn’t it your sister who is in Emerald Isle? I’m in both areas back and forth until June 1. We have time.
Elizabelle
@raven:
Cool photo.
Who are the ladies, and what are they explaining?
satby
@Elizabelle: raven can probably tell you better, but I found this on Google.
MomSense
Cool photos. I’ve never been to Halloween but I’ve heard they do concerts in the summer next to the river.
MomSense
I have a lot of mushroom photos I should send to Alain.
Amir Khalid
@Anne Laurie:
Me, I wonder why people make such a fuss over lobster. Basically, a lobster is just a very very big shrimp. If I recall correctly, there was a time no one ate it but poor fishermen and their families.
I am in no position to comment on bacon.
MomSense
@Amir Khalid:
When my dad was a kid they could just walk to the shore and pick them up in shallow water.
I usually have them once a year and then I’m all set.
The sad thing is that the lobsters are migrating north for colder waters. Lobstering licenses are limited and are restricted to certain areas so people who lobster in an area where they are depleted are hurting.
Major Major Major Major
Porque no los dos?
I love the “Batting .500” joke.
J R in WV
Amir,
Comparing shrimp and maine lobster is like comparing fine aged filet steak with aged – as in elderly – buck goat. They are both meat, but not the same. Shrimp is good, can be very good, but lobster is better, more complex.
Mushrooms are all mushrooms, but canned buttons and fresh foraged morels are not the same thing either. Fresh foraged mushrooms from the woods are all better than canned, still, some mushrooms are better than others. We don’t have truffels here in WV, our peak ‘shroom is the Morel, aka molly moochers.
Morels and ramps with bacon (I know, trust me it tastes good anyway) and fried potatoes, a feast by any description. People drive miles and miles to get ramps, which are still commercially dug by individuals seeking to make a buck out of the woods. You can buy them. But around here, morels are strictly keepers, shared with the folks who own the land you found them on, or with your wife or sister or mom, But not for sale, usually. Too scarce and prized.
People in other places do sell them, which is how they get into the gourmet restaurant scene. I’ve heard lobsters were once used as fertilizer, they are ugly, but with butter and lemon, wow.
Miss Bianca
@Anne Laurie: Love ’em both – mushrooms and lobsters. Not sure how I’d feel about having them together, however…
Juju
@Quinerly: Sorry this is such a late reply. Was manning phones and getting people to call, now I’m bummed. Either option is fine with me. If I meet you at the beach, I might have to bring my sister. My sister lives in Morehead, so I know it’s close to PKS. It’s nice to know we have almost a month. I think we can work something out. I’m impressed that you walk your dog that early. I am not a morning person, something my 6th graders, when I had them, made note of every morning when I grumbled something about hating mornings and needing coffee.