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
This is Lac Leman, also known as Lake Geneva, Switzerland. Man has been living here for over 5,000 years for good reason. I’m pretty sure this is from the shore at the edge of Vevey, looking towards Montreux. One of my father’s friends was in the Swiss Air Force in WWII and crashed and drowned in his plane somewhere in view. I don’t think they recovered his remains, so I remind myself that great heroes are mixed in with that gorgeous Rhone water. Old timers will tell you that they can see the effects of pollution and warming – you can’t see nearly as far. When my father was young, you could often see detailed mountains as far as the eye can see. Now haze makes the world indistinct.
On that far-away note, prepare yourself for some domestic awesome, after the fold.
From tybee, an amazing adventure you won’t soon forget.
tybee offers video of this – what say you all – I’d love to see it!
Where it was taken: coastal Georgia
When: May 19th, 2017The coast of Georgia is a bit different from most other Atlantic states as most of the barrier islands are undeveloped and not open to access for the general public. Generally you can roam most of the island up to the mean high water mark but must be gone by dark.
But, besides the main barrier islands there are many hammocks, sandbars and very low lying islands that face the Atlantic that are unpatrolled and generally unregulated. We know a couple of spots that face the Atlantic ocean and one generally has the place to ones self.
May 18th, Arrived around 9am Thursday and found an excellent camping spot. Set up and relaxed a bit.
The thing between the palms to the right of the tent is a hammock suspended in a stiff breeze. Good place for a nap.
Dawn Friday, morn – the lump on the horizon is a container ship headed into Savannah.
Around 6am, we went for a wander down the beach, rounded a curve and saw a lump on the sand.
A stranded turtle. We figure she went up the beach to lay her eggs – here is her nest and tracks.
You can see the turtle to the right on the beach. The track to the right is her crawl up to the nest. The churned up sand next to the half buried log is where she dug the hole and laid her eggs. The track to the left is her retreat to the sea but that dark line at the water’s edge is a 50 to 75 foot wide layer of thick, very slick mud. Our assumption is that she crawled ashore, laid the eggs and then ran into the mud on her way back to the sea. She became exhausted trying to get over the mud and, as dawn approached, crawled back up the beach for a bit before she gave out.
When we first approached her, she lifted her head from the sand and her eyes followed us around but she made no effort to move.
Not knowing exactly what to do and with cell coverage being very iffy, knowing that the sun was coming up and the beach would be soon be very hot, we decided to rig a tarp over her. After several hours we finally contacted the Turtle Project folks at about 10am and they said the DNR was on the way and would either pick her up to transport to a rehab center or help her to the ocean. They never showed up.
She remained basically motionless for 6 or 7 hours or so but, eventually, the tide came in and when the first waves ran up to her, she turned to face the ocean. As each successive wave came further up the beach , she began to laboriously make her way back to the sea and eventually swam away at about 1:30pm.
A way cool morning.
Wow. Pictures, an adventure, happy ending, and wildlife. And it even involved turtles, one of my favorite creatures. Thank you, and do send me links to the video, I’d love to see more!
Have a great day everyone, and get ready for some awesomeness tomorrow. To wrap up this week, I’ve got a lot of amazing pictures to share with you. Travel well, whether it’s across an ocean or across the room.
raven
Great photos!
Phillip Juras has done wonderful paintings of Georgia scenes. Here are a set of Little St Simons works.
Elizabelle
Love that you tarped momma turtle. Good thinking and happy ending.
Ok. Sea Islands of Georgia go on the 18 month bucket list.
Good morning, and every photo and story a keeper here.
raven
@Elizabelle: Here’s an article about Cumberland Island. I posted it on a friend’s FB and there was a tsunami of negative comments about the supposed “stewards” of the island. ETA, it’s the hated NYT.
Elizabelle
@raven: Thanks Raven. Will check it out.
Left my car near the Orlando airport, and the sea islands are along the way back up north. If not this trip, soon.
ETA: I would love to learn to car camp. Want to outfit the trunk with a small but mighty camping set up.
Would love if we did an OTR thread or two or three with car camping photos, stories, and travel hacks. Always learn so much from you all.
OzarkHillbilly
Very cool.
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: Hey brah, been missing you.
raven
@Elizabelle: Make sure you pack skin so soft.
Alain the site fixer
@Elizabelle: that’s a great idea. I’ll plan something for soon.
ThresherK
@Elizabelle: Car camping for me and Spousal ThresherK starts with a good, square Volvo wagon. When the thunderstorms come, you can throw a tarp over your things, and sleep in the back.
A bit of rain is one thing. But I was raised with camping meaning a pickup with a slide-in camper, and sometimes I like to sleep inside.
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: Yeah, I’m back. 8 trump free days in the wilderness was definitely not enough. The fishing was off but we did manage to eat fish, bass, bass, N pike, bass, lake trout, N pike, & N pike, every night (sadly, no walleye). The Laker was my first, so that was cool. We weren’t able to do any portaging as my buddy’s COPD is far more advanced than he is willing to admit to himself. I still hiked over to a few other lakes, but we only fished in Seagull. When we picked up our permit we were told that the mosquitoes had just come out and the black flies were the worst in 40 years…. Not sure what they were talking about, no problem for us. A high pressure front came thru our last night and we had to paddle into 25-30 mph head winds (with gusts to 40?) across 2+ miles of open water on our way out (felt like we were paddling thru concrete) but we only shipped water a couple of times and obviously we made it.
Paddling the last couple miles up 3 Mile Island (now with a quartering tailwind, thank FSM) we could see a USFS float plane circling to the north. It being a Wilderness area we figured something somewhere had gone wrong for somebody and sure enough some guy camped on Grandpa Lake had wandered off from his camp the night before and never returned. We were unloading our canoe at the govt dock when the plane landed with the mightily embarrassed, and thankful, guy who was wearing nothing but a pair of shorts with sandals on his feet. He’d had a cold, stormy, and mosquito filled night and hunger filled morning but did not look too much the worse for wear. Thought about taking pics but decided he’d had enough embarrassment for one day. I also thought, “I wonder how thankful he’s gonna be when he gets the bill for the rescue?”
Quinerly
❤??
Elizabelle
@raven: Skin so soft makes me think of Jimmy Carter. Did he say something about using it?
Anyway, good advice.
I have learned that, when you’re driving around a coastal area and stop at a farmstand and see mosquito repellant among the wares — you’ve had your warning. Skeeters ahead. Have repellant or prepare for misery.
(Learned of that situation on the Eastern Shore of Maryland and Virginia. Assateague and Chincoteague are mosquito heaven.)
satby
Great pictures and turtle rescue story (that tarp probably saved her until she could get back to the water). Well done and a happy way to start the morning.
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: My late uncle went fishing with his buddies to BWCA every year before his COPD got too bad a few years before he died. His favorite trip, he never missed it.
rikyrah
Loved all the pictures, but especially the one of that beautiful turtle ???
Betsy
WOW
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: Wow that sounds great!
MomSense
Gorgeous photos this morning but the standout is that beautiful turtle in the shade. Good on you tybee for helping out a mama in distress.
ninja3000
Got to spend a summer in Lausanne-Vevey-Montreux with a track club, long time ago. They had to tear me away when it was time to go home to the States. Greatest summer of my life.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Hear, hear, the turtle rescue story was a nice bit of good news in a week without much of it.
Skin So Soft is an added layer of mosquito/insect repellent?
AliceBlue
The Georgia barrier islands are a true treasure. Now I’m dying to go back, but I think I’ll wait until fall, when it’s a bit cooler.
Many thanks and a tip of the hat for saving mama turtle!
sherparick
When I lived in Europe, I made one Montreux Jazz Festival. I also visited when our ski club would stay there and take bus to the Portes du Soleil ski areas on the Swiss-French border. An amazing location and view (and once on a dare I took a short swim in Lac Leman in February – I now know what cold is.” Thanks for taking care of that turtle, smart thinking without handling the critter.
sherparick
Also, the Swiss have excellent wine which they don’t export, so this is a great place to enjoy it.
Laura
Yeah for ensuring mama turtle got a chance to get back to the sea.
That rosy-fingered dawn is nothing short of gorgeous.
Steve in the ATL
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
It’s for the gnats
MomSense
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
“Skin So Soft is an added layer of mosquito/insect repellent?”
It’s also an excellent people repellent.
J R in WV
@Elizabelle:
We were on Sunset Beach Island (or something like that, southernmost Island on the NC coast) and found a nature preserve back a little ways from the coast, with tons of carnivorous plants. There were some country folks there collecting long-leaf pine needles, which are big for mulch around those parts.
They were kind enough to share their giant-supersized-enormous spray can of Deet with us, which meant we didn’t have to go back to town for our own.
We walked into the preserve, which was a marsh with old boardwalks, mostly made of small trees cut right there back in the day. Finally I saw the first strange plants, right in the path we were walking on. Hope I can find those photos!! I’ll look around the external hard drive for them.