Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

The revolution will be supervised.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

I did not have telepathic declassification on my 2022 bingo card.

Infrastructure week. at last.

This blog will pay for itself.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

No one could have predicted…

Everybody saw this coming.

T R E 4 5 O N

Not all heroes wear capes.

Conservatism: there are some people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

In my day, never was longer.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

You are here: Home / Photo Blogging / On The Road / On The Road and In Your Backyard

On The Road and In Your Backyard

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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.

Submit Your Photos

Good Morning All,

So far, this feature has been about travel, with the occasional “local” picture or two. I think limiting this to just travel is just that – limiting. So I’m changing this up a bit to include neat, colorful, funny, interesting, poignant, etc. pictures that don’t require travel.

As always, if you’re on a trip or have a story to share, you can just pitch in below.

I’m pleased to announce the release of the new picture submission tool for this feature. Using this tool will ensure I don’t mess things up, will make it much less time-consuming for me, and will make for a much easier process all the way around.  This would not be possible without the efforts of valued commenter Major Major Major Major. His help has been invaluable in this feature, not to mention in the pie filter and rotating quote.

The form is here and has a few simple rules:

  1. You have to have made at least one comment that’s been approved/published.
  2. It’s a picture and not too big (you can include up to 7 pictures in a single submission)
  3. You must include your commenter screenname and email (kept private) to verify you, just like making a comment. Only your nym is published.
  4. No more than 10 form entries per hour.
  5. You can include an overall description, per-picture descriptions, dates, locations, etc.

If you are a lurker and thus not a commenter, or should you wish to submit a video, archive of multiple pictures, links to pictures hosted online, or want to include more text or pictures than the form allows, send an email.

Travel safely everyone, even if it’s just down the hall for that second cup of coffee!

 

 

At long last, a fantastic set of submissions from Le Comte de Monte Cristo FKA Edmund Dantes:

 

5/19/2017
Sydney Australia
A short MP4 from the Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb, me and spouse in it

Note: link to MP4 video hosted on this server. I hope to get the player to work properly.

IMG_0937

 

Sydney
May 20, 2017
An awesome day walking about the city.
This is a view people who haven’t been here don’t typically get of the Opera House. You can see that the roof is tiled when you get close enough.

 

This is from one of the paths of the Royal Botanic Garden. The Harbour Bridge is 140 meters tall, to give a notion of scale.  Walking on top of it was dizzying.

 

You can’t see them, but this tree probably had a dozen screeching! cockatoos squabbling and claiming territory. There were lorikeets as well.

This is a cyclad – they had a stand of them in the garden. People have overharvested them, putting them under pressure – and these things predate the dinosaurs (nearly 6000 years in creationist time…

Dunno what it is, but thought it pretty.

You are correct, sir. Thanks!

Dragons Blood tree – this one is 150 years old.

 

Mossman-Daintree QLD, Australia, about 15 km north of Port Douglas
May 22, 2017
This is my porch hammock view at sunrise

Evening of May 21
After a day of travel (long ass flight to Cairns from Sydney, followed by my first go of driving a right hand car on the wrong side of a winding road for about an hour and a half), I was ready to eat and drink.  This is me destroying some glorious half shell Tasmanian oysters on a bed of pink sea salt.

 

And with that folks, we’ll push the second half until Thursday.  Lots of great stuff tomorrow as I continue to clean out the old submissions to make way for a bunch of new ones (he says, expectantly)

 

Have a great day all – open thread.

Reader Interactions

30Comments

  2. 2.

    Sab

    Laugh out loud. I never pictured Sydney Australia with cloudy skies. I am sure they have weather, but you would never know that from the usual photos. Thanks for the new perspective.

  3. 3.

    raven

    @Sab: I was there in July, 1969 (the week of the Moon Landing) a I froze my ass off and the sun rarely came out. Granted, I was on r&r from Vietnam, was used to blistering heat and humidity and had only short sleeve shirts. The weather was not a high point.

  5. 5.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Heh.

    and these things predate the dinosaurs (nearly 6000 years in creationist time…

    And damn, it’s been a long time since I had some fresh oysters. That pic has me salivating for some.

  6. 6.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    They were outstanding – Pacific oysters always seem more briny to me than Chesapeake, Carolina or Gulf oysters – lot of character.

  7. 7.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Sab:

    It was wet pretty much every morning, and then the afternoons cleared up. It was mid fall for them at the time.

  8. 8.

    Sab

    @raven</[email protected]raven: My brother in law was in Vietnam then. He never talks about it. My Dad was in Korea in the fifties. He also never talks about it. My father in law was in the South Pacific in WWII. They all loved Australia and Australians.

  10. 10.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    PS – don’t skip the video link up top if you like to get dizzy.

  12. 12.

    Eric S.

    I spent the last 2.5 days in Stuttgart with s day trip to Strasbourg. Today I’m taking the train across to Vienna, Wien to the locals. There were Donne treason issues and i ended up with a 40 minute layover in München HBF. So, when in Rome

  18. 18.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @JPL:

    The setup is great – they outfit you with coveralls and boots – literally everything is attached so nothing drops on the deck (and you have to remove jewelry). You’re tethered by heavy cable, so if you fall, you might get banged up or break something, but won’t fall and die.

    Staff is great – very young, active and enthusiastic, and each trip (they bunch you in small groups, like zipping) is guided and has a great historical narrative.

    Here’s the link to the current concession holder.

  19. 19.

    Eric S.

    @JPL: oysters, fresh or otherwise, aren’t my cup of tea.

    The day trip to Strasbourg could only have been more stereotypical if we had been wearing berets. We stopped at a cheese monger. My friend bought 50 Euros worth of cheese. We stopped at a candy store and purchased various cookies.

    We had lunch at a restaurant, sitting outside, in the shadow of the church. had escargot appetizer. I had steak with Bordelaise sauce. Behind me someone was playing accordian on the sidewalk. I didn’t look but I’m sure there was a mime behind too.

    We finished up the trip stopping for pastries.

  21. 21.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Eric S.:

    The image would only be complete if there were a horizontal striped shirt to go with the beret, a half eaten baguette, a newspaper, a cup of espresso and a cigarette on the sidewalk cafe…

    How anybody could get out of a cheese monger while spending less than 50 euros is beyond me. I’d have to buy lots more – I’m a cheese fanatic.

  22. 22.

    J R in WV

    @Eric S.:

    That sausage looks great!

    What’s that yellow stuff on the sausage? OMG!!!! MUSTARD!!!

    You found it in the EU ! No wonder John Cole couldn’t find it.

  23. 23.

    Eric S.

    The lady in front of me got mustard and ketchup on her brat. The Chicagoan in knee was horrified.

  24. 24.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Eric S.:

    I’ve NEVER understood ketchup on sausage. The only vehicles for ketchup are a nicely crisp bunch of fries, tots or skillet potatoes.

  25. 25.

    Waratah

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: my sister in Australia and I have been waiting for your view of the Australia you saw. I am sending her a link. The oysters look so good, I miss the fresh seafood. You really packed in a lot your short stay in Sydney, wish you could have had one sunny day for the harbor makes a big difference.

  26. 26.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Waratah:

    Thanks!

    I really hit the ground running – wife had been in for a week when I arrived (she’d had a conference at the facility at Darling Harbour). I arrived, went to the Intercontinental on Circular Quay, breakfasted on the roof, took a rejuvenating swim, walked to the Bridge Climb (did the full 3.5 hour climb) and forced myself to stay awake. Next morning did the Botanical Garden walk, took the ferry to Watson’s Bay for lunch and then went on a Rocks pub tour, followed by dinner at the Tramsheds. Next morning, we hit the airport for Cairns.

    It was phenomenal.

    On the return from QLD, we did get a night of Vivid.

  30. 30.

    opiejeanne

    I have some photos from our trip to Wyoming. I need to sort through them and send some in.

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