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 Juicers who are are on the road, traveling, or just want to share a little bit of their world via stories and pictures. So many of us rise each morning, eager for something beautiful, inspiring, amazing, subtle, of note, and our community delivers – a view into their world, whether they’re far away or close to home – pictures with a story, with context, with meaning, sometimes just beauty. By concentrating travel updates and tips here, it’s easier for all of us to keep up or find them later.
So please, speak up and share some of your adventures and travel news here, and submit your pictures using our speedy, secure form. You can submit up to 7 pictures at a time, with an overall description and one for each picture.
You can, of course, send an email with pictures if the form gives you trouble, or if you are trying to submit something special, like a zipped archive or a movie. If your pictures are already hosted online, then please email the links with your descriptions.
For each picture, it’s best to provide your commenter screenname, description, where it was taken, and date. It’s tough to keep everyone’s email address and screenname straight, so don’t assume that I remember it “from last time”. More and more, the first photo before the fold will be from a commenter, so making it easy to locate the screenname when I’ve found a compelling photo is crucial.
Have a wonderful day, and enjoy the pictures!
I’m so happy to finally run these pictures. Ben was kind enough to submit these last August, right in the middle of the drama of my mom’s aborted surgery and followup, leading to chemotherapy. I found them moving, powerful, and important. They also stirred up some uncomfortable thoughts about the possibility of my mom losing her battle with cancer; she did.
I’m in a better place now, still full of pain, but less raw and debilitated. And so it is time to run these pictures and join Ben in some reflection. Thank you so much for these pictures – they meant a lot, and I did spend more than a few evenings looking at them, reading your words, and feeling the pain and joy of loving a parent and missing them.
Today, pictures from valued commenter Ben Cisco.
What You Leave Behind
I’m home, starting the process of dealing with Dad’s affairs. Was walking around the property and it occurred to me that even though we value the memories more than physical things, those things do remain, providing memories in and of themselves.
Bridge Over What Water?
Dad built this trellis decades ago, crossing over what was then a rivulet(?) of water, long since dried up.
Toolshed Mk. I
Dad loved his tools, and outgrew this structure in very short order.
Smile!
I have a thing that I live by – Periodically, dump everything out of a drawer and stick it in a box. If you don’t use it in six months, dump it. dad did NOT follow this philosophy.
I actually used this as a child; it was startling to see it again after all these years but it made me very happy.
Wow – what a cool old camera! I’ll try to get a photo or two of my dad’s “leather” work items I remember vaguely from my early childhood. Once I was born, he spent little time “in the field” (in the wilds of Africa or South America, scouting and analyzing geologic features for oil companies) so these items were usually on a back shelf in the closet. But they reeked of adventure and time spent away from civilization.
Fishin’ Hole
Dad dug and stocked this himself. He thoroughly enjoyed being out here, even if he was just sitting.
Looks like heaven! If I had land like that, a stocked fish pond would be a requirement; fresh fish every day is ideal, especially if it’s something I caught myself!
Thank you so much Ben Cisco, do send us more when you can.
Travel safely everybody, and do share some stories in the comments, even if you’re joining the conversation late. Many folks confide that they go back and read old threads, one reason these are available on the Quick Links menu.
One again, to submit pictures: Use the Form or Send an Email
?BillinGlendaleCA
I also still have my old Kodak Brownie Camera.
Betty Cracker
Dad Cisco’s tool shed, building ambitions and pack rat ways remind me of my paternal grandfather, who had every tool under the sun and always had some grand project in the works. My husband is also like that, though less of a pack rat. I like guys who dream big! :)
rikyrah
Loved all the pictures?
raven
These remind me of my wife’s family place in Virginia. They had a little bridge over a creek in their yard, a cottage with a lake and he was a builder with a huge shop, a particle extraction unit for all the woodworking equipment. His shop built all the cabinetry in our house as well as a beautiful corner cabinet and several “chest of drawers”. He built his house in the 50’s and, while it had wonderful features including specially made exterior brick, it really wasn’t worth that much given the location in Appomattox so they ended up selling it.
raven
Here’s the bridge.
Mary G
Ben, your dad’s personality comes across loud and clear. We can never have too many bridges!
Ben Cisco
Wow! Just got to work and pulled this up; thanks Alain, and thank you everyone for your kind comments. Rain interrupted my picture taking that particular trip; I will try to get more done the next time I’m down there.
HeartlandLiberal
The fishing pond reminds me of the husband of one of my wife’s cousins. We used to visit them down in central Alabama, about 45 minutes east of Auburn. The guy had bulldozed and built himself four fish ponds, laid out as four joined squares, with walkway dams in the middle forming the walls of the four joined squares. Right in the middle where the walkways crossed, he had erected a metal frame, and had suspended two huge empty oxygen tanks, and between them a large metal bar so that all three swung in the wind. Sitting on the porch wom3 forty or fifty yards away, it made for quite an incredible wind chime.
Michael Bersin
“Family Values” advocate and Missouri Governor Eric Greitens (r), fresh from having to admit an extramarital affair before he was elected to office, has recently been cruising the state to drum up support for his “Make Missouri worse than Brownback’s Kansas” voodoo economics tour. One of the salacious details of Greitens’ (r) affair reportedly included a blindfold. Some enterprising individuals apparently crashed yesterday’s event. One managed to get in a photo of Greitens (r) with a group of his supporters while wearing a blindfold.
Oh, my – part 8
debbie
@raven:
Wow, that’s very Monet-like!
debbie
@Ben Cisco:
It’s amazing what our parents squirrel away. It’s both comforting and heart-breaking going through them.
Ben Cisco
@debbie: True. I suspect it will be some time, if ever, before we go through it all.
Quinerly
❤
opiejeanne
@raven: That is a charming bridge, and the way it disappears into the brush makes it a bit magical. .
opiejeanne
@Ben Cisco: Wow. Your dad dug that pond. I’m trying to wrap my head around how much hard work that was. Your pictures are great and the old cameras very nostalgic. Thank you for sharing.
Ben Cisco
Alain,
I wanted to add that I’m sorry if seeing these initially caused you any pain. I hope that time will ease things for you.
Ben Cisco
@opiejeanne: You’re welcome.
Waratah
My mother was our childhood photographer and took them with the Kodak box brownie. I recently looked through these and thought how good the photos were, all black and white.
She took great care of that camera.
WaterGirl
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Me, too! I still have my old Kodak Brownie Camera.
WaterGirl
@Ben Cisco: Thanks for sharing your thoughts and your photos with us.
A good friend had to go through everything after his parents died. Very hard, of course, but some things were funny. My favorite story was of him finding the bag that was labelled “string too short to save”. I was in stitches. Too short to save, but still saved and neatly labelled!
The great depression left its mark.
WaterGirl
Alain, did I miss your posting of raven’s Rose Bowl photos?
Mel
@Ben Cisco: It’s okay if it takes years to go through some of those irems or boxes. Sometimes it’s just too much, physically and emotionally, too try to do it all at once.
Your father’s bridge and pond are so beautiful.
It looks like he was a wonderfully creative man, and it sounds like he lived a fascinating life. It also sounds like he was a loving Dad and a very good guy.
Thank you for sharing these.