On the Road and In Your Backyard

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!

 

First day of the month, let’s hope it’s a good one! To start things out right, some neat pix from a great Austin event.

Today, pictures from valued commenter Matt Smith (no, not that Matt Smith).

This past weekend was the Hill Country Ride for AIDS, a day of biking, hills, wildflowers, and lovely people coming together for a noble cause. The Ride benefits 9 Austin-area nonprofits that do HIV- and AIDS-related work. I always ride for allgo, a queer people of color organization, whose programs include cultural arts, health & wellness, and social justice.

Taken on 2018-04-28

The Ride goes through the beautiful Texas Hill Country, very peaceful. There are wildflowers along some stretches. I wasn’t stopping to take pictures as I rode. But right at the top of the highest hill there was a pit stop, where I took this one. (I rode the 45-mile route, but there are also shorter/easier and longer/harder routes.)

This is the same pit stop, looking back at where I rode up it. Getting up there is a stretch for some folks. So there are volunteers placed along the hill, and if you need help, they run up behind you and start pushing, taking turns until you reach the top. And at the top was a Sound of Music-themed pit stop, with music playing, people dressed as nuns and lonely goatherds, and snacks/drinks. People involved with the Ride like bringing some silliness to it, so all the pit stops have funny themes, decorations, costumes, music… and some riders get silly too, like what I did to my helmet.

And here I am just reaching the top of that hill. This photo was taken by Scott Van Osdol, who spent the day taking pictures of us riding and hanging out at the pit stops. He took so many beautiful shots of people riding and hanging out, I can’t share them all here… but if you want to see more, there’s a big album at the Hill Country Ride for AIDS Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/hillcountryrideforaids/

I love the sense of friendship and community among all the riders, volunteers, and everyone else involved. Maybe the best part is, together we raised $561,000 and counting for those 9 nonprofit beneficiaries! I used to work for one of those nonprofits, and I’ve volunteered with another… so I know how much that money means for their work.

 

Thank you so much Matt Smith, 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