Category Archives: Travel

April 27, 2024 · 23:06

Stupid Design & Stupider Design

I ran into this one twice on my Texas trip.

One of the ways hotels try to spruce up their rooms in an “upgrade” is to replace the bathroom fixtures. They like things that are stylish and “modern,” “artsy,’ or “fashionable” or “trendy.” Anyone else see the problem with this?

Which way do you turn this for hot water and which way for cold water when you’re adjusting the shower? I know that usually it’s hot to the left, or clockwise, but given that hot water takes a while to start after you turn it on, you can screw around for quite a while, either scalding or freezing parts of your naked anatomy you would prefer to not be scalded or frozen.

Then on the way home, ther was this gem:

Same problem with a new problem to boot. Would it really be THAT hard to engrave or stamp a little “H” and “C” onto the handle? Or just a little dot glued on with blue on one side, red on the other (for the international crowd)?

And this sink fixture is on the side, not on the back of the sink. Cool! Trendy! Stylish! NOT!!

Right up until the point where I want to brush my teeth and I normally rinse by running water into my hand and ducking my head to the left or right of the faucet. But here there is no left or right without either being a contortionist or doing that “drop-from-the-ceiling-like-Ethan-Hunt-at-the-CIA-thing” from the first “Mission Impossible” movie.

For us more normal humans it just left me wanting to take a baseball bat to it for kicks. And revenge. And general principles.

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Filed under Freakin' Idiots!, Photography, Travel

April 25, 2024 · 23:28

Belt Of Venus – West Texas Style

Last night I shared a picture looking west at sunset from a rest stop off of I-10 in west Texas, just east of where I-10 and I-20 split. But if you look the other way…

I’ve mentioned and shown pictures before of the “Belt of Venus,” an astronomical phenomenon seen in the eastern sky at sunset.

It’s simply the Earth’s shadow rising in the sky as the Sun sinks below the opposite horizon.

It can be clearly seen, even from a city like Los Angeles, but it was spectacular from a dark location in the middle of nowhere in a “clear & a gazillion” sky.

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Filed under Astronomy, Photography, Travel

April 24, 2024 · 23:40

No Context For You – April 24th

My head is either too full or too empty tonight. Or both. Simultaneously.

It’s odd, and not necessarily comfortable. “Comfortable” might be overrated.

Or not.

Blow this one up. Just look at it. I barely remember taking it, but I’m finding that I really, REALLY like it.

The gradient. The silhouttes. The composition.

Blind squirrel. Broken clock. Paul’s photography.

 

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Filed under Photography, Sunsets, Travel

April 23, 2024 · 23:18

Duly Noted

I got several of these alerts while driving cross country to Texas and back for the eclipse.

It turns out that Hissy has a very nice sound system. And if you’re bombing across the terrain at 80+ mph (I was using cruise control to stay at the speed limit, didn’t want any tickets this trip and as we know from seven years ago in Kansas, the local constabulatory looks on a gazillion eclipse tourists as easy prey to fill their coffers) you sometime need to max out the volume to hear over the wind and road noise. Because, DUH!

Billy was having a White Wedding.

Major Tom was still alive, and going home.

Forty-four women got two lines each.

The Chicks aren’t ready to make nice. (Nor should they be, ever.)

And the fourth movement of the New World Symphony? If Dvorak didn’t want it played LOUD, then why did he write it that way?

What? You say you listen to your favoritest, bestest, most wonderfulest tunes in the car and don’t have the sound turned up to eleven?

You might want to reconsider your life choices.

 

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Filed under Music, Travel

April 22, 2024 · 22:57

Texas Wildflowers Up Close & Personal

We saw how they looked spread across the landscape on the freeway medians, center dividers, and through the parks. They looked as good or better one-on-one, up close and personal.

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Filed under Flowers, Photography, Travel

April 21, 2024 · 23:50

Public Texas Waterfowl

There are wild birds and then there are park birds – these were park birds. But they’re still interesting to me.

A mallard in the water at RiverWalk, looking for handouts.

Goslings (no doubt all named Ryan) at the Tower of the Americas.

One adult goose keeping track of the kids.

I figured with that chest marking (it looks like a maple leaf to me) this must be a Canadian goose – as opposed to a Canada Goose, which I’m pretty sure it’s not. (The Merlin app IDs it as an Egyptian Goose.)

The other parent and one little one who’s sticking close.

Mama duck and a flotilla of ducklings.

Maybe it’s Admiral Duck, not Mama.

Out at the eclipse, it’s an American Coot.

I don’t know if it’s an old coot or not…

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Filed under Birds, Photography, Travel

April 19, 2024 · 23:42

Cacti

Spend a few days driving around the American Southwest and you’ll run into a few of these dudes.

Hopefully not literally – that’ll leave a mark.

They grow all over the place, even in some of the most inhospitable locations.

But these are all parts of decorative landscaping, which is also a very US Southwest sort of thing.

I don’t know if it’s a spring thing or year-round, but most of these seem to have what pass for flowers and/or fruit in the thick and thorny plant world.

Is part of this edible? Or, more practically, fermentable? Probably? Maybe if/when we find the Forever Home (R) in the high desert we can experiment with that.

Okay, I suspect this isn’t quite a “cactus” – I think it’s probably some sort of yucca tree or plant?

Again, not an expert at all. (And it shows!)

Or some sort of palm tree. Whatever, it’s life in a very dry, barren, hostile place.

Like Dr. Ian Malcolm says in “Jurassic Park,” somehow life finds a way.

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Filed under Flowers, Photography, Travel

April 18, 2024 · 23:36

Recycled Roadrunner

Two weeks ago I was driving for many hours from Benson, AZ to Fort Stockton, TX and only had time after adventures in dining to post one cryptic selfie of me standing in front of a humongous roadrunner statue.

It’s actually an amazing piece to see. As you’re going eastbound on I-10 through New Mexico, you come across a couple hundred miles of a plateau before suddenly diving down a long, scenic grade into Las Cruces. About halfway down there’s a scenic overlook and rest stop – take the time. Stop. Walk around. Stretch your legs. Visit the restrooms for the long drive ahead.

And definately go for a walk over to the gigantic running chicken. (I know, it’s a roadrunner, the state bird of New Mexico, but “gigantic running chicken” sounds much more funny!)

Down below you’ll have fantastic views of the Las Cruces region, the Organ Mountains off in the distance, I-10 stretching down into the city before turning right (southeast) into El Paso and Texas.

Up above you is this amazing piece of artwork. Get close and take a look at what it’s made of. (Don’t be a dick and climb up on the big rock and vandalize it.)

It’s junk. Trash. Garbage. All of it comes from recycled, discarded trash from the landfill. But there’s also so much whimsy, so much that’s fascinating.

The eyes are VW headlights. There are toys, and the crown is made up of BBQ tongs, forks, serving spoons, spatulas, and who knows what else.

The body has electronic componets, TV remote controls, toys, merry-go-round horses, film spools, refrigerator radiators, computer keyboards, a gun holster, and more.

A SEGA Genesis (remember to blow into the cartridge!), parts from a GE Dryer, gears, parts of a microwave oven control panel, toy dinosaurs, gears, a crutch…

The tail feathers are containers of wire mesh, filled with a cell phone, wire screens, scrap metal, grills, chicken wire, a tennis racket, a belt, metal tubing…

The legs are salvaged steel rods, covered in tire treads. The “feathers” of the underbelly and neck are made from hundreds of pairs of sneakers.

This was fun and amazing to see close up. If you’re in the Las Cruces area or passing through, take the time to stop if you can.

The time I spent there (a half hour or so) in the end probably contributed to the adventures in dining about seven hours later, but that’s the way it goes. Take the stop, see the sights. You’ll figure out something for dinner. Sure, you could bomb on through at 85 mph and eat at Olive Garden or Chili’s, but it’s better to relax, enrich your soul, and see the random, unexpected art, even if it means you’re cleaning out a 7-11 for junk food later. (Which is not what actually happened, but that story might require more thought about what I can say about whom and how many corporate lawyers I want to piss off.)

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Filed under Art, Birds, Photography, Travel

April 17, 2024 · 23:30

The Gulf Coast

On the Texas trip, having driven all the way down to Boca Chica for “other things,” we of course had to go to the beach since it was right there.

I’ve never been much of a “beach person,” probably because of the crowds almost anytime you get near the beach in Los Angeles. But this was very calming, hypnotic, restful.

The gulls of a half dozen different varieties were everywhere.

As were the grackles. LOUD birds, with an attitude. (NO! I don’t have any food for you to steal!)

Pipers, gulls, shells, surf, sand.

Pelicans, flying in formation for aerodynamic efficiency.

Oh, yeah. The “other things.” Sort of hard to miss if you’re watching the skies in the area. This would be an extremely cool place to watch a launch, except for the whole, you know, DEATH part of being this close when all of those boosters light off. And that assumes that everything goes well. If that much fuel goes “boom” on the pad and you’re standing right here, less than a mile away? They refer to those in the rocket business as “a bad day.”

Human for scale. (On the elevated launch platform at the bottom of the rocket, left side.)

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Filed under Birds, Photography, Travel

April 16, 2024 · 23:33

San Antonio

This was at least my third trip to San Antonio, but I had never seen the two, big, “normal” tourist attractions downtown. I needed a “rest” day between all of the driving and the trip to Boca Chica and the upcoming eclipse, so we made time to do that.

I remembered! This is the Alamo. As I had been warned, it’s MUCH smaller than everyone expects it to be. We did not wait in the 1-2 hour line to walk through.

The Riverwalk is nice. Below street level, tons of restaurants, bars, and shops.

I was surprised at the stretches of walkways and sidewalk restaurants that didn’t have any railings at all. And it was crowded, what with all of the solar eclipse tourists in town. I’m sure no one drowns, it’s probably not that deep and there are people all around to pull you out, but I do wonder how many people end up getting an unexpected swim! (A quick Google search shows that it’s about 3-4 feet deep and about 500 people a year fall in, the vast majority of them while intoxicated.)

We walked over to the Tower of the Americas. It was built for the 1968 World’s Fair, HemisFair ’68, held back when the World’s Fair was actually a pretty big deal.

From up at the top, you can see that the convention center is HUGE. About half of it can be seen in the bottom right of this picture, the white-roofed structure. There are also a gazillion hotel rooms within a block or two. San Antonio pushes hard for the mega-convention trade and is equipped to handle it.

Just on the other side of the convention center you can see a section of the RiverWalk meandering through downtown.

The rest of this part of the world is flat. Really, really flat. It’s referred to as the “Texas Hill Country,” so it’s not like, pool table flat, but just rolling, small hills and rivers and streams from here to the horizon in every direction.

Next trip to San Antonio I can gladly do the Riverwalk again. We didn’t take the boat tour, and there are lots and lots of other places to try for dinner and drinks.

The Alamo? Been there, done that.

 

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Filed under Photography, Travel