Cajun Residents (Abbeville, LA)

Driving through Louisiana's bayou country today - we saw that the harvested rice fields have been flooded now and wire traps have been set out for the next crop - crayfish.

Lawns all over town have these dried muddy mounds. I asked a bayou homeowner and she told me - "Oh, those are just the little crayfish who live everywhere in the mud". ~N

Bubba Lives!!!

Along the Natchez Trace National Parkway it's very rare to see any trash. Many times we passed a pickup, flashing lights and wearing a sign announcing 'Frequent Stops', that would stop to pick up trash. But in the remnants of the Trace, the local bubbas toss their Bud Lights - is there a reason we never find a microbrew the weeds? Hmmm? ~B

The Trace

As we drifted down the Natchez Trace, we passed above rolling valleys of Tennessee farmland. ~B

TN Cypress Knees

Cypress knees we found on our drive today from Memphis to Nashville, TN. ~N

Graceland

Graceland - hype, gift shops at every turn, Elvis singing from every nook and cranny, a marketing machine, all what Toby Keith describes as "a redneck with money". But also impressive in many ways - here was a man who cared about family, had immense talent, was generous and kind, and probably lonely in many ways because he was unique. I've always enjoyed his music. I was ambivalent about him personally. Now I like him much better as a person. And I think he would have gotten a big laugh out of what his Graceland has become. ~B

Beale St. Memphis, TN

It's colorful, cold this time of year, several blocks for walking only/blocked from car traffic - it's messy, grubby between the old buildings - at night music spills from clubs and the smells of southern cooking wants to follow you home. ~N

Hwy 64 - Tennessee

Along Highway 64 across southern Tennessee is a string of small towns, some with central squares or even a central hexagon. Outside the towns are little pockets of homes, farms and other buildings. Some are large, impressive and new. Others, like the one below, are small, battered and broken. Many have a seat on the porch facing the road. ~B

Jack Daniels Distillery Tour

Our tour guide, seen here explaining how the barrels in which Jack Daniels is aged, are made, toasted and then charred before being used ONCE to age the whiskey. (An Aside: he'd also told us that if anyone had trouble physically following him on the walk, he would send for help. As he wheezed through the tour, I wondered if it was really a silent cry for help.) ~B

More Cherokee, NC

Cherokee, NC has one main street that threads a curvy trail between a creek (overflowing right now) and steep wooded mountains. The main road is decorated by colorful bear statues. ~N

Piggies

In the Cherokee Indian Reservation town of Cherokee, NC, on a street lined with shops selling T-Shirts, rubber tomahawks, mocassins, indian pottery (made in China), 'bajas', swords, knives, posters of Marilyn Monroe and other 'authentic indian crafts' is a covered shelf on which is stored a supply of plaster piggies - treasures ready for an eager buyer to take home. ~B

On the James

They drifted silently beneath the footbridge, casting, reeling in, saying nothing as they drifted silently down the James River in Virginia. Never acknowledging us as we watched from above. ~B

Checking for Indians

And late in the afternoon after several large cups of coffee, our fearless scout climbs a low stone wall to survey the situation below. ~N

Mechanics Helper

High on the Blue Ridge Parkway, Nola checks tire pressures. ~B

Fox Hunters Paradise

From an overlook called Fox Hunters Paradise, on the Blue Ridge Parkway, we looked over rolling farmland and range after range of mountains. The day was overcast (below us) with fog layering the mountain ridges. ~B

It's all BLUE!

Wooo Hooo! We've reached the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia! ~N

Mmmm!! Tasty????

From the rafters in the Smokehouse at Shirley Plantation hang dissicated cuts of pork looking like so many long dead bats. ~ B

St Michaels, MD

The Maritime Museum at St. Michael's, MD. is awesome with many fascinating exhibits, including boats and lighthouses to wander through. This is a collection of old oyster meat cans, part of an exhibit including an old skipjack oyster fishing boat completely outfitted with all the tools and equipment the fishermen used.

Lancaster, PA

Today we drove behind Amish buggies down the main streets and rural roads too. ~N

Ho-Ho-Vermont

In Brattleboro Vermont we walked down the main street looking in the store windows. ~B

Rockland, Maine

Downtown Rockland has a fun light house museum with a large collection of lights of various sizes. The sign said *Do Not Touch* but I was able to lower my wide angle into one and blindly snap this photo. ~N

Blue Hill, Maine

All the creeks and little ponds are freezing over here. The noise of cracking ice is in the air. ~N

Almost Ooooops!!!

The hot water heater tank was damp - with a puddle on the top of the tank. Corroded fittings were leaking and some unidentifiable parts seemed nearly gone.The overly high water pressure in the pipes didn't help. The pressure regulator was not working. Why? We replaced it and the corroded gate valve next to it. The gate valve was 'rotten' and could have broken. It was really no longer a valve because it couldn't be turned.

Now, 3 1/2 hours later, things look much better. The top of the new water heater looks like this:And we have a new pressure regulator and an easy to reach, proper valve (yellow handle) just outside the house that can be used to turn off the water in an emergency. ~B

Cold Graffiti - Yarmouth, Maine

An Eskimo with a spear, (a toddler crawling behind him?), an igloo, 10 dogs hitched to a sled and another dog (labeled) bringing up the rear - all drawn on a white washed wall of a ferry landing hut at the end of a tiny dock on Cousin's Island near Yarmouth. ~N

The Sign of an Empty Mind?

I've heard that "a clean desk is the sign of a cluttered mind". Down the hall was an open door. I feared to enter, suspecting booby traps or even that my shots might not be up to date. ~B

Eartha in Yarmouth, Maine

Eartha is the world's largest rotating and revolving globe with a diameter of over 41 feet. It's located in Yarmouth, Maine at the DeLorme map company headquarters. ~N

Work Ethic

In Eastport, Maine, in front of a brightly painted house, someone made the extra effort to be creative. The split firewood could have been stacked in neat, orderly, but plain rows. But this stack was interwoven with pieces of wood to make it look as if the logs had been stacked within the branches of a tree. ~ B

Blue Berry Land - Jonesport, Maine

Up the coast a piece in Maine, where lobster rules supreme - we also found blue berry fields . . . and then we drove by Blue Berry Land on Hiway #1 - *Closed for the Season*, like most places in this state it seems . . . I'm almost sad I didn't get to experience their "Unique Blue Berry Gift Shoppee". ~N

Evening Light

The sun is setting very low now. Low on the horizon and well south of where it sets during the Summer. The flat, warm light illuminated a roughly stamped piece of glass hanging from a weathered wind chime. ~B

Marked in Michigan

Fort Wilkins State Park is at the very end of the Keweenaw Peninsula. As parks do, some of the trees are marked but this one with an engraved and then spray painted beaver? pelt shape, was different than the rest. ~N

Last Call

We don't get colorful Fall foliage in most parts of Southern California, but yesterday we had incredibly blue skies. Against this background the last of the dying leaves on a small maple waited patiently to fall. ~B

Goin' Out in Style

Wow, a very own mosaic for eternity - piece by piece someone honored Edward's life - or maybe he made it himself? Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin. ~N

Festa Italia

Little Italy's Festa Italia is an annual event with all the standard booths selling crafts, countertops, T-shirts, newspaper subscriptions, voter registration, condos, etc. few of which have anything to do with Italy. Others sell italian sausages smothered in peppers and onions, cannelloni, Italian ices and other goodies designed to ruin a diet and cause gastric distress.

But the main attraction, what we go every year to see, is the street art - the chalk drawings (pastels actually) created on the pavement of the side streets. The only requirement is the theme must be "Italian". Pinocchio, madonnas, a sprawling fleshy nude, a mandolin, David. But this year the images were flat and unimaginative. Competent, but without inspiration. Earnest, but lacking.

The real art was the hands of the artists. Handfuls of broken colors tinting their skin, grim from rubbing pastels into the asphalt surface of the street. Their hands showing the tension their drawings lacked. Their hands were the real attraction. ~B

Ah ha - A CA Wannabe

This sign is just outside of Green Bay, Wisconsin . . . ah, sour grapes! ~N

Coyote Ugly

Every night I get a call on Skype from a different woman. Strange...I don't remember meeting them before. Perhaps during one of my blackouts back in the days when hanging out at the Coyote Inn or the Blue Roadhouse was part of my routine. I always thought the women were pretty fine back then, but maybe I wasn't seeing too straight either. Whatever...but the one tonight is the poster child for "coyote ugly". Excuse me while I go gnaw my arm off. ~B

Mercer, Wisconsin

There's a place for everything apparently. I've found the "loon capital" (labeled on the sign) in Mercer, WI.

Next to the Chamber of Commerce, a huge concrete loon towers higher than the one story Chamber building. ~N

How Hot was It???

The hottest day on record in San Diego was in 1899...until yesterday. Lindberg Field, the official weather station, topped out at 94. Coronado, La Jolla, Torrey Pines, Carlsbad and Oceanside were in the 90s by noon. A resident of La Mesa reported 110 in her back yard. Borrego Springs officially hit only 104, but we know that's understated. And at Chez N & B - a candle slump tells the story. How hot was it? Damn Hot!!! ~B

Bayfield, Wisconsin

Bayfield, Wisconsin is on the northern coast, a lakeside town on Lake Superior, with boat docks and a ferry landing. During the summer the ferries cruise the 22 Apostle islands. Tomorrow I might take the car ferry to Madeline Island (the largest) and explore a bit.

To quote from the ferry flyer: "In winter, after the ferries stop, some students cross by windsled to attend school in Bayfield until the ice road is passable by automobiles".

Really!? they drive out there!? ~N

Empty Morning

An empty corner of an empty coffee shop. The morning rush is over - they've all gone to their cubes. Empty tables, abandoned newspapers, silence, the quiet talk of barristas with no espresso to press, no milk to steam. ~B

Nelson, WI

Lawn art along the Mississippi River. ~N

Postcards from the Edge

From the edge of the West - eastern Wyoming - N sends me postcards to document her travels. Graciously she includes a biker babe to let me know she's thinking of me. Or, could it be, Testy instead? ~B

Mt Rushmore, SD

As I neared Mt Rushmore (and didn't expect to see anything), I noticed a bunch of cars/people with cameras, pulled over on the side of the mountain road. There's this spot between cliffs, outside the park, where you can view just George by himself. ~N

Is this Fall Weather??????!!!

It's hot, it's muggy, there are clouds in the sky, and the breeze has died. Joggers walk, walkers sit and the cold setting on the shower means tepid. San Diego isn't supposed to be this way - not at 5:30 PM in October. ~B

Alva, Wyoming

Small cabin near the quiet and small town of Alva, Wyoming - nestled among the oak, lots of deer - needs work. ~N