Friday, January 10, 2014

OTBR: An Australian Paddock

Latitude: S 38° 19.980
Longitude: E 144° 13.308

A child on a road trip with his family asks, "Where are we?" and the father answers, "Let's check the map. We're off the blue roads [the Interstate Highways marked in blue on the road atlas]. We're off the red roads [the US and state highways]. We're off the black roads [the county highways]. I think we're off the map altogether." It was always my dream to be off the map altogether.

After the jump, a few of the random places (and I mean random literally) that I visited vicariously last month that are "off the blue roads".



  • in Victoria, Australia, in a paddock whose (exit) gate was guarded by an angry bull
  • in Virginia, at the back of a large, stone house with a big bay window and two pumpkins on the front porch, no doubt left over from Halloween
  • in a well kept suburban neighborhood with lots of Christmas lights in Scottsdale, Arizona, in front of a house with a large arch supporting a front patio
  • on a snow-packed dirt road through a forest in Wisconsin ("The dark green of the pines and the red leaves of the red oaks added a touch of color to the white snow and grey sky.")
  • down a gravel road in a forest of mixed trees with a lot to trees grouped as if planted in couples in Busenhausen, Germany (which literally means home of the... bosom)
  • down a gravel "no through road" in Tasmania, in a field of dandelions and grass that were about three feet high
  • in Sheffield, England, in a cul-de-sac where there's a central grass area surrounded by houses
  • west of Chicago, in the Fox Chase neighborhood, near the intersection of Quarterhorse Court with Winners Cup Circle
  • in eastern Germany, near the Zementfabrik Deuna (cement production site) which also operates a Förderband (conveyour belt) nearby
  • between Stanford University and the nearby Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) in, you guessed it, Stanford, California
  • in Santa Barbara, California, outside an independent Lexus service shop
  • in an industrial area in north St Louis ("all types of buildings, mostly brick, some in disrepair, some actively used")
  • in a lovely park nestled among the industrial area outside Brisbane, Queensland ("After a shower of rain it was green and the air clear, the tiny creek under the footbridge just trickling.")
  • in Maryland, on soft and muddy ground of the banks of the "South Fork of White Marsh Run Stream Restoration and Wetland Conservation Project"
  • in scrubby bushland of the Taradale Nature Conservation Reserve near Melbourne
  • in South Australia, in the sparse tree line between two large fields with stacked bales of hay
  • and on the road through the San Ignacio Golf Club south of Tucson, Arizona ("and a wash with a sign that cautioned against diving - funny considering that the wash probably has water in it maybe 5 days a year!")

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