B & W Challenge #3 The Boys in the Band

The boys in the band, El Puerto de Santa Maria, Spain

Looking good is mandatory but playing your instrument is optional.

I recently posted photos of Semana Santa – Easter Week – in Spain. Religious processions are solemn occasions but we’ve always been amused by the teenagers who take part in the marching bands.

The above photo was very busy so was heavily cropped to focus attention on the boys’ faces. What you can’t see is that they are all carrying wind instruments. What you can see is that they aren’t playing them.

Jude of Travel Words and the earth laughs in flowers has invited me to join in with this challenge. Jude is an accomplished photographer/traveler/garden enthusiast so while out and about stays grounded and records everything with wonderfully entertaining results.

There are only two rules for this challenge:

1. On 5 consecutive days, create a post using either a past or recent photo in B&W.
2. Each day invite another blog friend to join in the fun.

Today I would like to nominate Sue Slaght at Travel Tales of Life to take part in the challenge. Sue has all the energy, enthusiasm and devilment I wish I had for travel. You just never know what she will do next. It’s all documented. Go have a look. You won’t be disappointed.

Travel Theme: Rivers

Ailsa of Where’s my Backpack? has posted her travel theme this week of Rivers. Visit her post to learn how to join the challenge.

At first I thought I hadn’t any photos of rivers. But guess what? I’ve got loads. Oh no! I hear you say. I’ve whittled the number down to just a few (phew!):

The Niagara River tumbling over the falls from Lake Erie to lake Ontario:

Our practically mute and taciturn river guide at Magnolia Plantation near Charleston, South Carolina, cutting a wide swathe through the algal growth on the Ashley River and scaring away all the wildlife except Batman and Robin here:

In the town of Confolens, France, the river pictured is most probably the Vienne but possibly the Goire, as Confolens is at the confluence of the two rivers as the name suggests. Or I may have just made that up.

The Chicago River. Happy daze in the Windy City on a not so windy day. We were gorging on Chicago-style hot dogs while others engaged in more energetic pursuits. Note the distinctive Willis Tower in the background:

The Deschutes River in Olympia, Washington State after a heavy rain. Just upriver was a ‘no swimming’ sign. As if.

“Drove my Chevy to the levee. But the levee was dry.” We didn’t drink whiskey and rye on the levee of the Mississippi River at St. Louis Missouri.

The Rio Grande River at Big Bend National Park – Texas to the left, Mexico to the right:

Jude, at Travel Words asked in her Travel Theme: Rivers, have you taken a river cruise in England? Yes I have! And there is the very boat on the River Avon in Bath, England. We traveled upriver above the weir. What is a weir? Look here!

Scared half to death as himself towed our travel trailer in narrow lanes of heavy traffic across the George Washington Bridge over the Hudson River in New York City, I didn’t dare reach for the camera so Wikipedia will have to suffice:

George Washington Bridge (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

At this distance it looks a doddle. It wasn’t.

Is doddle a word in common usage in the United States?

 

 

 

WELCOME RACE FANS! and Carol

During a lump-in-throat inducing rendition of the national anthem by Dr. Jesse McGuire on trumpet, not the usual warbling pop star, and due to Air Force cuts we were treated to a fly past of 50 – Fifty! – airplanes in a tight chevron pattern. Everyone pointed and stared, open-mouthed, as the single-engine planes kept in perfect formation. From the moment they appeared on the horizon, soared gracefully overhead and disappeared behind the stadium the crowd was awestruck. As Dr. J completed the Star Spangled Banner the stadium erupted! (Above video is from 2009.)

I’ve got goose bumps just thinking about it. Concerns about rain delays were forgotten as tufty white clouds and a brilliant Arizona sky formed a backdrop.

The parking lot outside the stadium was a sea of RVs with more of them littered all over the center of the track.

A sea of RVs flooded the parking lot outside the stadium

. . . . . . and flowed into the infield.

See those two guys dead center in the photo?

What a great vantage point!

I had chosen to support a few drivers to increase my odds of picking a winner: Jimmie Johnson, because he is quite good-looking; Dale Earnhardt, Jr. because he won at Daytona and he seemed a good prospect; A.J. Allmendinger because he has the same initials as my son and you’ve just got love that last name; and Paul Menard because his car is so pretty.

Jimmie Johnson’s car

Dale Earnhardt, Jr.’s car

Jimmie and Dale have spotted me in the crowd and are waving at me!

Paul Menard’s car tarted up in aqua, cobalt blue and day-glow yellow

For me, the racing is incidental to the rest of the excitement.

Pit stop mayhem. Note the fishing poles to coax drivers in. Wouldn’t it be fun to mix them up when the race police, dressed in black and white, weren’t looking?

C’mon guys! I haven’t got all day!

Hey kids! You could climb that fence a have a really good view of the race.

I’m the one in white. Can you see me? Just kidding.

For those of you who feel that racing being incidental is a heinous statement, I took some photos of the racing.

My criteria for choosing winners needs some revising as Kevin Harvick took the trophy.

Kevin Harvick in a victory donut. Yes, he’s in there!

Kevin emerging from his donut! Can you read what it says on the side of his car? Freaky fast.

If you just like the noise, turn your volume right up and watch and listen to a restart.

My ears are still ringing.

By the way, did you know that if you put in silicone putty earplugs and then eat crisps/potato chips the noise inside your skull is phenomenal. It sounds like the world is coming to an end.