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Road Trip: Mobile, 2017 – Part 1

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I’m way behind on a number of things; one of those things is in sharing photos. I’m 2-3 years behind on that stuff, so I’m trying to dig out the backlog. This post will share a few of my favorite photos from the trip that my wife and I took to Mobile, Alabama, in May 2017.

Pretty much every trip south for us hits a Waffle House early. We don’t have those in Michigan, so Waffle House is a must-visit location. This one is in Daleville, Indiana.

Waffle House, Daleville, Indiana

The next highlight of the trip was in a little commercial strip in Athens, Alabama. Here, we found Joe’s World Famous Pizzeria. In most cases, the phrase “world famous” is a bit of an exaggeration, but that’s not really the case here. Joe Carlucci has won multiple world pizza championships and hold a couple of Guinness world records for his pizza skills. Joe left my wife and me feeling like we were his long-time friends, and prepared amazing calzones for us. He shared a number of stories from his pizza-making adventures, and treated us to cannoli for desert. We look forward to our next visit to Athens.

The man himself: Joe Carlucci performing his wondrous craft

Legendary calzone (well, half of one)

Our first day proper in Mobile featured a walk around downtown Mobile and a trip to GulfQuest, the national maritime museum of the Gulf of Mexico. Given that I enjoy photographing ships and neon signs, both of these destinations worked well for me.

GL Calmena

Naman’s Department Store neon sign

Hoffman Furniture Company neon sign

For the next parts of this series, click here and here.

What I See When I’m Not Running: State Capitol After Dark

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I wasn’t sure this would turn out with the camera in my phone; however, it ended up looking pretty good. The capitol dome wasn’t quite this bright, and the rest of the building wasn’t quite that dark. With the moon hovering over the capitol like this, though, I couldn’t pass on the photo.

What I See When I Run: Whovian Edition

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For a few days, flooding has kept me off most of the Lansing River Trail. There was a bit of trail near downtown that didn’t flood, though, and I visited it during my 11-mile run on Saturday.

Along the trail, starting at Impression 5 (a museum) and extending south(ish) toward Potter Park Zoo, there are markers that represent the planets (and Pluto, which was no doubt considered to be a planet when these markers were installed) in our solar system, spaced to scale how they are generally spaced in the solar system. It’s a nifty way to make walks along the trail into educational opportunities.

All of that leads to this photo, taken along the trail near the marker for the fourth planet.

My friends who enjoy Doctor Who will understand and appreciate it when I say that these are, obviously, the waters of Mars.

By the way, I am not looking to pick a fight with folks who aren’t down with Pluto’s having lost its status as a planet. Personally, I’m neutral on the issue; I’m not planning to visit any time soon, so I just can’t get worked up about it. If you firmly believe that it should be classified as a planet, I won’t argue with you about it.

 

What I See When I Run: The Grand River Overflows Its Banks

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When you get a lot of snow, and then you get unseasonably warm temperatures and lots of rain, your rivers, creeks, and streams run out of capacity to hold it all. Unfortunately, that’s happening in Lansing right now. While I was out running tonight, I took a moment to capture the scene along the Grand River in downtown Lansing. I didn’t get to cover much of the waterfront, as plenty of the non-motorized trail along the river is already underwater. Nonetheless, I did get an image to share.

There’s a non-motorized trail that runs along the waterfront by the Lansing Center (the building at the right, for those of you who may not be familiar with Lansing, MI). The fence is immediately adjacent to the trail; based on its appearance, I’d guess that trail is at least a foot under the river, and maybe as much as two feet.

The water is still rising.

Bad Song Parodies: “The Safety Dance”

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I work on contracts related to grants programs. I also occasionally replace words in songs with other words that aren’t usually great. The following may or may not have been written on my cubicle white board yesterday morning. By me.

We do grants ’cause we wanna.
You can leave your friends behind,
‘Cause your friends don’t dance,
So they don’t get grants,
And they’re no friends of mine.

One of my co-workers is now calling this “Safety Grants.”

Reboot

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I’ve been ignoring this site for way too long, so it’s time to make like J. J. Abrams and reboot it.

The budget for this reboot will be way lower, and I haven’t yet picked up one of these epic uniforms.

What can you expect here? I’m honestly not sure. I’ll figure that out as I go. Until then, have a great day!