Bear On The Road

Wandering the US in search of fun, food, beer, nature, art..... and myself.

[bearontheroad-blog]

Loring Cornish gallery (Taken with Instagram at Fells Point)

[aquareaux]

[enoughapologies]

“My witness is the empty sky.”

Jack Kerouac (via exhiist)

[popchartlab]

[laughingsquid]

http://laughingsquid.com/a-map-of-over-1000-breweries-across-the-united-states/

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Cannes Favorite: On the Road by Walter Salles

Jack Kerouac fans have something to look forward to in this year’s Cannes Film Festival – the film adaptation of the novel ‘On the Road’. Read more details about the film after the break.

[halogenation-blog]

[leotatombs]

“Travel changes you. As you move through this life and this world you change things slightly, you leave marks behind, however small. And in return, life - and travel - leaves marks on you. Most of the time, those marks - on your body or on your heart - are beautiful. Often, though, they hurt.”

Anthony Bourdain (via waywardandwanderlust)

[transitmaps]

Hey, everyone! I’m thrilled to be able to share some news with you that I just heard about! My U.S. Highways as Subway Map has been accepted for inclusion in the inaugural edition of the NACIS Atlas of Design. There were 150 entries, and only 27 maps - all by different creators - have been accepted, so you can see why I’m excited about this!

The Atlas itself promises to be superb, as evidenced by this excerpt from the project website:

The Atlas will feature a gallery of full-color maps showcasing cartography at its most beautiful, its cleverest, its sharpest, and its most intriguing. But it will be more than a museum of images; each map will be accompanied by thoughtful commentary that guides the reader toward a deeper understanding of the work: its inspiration and message, the ways it means to influence us. It is well to look upon something beautiful and good, but once we understand how it is beautiful and good, our experience becomes much richer. For those of us who make maps, we can carry those lessons into our own work and advance the craft of cartography. Even if you don’t make maps, it’s a chance to gain insight into what mapmakers really do, and to see how it’s about more than just pushing city dots and rivers around. Everyday objects become much more significant when we see what is behind their creation.

I can’t wait to see the other maps! For those of you unfamiliar with my work, here’s a link to the map’s project page on my personal website, as well as a link to a big (4000px wide!) version of the map on Flickr - the best way to appreciate all the fine detail.

[noraleah-blog]

Have you heard of the City Museum in St. Louis? We went on Memorial Day and it was double OC (out of control)! Imagine if a pack of crazy artsy hippies designed the world’s biggest, coolest jungle gym out of found parts and you’re halfway there. Outside, you can climb up to an old fire truck...

[bearontheroad-blog]

This place looks so awesome!! 

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Baltimore On A Budget

Baltimore Culture for Under 20 Bucks | Charm City Now | Baltimore http://www.charmcitynow.com/blog/baltimore-culture-for-under-20-bucks/

[bearontheroad-blog]

How many have you had? 

p.s. check out my other Tumbler Bear in Baltimore 

[bearontheroad-blog]

Hello all!

I've created a new Tumblr account, Bear in Baltimore, that I will be focusing on. Please follow me over there for all-- well, at least a portion-- of your Charm City needs.

There will be lots of posts about art (street art and murals, museums, local artists, art events, etc.), booze and food (area bars and restaurants, what I'm eating/cooking, namely sandwiches... and beer!), and fun things to do around the city (festivals, shows, shopping, open mics, etc.) I'll also be sharing photos I've taken and stories of this fair city, as well as jaunts to places such as Annapolis, D.C., Rehoboth Beach, Philadelphia, and Western MD. 

If that sounds like your kind of thing, please come on over to Bear in Baltimore, the water's fine! (Not the Harbor water, that's disgusting, ask anyone. I mean the proverbial... oh you get it!)

  P.S. I'm still somewhat of a novice to all this stuff. If you have any comments, suggestions, queries, quandaries, whatever, by all means, drop me a line. Just don't be an asshole. K? Thanks! :)

[bearontheroad-blog]

Going GREEN: Celebrating St. Patrick's Day in Savannah, GA.

I woke up on March 17th slightly hung-over-- maybe staying up until 2:30 in the morning drinking a $4 bottle of wine I’d bought at WalMart the night before wasn’t such a good idea after all. 

I made some coffee, watched the parade coverage on a local news channel, and got myself ready to head into the debauchery that had already begun (and would continue) along River Street. 

I wore my bright green tuxedo t-shirt and would’ve also worn a short green wig had it not been irreparably marred in transit. 

All done up for a previous St. Patty’s Day!

A cab picked me up around 11:45. I chatted with the driver as we drove the 10  minutes into Savannah. He was a friendly, older, black gentleman, named Elton, who‘d lived in the Savannah-area his entire life. I told him about my trip and he said he thought what I was doing was brave. As I exited the cab at Bay Street, he told me to be careful, and to call him when I needed a ride back to the hotel (although he couldn’t promise he’d be available.)

Now a Word to the Wise: The fare was significantly higher than normal because of the festivities. So take this into consideration when choosing your accommodations, travel arrangements, and general budgeting. 

I was on River Street, with a beer in my hand, by noon! I went into a few shops, earning the moniker “Baltimore girl” by one of the proprietors. I made my way, with throngs of other people all decked in green, down River Street. 

Wandering into various pubs and restaurants, I eventually settled-in for while at Kevin Barry’s Irish Pub.  

I got this shot on my phone while I waited in line for the bathroom. 

There’s a second level with a sunroom looking out on the street (where a mechanical bull stand was set up.) This would surely be a great place for some people watching. So I grabbed a beer and stool by the window. Man, oh man, was I right! 

I watched as, one-after-another, patrons climbed aboard the lumbering, mechanical beast. Some wore shamrock suspenders, others bright green afro wigs, or teeny-tiny green top hats. Whatever the Irish-inspired-attire, all were tossed about and flung off the faux-longhorn onto the air-filled ring below. 

Before long I was swapping insults, quips, and comedic-observations with a group of middle-aged guys from Massachusetts. There were two guys named John, a Phil, and a couple of others; and they’ve been celebrating St. Patrick’s Day in Savannah for years now.

We sat there for about an hour, making fun of the drunk people, lumbering about on the street below. Then we made our way to the streets to become one of them! 

Maryland pride!

For the next few hours we wandered in and out of bars, drinking beers, taking shots, spotting leprechauns, watching live performances, and pinching the occasional back-nipples. 

Eventually I parted ways with the New England gentlemen, drunkenly claiming something about “Needing to ramble on” or something. Things are a bit fuzzy at this point. I know I picked up some postcards, and got some shots of the Talmadge Memorial Bridge.

Then I made my drunken excursion back to the hotel. 

This ended up to be one of my favorite shots of this part of my trip.

I called Elton, my cab driver from before; but he wasn’t able to pick me up. After drunkenly-wandering the streets of Savannah, I happened upon a cabbie named Roman-- he was from Czechoslovakia and had been in American and living in Savannah for about 6 years. 

I got back to hotel and passed the F*CK out! I remember waking up a few hours, the room dark except for the light from a flickering infomercial on mute. I was sprawled across the bed, my feet hanging over the side. It was surely going to be a rough morning.   

Day 4: 0 miles

[bearontheroad-blog]

En Route to Savannah

I was back on the road by 2:30, heading towards Savannah, Georgia, via Atlanta. I didn’t think this through, however, and hit pretty horrendous traffic trying to bypass the city. 

I would’ve liked to stop and checked out Atlanta a little, but I was coming up on one of the few deadlines I had on the trip-- tomorrow I would be celebrating St. Patrick’s Day in the historic, Southern town of Savannah. It’s one of the country’s largest festivals celebrating the holiday and I didn't want to miss it! 

Including the hour I was stuck in gridlock-- made somewhat bearable by “The Traffic Jam” hip-hop mix on 107.9FM (also how I first heard that Nate Dogg died R.I.P.)-- a brief stop at a rest station and another to get gas, it took me about 7 hours to drive from Chattanooga, TN to the hotel I’d booked just outside Savannah, GA. 

I checked-in around 9:30, then back out to the nearest WalMart to pick up a few things. This is when I discovered that wine (also beer) could be purchased here, for $4 a bottle nonetheless.

 Sold!

I returned to the hotel, drank the semi-decent-tasting vino, and prepared for the following days shenanigans! 

DAY 3: 407 miles

[bearontheroad-blog]

Chattanooga: Home of the Moon Pie

Before I got back on the road, I stopped near where I’d had dinner the night before.     Oh here’s a picture of the side/rear of The Hair of the Dog Pub, by the way.

I’d read that Chattanooga is the birthplace of the Moon Pie (1917.) So I went to the source…well, at least the retail source.

.....and I stocked up for the road.

Apparently Chattanooga was also home to the world’s first franchised Coca-Cola bottling plant. Interesting tidbit: the two local attorneys who bought the franchise bottling rights did so for only dollar a piece. Talk about a wise investment!  

[bearontheroad-blog]

I explored the three building of the Hunter Museum of American Art for about 2 hours. Unfortunately my camera battery died on me, so I wasn’t able to take all the photos I wanted. But here are some of my favorites I was able to get--such as the first, by Paul Jenkins, who draws inspiration from Zen Buddhism for his large, colorful paintings. This work alone made the trip to Chattanooga worth it for me.  

I also visited the museum shop on the way out and picked up a postcard book of Blue Art. 

[bearontheroad-blog]

Before you even enter the Hunter Museum of American Art, in Chattanooga, you’re greeted by a number of public art works-- part of the city’s Art in Public Places program.  

The layout of the museum itself is also something to notice. It is comprised of three distinct buildings, each housing a corresponding style of art. From Contemporary and Modern works in the curving, window-filled West Wing; through the Colonial-style mansion rife with early-American paintings, sculptures, and furniture; finishing finally in the stark, but beautifully-arranged, East Wing which houses the museum’s Special Exhibitions. 

The buildings span a hundred years of architecture-- the oldest being the mansion (1905), followed by the stark East Wing (1975), and the finally the Bilbao-esque West Wing (2005.)  

There’s also a lovely, panoramic view of the bridge and the river.