Patti challenges us this week to tell some stories in our images. She writes, “This week, we’re focusing on telling a story with our photos. Sometimes, if we’re lucky, we can convey a story in one image; other times we need several. For this challenge, we’ll set a limit of 5 photos per story.” You can view her stories here for inspiration.
A couple of months ago, we flew to Rio de Janeiro to board a cruise ship bound for Barcelona. But that’s a story for another day. Knowing the airlines were having issues delivering luggage concurrently with passenger arrivals, we opted to pack light and take only a carry-on and a personal item. We were forced to check our carry-ons upon our departure flight, and would not see them again until we arrived home back in Fargo. As you can see by the baggage tags in the image above, the two cases had their own adventures in travel and the tags told that story. The luggage arrived back in Fargo the day before we did.
After we retired, we started spending our winters in Arizona to escape those long, cold North Dakota winters. We bought some cheap hiking boots and joined a hiking club. Those boots tell their own story after our first hike in the Sonoran Desert. Those pairs lasted us only about 50 miles (80 km), enough to teach us that we like to hike so we invested in better quality boots going forward.
My last photo story features one of the three teams of Clydesdale draft animals as they prepared to entertain the crowd at an Arizona spring training baseball game. The team arrived in a fleet of beautiful semi-trucks.
One crew team unloaded the wagon and got it ready for the team hitch-up.
Another crew team unloaded each horse, one at a time, and added the collars and other hardware to prepare the animal for hitch-up.
In preparing to share these images, I learned some of the terminology and procedures of the 8-horse hitch. The horses are trained to stand quietly during dressing and hitching, and a crew member stands in front of each pair as the team is being built. The team closest to the wagon is called the wheel team and is usually the biggest and strongest pair as they must bear about 60 percent of the wagon load.
In an 8-horse hitch, the team directly in front of the wheel team is the Body Team. Ahead of that pair is the Swing Team, and the Lead Team is usually the most athletic and probably the smallest of the animals in the group.
Though it’s hard to see in the distance, between the driver and wagoner, the Dalmatian sits high on the wagon. You can see a video of a hitch-up narrated by a Clydesdale crew member on YouTube here. There are actually three teams, one in Missouri, one in Colorado, and one in New Hampshire. That keeps travel time to a minimum as the teams tour the country.
Thanks to Patti for this creative challenge allowing us to share some photo stories. Last week, Tina hosted Spiritual Places, and I really enjoyed viewing so many beautiful and serene places around the world.
Finally, next week we begin our July “Month of Guest Hosts”. Be sure to visit our hosts each week as they explore the following topics:
- July 1 Ritva Sillanmaki explores KITCHEN
- July 8 Philo of Philosophy Through Photography looks at SIMPLICITY
- July 15 Dawn Miller of The Day After leads with FENCES
- July 22 Dan Fenner of Departing in 5 Minutes invites us to join his UNBOUND SUMMER
- July 29 Janet Webb of This That and The Other Thing will explore OVERLOOKED
On Saturday, August 5, at noon Eastern Time, the Lens-Artists team returns with host Ann-Christine. Are you interested in joining the Lens-Artists challenge but aren’t quite sure how to get started? Click here for more information.
John Steiner
Flare Legend Adventures
Terrific stories John – each one hardly needs words to understand it! I laughed at your luggage tags which I’m sure wasn’t really funny at the time. I loved the info about the Clydesdales. I saw them once when I was VERY young but still remember it because they were SO massive (probably looking more so because I was quite small at the time.) They’re a wonderful tradition and I had no idea about the sizes. Loved your choices this week.
Thanks, Tina! I’d love to get the opportunity to get as close to those big animals again. I was really surprised that they let us approach to within six feet with an admonishment not to touch. 🙂
Nice to know about Clydesdales.
The wagon is massive.
Love these horses.
Love these hiking boots.
I’d guess the wagon is just for show. It is huge, but I think it probably is empty. No point in stressing the horses. >grin<
Agree.
Thank you, John..
Quite the stories, John
Thanks!
Welcome
Great photo stories John. We saw the Clydesdale team when they came to Fairfield at the Budweiser plant. We then toured the plant. They are majestic.
They are indeed, Anne! I’d love to see the team again!
😊😃
The luggage tags certainly tell a story 😀 I remember reading the words version in your blog a while back, now I have the picture to accompany it! And those horses are lovely.
Truth, Sarah! Thanks!
Those boots do like they have many stories to tell, John. Love the Clydesdales! The mini horses I had at one time could stand underneath them.
These luggage’s tags tell your travel stories! Love the wagon, handsome horses. Great photos and stories!
John, it is unacceptable that airlines get away with losing our luggage. I’m sorry you had to go through that. Great photos and stories you told us here.
These days, it seems lost luggage goes with the territory. 🙂
I love a story about lost luggage with a happy ending.
We’ve learned to pack nothing really important that might be checked. That worked for us. We bought a couple of spare suitcases and some extra clothing. 🙂
John, wonderful stories! I love the Clydesdales!
They are beautiful animals!
Beautiful and entertaining stories, John – and I loved the tags and the boots! Could really relate…
Love the shoes 😊
Thanks!
The Budweiser Clydesdales are a clever and useful way of advertising. The luggage adventure is a disgrace for the airline, naming it would give it the bad publicity it deserves.
Truth is that two airlines were involved in the loss. I don’t know if Delta didn’t get the luggage transferred to our LATAM flight, or if LATAM didn’t get it loaded before we left Boston.
LATAM had poor customer service in trying to reconnect us with our luggage. It chased us all the way across South America, and actually arrived at our last stop in Brazil but even given delivery instructions, they didn’t get it to the cruise port before we left for Spain.
Far from good service.
This was great John. I loved the hiking boots. How true that they tell a story of adventure. Even though it wasn’t funny, I laughed at your luggage knowing the story before you told it. What a nightmare, and luckily, you and Lynn have a great attitude and didn’t let it wreck your plans.
The Clydedales are so fascinating. And what a great addition to the challenge. Even their wagons tell a story. Interesting you learned some info about them. Most of us just ooo and awww. thanks for that.
Thanks, Donna! Love those Clydesdales! Beautiful animals.
My goodness those Clydesdales are beautiful.
How aggravating about the luggage. It looks like you and your wife handled that well, though. The boots show you retired with plenty of energy and desire to live out the rest of your lives. Nice going!
Thanks, Dan! We continue to keep moving on, at least so far. 🙂
These are so many varieties of these images John..I love all of your words .Anita
Thanks, and thanks also for the follow!