Archive for the ‘Travel’ Category
If They . . .
. . .arrested the devil,
would they charge him
with possession?
America’s Colorful Hall of Fame
We smelled it as soon as we swooshed through the cool glass doors from the oppressive Pennsylvania humidity into the revitalizing air-conditioned building.
“Crayons,” my wife said.
We had entered the Crayola Hall of Fame nestled in a high rolling Easton meadow close by the New Jersey border just 90 minutes from downtown Manhattan.
It was a timely visit because a mittful of tones were to be retired to be replaced by a similar number in the colorful contingent. I lobbied for the enshrinement of a violet orange I developed when an old crayon melted in my water color set long ago but I was too late.
The initial move to modernity was made a few decades ago after interviews with Crayola’s major consumers – kids – revealed a need for brightness among the corporate colors. We asked our guide if there was any move to add a scent to the product. “Are you kidding?” was the response. Studies show that crayons are among the 20 most-recognized scents in America. Coffee and peanut butter top the list.
It was almost disappointing to see how such colorful pieces of my life could be the product of such a cramped and constantly-clattering plant. It was like discovering that Santa’s workshop is in a carport.
Workers did display an elfin dedication to quality in the care and concern they show in making sure every Crayola has a straight label and perfectly pointed tip. Color was splattered all over as paraffin was recycled in large globs, colorful paper sleeves awaited the cylindrical sticks of color, and the familiar orange-and-green boxes of various sizes housed hundreds of thousands of Crayolas ready for shipment around the globe.
Crayolas have rolled out of this site since the first eight-color pack was produced in 1903 and sold for a nickel. The trade name Crayola derives from the French word craie for chalk and the Latin oleum for oil. Crayolas are made of paraffin and pigment. And crayon is the generic term for a colored writing stick.
The one person I hunted for but never found: the inspector who checks for crayons that stay inside the lines.
Give A Man A Fish . . .
. . . and you’ll feed him for day,
the old saying goes,
but if you teach him how to fish,
you’ll probably have to get yourself
a new rod, reel, tackle box and boat.
Missouri River Town Echoes Mark Twain
HANNIBAL, MO. —- History and heritage are linked in this northeastern Missouri community nestled on the banks of the Mississippi River. It is here, in “America’s Hometown” that adventure and charm are
alive and well.
Its most famous son is Samuel Clemens, better known as Mark Twain, author of some of the
most- loved American literature. Visitors get a chance to relive “The Adventures of Tom
Sawyer” by passing through Mark Twain’s boyhood home, museums, the Mark Twain Cave, Becky
Thatcher’s house, and the Tom Sawyer Dioramas.
Live representations of Tom Sawyer and Becky Thatcher, dressed in authentic attire of the era,
greeted you on the town’s streets. Visitors encounter them on summer weekends or on arrival by river boat.
Hannibal visitors also find crafts, antiques, working artisans, museums, river-boat cruises, and
dinner theater. It’s fun to take a sightseeing tour on a horse-drawn wagon and pay a visit to the
“Unsinkable” Molly Brown’s birthplace.
We’re Told . . .
. . .that our brain
has a left side and a right side.
On the left, there is nothing right,
and on the right, there’s nothing left.
Sedona’s Health In the Pink
Red rocks tethered to meditative vortexes are everywhere in Sedona, rising as cliffs, buttes and wind-sculpted animal-shapes cutting sharply into the deep blue sky. It was these sandstone sentinels that sparked the transformation of what was once a small artists’ colony into an upscale resort an hour or so north of Phoenix.
On our first visit here in the late 1950s, the business community comprised a cafe, drug store, market, gas station and a few other establishments. Its 2,000 or so residents would drive into town for groceries from homes scattered among the junipers, pinion pine and Arizona cypress atop red-rock slopes, or from cabins in nearby Oak Creek Canyon. There were no traffic lights and few places to stay other than cabins and camping areas up in the canyon.
Hollywood loved Sedona and built false-front towns where the heroes of countless westerns rode off toward the wind-scoured sandstone outcroppings.
Perched midway between the Valley of the Sun’s desert and the massive Colorado Plateau’s pine forests, Sedona’s dry climate and generally mild temperatures attracted snowbirds from the Midwest’s grim, gray wintery grip.
As word got out, people arrived from all over. Land values shot up. By the 1960s and ’70s, New Age spiritual gurus were proclaiming the area contained a concentration of psychic energy sites. In the late 1970s, Sedona was designated the epicenter of a “harmonic convergence” of people drawn to the spiritual overtones.
Filmdom’s false-front frontier was replaced by European spas, upscale resorts and chic boutiques. Stop lights controlled traffic on the main street, which also was the highway north through Oak Creek Canyon to Flagstaff. Two championship golf courses and a pair of nine-hole layouts were laid out few miles out of town.
It would have become just another hideaway for the beautiful people, had in not been for the photogenic red rocks – and the pink jeeps.
Realtor Don Pratt purchased former movie-studio land in the late 1950s in the Broken Arrow area and took prospective buyers on off-road treks to ooh and aaah the red rocks up close. Noticing folks not interested in housing came back for more, he bought an old Jeep and began charging $3 for a tour. He made them all pink after a stay at Waikiki’s legendary – and pink – Royal Hawaiian Hotel.
I Used To Think . . .
. . .now I just react.
More Than Desert in Valley of the Sun
One of the early breakthroughs was the 1929 opening of the Arizona Biltmore, which is worth a visit if, for no other reason, than to gawk at the walls lined with photos of celebrities at played there and its ceilings lined with gold. More than 30,000 square feet of the glitter glistens overhead in the lobby, a special meeting room, and main dining room that look and feel old enough to be comfortable without being frayed at the edges.
The valley also has its share of notable resorts, prominent among them being the Phoenician tucked into the fold of local icon Saddleback Mountain with its eye-candy nighttime vistas of the twinkling town lights to the south.
Getting To Be . . .
. . . an old fart, I was told over the years,
makes you more patient,
but I’ve come to believe
I just don’t give a shit.
By Fyllis Hockman
Mature Life Features
The last 18 miles of the road leading to the Monteverde Cloud Forest in Costa Rica takes more than 1½ hour to navigate because it is full of ruts and potholes by design. The locals don’t repair it because that would make it too easy for tourists to visit. But that Cloud Forest is really worth seeing.
So what exactly is a cloud forest? The non-technical explanation is plenty of clouds and rain result in every inch of the trees being covered by growing green things called epiphytes. Half of all the vegetation in this forest lives on the tops of trees, creating a sea of emerald and jade and olive and lime under an opaque canopy.
Traversing a series of hanging bridges gave us a birds-eye view of the forest very different than that from the ground. And zip-lining over the tree tops added an adrenaline rush that topped our environmental appreciation.
Martha Campbell, the daughter of one of the original Quaker settlers of Monteverde in 1951, provided some historical context to the Cloud Forest community that survived its beginning without plumbing, electricity and phone by cattle ranching. She bemoans the large influx of tourists of the past two decades that means “more job opportunities, but also more cars, maybe more crime and I just miss the simple life we used to have.”
This enormously rich ecosystem supports 7 percent of the world’s plant and animal diversity in only 0.1 percent of the earth’s surface.
My Doctor Should Be A . . .
. . .stand-up comic.
When I told him I was shrinking,
he told me
I should learn to be a little patient.
Holiday Travel No Picnic
My tablemate said he saved a couple hundred dollars by heading home for the holidays today instead of waiting a couple of days.
You might think about traveling on the holiday ‑‑ Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day or New Year’s Day – if you plan flying anywhere this festive season. Airliners are less cramped on those days. Crunching crowds can be expected throughout the Thanksgiving ‑ New Year’s holiday season at train and bus terminals and on highways and city streets as well as airports.
If you’re flying, also consider flights early in the day to avoid the ripple effect that builds up as more and more flights are disrupted, delayed or canceled as the day goes on. And get to the airport early. The closer to flight time you arrive, the greater are your chances of being bumped because airlines tend to overbook most flights.
An Inmate . . .
. . . who’s moving to colder climes
said he’s going to try some cross-country skiing,
I suggested he pick a small country.
Traveling Alone Has its Own Trip
Travel can lose much of its attraction after losing your life-long partner that shared the sites and sights you encountered around the globe over the years. And many suddenly-singles don’t relish the thought of returning to a favorite voyage or villa without the person they enjoyed it with over the years.
This is at a time when, for the first time in their lives, they probably can travel to wherever they choose to and stay as long as they wish.
Most can recall chatting with a solo traveler or two over the years. One long-time friend has flown to several countries and cities without any reservations and rents a room or apartment for several weeks to soak in the culture and cuisine of the land.
If you don’t feel like going it alone, you can book tours for ski trips, museum visits, cooking schools, national parks and almost anything you can envision.
Some of the bumps on the traveling-alone road include finding time to go off on your own during the tour you’ve booked with a group, how to avoid paying the single supplement charged by hotels and cruise ships, as well as getting along with room-mates on the trip.
A Lot Of Aridzonans . . .
. . .must be poor
because I’ve noticed
very few of them can afford
turn signals on their vehicles.
Pack for Delays
If you do decide to travel by air during the upcoming holidays, take only a carry on so you can be nimble when one or more of your flights are delayed or cancelled. You can almost count on that because the major carriers are canceling flights willy-nilly, blaming it on staff shortages and weather.
Pack a toothbrush, extra underwear and all your medications, which you can swallow by using the reusable water bottle you’ve taken with you. It’s still pandemic time in many parts of the globe so squeeze in several face masks and tuck in a comfortable blanket.
A portable charger will be handy to keep your phone working, and cleaning products, such as hand and face wipes, will help refresh you should you be stuck in an airport all night.
A Lesson You Learn . . .
. . . as you slip into your senior years is
it’s really really good to wake up and pee
and really really much better
than peeing and then waking up
Getting There is Getting Rougher —
and You Suffer
After several years of covering the airline industry as a business writer for a daily metropolitan newspaper, working for an airline company for a handful of years, and a million or so miles on commercial airlines, my view of airline companies has not changed.
They do not view you as a welcome passenger they can whisk off to exotic lands and happy holidays. You are simply a vacant seat if you’re not on one of their aircraft. They may make apologetic announcements when they delay or cancel your flight, but they really aren’t sorry.
The unfortunate part is that bad customer behavior is inflicted upon the airline staffers who do care – flight attendants and gate agents.
Ever see how the baggage handlers handle your luggage? Ever hear pilots discuss the uncomfortable conditions they cause when they decide to delay or cancel your flight? Ever stumble upon a sympathetic ticket agent willing to give you a refund when your flight is canceled?
Nothing’s really changed as airlines moan and groan about the sudden onrush of travelers and staff shortages because they can’t rehire personnel fast enough after the COVID-19 pandemic slowdown. More than one out of four flights is either cancelled or delayed for a planeload of reasons – backups in the system, staff shortages, weather, mechanical problems, runway crowding, pick a problem.
You have to prepare for discomfort as well as delays if you intend to fly somewhere on a commercial airliner. This is after putting up with TSA frisking at the airport that you arrived at three hours before takeoff time before you even get on an airplane. Then there’s taxi time and gate-waiting time and on and on and on.
On board, you pay for a pillow and blanket. Don’t even think about getting a snack. Pack your own lunch at home and take an empty plastic bottle so you can fill it at an airport fountain before taking flight.
More than 900 flights are cancelled every day, according to Federal Aviation Administration data.
That may sound like a lot, but let’s look at the daily picture. The FAA handles more than 45,000 flights every day taking almost 3 million passengers into and out of the more than 9,500 airports U.S. airports – 14,500 are small private airports. There are as many as some 5,400 aircraft buzzing overhead at any given time.
There are bound to be problems. So you have to prepare for the worst when you embark on a trip to the airport to board an airplane.
Take Comfort When Flying
Travel time is returning with a slew of new conditions to take into consideration, especially on lengthy trips.
The pent-up yen to get away and go faraway that was nurtured during the COVID-19 lockups and quarantines makes it more important than ever to pre-plan and prepare for your journey.
Along with preparing piles of clothing, medications and travel aids, one of your early steps should be a plan to make your flight to and from your destinations comfortable.
First of all, things have changed since before the pandemic closed down the globe. Including air travel.
A simple but significant change is that passengers no longer can count on getting a pillow, eye mask, blanket, or other comfort items once they board their aircraft.
So you have to pack your own.
That means going shopping for an effective and comfortable face mask that’s still required on most flights. Several types are available, many with a supply of disposable filters to protect you from invasive bacteria while you’re away.
To help you sleep, you’ll have to take your own pillow, blanket, eye shades and whatever else you think you’ll need.
Dressing right can help. Wear loose comfortable clothing. A light sweater works well and you can pack a light scarf or shawl keep you comfortable. A toque will serve you well as a nightcap.
A hoodie wraps you up snugly, too.
There no assurance you’ll have access to a headset so you might want to plan your own entertainment with movies or games on a lap-top. Your own headset can also blank out annoying sounds, such as a grumbling jet engine just outside the window or a crying baby in the seat behind you.
Packing small, easy-to-get-to, non-sticky snacks will make the jaunt more palatable while easing your hunger pains.
If you can’t afford flying First Class, you might check on the price of an upgrade to a seat with extra leg room.
Mature Life Features 