Despite the fact this road is in the middle of a mule’s ass, miles from any town, it positively pounds with speeding, heedless traffic criss-crossing the junction. I have rarely felt less secure on a rural highway. When you pull over, the passing cars are going so blazingly fast your whole vehicle shudders. I couldn’t get out of there fast enough.
travel
Disney Legend Bob Gurr on creating his Disneyland rides
“Since Walt wanted the Matterhorn Bobsleds to open in just over a year later, along with a Submarine Voyage, a larger Autopia, and a Monorail, he asked if it could be built faster. He asked me to design a bobsled and two track layouts. He asked Arrow Development, Walt’s favorite outside manufacturer, to find a way. Arrow said bent up pipe would be the quickest way, thus it turned out to be the world’s first steel pipe coaster. See, Walt would know all about the various manufacturing possibilities and wound up inventing something new, just to get the attraction he wanted.”
There’s a plaque for everything
Jimmy Carter spent two nights here in 1994. Steinhatchee, Florida.
Revisiting Rosewood, Florida, today [WATCH]
We pass desultory intersections like Rosewood’s every day. And we will never know how many of them were once the settings for brutal events, in which Americans, believing they were right and on the side of God, were in fact the instruments of something sinister and evil.
Implosion video of Amway Arena in Orlando, shot up close
I shot this video early this morning in downtown Orlando from the VIP viewing area as the not-so-old Amway Arena (once the TD Waterhouse Centre, opened 1989) was demolished. Ka-boom! Instant 9/11 flashbacks for me, and lots of dust.
Travel and the baby brain
Travel regresses us to our “baby consciousness.” Is it any wonder that so many of us travel in our 20s, when we’ve just left that larval childhood stage but have not yet grown into the ill-fitting uniform of full adulthood? Is it any wonder so many travelers put a high priority on intensely sensory experiences such as drinking, sex, panoramic views, and extreme sports — pursuits that please our primal natures?
The State Department STEPs up outreach to travelers
U.S. consulates or embassy are never places that welcome a weary traveler, not even if you have the privilege of carrying a passport with a bald eagle stamped on the cover. Indeed, the diplomatic fortresses we build abroad, such as the bunker on London’s Grosvenor Square and the $750 million citadel in Baghdad, are resolutely intent on keeping us out.
Stap Vinnig Oor: Round the world during the Web’s infancy
Everyone logs their trips online now, but no one was doing it then. I was a pioneer. Here is the miraculously hand-coded site where I tracked my round-the-world journey back in 1998.
How to see London for $15 a day [WATCH]
Some incredibly useful tips for saving cash on a London vacation — without missing out on what makes London London.
San Francisco’s tourist pitfalls
I take you to San Francisco, which is already a good-value city for vacations, and show how to make it into an even better value.