Travel Calendar

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Have you ever longed to hit the road in search of the landmarks and homes once occupied by some of your favorite Southern writers?

Deep South Magazine, an online magazine and blog, is hoping to capitalize on the ever-growing trend of literary travel with its Southern Literary Trail App.

For $2.99, you can purchase the app and learn about more than 130 literary sites.

“Our mission at Deep South Magazine is to connect the Southern states through stories on culture, food, travel and literature,” said editor Erin Z. Bass.

“I love visiting literary sites, and this was a great way for us to share insider tips with our readers, gathered from staff visits as well as from literary experts and tourism representatives from across the South.”

The app features more than 700 photos of writers’ homes, literary landmarks, museums and gravesites.

It also includes details on tours and events, restaurants, bars and hotels with a literary theme – from the Mockingbird Cafe in Bay St. Louis to the O. Henry Hotel in Greensboro, N.C.

Visit the the New Orleans apartment where Tennessee Williams began writing A Streetcar Named Desire and the Key West Hotel where he finished the play.

Pay homage to Flannery O’Connor at her farm and gravesite in Georgia or travel to Harper Lee’s Maycomb in Monroeville, Ala.

Visit Zora Neale Hurston’s Dust Tracks Heritage Trail in Florida or Jack Kerouac’s home.

The app includes 28 sites in Mississippi.

“Authors featured include Eudora Welty, William Faulkner, Tennessee Williams, Kathryn Stockett, Willie Morris, Margaret Walker, Richard Wright, Elizabeth Spencer and Barry Hannah,” Bass said.

“Some entries even have insider tips, such as not missing the playhouse out back of the Eudora Welty House, which the writer used as a creative space and hangout for friends,” Bass said.

The app is part of the Sutro World app. Sutro is described as the world’s largest publisher of independently authored travel guides.

“Literary tourism is becoming more and more popular, and travelers are interested in visiting the homes and memorials of their favorite authors,” Bass said. “Many sites and museums, like the Eudora Welty House and Faulkner’s Rowan Oak, have embraced this interest, opening their doors and allowing visitors to see where these authors wrote and slept.”

Be persistentwith the airlines

I read with great interest the On the Spot column of March 25 ["Speak Up, Be Proactive," by Catharine Hamm]. I had the same experience with United. Initially, United refused to provide me with a refund. I wrote to United’s president, chief financial officer and chief counsel and, most important, to the Department of Transportation.

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Within 24 hours of my complaint to the DOT, I received a call from United offering me a full refund.

Why United initially refused my request for a refund when its contract of carriage calls for a refund because of the increased flight time is a mystery to me. But it proves again the moral of the story: Be proactive.

Arto Becker

Westlake Village

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I had a similar problem with United when it changed the itinerary (booked some months before) from nonstop to a connecting flight with a change in planes. I then chose another nonstop at a later time, but United wanted to charge me a $75 fee to change the flight plus additional fees because the nonstop now cost more. It took some doing, but United relented and now we have our nonstop at the price I originally paid without additional fees or penalties.

Bill Donnelly

Los Angeles

It’s not just in Cuzco

I enjoyed Christopher Reynolds’ article on Cuzco, Peru ["Move Over, Machu Picchu," March 18]. I’ve been there four times and think it is charming and fascinating.

I was surprised, however, that he made a point of mentioning the scrutiny shopkeepers give American dollars and the issue of not putting toilet paper in the toilet as if these were particularly Peruvian concerns.

Having traveled a fair amount throughout Mesoamerica and Asia, I know the concern with accepting worn or torn U.S. currency is pretty much universal outside the industrialized West. The “no toilet paper in the toilet” requirement is also found in parts of Mexico and Central America.

Ed Schoch

Westchester

Groovy VW bus travel

“Smiles to Go in a VW Bus,” by Kari Howard [March 18], brought back memories. In 1963, we bought a Volkswagen bus and did lots of camping in the United States. In January 1965, with his a year of sabbatical for my teacher husband, we embarked with Michael, our 4-year-old son, on a journey across the country, put the VW on a ship and began 11 months of Europe.

We probably stayed at only six hotels in the whole year. Mostly, we stayed at campgrounds, which were unlike any we’d ever seen at home. In Paris, London and Lisbon, the campgrounds were large and had shops, banks, laundries and showers. Those in the countryside could also be pretty small, but we befriended many families whom we met in other campgrounds in other countries.

Posted: Sunday, April 1, 2012 12:00 am
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Updated: 7:21 pm, Sat Mar 31, 2012.

Rec Sports Spotlight: Gamber wins travel league

By Mike NortrupTimes Correspondent

Carroll County Times

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Burr Burker has his own recipe for putting together a successful basketball team: get a bunch of good athletes, teach them basketball fundamentals, work hard with them on defense and then turn them loose.

Well, he turned his Gamber fourth grade boys team loose on the Carroll County Travel Basketball League this year, and they validated that recipe.

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Sunday, April 1, 2012 12:00 am.

Dear Travel Diva: Is there any way to travel anywhere if you eat only organic, healthy, whole-grain food — and you don’t eat meat or chicken or fish or butter or cheese or salad? My husband and I would like to travel somewhere, someday again. — Hungry to Know

Dear Hungry: These days, it is easy to travel as a vegetarian. Eating vegan is a little harder, and your particular restrictions sound trickier yet. But it can be done.

Find 17,000 vegetarian and vegan restaurants all over the world at www.happycow.net. Please do not let food restrictions imprison you in your home.

Dear Travel Diva: I’ll be going to the BeNeLux countries this fall. What should I wear to blend in and not look like a tourist? –Trying to be Fashionable

Dear Trying: The fact you are asking this question means you probably are not prone to wearing ripped Hooters T-shirts or baggy sweatpants in foreign lands. You also are unlikely to stumble into the beret or wooden shoe faux pas.

Wear what you’d wear in any big city — neutral clothes, good walking shoes, a light coat, maybe a scarf around your neck. Bring a small umbrella in case of rain. Nice jeans are fine.

Luxembourg is the most formal of the BeNeLux countries, while the Netherlands is the most casual.

Dear Travel Diva: After a Transportation Security Agency agent hand-searched my carry-on bag at the Orlando airport this week, I got home to find that my little plastic bag with my toiletries in it was gone. I called the lost-and-found there and they had it; it must have dropped out while the agent was searching my bag. They mailed it back to me but charged me $18 for postage.

Why do I have to pay when it was their mistake? — Put Out

Dear Put: Unlike Detroit, the Orlando airport’s lost-and-found is not run by the TSA, but by its aviation authority. You can get your $18 back, according to TSA spokesman James Fotenos. In fact, only minutes after he inquired further with Orlando about the situation, a TSA agent called you to help fix the problem.

File a claim with the TSA electronically at www.tsa.gov/travelers/customer/claims/index.shtm . Or you can e-mail tsaclaimsoffice@dhs.gov or write to TSA Claims Management, 601 South 12th St., TSA-9, Arlington, VA. 20598.

Dear Travel Diva: I am taking a surge protector to Europe with me so I can recharge my camera, phone and other electronics all at once. Will this work? – Charging Ahead

Dear Ahead: Not unless it is a universal model that works at 110 and 220 volts. Otherwise — ZZZZ! Your device will melt.

You can buy a dual-voltage surge protector for under $30 (such as the All in One Surge Protector, $19.95, at WalkaboutTravelGear.com). But unless you are working with delicate electronics, I’d leave it at home. Most electronics are dual voltage and will work at 220 with just an adaptor plug.

If you aren’t sure whether your laptop, camera charger, hair dryer or cell phone charger is dual voltage, look at the fine print on the cord/charger. It should say: “110-220V.” A hair dryer often has a little dial you can change from 110 to 220.

Contact Ellen Creager: 313-222-6498 or ecreager@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter, @ellencreager

While Amazon.com founder and Chief Executive Jeff Bezos made two of his first large, publicized donations to charity last year, he is better-known for putting a chunk of his fortune — estimated at $18 billion — toward more out-of-the-box ventures.

He created a private aerospace company called Blue Origin in 2000 with an aim to make space travel more affordable, and he’s spending millions to build a clock that’s supposed to last 10,000 years in the desert wilderness of West Texas.

Since 2010, NASA has committed nearly $26 million for Kent-based Blue Origin, which is competing with Boeing and two other companies to create a new generation of vehicles that can take U.S. astronauts to the international space station.

“My passion is for space, for sure, but I do think this can be made into a viable business,” Bezos said in a 2007 TV interview with PBS’ Charlie Rose. “You have to be very long-term oriented.”

His interest in space goes way back. As high-school valedictorian, Bezos aspired to develop space hotels, amusement parks and colonies for 2 million or 3 million people orbiting the Earth.

“He was not optimistic about what we were doing to our planet, and this was before global warming was a big issue,” said his girlfriend at the time, Ursula Werner, now a writer living in Washington, D.C. “He was also really intrigued by the idea of rocketing into outer space.”

Last summer, Blue Origin suffered a setback when an unmanned test rocket exploded over the West Texas desert. Only after a report in The Wall Street Journal, which said the mishap “dealt a potentially major blow” to Bezos’ space plans, did he confirm the test failure.

In a short note on Blue Origin’s website, Bezos said that while it was “not the outcome any of us wanted,” he had “signed up for this to be hard.”

Bezos revealed last week that a privately funded team of “undersea pros” had found the huge engines that helped launch the Apollo 11 mission to the moon in 1969. Bezos, who plans to recover the engines from the Atlantic Ocean and return them to NASA, said he hopes one will go to the Museum of Flight in Seattle.

Bezos also is spending $42 million on a 10,000-year clock — an actual clock meant to run for 10 millennia inside a mountain in West Texas — to encourage people to be less shortsighted and to focus on the long-term. Even if it means being misunderstood.

“If you take the long view,” he said last year to Wired magazine, “you can solve problems you can’t solve any other way.”

Seattle Times staff researcher David Turim contributed to this story.

Amy Martinez: 206-464-2923 or amartinez@seattletimes.com

This summer, three Nelson County teachers will be able to see their lesson plans come alive through the Smyth Teacher Travel Award.

“The travel award allows teachers to broaden their horizons and deepen their understanding on the material that they’re coming back to teach,” said Peggy Williams, the assistant to the president and the associate director of communications and event planning for the Charlottesville Area Community Foundation, the group that awarded the grant.

The recipients are Lori Leigh Thompson and Jessica Shifflett, both English teachers at Nelson County High School, and Angela Ogden, a fourth-grade Virginia studies and reading teacher at Tye River Elementary School.

Thompson will enhance her British literature lessons by traveling to London from July 7-21.

She said she chose London because she wanted to visit the places about which she teaches, like the Globe Theatre, the Tower of London, the London Library and Westminster Abbey. The itinerary includes at least one Shakespeare play at the Globe.

“Afterwards, when I teach about the structure and seating of the Globe, I can say, ‘When I was there …’ and show them my pictures,” Thompson said. “I will have a better perspective and viewpoint of my curriculum, having my own experiences to relate to the students.”

Ogden will participate in the nine-day Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery tour in Montana and Idaho in July.

In Montana, she will canoe, visit museums, see the Charles Russell mural of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark with the Flathead tribe, visit a site of prehistoric buffalo hunts and see the Lewis and Clark interpretative center. She will also take a boat tour that shows some of the same wildlife Lewis and Clark saw. In Idaho she will visit Sacagawea’s homeland, the town of Dillon, Lemhi Pass and the Continental Divide.

Ogden said she decided to apply for the award after a friend previously received it.

“It is my mission to make sure that students learn the most through a variety of activities and projects based on the objectives,” she said. “It is my hope that I will bring back new ideas to enrich my teaching experience.”

She plans to incorporate the experience with her students by bringing back books, photos and materials for her lessons. She also plans to host a Club of Discovery on Saturday mornings where students and parents can learn about history through field trips.

The third award recipient, Shifflett, will be in Dublin from June 11-18 to study the culture, history and literature of Ireland.

Her itinerary includes trips to museums, churches, monuments and historical sites. As she is an English teacher, she will attend plays by Irish playwrights at the Gate and Abbey theatres, see the Book of Kells, visit authors’ homes and attend Bloomsday 2012, a day-long celebration of Irish author James Joyce’s novel “Ulysses.”

She will also be meeting with Claire Hennessy, an Irish teacher and young-adult author. The two will discuss ideas on education and how to engage young readers from both sides of the Atlantic.

She said she decided to apply for the award to go to Dublin because she teaches some Irish literature, the socio-political history is important to understanding international politics and there are people in the county with Irish heritage, including herself.

While there she will be blogging about what she sees, learns and experiences. She will also post videos and photos. When she returns, she will create an interactive display in the high school’s library on Irish literature.

She said the information and experiences she gains on her trip will enhance her lessons, whether it’s teaching Liam O’Flaherty’s “The Sniper” with freshmen or modern works with Advanced Placement seniors.

This is the sixth year the grants have been awarded. Gordon and Mary Beth Smyth established the award in 2007 as a way to reward teachers in Nelson County and offer an opportunity to gain first-hand experiences, knowledge and training in their fields. They also created the Smyth Education Fund, which has helped 46 students go to college, and recognized the efforts of 10 employees over the years.

“They have specifically targeted Nelson County,” Williams said. “When they first established the grants, Gordon said ‘It’s a small school system. It’s a place we thought we could have an impact.’”

The award covers the travel costs, lodging, program fees and meals. There is not a formal cap to the cost of the teachers’ trips. However, Williams said an expensive proposal might deter the selection committee from choosing that applicant. Five applications were submitted by the Dec. 30 deadline.

Koerting reports for the Nelson County Times.

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Virginia Beach, VA (PRWEB) March 31, 2012

Brazil is gearing up to host the 2014 FIFA World Cup. As host, Brazil gets an automatic bid with the remaining 31 teams determined by over 800 qualifying matches. The first match was played in June of 2011 and will continue until late 2013.

Sprawling across half of South America, Brazil captivates travelers with its powdery white-sand beaches, lined with palm trees and fronting a deep blue Atlantic. Dotting the coastline are tropical islands, music-filled metropolises and enchanting colonial towns. Inland, Brazil offers dazzling sights of a different flavor: majestic waterfalls, red-rock canyons, and crystal-clear rivers – all just a small part of the natural beauty.

The adventurous traveler can enjoy kayaking, rafting, trekking, snorkeling or surfing. For a more laid back approach, the wildlife watching that can be found throughout the country is simply amazing. Some of the world’s most exciting cities lie inside Brazil’s borders, and travelers come to love the music, dance and revelry of the nightlife. Given the country’s innumerable charms, the only drawback in traveling to Brazil is a logistical one: you simply won’t want to leave. All this and we haven’t even mentioned their undying love for the game of football.

The following cities are preparing to host the matches: Belo Horizonte, Brasilia, Cuiaba, Curitiba, Fortaleza, Manaus, Natal, Porto Alegre, Recife, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, and Sao Paulo. Brazil has an efficient and well developed transportation system that is being upgraded to handle the increase in demand that will accompany the 2014 World Cup.

Don’t miss out on a great travel experience in amazing Brazil while watching the world’s best teams compete at the highest level. Head on over to Great Atlantic Travel Tour and reserve your spot today.

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When it meets this week, the Yuma City Council will take another look at the travel budget for council members and the mayor, a budget that has been overspent by nearly $20,000 even before the end of the fiscal year.

The council meeting is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Wednesday in the council chambers at Yuma City Hall, One City Plaza. It will be preceded by a work session to be held at 5 p.m. Tuesday in the council chambers.

The subject of the mayor and council travel budget has been a hot topic for a couple of meetings. At the March 21 meeting, Councilman Paul Johnson asked that the item be put on this week’s agenda as a “fiduciary responsibility” of the council to examine travel expenditures and discuss how to rein in the overspending.

As part of the discussion, staff will present a review of the council’s travel agendas for years 2008-2010, an expenditure analysis of the travel budgets for the years 2011-2012 and offer options for the council’s consideration.

Also during Wednesday’s meeting, the council will be asked to award contracts for three projects. Yuma Valley Contractors Inc. of Yuma was the low bidder for all of them. The projects include: Engler Avenue water main extension from 16th Street to Calle Chapella at a total cost of $115,648; restroom replacement at Friendship Park at a total cost of $234,020; and construction of the new police substation off Araby Road at a total cost of $1.1 million.

The council also will be asked to approve two measures that could provide a portion of Colorado River water to General Motors Desert Proving Ground should the complex need additional water sometime in the future. Currently, the complex depends on two wells.

“The city acknowledges that long-term water supply is paramount to GM’s ongoing operations in the region,” the staff report states. “Therefore, in a continuing effort to support this important endeavor, the city will reserve up to 50 acre-feet annually of Colorado River water for GM use.”

This water would be a supplementary source if needed.

During Tuesday’s work session, city staff will brief the council on residential speed and pedestrian safety.

Complete agendas for both meetings are available on the city’s website at yumaaz.gov.

For those who are unable to attend a meeting in person, city council meetings and work sessions are broadcast live on Time Warner Channel 73.

Joyce Lobeck can be reached at jlobeck@yumasun.com or 539-6853. Find her on Facebook at www.facebook.com/YSJoyceLobeck or on Twitter at @YSJoyceLobeck.

By RUTH ROVNER
Special to the Times

Click to enlarge

The Franklin Delano Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum is all part of the FDR National Historic Site. The museum’s extensive exhibits cover FDR’s four terms as America’s 32nd president.

The river winds its way for miles through eastern New York State, which is why the lush valley surrounding it is called the Hudson River Valley. It not only helped to define the early history of the state, but its scenic beauty and varied sites make it a popular tourist attraction in any season, but especially in spring, when gardens are in bloom and the river vistas are captivating.

Within driving distance of our area, or accessible by train, it’s an easy weekend journey, especially if the focus is on just one part of this extensive river valley. On our recent trip, we chose Dutchess County in the mid-Hudson area.

Its varied attractions include historic sites, riverside mansions, wineries and beautiful scenery at almost every turn.

We began in Hyde Park, a modest town but with a high profile because of its association with President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. His childhood home, a handsome estate just one mile from the Hudson River, is located here, and it’s now a National Historic Landmark.

The future president was born here on Jan. 30, 1882. He lived here until age 14, when he went off to prep school and then Harvard. Then he spent considerable back home when he began his political career and even during his presidency.

In all, the estate, known as Springwood, has 35 rooms and nine baths. On our guided tour, we saw many of the rooms, with their period furnishings and portraits, including the room where FDR was born.

We also saw the manually operated elevator, which he used after he was paralyzed by polio. He operated it by lifting heavy ropes used as pulleys. Inside the elevator, we also see the wooden wheelchair he designed for narrow openings.

The tour gave us a new understanding of FDR’s disability and determination. After he contracted polio, he spent seven years in intensive rehabilitation. He gained impressive upper body strength. But his legs were totally paralyzed, and he wore 15 pounds of steel braces on his legs.

“He needed assistance every day of his life,” explained our guide. “A President who could not walk led us through a war and depression.”

We saw evidence of that leadership in the nearby FDR Presidential Library and Museum, which is all part of the FDR National Historic Site. The museum’s extensive exhibits cover FDR’s four terms as the 32nd president. Continued…

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Between the time you book a trip and the time you take it, there’s a good chance that the hotel, rental car company or airline will have lowered the price. These websites below — one of them just launched — watch your purchase and rebook you at a lower rate automatically, or alert you that you’re entitled to an airline price drop voucher.

•  Hotels: Tingo.com. Surprisingly, once you book a hotel room there’s a good chance that the same room and dates will go down between reservation and arrival, as I discovered quite by accident last year when booking a hotel stay in London. Needing to book an additional night’s stay, I rechecked my reservation (made on Expedia.com) a week before my arrival and discovered that the daily rate had decreased by $75, saving me $750 on a 10-night booking.

Just launched in late March, there’s now a website that will do the price-check-and-refund work for you automatically, rebooking you at the lower rate, and checking for further drops up until the day of your arrival or until the rate becomes non-refundable (usually a day or two before arrival). There’s no work on your part. Each time the rate goes down, Tingo sends you an email with a new booking number at the lower price. Key here is that another consumer doesn’t have to book the same room category and dates at a lower rate for the refund to kick in (unlike Orbitz’ “Price Assurance” program, which also refunds hotel price drops but requires another Orbitz customer to book the same room type, check in/out dates, number of guests, and restrictions in order to trigger a refund).

I recently booked a one-night stay in Washington using Tingo and exactly a day later received an email that the price had gone down $22, with a new booking number. Although the site is new, experience has shown that rate drops occur about 33 percent of the time, with average savings of $36 on a two-night stay, although savings of over $500 per stay aren’t unheard of. Unlike rental car site Autoslash and airfare site Yapta, which work only with certain vendors (below), Tingo works with virtually every hotel group and thousands of independent properties, unless the consumer is booking a non-refundable rate. There’s no limit to the amount of the refund, there are no claim forms to submit and the refund is made directly to your credit card.

•  Airlines: Yapta.com. For several years, Yapta.com has allowed consumers to enter their flight details on several airlines and receive an alert. The site only works with Alaska; American; AirTran (until it’s fully merged with Southwest, which doesn’t participate); Delta, Hawaiian, JetBlue, United, US Airways and Virgin America (no foreign-based carriers). And, of course, only Alaska and JetBlue (and for a few more months, Airtran) will give you back the entire amount of a fare drop refund, in the form of a voucher good for future travel up to a year from the original booking, with no fee. The other airlines mostly deduct $150 from the value of any voucher issued for a domestic fare, and up to $250 on an international fare, which often wipes out any savings.

Even so, Yapta has helped saved consumers millions of dollars since its founding, although whether these flyers ever ended up applying their voucher savings on a future flight is anyone’s guess, and it’s always possible that revenue-hungry airlines will increase the “refund fee” at a future date, or eliminate price-drop refunds entirely. Orbitz’s Price Assurance program issues cash refunds, not vouchers, if an airfare you booked goes down after you buy it, but again, another Orbitz customer needs to have booked the exact same flight numbers, flight times and dates for the refund (up to a maximum of $250) to kick in.

•  Rental cars: Autoslash.com. Rental car rates fluctuate, too, and Autoslash.com will track your booking and rebook you automatically if the price goes down before you pick up the car. Not only that, but the site will apply any discount coupon codes you might be eligible for, further lowering the cost. There’s no need to issue a refund since you usually haven’t paid for the rental in the first place (although some companies now offer discounts for prepaid rentals.

Caveat: the site works only with Hertz, Thrifty, SIXT, Dollar, Advantage, Europcar, Payless, E-Z and Fox, so it’s possible that one of these non-participants would have a lower rate even with a price drop on a car booked with the companies that play ball; so far, other companies (Avis, Enterprise, Budget, National, Alamo) have refused to participate. The company claims it has an 85 percent success rate in reducing the cost of its customers’ rentals.

George Hobica is founder of the low-airfare listing site Airfarewatchdog.com .