Travels

There are 243 posts filed in Travels (this is page 10 of 25).

Grayson Highlands State Park

Along the Virginia Creeper Trail


We got back this evening from a three-day weekend spent camping at Grayson Highlands State Park in Mouth of Wilson, VA. Highlights include a deluge of rain Friday night that started as we were setting up our tent Friday night and didn’t let up until 9 AM Saturday morning.

We took our bikes with us and drove to Damascus, VA Saturday morning, where we arrived in time for lunch at Quincey’s Pizza, a fine eating and drinking establishment, indeed. After a tasty meal, we drove over to the bike shuttle place, where we boarded a van and were driven with our bikes up to our starting point for the Virginia Creeper Trail in Whitetop, VA. The next 17 miles were spent chasing the kids down the trail at breakneck speeds, with me stopping only as long as I dared so that I could snap photos of the beautiful scenery.

We arrived back at the campsite around dinner time, so Kelly cooked up a tasty turkey chili to recharge us. Then after listening to a musician play in the park amphitheater, we sat around our campfire roasting marshmallows until about 10 PM. Unlike Friday night, sleep came quickly and easily this time!

My view, most of the way!


After an excellent night of sleep, we enjoyed some hot oatmeal for breakfast, broke camp, and drove over to one of the many trailheads in Grayson Highlands. We hiked the Rhododendron Trail up to a scenic overhang, where we met a man and his two young daughters and stayed for a while. Peering through binoculars, we could see groups of wild horses on the hills surrounding us. It was cool.

We then ventured down a loop trail and made it back to the van in time for lunch (and just before the heavens opened up again). On our way down, though, we flushed a wild turkey out of the woods mere feet away from us. What a surprise that was to see this huge, startled bird bust out of nowhere!

The ride was an easy one back and we’re now in for the night. In spite of the spotty sleep I got during Friday night’s non-stop rain, it was the best camping trip I think I’ve ever been on. We’re already making plans for our next trip out this summer!

Fourth away

We spent the Fourth of July at Kelly’s parents’ home, taking the backroads to avoid the holiday traffic. There, we spent Saturday on a geocaching hunt around Sky Meadows State Park. We also spent time at the pool, built hula-hoops, and watched the kids put on puppet shows.

Another highlight was visiting our friends from high school. We had dinner at the home of Jamie and Jim Neel along with Leigh Taylor. Kelly was friends with both Leigh and Jamie in high school and I was friends with Jamie, eating lunch together many days. It was good to catch up with them and to meet Jamie’s husband Jim, with whom I have a lot in common.

Sunday night as we were driving back from dinner, a strong storm passed through, breaking tree branches in the neighborhood and briefly knocking out power.

We enjoyed our visit. It’s tough getting back to work after that kind of fun!

Patriotic passports

My first passport, 21 years ago!

Kelly and I took the kids to the post office this week to get their passports renewed. We were hoping to have them in time for our upcoming trip to Orcas Island, so that if we had some time we could cross the strait and see what it’s like to riot in Vancouver. Okay, not really, but it’s always good to have an up-to-date passport.

While we were waiting for the paperwork to get done, I recalled that it was about this time of year that I got my first passport. It was July 5th, 1990 and I was serving in the Navy during that time – my ship, the USS Elliot (DD-967), was visiting Hong Kong that week. I remember the humor of celebrating America’s Independence Day while docked in a British colony. Continue reading →

Chicago O’Hare versus Chicago Midway

During last week’s trip to St. Charles, a colleague quizzed me on my choice of flying into Chicago Midway as opposed to O’Hare. Most of my coworkers prefer to fly O’Hare. My answer was that I’ve found it quicker to get a rental car at Midway Airport than O’Hare, where a bus trip is inevitable.

But there’s a bigger reason that I was reminded of when my colleague was late arriving to St. Charles this morning: taxiing time. It takes forever to taxi around O’Hare airport. My colleague’s plane got delayed because of other planes stacked up on the ground. During last year’s flight to Chicago from Milwaukee, my plane spent as much time on the ground at O’Hare as it did in the air getting there!

Chicago Midway is a much smaller airport. That translates into less time wasted on the ground, which in turn makes traveling so much more efficient.

The (ever) continuing story of The Arcada


Remember my previous posts about the value of editors? Tuesday I found another doozie where a quick proofreading would’ve saved some embarrassment.

This one was on a city-owned sign in downtown St. Charles, IL next to a public parking lot. It tells the story of the Arcada Theater, a local music venue that dates back to the 1920s. I’d been intrigued by the venue so I eagerly read the sign while I waited for my friend to arrive. Just when I start getting drawn into its narrative, I read this:
Continue reading →

Tiring of hotels

Boy, it didn’t take me long to get tired of hotels. It’s not like I’ve been traveling much lately – in fact, I don’t travel nearly as much as I used to. The travel itself is fine, though: I love going to new places. It’s the hotels that I’m not fond of. For this week’s stay here in St. Charles, the best available hotel I could find was the Best Western. It’s turned out to be okay for what it is but it’s rather free of personality.

I was reminded the other day of the absolute joy I had with staying at a bed and breakfast during my weeks of consulting for NeTraverse for a project we were doing with AllTel in Jacksonville, Florida. I really looked forward to leaving work and joining the B&B owners on their front porch for wine, cheese, and deep discussions about all sorts of topics. Here, I come back to an empty hotel room, which is not that thrilling to say the least.

I think I’ll check out some of the area B&Bs and see if I can find something a little more lively for my trips to St. Charles.

Porno scanner vs. metal detector

Yesterday I passed through security at RDU Airport. There were two lines to screen passengers and I was in one with the metal detector. Though there was a crowd of people in the other line, waiting their “turn” to pass through the porno scanner, I was made to wait at the entrance of the metal detector though no one was in front of me. Only once another TSA agent saw that the porno scanner wouldn’t be empty any time soon did I get waved through the metal detector.

This is in contrast to my last visit to the airport, where the metal detector crowd was unimpeded. I don’t know if yesterday’s behavior is the norm now but it certainly seemed unusual.

God, I miss my civil liberties.

In St. Charles

I’m finishing up my first 24 hours in St. Charles. Been a day of sales training, though this time around I haven’t been the one doing the training. That may change tomorrow, though.

Things are starting to get exciting with work. I may be busy very soon now with that, and that’s a good thing. I’m enjoying my job and chances are I will enjoy it even more in the near future.

Virgin Mobile’s Beyond Talk plans

This is going to be my next cell phone plan. I’ve been mostly happy with my plain-Jane Net 10 service but I’ve been growing increasingly frustrated by Net 10’s lack of a bona fide smart phone. With my crazy schedule it would be nice to have an easy way to keep my calendar with me. Also, as I travel more with my job it becomes more important that I have a WiFi and 3G-enabled phone to keep me occupied in the airports.

Virgin Mobile’s $40-a-month plan for unlimited network and 1200 minutes a month will fit me just fine. With the LG Optimus V phone that runs Android, I’ll have all I need.

* 3G Nationwide Coverage You Can Count On

* All Taxes & Fees Included, except those charged at the point of purchase

* Pay with Credit, Debit or PayPal for worry free monthly service

* Buy Top-Up cards to pay with cash

via Cell Phone Plans – Pay As You Go and Prepaid | Virgin Mobile.

Feedback from the airport

Like many people, I like to pass the time while waiting for my flight to board by doing a little people-watching. Where is this person going? Where’s home? If home’s not here, what brought them to the Triangle? I find it fun to speculate on these things.

What’s really insightful is to hear departing visitors talking into their phones. Last week I overheard a man apparently describing the Triangle area to the person on the call. “You’d like it,” he said. “There are lots of trees. It’s really beautiful. Lots of trees.”

I smiled, because that’s not the first time I’ve heard a traveler rave about our area’s beautiful, abundant trees. We tend to take that for granted, I think.

Raleigh and Durham invested a lot of money in renovating RDU Airport’s Terminal 2, knowing that for many travelers their impression of Raleigh and Durham starts right there. The airport can also be a great source of feedback, too, when those travelers depart. Just listening how they describe their trip can show where we’re doing well and where we can improve. It can also show what assets we possess that we could be better in publicizing.

As a proud citizen of Raleigh I love hearing others’ impressions of the place I call home.