Arrival

The Great NC BBQ Map:

The map features over 400 NC BBQ restaurants, with addresses, phone numbers and hours of operation. Also a calendar of NC BBQ events and other NC BBQ facts. There's even a graph showing the differences between Eastern-style and Lexington-style BBQ, for those of you who didn't know that there was such a distinction.

Get yours here.

Traveler's Advisory

Avoid going to Virginia Beach on June 26th-29th:

h/t Brock Townsend at Free North Carolina.

Just Rename It Sharia Airlines

No crosses on Delta flights to Saudi Arabia. No Jews, either.

TSA: Folks See Where This Is Leading

We're just waiting for an Al Qaeda orifice bomber to make an attempt on a US flight to reach the ultimate security checkpoint indignity: the cavity search.

All right, people, line up, bend over and spread 'em.

Losing Touch With The Land

A study in UK suggests that Britons are losing their affinity for the outdoors, with fewer and fewer each year knowing how to fish, use a compass, or climb a mountain. Some don't even travel.

And yet, I'd bet that many of them do those things while playing video games; they just can't be bothered to do them in real life.

Soon, Please

Will airships be seen in the world's skies again in the future?

That's A Lot of Paddling

No, not a story about spanking recalcitrant children.

Jake Stachovak has paddled his kayak down the Mississippi River, around the Gulf of Mexico and Florida, and is on his way up the east coast.



You can check his progress and read his story on his blog.

2010 Bodies, 1958 Airline Seat Widths

Story.

And it's not something we can really blame on someone else, either; our fat bodies are the result of our own lifestyle choices, and the refusal of airlines to change the seat widths is a result of our own demand that low ticket prices be the single most important factor in air travel, not comfort.

Sphincter Need Exercise?

You can watch this video to give it a bit of exercise.

Treasure Blog: William Blake Etchings

They were found in an old book of train schedules, and sold for over $700,000.

And because they were preserved inside the pages of a book for all these years, they are in remarkably good condition, with no fading of the tempura that was used to make them.

William Blake, Elohim Creating Adam.

America's Stonehenge

Story from The New York Times.

I had no idea a place like this existed.



Hope that someday I'm able to see it.

We Drove 260 Miles...

...to see a hole in the ground.

Here's the hole:



Daniel Boone once hid in it from Indians, so the story goes. I've gone partway into it when I was younger and slimmer, but never all the way down. It's a crawl-on-your-belly sort of cave, and I didn't wish to become stuck in the passage without having informed anyone of my destination, so I backed out and left the deepest interior unexplored.

As I say, we drove quite a distance just to see it. We'd have burned up fewer miles by taking the Interstate, but we would have missed driving through some fun rural NC countryside. Next time I'll take more pictures of the journey, rather than the destination, since we had more fun on the trip up there than we did at the cave itself. It's often that way, though, isn't it?

But Can You Eat Burgers In All Those Places?

For just over $5000, you can go on a Burger-King sponsored burger pilgrimage.

You can see various places throughout the world where the antecedents of the hamburger are thought to have developed, such as Oxford, Wales, Paris, Rome, Moscow, Beijing, Cairo, Bangkok, Malacca, and Kuala Lumpur.

Do they have Burger Kings in all those places? I won't go if they don't have a Burger King.

For The Travelling Troglodyte In Your Family

Cave hotels around the world.

A UK Telegraph slideshow.

Here's a pic of a cave hotel room from Turkey:

Job Opportunity: 6 Months In Paradise, High Pay, Little Work Required

According to the UK Daily Mail, it's a totally legitimate once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to dwell on an Australian island all by yourself, sponsored by Tourism Queensland.

Pic:



The story says you'd be living in a 3-bedroom house on Hamilton Island, with some minor chores such as feeding turtles and whalewatching among your duties, along with picking up the mail. You'd have to blog your stay, do photo and video diaries, do interviews with interested media outlets, and send reports to Tourism Queensland.

Only way it could be better is if you could win by finding a Golden Ticket in a candy bar...

"The First Thing They'll Do Is Pee All Over You"

"Smells like eucalyptus, though, so it's not too bad."

The perils of traveling in Australia. The above is behavior exhibited by koalas, not Australians. When Australians piss on you, (I'm told), it smells like beer, not eucalyptus.

How To Run A Steam Locomotive

Great Daily Mail article on steam locomotives for trains, and how to run them, and why they are building them again.



Back in the late '80's I was living briefly in Galveston, Texas, and the city was contemplating running a steam train line to Houston, they offered rides on the train for a short journey up the track and back, I managed to snag a seat. The trip consisted of about a hundred yard journey, up and back. Rather anti-climactic, but it allows me to say I have, in fact, traveled by steam train.

The Gardens of Alcatraz

Even in a place of brutality and despair, you can find the quiet beauty of a flower garden. More than one, in fact.

Good article from the Sacramento Bee. The gardens on Alcatraz were started by the US Army, even though there was no native water or soil on the island. Gardens were cultivated by prison staff and even a few convicts until the prison closed. Then, the plants survived on whatever rainwater fell on the island, and what was organized became a jungle of growth. Now, the state of California is restoring the various gardens on the island.

Worth reading in full.

Where Not To Go

In the grand tradition of What Not To Wear, I suppose.

Can't Be Arsed: 101 Things Not To Do Before You Die points out that most "once in a lifetime" experiences will either end in disappointment or something much worse.

Author Richard Wilson, the TV producer behind Have I Got News For You, has written a book which bears a slight resemblance to the cult 1999 travel guide, 100 Things To Do Before You Die co-written by Dave Freeman, who died after falling at his home last month, and Neil Teplica.

But instead of marvelling at world sites, Wilson suggests avoiding places like the Taj Mahal and the Egyptian pyramids.

Wilson writes: "Advice to anyone about to travel to Thailand is simple. Before you go, sort out a decent photo of yourself, preferably taken at a party smiling and celebrating the joy of being alive, because the newspapers and TV news bulletins will want something to accompany the article about your tragic death."

Mr Freeman's book suggested taking a voodoo pilgrimage in Haiti, nude night surfing in Australia and competing in a yelling competition in North Carolina.

And about Machu Picchu, he writes: "It's a 6,000-mile journey – 12 thrombotic hours on a plane followed by a bladder-bursting seven-hour bus ride – to see something you could watch Michael Palin climbing up on TV – all in the company of the 400,000 intensely irritating gap-year students who think it's totally awesome, dude."

*snort*

Fly In A Zeppelin?

In a heartbeat.