These two look like they’re having a real heart to heart. I wonder who gets to ride in that bright and comfy-looking saddle — when I took a camel safari in India, my ride was not so plush and I certainly felt it after three days. Flickr user arunchs captured this scene in Rajasthan, India, where I also took my three-day camel ride.
Have any photos of plush rides from your travels? Upload them to Gadling’s Flickr pool and we’ll consider them for our Photo of the Day feature.
The last few weeks have been a shopping bonanza in the U.S. for Pope Benedict XVI souvenirs. People have snapped up pope items that range from rosaries to T-shirts, mugs, key chains to postcards, including Pope on a rope soap and bobble-head dolls. The urge to take a piece of the papacy home with them has enticed some folks to spend hundreds of dollars, according to this article from the Washington Post.
Pope Benedict’s last U.S. appearance is today at JFK Airport in NYC where he is making a farewell address. (This is what is listed on the itinerary on the Vatican’s Web site.) I wonder if souvenir shop owners are looking at their shelves wondering if they over did with the stock, or did they guess right?
I also wonder if hawkers were outside Yankee Stadium today with Pope Benedict goods hanging from carts and spread out on blankets? He was there as well.
I imagine that, eventually, Pope Benedict items will reduce in price because people, who will be buying them, will be people who didn’t see him during his visit. They’ll just be browsing through a store.
That’s the problem with the souvenir business. Although, Pope Benedict XVI items have been hot sellers, it’s hard to judge just how much of something will sell once an event is over. What is a souvenir seller to do with the leftovers?
By the way, as cited in this Fox News article, according to Rev. Mark Morozowich, an associate dean at the Catholic University of America, bobble-head dolls of the Pope Benedict are fine. We have bobble-heads of sports figures, why not the pope?
This winter has dumped several feet of snow on Yellowstone National Park’s roads. Getting them cleared for tourists is an undertaking that is not yet done. In the winter, snowmobiling takes over, but in March, the plows start getting the roads ready for car traffic.
If you think you might want to head to Yellowstone to check out the spring flowers and the thaw, find out which roads are open. Supposedly, Mammoth to Norris Junction to Madison Junction to Old Faithful; Madison Junction to West Entrance; and Norris Junction to Canyon are already open according to Yellowstone.net.
These are the road opening dates for others if all goes well. I would call the park office to make sure the section you want to see is one you can get to.
May 2, 2008: Canyon to Lake; Lake to East Entrance.
May 9, 2008: Tower to Tower Fall; Lake to West Thumb; West Thumb to Old Faithful; South to Old Faithful.
May 23, 2008: Tower Fall to Canyon via Dunraven Pass; Long Lake Gate to Red Lodge via Beartooth Pass.
When I lived in Albuquerque, going to New York to visit family meant flying there. It’s too far to drive for a quick trip. Then, when I moved to Singapore from Albuquerque, flying was a definite must. The first time I visited New York after moving to Ohio, my brother asked me in a phone conversation, “So what time is your flight?”
‘We’re driving,” I said.
“Oh, that’s right. It seems weird that you’re driving.”
It did seem weird, but what a relief to not be rushing out of the house to try to catch a flight. When the car is loaded, we go. If we forget something and remember it by the time we get to the highway, we go back and get it. If we leave by 9 a.m., we arrive (with stops for a sit down lunch and gas) about eleven hours later. Along the way, we can see where we are going and know what has passed behind us.
There is such freedom in driving knowing that one can control time variables–unless of course, there is road construction or a wreck that slows down progress.
My dad about an upcoming trip that has reminded me, once again, why we’ve decided to drive to Montana this summer. In May, my dad is flying to Albuquerque from New York on a vacation, and he just received notice from Delta that his 6:40 a.m. flight is now at 6:00 a.m. His new departure time means a three-hour wait in Atlanta. As he said, “You can’t count on airlines when you’re making plans.” Because he has to drive a couple hours to the airport, this earlier flight is not welcome.
The unforeseen travel circumstances because of flying is one reason we’re getting our car tuned up and relying on our own volition to go from point A to point B during our summer trip. Flights have gone up in cost. Baggage costs more and delays are almost guaranteed. The past two years, we’ve flown, but it doesn’t seem worth it.
One beauty of driving is that we get to choose the places we may want to hang out for three hours or so to break up the scenery. My choice is an historic site over an airport. We’ll depart when we leave, and we will arrive when we get there. We can chose our route. Simple. We don’t charge extra for more luggage either.
The thing about driving, though, is that you have to have enough time to get there. We have the time and have friends we can stay with along the way to cut down on motel costs. Sometimes, you have to fly. In that case, make sure you check your departure time. It may be earlier than you think.
Check Flight Arrivals.com. It’s a Web site that lists the commercial flight schedules in the U.S. and Canada.
I’m a gadget junkie by any definition. When I planned my year long trip around the world, I literally spent more time considering the gear I brought with me than I did planning which countries I’d go to.
But hey… if you’re well prepared, you’re ready for anything, right?
For the first ever episode of Gadling Gear, I thought it only appropriate that I cover one of the most useful and perfect gadgets in my travel bag: Etymotic Research ER-4P headphones.
Let’s get the obvious out of the way – these things have incredible sound quality. They reproduce sound nearly perfectly, a feat that would literally cost tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars with a home stereo system.
So, if you like hearing your music at higher quality than you’ve ever heard before, these are your headphones.
But beyond that, these just happen to be totally perfect for us traveling folk. Why? Because they block sound way better than the competition.
To do this they use a triple flanged silicone bud that sticks into your ear – way into your ear. Unlike most earbuds, these extend all the way into your ear canal. The design is the same design used by high end earplugs.
This may sound like a strange design, but most people, including myself, find it very comfortable for long periods of time. I personally prefer it to the constant pressure on the ears delivered by traditional headphones.
Have you ever seen those smug travelers with their Bose noise-canceling headphones? Besides the huge annoyance of always having to track down batteries, these overpriced gadgets can’t hold a candle to the Etymotics.
I’ve used both firsthand, but for good old scientific proof, check out this article on Engadget which covers a lower end version of these earbuds beating the competition.
In practice, the earbuds are pure magic. You can walk through the airport and feel like you’re in a movie, hearing only the soundtrack you’re playing through your MP3 player.
When you get on the airplane they knock out almost all of the engine noise. I even use mine unplugged as earplugs to take naps.
Best of all, they weigh almost nothing and pack into a tiny included soft pouch.
These earphones are the first thing I pack on every trip I take and are well worth the $300 I paid seven years ago. Today you can get a pair from Amazon for just $169.
Stay tuned for next week when I talk about the best MP3 player for traveling (hint – it’s NOT an iPod).
