Not sure how many hikers we have out there, but I’m guessing there’s quite a few. The “hiking” sub-category here gets a fair number of hits. So in the way of helping to provide folks with good sources of information on all things hiking, I offer you this link to the American Hiking Society web site. It’s quite well done and provides information on great hiking locales around the country as well as links to ways that you can be pro-active on the hiking scene, doing things like “volunteer vacations” to improve trails and so forth. It also provided me with the heads up that September 30, 2006 is National Public Lands Day, which is as good an excuse as any to haul your butt into the outdoors and do some meandering around America’s vast public lands.
Of Cell Phones, Driving, and Babbling Idiots
I used to think the worst drivers in the world were to be found in third world countries where the horn substitutes for the brake and machismo compensates for any type of state-sanctioned driver’s ed program.
But lately, in my hometown of Los Angeles, I’ve been slowly changing my mind about this planet’s worst drivers as cars in front of me lazily swerve into my lane, bump curbs, and otherwise weave about as though driven by a vodka-infused village idiot.
But it’s not a drunk behind the wheel; it’s a cell phone bantering ignoramus too busy chatting away to pay attention to the road.
According to a recent survey, Los Angelinos yap on their cell phones more often than any other city in the country with the exception of Miami (260 calls per month vs. Miami’s 290).
You know what both of these cities have in common? No laws against talking and driving. New York, which prohibits the use of cell phones while driving, doesn’t even make the top ten.
Now that cell phones are making inroads in third world countries, I’m even more frightened to visit. All things being equal, however, I’d rather be creamed by Angelina Jolie’s $300,000 Jaguar while she’s chatting with her agent, than to be run over by Jiri’s Russian Lada during a melon negotiation in Azerbaijan on his new cordless telephone.
The Salton Sea’s Troubles
So sad the Salton Sea. It severely sucks to see the saline spot suffer so.
I was rooting around the Outside archives like a hungry pig and dug up this goodie from the writer William T. Vollmann. You know Vollmann. He just penned a seven-volume treatise on violence called Rising Up and Rising Down that will be read in schools someday (if it isn’t already). The New Yorker also called him one of the twenty best writers in America under forty.
So you can expect some expert word-smithing when you read this piece on the tragedy of the Salton Sea in California. It is superbly written, and not only shows off Vollmann’s skills as a writer, but makes you a bit sick to your stomach in general at the state of the sea itself. It ain’t pretty.
So maybe this shouldn’t be the first thing you read this morning. Perhaps, then, you should bookmark it for later. Go have a smoothie or something first.
Bordeaux Chateaux
When you’re planning your trip to visit the incredibly lovely Bordeaux region of France, you’ll simply have to cast off your urge to bring along your backpack and camp. Bordeaux must be done haut-style.
Whether you arrive in Bordeaux via the TGV from Paris or by plane into the Bordeaux airport (Merignac), head north out of the city, and you’re right in the Medoc region. I can give a strong recommendation to Chateau Le Lout, a wonderful nineteenth-century, Venetian-style chateau in Le Taillan-Medoc, that serves as a B&B.
We relied heavily upon the proprietor, Olivier Salmon, for our evening entertainment recommendations, and weren’t disappointed. The rooms were sizable (by European standards) and the bathrooms were well-appointed and large. You can take your Continental breakfast on the back terrace, in the morning sun. Don’t forget to bring your Speedo, to enjoy the pool.
Within minutes from the chateau, a magical road that twists past wineries took us to fine dining at Lion D’Or, in Arcins, to sample the wine and a local specialty: milk-fed veal. They open for dinner at 8, and be sure to call ahead for a reservation, as the place is small and the friendly and jovial patron, Monsieur Barbier, packs everyone in, to create a festive mood.
For fantastic outdoor dining, you can’t beat the cozy atmosphere of Restaurant Le St. Julien, further up the road in St. Julien-Beychevelle, which had a huge rotisserie-barbecue area in the middle of the terrace. This time, we sampled the fantastic local roast lamb. The tables were covered by tent-like canvas awnings, and the lighting was soft and romantic. Definitely a place to take in the night air and enjoy dinner for two. Or three, if you are really feeling French.
Flying Ashtray
As if flying isn’t dangerous enough these days, a German entrepreneur is trying to raise money to build an airline which allows smoking on board.
Smoker’s International Airways, or Smintair, is hoping to cash in on the nicotine addicts who can’t sit in a plane for a few hours without going into seizures.
Alexander Schoppmann, the 30-cigarette-a-day chain smoking mastermind behind the idea has already collected €300 million from yellow-fingered investors. He plans to “bring back the joy of flying” with a Düsseldorf-Tokyo route where smokers traveling between the countries can light up and puff away for the duration of the 12 hour flight.
Ugh! Can you imagine the air in that plane after 12 hours? And your bloodshot eyes and stinky clothes?
I’d rather fly with a clan of Tajik goat herders who haven’t bathed in three months than to be on that plane, thank you very much.