One for the Road: Haunted Hoosier Trails

by Kelly Amabile on

Does the thought of traveling to Indiana frighten you? It might if you’ve read any of Haunted Hoosier Trails, which explores scary spots throughout the state. This guide to Indiana’s “Famous Folklore Spooky Sites” visits 75 haunted locations in the heartland, including the Hazelcot Castle, the Slippery Noodle Inn, the 100-Steps Cemetery and the Point of Death. Organized by county, each chapter reveals chilling historical details about the state’s horrors and haunts.

Author Wanda Lou Willis is a fifth generation Hoosier and folklorist who has carefully researched all these ghoulish tales. In fact, she found so many that she had to write a second book as well: More Haunted Hoosier Trails includes visits to Hannah House in Indianapolis, and Indiana University in Bloomington, believed to be one of the most haunted campuses in the country. Although the books were published a few years back, they’d certainly serve as good guides to the scarier side of the Hoosier state.

New Website Customizes Vacations Based On Your Personality

by Neil Woodburn on

Home & Abroad; Matching People to Places is a rather cool website that will help build your vacation itinerary based upon your personality and likes.

Here’s how it works. Pick from one of the nearly 100 locations featured and then plug in the dates of your trip and the number of days you will be traveling. Then choose an appropriate theme (Action/Adventure, Adult Escape, Artsy, Cupid, Family Time, Connoisseur, History Buff, Inner-Einstein, Local Culture, Musical Journey, Must See, On The Town, Outdoorsy, Take it Easy, Shop till you Drop, Sports Enthusiast, Where the Expert Goes, and World Scholar).

As a test, I settled on Berlin combined with the History Buff category. The site then provided me with 12 pages of places to visit and admission costs for each. After I picked the ones I was interested in, the site created an itinerary based upon average time spent at each location and their proximity to each other. The coolest thing is that each location was nicely plotted on a Google map as well. Unfortunately, the site does not provide information on transport to get there and estimated travel time between sites.

The final page is where the site makes its money. This is where one can order hotels, flights, car rentals, and other travel necessities.

Overall, I was rather impressed with the concept and site. The themes are varied enough to cover most travel desires and personalities and the final recommendations were robust enough to fill up most any schedule. Perhaps what I will use this most often for, however, is finding things to do in my own hometown depending upon the mood I’m in–be it cultural, musical, artsy, adventure or whatever else strikes my fancy.

Yale to Hand Back 4000 Artifacts to Machu Picchu

by Iva Skoch on

After years of battling over the thousands of pieces of pottery, jewelry and bones, taken from Machu Picchu 90 years ago, Peru is winning the war. The artifacts were lent to Yale University for 18 months but the university has apparently kept them ever since one of its alumni, U.S. explorer Hiram Bingham, rediscovered Machu Picchu in the Andes in 1911.

Like museums in Greece or Egypt trying to get the United Kingdom and other countries to return their ancient treasures, Peru has been fighting to get back theirs from the US. Since we officially frown on imperialism, why do we drag our feet returning that stuff?

$30 Million Still Gets You to Space as a Tourist

by Jamie Rhein on

Today marks the 50th year anniversary of the day the space satellite Sputnik was launched into orbit by the Soviet Union. That day the space race was on.

These days, if you have the money to do it, it’s not uncommon to travel to space on a private venture. That’s what Richard Garriot is going to do next year. He’ll be the 6th private citizen to have this ultimate get-a-away experience.

Garriot’s heading to the International Space Station (ISS) under a deal made between the Federal Space Agency of Russia, and Space Adventures, a private American space tourism company. In a nutshell, a Russian rocket will take Garriot to the space station, the American company arranged for this to happen and Garriot is picking up the tab. This is to be a working vacation, though. While at (ISS) he’s going to be doing experiments for private research companies.

If the name Garriot sounds familiar, think Owen Garriot. Owen Garriot, is a retired NASA astronaut who spent time aboard Skylab and Spacelab-1 is his dad. Next year’s trip will be the first time an American astronaut’s kid has headed to space. The Russian’s beat the Americans on this account. Sergei Volkov, the son of Alexander Volkov, a cosmonaut, is a cosmonaut will welcome Garriot to ISS. You can read more details about Garriot’s upcoming trip on Space.com.

Milan’s Canals Rival Venice’s Famous Waterways

by Catherine Bodry on

My experience in Milan was speedy and dirty; I had a several-hour layover in the city that I spent wandering around outside the train station. I literally had pesto between my toes, a pigeon that ate some bad Chinese pooped all over me, I witnessed one of the drunk men lounging on the overgrown grass outside the station break a bottle over another drunk guy’s head, and I paid 3 Euro ($6) for a can of juice. Needless to say, I felt I had little incentive to return, when there are so many other wonderful places in Italy, until I read this article about Milan’s magnificent canals.

I might have extended my layover if I’d known that Milan has a series of canals that stretches three times longer than Venice’s famous waterways. Emanuele Errico, chairman of Lombardy canals, maintains that “this density of canals joining a great city to the surrounding countryside is an example that is almost unique in the world.”

Regional leaders are hoping to refurbish the centuries-old system that made landlocked Milan a top Mediterranean port. Around 70 percent of the canals, which were once overseen by Leonardo Da Vinci, need to be rebuilt. Whether or not they are, I’ve now got a reason to visit Milan.

Thanks to Astilly on Flickr for the photo of a canal in Milan’s Navigli District.