While most eyes are on the Tour de France, there’s a much more intriguing form of cycling that’s quickly becoming a phenomenon: underground bicycle messenger racing.
Yes, it’s a real thing, and it appears to be spreading. Filmmaker Lucas Brunelle spent more than a decade profiling and documenting messenger cultures around the world, and he recently released “Line of Sight,” a 60-minute documentary film that premiered Saturday at the 2012 Bicycle Film Festival in New York City. According to the description:
This is bike riding like you’ve never seen before, in gripping first-person perspective through the most hectic city streets, on expressways in Mexico City, over the frozen Charles River, under the Mediterranean Sea, across the Great Wall of China and deep into the jungles of Guatemala.
Sounds much more gripping than the winding, tree-lined roads of France.
Travelers planning a trip to Orlando usually have plenty of things to do – for a price. Central Florida attractions draw millions of visitors every year spending billions in travel dollars. Often saving up for years to make a magical Florida vacation reality, families visit the Walt Disney World Resort, Universal Studios, Sea World and others. But while there is no shortage of attractions charging a hefty admission fee, there are quite a few that are free, many of which are close by the expensive Orlando attractions.
Wekiwa Springs State Park is one of many parks in Florida with no admission fee. This one is less than an hour from most Central Florida attractions. Wekiwa Springs State Park lets visitors take a break from the busy, loud theme parks and enjoy a picnic or take a swim in the cool spring. Canoes and kayaks are available for rent and 13 miles of trails are great for hiking, bicycling and horseback riding. Lake Eola Park is a popular downtown destination that has many people taking advantage of the beautiful surroundings, perfect to walk at lunch or the evenings. Admission is free but renting swan-shaped paddleboats or electric gondola boats will cost $30 per hour. Visitors feed the live swans, see a free concert or play in the Walt Disney Amphitheater or just enjoy a spectacular view of Orlando’s skyline.
Winter Park Farmers Markethappens on Saturdays from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. and features everything from fresh produce to local handcrafted gifts and artwork. Also in Winter Park, is the Albin Polasek Museum & Sculpture Gardens featuring world-class sculptures and paintings and the Cady Way Bike Trail, a 3.7-mile greenway joining Orlando and Winter Park. Bike, walk, roller blade, stroll or run seven days a week.Ocala National Forrest is a year-round recreational option. There are huge springs, twisting streams and lakes for fishing and water skiing. The cool crystal-clear waters of Juniper Springs, Alexander Springs, Salt Springs and Silver Glen Springs draw snorkelers. Canoeing, kayaking, hiking and boating are available every day and secluded cabins are available that will hold up to 12 people.
Snowhill Mountain Bike Trail is located in the Little Big Econ State Forest. Snowhill trail has single pine needle-layered trails, some sugar-sand parts and river crossings by suspension bridge, as well as some steep drops. Admission is free here too.
There are many beautiful landscapes to be seen all over the world. Sparkling oceans, lush flora, tall mountains, barren tundra and unique rock formations cover the Earth, giving contrast to its many destinations. One of the most interesting types of scenery to take in, however, is the desert.
While many automatically think of sandy, infertile, colorless areas of land, there are actually many vibrant and unique desert landscapes to be visited. Vast expanses of salt plains in Bolivia, curvaceous sand dunes in Jordan, enormous rock pinnacles in Australia and unworldly vegetation in Yemen make up some of the planet’s must-see deserts. For a more visual experience, check out the gallery below.
Almost a hundred years ago in southern Florida, a heartbroken man accomplished something incredible.
Edward Leedskalnin was an immigrant from Latvia. He moved to Florida in 1918 hoping to cure his tuberculosis. But it wasn’t only his lungs that were sick; his heart was sick too. When he was 26 back in Latvia, so the story goes, he had been engaged to Agnes Scuffs, ten years his junior. His “Sweet Sixteen” jilted him the day before the wedding and poor Ed never recovered. He immigrated first to Canada, then the United States, working various jobs before making it to Florida. He never got over his lost love and never married.
That heartbreak led to an obsession.
Over the course of 28 years, he excavated more than 1,000 tons of bedrock and constructed a weird fantasyland of towers, sculptures and furniture out of massive stone blocks. The result was Coral Castle. Hints of his lost love can been found all over, such as the heart-shaped table and the stone cradle that’s so well balanced it can rock. There are stranger objects too, like an elaborate sundial and a tube through which you can see the North Star.
%Gallery-159645%Leedskalnin usually worked at night and didn’t let people watch him. This created an air of mystery around it and led to claims that he used magical forces to build the castle. After all, people asked, how could a 5-foot-tall tubercular man move such massive stones? Actually Leedskalnin came from a family of stone masons and used this knowledge to make his amazing creations. A few photographs show him using devices such as a block and tackle to move the stones.
Coral Castle isn’t a castle and it isn’t made of coral. In fact it’s made of oolitic limestone, but that doesn’t sound nearly as romantic. Not that it matters, the whole place is romantic. While the object of Leedskalnin’s love never came to Coral Castle despite many invitations, countless other people have visited and been inspired. Billy Idol wrote his song “Sweet Sixteen” about the story and exploitation director Doris Wishman filmed her bizarre “Nude on the Moon” there. Hit the link to see the trailer for this 1961 nudie cutie, but be warned it’s not work safe.
Coral Castle is in Homestead, Florida, and is open every day of the week. Check out the gallery to see some of the amazing monuments Leedskalnin made to his lost love. Also check out our article on Mystery Hill, an equally strange place in New Hampshire.
While Colorado is home to many unique chocolate shops and bakeries, you usually know what you’re ordering. Even if you purchase something unusual, like wasabi ginger dark chocolate or goat cheese and crushed black pepper buttercream, the name will give you a hint as to what the ingredients are. If you visit the old mining town of Ouray, however, you can stop in Mouse’s Chocolates & Coffee for a more surprising kind of dessert: the Scrap Cookie.
Located at 520 Main Street, the shop is always full of locals craving delicious sweets and caffeine-filled coffees. While they have unique chocolate varieties, like bacon clusters with Chardonnay salt and coconut bark with pumpkin and sunflower, the most popular item on the menu is the Scrap Cookie. After making their chocolates for the day, the staff save the scraps and mix them with their family-invented homemade cookie batter. When guests come in and order the cookie, they won’t know what kind it is until they take a bite. My Scrap Cookie ended up containing all my favorite additions, like macadamia nuts, toffee, caramel and truffle pieces.
While ordering a Scrap Cookie is $2.50, you can also purchase two cookies and have Mouse’s make it into an ice cream sandwich for about $10. I was told by my canyoning guide that they won’t always do it. However, if you say a local told you about it, they will.