This Road Trip Is A Labor Of Love

by Chris Owen on

Common road trip themes include stopping at small town parks for touch football on a sports focused journey, eating at only hole-in-the-wall barbecue places, collecting tacky souvenirs from truck stops and more. But how about a focus on love? That’s exactly what two former strangers are doing, trying to document 100 love stories as they drive from coast to coast.

Nate Bagley and Melissa Joy Kong have been traveling across the United States in a Mini Cooper hoping to “learn what makes a lasting marriage and dispel all the myths around real love,” says an ANI News report. Looking for couples involved in what might be considered a successful relationship, The Loveumentary has already produced more than two-dozen podcast interviews.

Learning the difference between real love and marriage myths, Loveumentarians Bagley and Kong want to continue their travels and document at least 54 more relationships. To do that, a Kickstarter project has been launched to help pay for future accommodations, gas and other incidentals.Want to get an idea of what The Loveumentary road trip is all about, who these people are and what they are up to? Check this video that tells us “One day consists of 86,400 seconds. This is one of them….”


Volunteer For Space Travel Study

by Chris Owen on

Like the idea of space travel but you’re not a NASA astronaut? The University of Hawaii is looking for volunteers age 18-65 to take part in a new series of space exploration studies. Odds are you won’t exactly be in space, but the studies hope to provide information that is essential for long-duration space exploration missions, like human travel to Mars. To do that, they need some humans. You might do just fine.

“The upcoming missions are focused on evaluating the social, interpersonal and cognitive factors that affect team performance over time,” says the University of Hawaii in a news release. To do that, volunteers will bring with them some research project or scholarly work they have in progress to work on in a group setting. That work might include engineering design and technology evaluation, scholarly writing, or artistic endeavors.While they don’t need to be NASA astronauts, participants in the study must meet the basic requirements of the NASA astronaut program. Candidates must be tobacco-free, able to pass a Class 2 flight physical examination, and understand, speak and write fluently in English.

The opportunity is part of the University of Hawaii’s Hi-Seas project that is simulating long-duration Mars missions here on Earth, detailed in this video:

What You Missed This Week: Travel News Roundup

by Gadling Staff on

We publish a lot of stories every week on Gadling. Sometimes you might just miss one or two. Don’t spend your entire weekend combing for the must-read stories. We’ve gathered everything that was popular from the last week. Here’s your one-stop, weekly roundup.

Most Read
Is This The Ultimate (And Least Practical) Round-The-World Trip?

Most Informative, Given Current Events
How Might A Government Shutdown Affect Travel?

Most Likely to Make You Lose Your Appetite
‘Warm Crap In A Bag:’ Does Anthony Bourdain Really Affect How People Think About Food?

…And There Would Be Much Rejoicing
9 Out Of 10 Passengers Would Like To See Reclining Airplane Seats Banned

Most Popular on Social Media
The 9 Items A Food Lover Always Needs To Pack

Most Popular on AOL Travel
2013 Fall Foliage Guide

Photo Of The Day: Lombard Street

by Jake Thiewes on

If you’ve kept abreast of the news this week, you’ll know it’s been full of twists and turns. We leave you with this photo of the top of Lombard Street in San Francisco, California, in the hopes that things can straighten out a bit sometime soon.

We’d love to feature your photos and videos on Gadling, so please add them to our Flickr Pool (with Creative Commons licensing!), tag @GadlingTravel on Instagram or email us at OfTheDay@gadling.go-vip.net.

Dubai To Build World’s Largest Lagoon For $7 Billion

by Chris Owen on

Dubai has a lot of big things. At 688 feet, the Dubai Eye will be the tallest Ferris wheel in the world and part of the $1.5 billion Bluewaters Island entertainment project. At almost 12 million square feet, the Dubai Mall sits in the shadow of the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa. Now, a multi-national company plans to build the world’s largest man-made lagoon to the tune of $7 billion.

The yet to be named project will be nearly four times bigger than the current largest lagoon and have swimming, water sports and other water based leisure activities. If all goes as planned, developer Crystal Lagoons Corp that holds patented technology for building giant crystalline lagoons, hopes that their project will quickly become a popular warm weather destination.

“Caribbean landscapes are no longer exclusive to tropical destinations,” said Crystal Lagoons CEO Kevin P. Morgan in an Economic Times report.

Crystal Lagoons has bigger plans, too. “Based on our track record in the Middle East, we have proven that our technology can add value to a top destination, making beachfront real estate a reality anywhere in the world,” said Morgan.