The great American road trip: Montana here we come

by Jamie Rhein on

With gas prices fluctuating between $3.95 and $4.09 in Columbus, Ohio, we’ve embarked on a road trip to Montana, cruise control set at 65 mph.

Right now we’re driving into the sunset on I-80 near Fremont, Ohio, home of Rutherford B. Hayes. My laptop is resting across my lap. We’re passing yet another white farmhouse with a barn silo. Our goal is to make it to La Quinta Inn in Madison, Wisconsin. It has a pool, WiFi and free breakfast. Wheee!

If we don’t make it, we’re out $100. It’s 8:52 p.m. If you do the math, you’ll notice that we won’t roll into the parking lot until at least 2:00.

The relatives we just left in Brunswick at a high school graduation party for one of our ten nephews gave us hugs and waved us off. “Of course, you’re driving to Madison tonight,” was the general response.

The graduation party stop, two hours after I shoved our last belonging in the car in Columbus, was a quick one-just enough time to say our congrats, have a swim in a backyard pool, eat our fill and head out.

The stop was a chance to regroup. Leaving Columbus was not the smoothest. We left pillows and umbrellas behind. By the time we made it to the entrance ramp of I-71 north, I was ready to call it quits. This was not even a mile from our house.

My mom just called to tell me the things she did that we forgot to do. Things like emptying the coffee grounds, turning on an inside light, changing the bulb of our porch light and turning that on, and watering our flowers. The neighbor kids will be by in a couple of days, but the flowers looked limp as we pulled away.

But, we are off in our Ford Taurus station wagon with a new set of rear brakes and an oil change. This car has made the trip two other times, the first time all the way to California and onto New York when our son was a year and a half and our daughter was ten.

This time we have broken our no DVD player stance. Our son is watching Chicken Little, but he had to wait to be plugged in until we left Brunswick and turned onto the highway. The idea is to parcel it out so he’ll notice the scenery and we can visit which is part of the purpose of a road trip.

Tomorrow, we’ll be in Minneapolis, the city filled with outdoor art, visiting two sets of friends. One set who used to live on our street before we moved to Taiwan. Their son was our daughter’s best friend when they were five.

The other set was friends of ours in Singapore. Back when we hung out together, they were kid-less and so were we. We spent one Christmas together hiking between Jomsom and Pokhara, Nepal.

Catching up with friends we haven’t seen for awhile is another road trip purpose. As a person who has had a life of travel and moving, these visits offer me some sense of continuity.

But, for now we’re floating on the highway, the sun is gone and the moon is up, a crescent in front of us—good company for a night of driving. [The photo is what Chicago looks like at 1:00 a.m. I would have taken the photo myself but I was in a road-hashed stupor. This shot is of evanembee’s view from his condo.]

Minneapolis’s outdoor art experience

by Jamie Rhein on

Two summers ago we spent a few days in Minneapolis visiting friends, a visit several years after my first trip here. Both times it struck me how lovely the city is. Minneapolis is one of those gorgeous urban spots in the world that pays attention to how public and private space work together to create an environment everyone can enjoy.

The architecture in Minneapolis is a large part of its visual scene. Its buildings often end up winning awards for their design. Here are a sampling of what you’ll find of particular note. These are new buildings that were commissioned as a tribute to Minneapolis’s dedication to the arts: Children’s Theatre Company; Guthrie Theater, Central Library, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, the Walker Art Center and Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum.

All featured on the Meet Minneapolis Web site and are places you might consider putting on your itinerary. Here’s a link that leads to the descriptions. The Weisman Art Museum was designed by Frank Gehry thus is my particular favorite.

However, my favorite aspect of visual pleasure was when we spent an evening walking among the sculptures at the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden outside the Walker Arts Center. This is an eclectic mix of styles set in among flower beds, a conservatory, an arbor and wide open spaces.

This year marks 20th year since the garden has been open. Jaunted tipped me off to the two artist designed mini-golf courses that have been added to the space as part of the celebration. It costs to play the courses but you can see them for free. The rest of the garden is free as well.

Here’s another opportunity for a public art feast, you can also tour the University of Minnesota’s campus where there is an extensive public art program. Tours are available from May and October. Here’s the link for that info.

How long is too long on a tarmac?

by Jamie Rhein on

Many people, who have flown frequently, have probably had their plane taxi out to the runway and sit and sit and sit for what seemed like an extraordinarily long amount of time. Peering out the tiny windows, people have wondered, “Why me? Why now?”

They’ve possibly fiddled with the window shade, putting it up for a bit and down for a bit for something to do. After awhile, they can list several items from the airline’s duty free catalog and which movies are on which route. If left sitting there long enough, people may wonder what the tipping point is for a nervous breakdown and if they, perhaps, have wandered into the set of a horror movie. They may even curse their fate that if they must be stuck on an object that’s supposed to move, it’s not the London Eye, the world’s largest Ferris wheel. If stuck on that thing, people get better service than on an airplane.

With summer travel rapidly approaching, the being stuck out on a tarmac scenarios have not improved much since last year. The gap between what passengers think is a time they can be stuck on an airplane without going bonkers, and the airline industry’s version, is not any closer because there hasn’t been a length of time established for when extra services need to kick in. Airlines view”Trigger thresholds,” within a range from “30 minutes to two hours on arrival, and from 90 minutes to three hours on departure.” When it comes to deplaning, thresholds “range from 30 minutes to five hours on arrival and and between one and five hours on departure.” What is to occur during delays isn’t established either. Do customers get a snack? water? sympathy?

According to this AP article about this stuck on a tarmac issue, to avoid spending part of the summer in a metal cylinder with wings, unsure of when life will move forward, don’t fly in or out of O’Hare in Chicago, Minneapolis/St. Paul or any of the three major New York City airports. Here’s a detail that gives some insight into why being stuck is not uncommon. Northwest Airlines has 56 departures scheduled for a 15-minute window in Minneapolis/St. Paul. That number is physically impossible to meet.

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The worst U.S. cities for gridlock

by Catherine Bodry on

Our good buddy Christopher Elliott has laid out the 5 worst U.S. cities for traffic — and there’s only one surprise. It’s unfortunate that cities with the worst reputations haven’t been able to do any problem-solving. In more than a few of the blacklisted cities, the traffic is getting progressively worse.

So, what are they? First on the list is — surprise, surprise — New York City. Welcome to gridlock hell. With an already top notch public transportation system, there doesn’t seem to be any easy solutions on the horizon for the Big Apple. Elliott suggests that the only reasonable fix is congestion pricing — charging motorists who use roads during peak hours.

Next up is San Francisco, another no-brainer. And like New York, it’s got a great transit system in place. No problems easily solved there. Any suggestions?

Third is Seattle. I grew up there, and I watched the traffic go from bad to worse to I’ll-never-live-here-again. The city is getting a light-rail system, but I’m pretty pessimistic about it being able to alleviate traffic. But I’m hopeful.

Minneapolis came in 4th, due in part to the collapse of the Interstate 35W bridge. The city already had an awful traffic problem, but the 35W bridge was a main access point to the city. Not no more. The commute has been compared to Los Angeles’ nightmare — and that was before the bridge collapse.

At number 5 is Miami. It may seem like a surprising choice, but Elliott links to a list of construction projects and challenges you to disagree with him. He argues that he knows no one who regularly uses its mass transit system, and the roads can’t keep up with the city’s growth.

Wondering where L.A. is? Elliott listed it as a semi-finalist. If L.A. is a runner-up, then the winners must truly be awful.

Halloween boos at zoos

by Jamie Rhein on

Here’s another mega round-up of Halloweeny things to do–some of them mentioned in other posts. But when I saw our beloved Leif Pettersen’s name as the writer for Minneapolis: Zoo Boo at the Como Zoo & Conservatory, I wanted to give this list a shout out. [Check out Leif’s very witty, I can’t say it enough, WITTY Gadling series, My Bloody Romania]

Leif’s zoo mention can be multiplied to take in about any major zoo in the U.S. and reminded me to put our zoo membership to good use. I’ll head to the Columbus Zoo’s Boo at the Zoo, probably this weekend. This photo by Fly on Flickr is from Boo at the Zoo at the Atlanta Zoo in Atlanta, Georgia.

Here are 10 other zoos with boos–some start this weekend. There are lots more since boo rhymes with zoo. What could be more perfect than that?

  1. Boo at the Zoo, Toronto Zoo, Toronto, Canada
  2. Boo at the Zoo Denver Zoo, Denver Colorado
  3. Night of the Living Zoo and Boo at the Zoo. Hogle Zoo, Salt Lake City, Utah
  4. Haunt at the Zoo, Oklahoma City Zoo, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
  5. Boo at the Zoo and Dia de los Muertes, San Franciso Zoo, San Francisco, California
  6. Boo at the Zoo, Philadelphia Zoo, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
  7. Boo at the Zoo, Ft. Worth Zoo, Fort Worth, Texas
  8. Boo at the Zoo, Cleveland Metro Parks Zoo, Cleveland, Ohio
  9. Boo at the Zoo, Lincoln Children’s Zoo, Lincoln, Nebraska
  10. Boo at the Zoo, Little Rock Zoo, Little Rock, Arkansas

Zoos have found pushing holidays are real money makers. The events hook me in–otherwise going to the Columbus Zoo on a regular day is just a matter of looking at the world’s largest snake in captivity –again –and deciding if, for variety, we should make our way around the zoo from left to right this time instead of the other way around.