United's Most Recent Dishonor

One expert ranks it the worst of the worst

"Worst. Airline. Ever." read the online headline of an article in the Washington Post travel section. Could it be some Congolese airline? The Democratic Republic of Congo has reportedly been the site of more than half of the air accidents in Africa, according to the African Airlines Association -- eight last year alone, according to Reuters. The most recent was the crash of a domestic Congolese airliner on April 15, in which 70 people were killed.

Or perhaps Air Sudan is the worst. On June 10, an Airbus 320 veered off the runway and burst into flames, killing about half of the 214 people on board, according to a CNN report, adding, "Sudan has a poor aviation safety record. In May, a plane crash in a remote area of southern Sudan killed 24 people, including key members of the southern Sudanese government. In July 2003, a Sudan Airways Boeing 737 en route from Port Sudan to Khartoum crashed soon after takeoff, killing all 115 people on board."

No, not those. I clicked on the "Worst" link and landed on a feature by portfolio.com's Joe Brancatelli. He wasn't taking disaster-prone African carriers into account, but he fingered United as "the worst of the worst on the slag heap of the nation's big network carriers."

He listed the reasons behind his selection: 4 percent decline in passenger traffic in May; it plan ground 100 aircraft and reduce capacity by 10 percent; lay off thousands of more workers; rejection by potential merger partners; stock that traded a 52-week high of more than $50 plummeted into the single digits; deteriorating inflight services; permanent grounding of its no-frills Ted brand is being closed, the airline's second expensive failure in the low-cost arena this decade; overall on-time performance at a dismal 72.7 percent in April; crushing debt, and a screwy fleet flying all sorts of airplanes -- "26 separate in-flight seat configurations. It dabbled in everything from the upmarket P.S. to the downmarket Ted. It had five types of narrow-body jets, four types of wide-body aircraft and eight flavors of regional jets. Travelers were confronted with flights outfitted with an ever-shifting mix of one, two, three, or even four classes."

I really take no joy in United's miseries. I have nearly 200,000 miles on United's MileagePlus frequent-flyer program which keep building up because they are so difficult to use. I've given my son a couple of hundred thousand miles over the years, but I've never managed to redeem them for a transatlantic flight in any class of service, even changing planes several times, any time my husband and I wanted to travel. I'd better try again -- before United goes under.

UNESCO World Heritage List Gains 27 Sites

More locations for the intrepid traveler's must-see list

"Extinction is Forever" is a mantra often repeated by preservationists of the natural world and promoters of biodiversity. There should be a corollary for the natural and man-made treasures along the lines of "Destruction is Forever." Sure, nay-sayers can quibble and claim that destroyed buildings and cities can be reconstructed and damaged land can be destroyed, but its never the same.

The World Heritage Committee of UNESCO is the United Nations agency charged with identifying helping to protect, preserve and stabilize the world's most treasured landscapes and landmarks. It has just added 27 sites to its list. Nineteen are identified as cultural sites and eight as natural sites, bringing the total to 878 sites (679 cultural, 174 natural, 25 mixed) in 145 countries. The 2008 additions are:

New Cultural Sites

Preah Vihear Temple (Cambodia)
Fujian Tulou (China)
Stari Grad Plain (Croatia)
Historic Centre of Camagüey (Cuba)
Fortifications of Vauban (France)
Berlin Modernism Housing Estates (Germany)
Armenian Monastic Ensembles in Iran (Iran)
Baha’i Holy Places in Haifa and Western Galilee (Israel)
Mantua and Sabbioneta (Italy)
The Mijikenda Kaya Forests (Kenya)
Melaka and George Town, historic cities of the Straits of Malacca (Malaysia)
Protective town of San Miguel and the Sanctuary of Jesús de Nazareno de Atotonilco (Mexico)
Le Morne Cultural Landscape (Mauritius)
Kuk Early Agricultural Site (Papua New Guinea)
San Marino Historic Centre and Mount Titano (San Marino)
Archaeological Site of Al-Hijr (Madâin Sâlih) (Saudi Arabia)
The Wooden Churches of the Slovak part of Carpathian Mountain Area (Slovakia)
Rhaetian Railway in the Albula / Bernina Cultural Landscape (Switzerland and Italy)
Chief Roi Mata's Domain (Vanuatu)

Natural Properties

Joggins Fossil Cliffs (Canada)
Mount Sanqingshan National Park (China)
Lagoons of New Caledonia: Reef Diversity and Associated Ecosystems (France)
Surtsey (Iceland)
Saryarka - Steppe and Lakes of Northern Kazakhstan (Kazakhstan)
Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve (Mexico)
Swiss Tectonic Arena Sardona (Switzerland)
Socotra Archipelago (Yemen)

Extensions Added Onto Properties Already on the World Heritage List

Historic centres of Berat and Gjirokastra (Albania)
Mountain Railways of India
Paleolithic Cave Art of Northern Spain
The Antonine Wall (United Kingdom)

UNESCO’s World Heritage List now numbers a total of 878 sites( 679 cultural, 174 natural, 25 mixed) in 145 countries. Papua New Guinea; San Marino, Saudi Arabia and Vanuatu have sites inscribed on the list for the first time.

Colorado's First Snow of the Season, 9/21/09

Skiers and snowboarders celebrate Colorado's first snow of the season

The snowbirds are already shivering in their shoes, but skiers and snowboarders are cheering the arrival of the season's first snow in Colorado's high country. Above is a photo taken at Copper Mountain yesterday morning (Monday, September 21). Denver television 10:00 p.m. news last night carried such reports as snow-hungry locals in nearby Breckenridge seen around town in their ski duds, carrying their boards, and Loveland fired up its snow guns yesterday (below). And this morning's newspapers printed first-snow-of-the-season pictures too. It's a perpetual early-opening ski area -- historically often the first in the nation, in fact.


If you are eager to follow the Colorado snow, sign up for Colorado Ski Country USA's snow report that will be E-mailed to you every day. Vail Resorts Inc. is not a CSCUSA member, so for reports from Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge and Keystone, download VRI's be-the-first-to-know desktop snow alert. Some resorts send out individual snow conditions blasts via E-mail or to iPhones and/or maintain Twitter accounts. Other ski states and ski resorts have similar services, but I'm in Colorado, and yesterday's snowfall reports were what I fell asleep to and woke up to.

Tour de France is About Sport & Scenery

Cable telecast showcases elite cyclists and doubles as travelogue around France

My husband and I spend three weeks in France every July -- all courtesy of global television. The 95th Tour de France is again a broadcast tour de force -- a three-week telethon around France. This year's Tour began yesterday (Saturday) July 5 in Brittany and will conclude in Paris on Sunday, July 27. The 21 stages will cover 3,500 kilometers past farmland, forests, vineyards, villages, provincial cities, castles, cathedrals, chateaux, coastlines and most thrilling of all, the soaring Alps and Pyrenees.

No matter that the incomparable Lance Armstrong has retired, what doping scandals have hit pro cycling or which teams are in and out, the travelogue part is a thrill. Versus, the current name for the cable channel that used to be OLN, covers the major stage races in Europe and the US, but none is so captivating to travelers as the Tour de France coverage. We watched the Tour of California (lots of rain and lots of transmission difficulties) and the Vuelta d'Espana and the Giro d'Italia, and none showcased the scenery as well as the Tour de France. Regardless of who wins, we will have been on our annual (vicarious) trip to France and enjoyed every bit of the journey.

National Parks, Part II

An up-to-the-minute website and a great guidebook series spotlight our parks

Yesterday, I wrote a potpourri post that started with a description and photos from a just completed hike in Rocky Mountain National Park and ended with a plea to participate in National Public Lands Day coming up this Saturday. Here are two invaluable national parks information resources:

National Parks Traveler Website

National Parks Traveler does an excellent job of balancing breaking news, advocacy and visitor information to the country's 391 National Park Service-administered sites. The two most recent posts, as I write this, involved Teddy Roosevelt, one a report about a kerfuffle raised about the proposed addition of 12,000 acres of ranchland in and near Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota to the National Register of Historic Places and the other visitor information to Theodore Roosevelt Island, a hidden gem in Washington, D.C. I have this site on my blogroll so that I check it often.

Lonely Planet Guidebooks

There are all sorts of guidebook series out there. Many of them are very good, but my favorites are Lonely Planet's, which relaunched earlier this year with four North American gems: Yosemite, Sequoia & King’s Canyon National Parks, California; Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, Wyoming; Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona, and Banff, Jasper and Glacier National Parks in Canada. I wonder whether they are planning Rocky Mountain too.

Features of the Lonely Planet parks guides include:

•New full-color highlights section shows the best of the parks at a glance, with stunning photographs, author tips and a clear map.
•Detailed itineraries help visitors plan their time, whether they’re exploring well-loved sights, traversing back-country terrain or driving around the region.
•More than 40 hikes in every book, which is scratching the surface of what these parks have to offer but is more than most visitors will do in a week. Follow in the footsteps of LP authors on easy hikes, day hikes and backcountry hikes. Topographical hiking maps accompany the tricky routes, and reformatted hiking charts make it easy to compare hikes and select your favorite.
•New chapters. "Kids & Pets" with information for families, such as the best hikes for the little ones, and advice for pet-owners -- key since travelers won't go anywhere without their pooches but except for service dogs, canines are generally prohibited anywhere but parking lots and perhaps campgrounds . "Clothing & Equipment" with essential information for hikers and campers. "History and Environment" give visitors vital background information on the parks’ past and present.
•Opinionated descriptions of campgrounds large and small, modern and primitive--and an easy-to-reference camping chart to compare features and facilities of each. Plus the trustworthy reviews of other accommodations, restaurants and sights in or near the parks that you come to expect of a Lonely Planet guide.
•A range of other activities including cycling trails, driving routes, climbing, swimming, rafting, skiing, hang-gliding and more.
•Sustainable options and green travel ideas throughout. A “Support Your National Park” feature gives information on how to give back to the parks and promotes sustainability and volunteering.

DIA Offers Places to Plug in Laptops

Free WiFi at the airport is great; facilities for laptop users makes it better

Last January, I reported that Denver International Airport was installing terminal-wide WiFi. Initially, there were not a lot of outlets, which created a problem for travelers concerned about running down their batteries. When I had time to check E-mail on Concourse B (now called "the B Gates") a few months ago, I sat on the floor with my back against a stainless-steel post that happened to have an outlet in it.

I recently flew from a C Gate at DIA, and while I didn't have time to go online myself, I was pleased to see high stainless-steel tables with lunch counter-style stools and outlets in the area that Southwest uses -- and of course, laptop-toting travelers were using them. They looked a little tight, but the phrase "looking a gift horse in the mouth" comes to mind. I don't know whether the other gate areas formerly known as concourses are similarly equipped. I hope so.

Help Wanted in National Parks & Other Public Lands

Celebrate National Public Lands Day by visiting a park -- or lending a hand

Our Neighborhood National Park at the Change of Seasons

We are very lucky to have Rocky Mountain National Park a little more than an hour from our door -- and we never take it for granted. Today, my husband, a friend and I hiked to one of our favorite destinations, Cub Lake, walking first in sunshine, then through a stiff breeze that brought clouds in from the west, through some rain and finally in sunshine again.

This woolly worm crossed our trail. According to legend, the thinner the brownish red bands, the harsher the winter will be. If the woolly worm is mostly brownish red in the middle, winter will be mild. However, the legend doesn't indicated what a yellow band in the middle foretells.

The wind drove Cub Lake's lily pads toward one end. It drove me back down the trail quickly. After a quick look at a familiar lake and the sight of clouds moving in, I had no inclination to linger.

Near the trailhead, the elk emerged from the trees in Hollowell Park. It's truly fall when these magnificent animals appear.

What We All Can Do to Help....

In addition to visiting our national parks and periodically reminding our representatives in Congress how important the parks are, we can volunteer to help them. National Public Lands Day, Saturday, September 26, is a two-pronged day of celebration of and service to the country’s vast and glorious public lands. The National Park Service is waiving admission charges at all 391 national parks, national monuments and historic sites and properties that it manages.

In addition to National Parks, Americans and visitors to our country also enjoy lands administered by the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management lands, state and local park departments and recreational corridors under various jurisdictions. In 2008, 120,000 volunteers built trails and bridges, removed trash and invasive plants, and planted more than 1.6 million trees. Click here to find one of the thousands of sites around the country that needs your help next Saturday. Expect to get a free lunch, gratitude and a whole lot of satisfaction.

...And What We Can All Watch on Television

And then, between Sunday, September 27 and Friday, October 2, tune in to your local public broadcasting station to see "The National Parks: America's Best Idea," a six-episode Ken Burns documentary that will remind us all what the crown jewels of our public lands offer to us.

Of the 319 units within the national park system, 58 are full-fledged national parks, and some of us are fortunate to live within easy-access distance of at least one of them. Film maker Ken Burns selected 10 don't-miss parks, which he wrote about in today's USA Weekend. In "10 National Parks You Don't Want to Miss," he wrote his reasons for selecting Yosemite, Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, Denali, Glacier, Great Smokey Mountains, Acadia, Everglades, Zion and Shenandoah.