Help Me Rediscover the Joy of Travel

Have my posts become too whiny -- or has travel simply become a chore rather than a joy?

I like to travel. I really do. Or at least I used to. You'd never know it from my recent posts on this blog though. I seem to be on a roll writing about things that I find annoying: Rising air fares and declining airline service. Airline surcharges and costly hotel "extras" (not just the mini-bar but WiFi, parking, usurious telephone charges, etc.). The Transportation Security Agency's policies that affront travelers. Highway delays. Hotels that waste electricity and water in the name of "luxury." Or, on the other end of the scale, accommodations have been allowed to go to seed.

Believe it or not, I have exercised some self-restraint. I really haven't written the price of gas that has skyrocketed the cost of a road trip. Nor did I regale you with the tale of the speeding motorcyclist who broadsided my car while I was on Colorado's Western Slope ( biker landed in the hospital; I'm OK, and I have a new car).

Other blogs and websites (The Cranky Flier, Christopher Elliott's ombudsman-ish site called simply Elliott, Frugal Travel Guy, Upgrade: Travel Better among others) keep the traveler (aka, the customer) in mind.

Commuting Doctor Repeatedly Delayed

Whenever I think I've been too grouchy, along comes another example of why travel has become so frustrating and joyless -- and in the following case, that puts my inconveniences into perspective. Al Lewis, whose syndicated column appears in the Denver Post, wrote about Dr. Joel Schwartz, an obstetrician specializing in high-risk pregnancies, who flies once a week from Denver to Las Vegas. "If he's not in the office on time, he has a packed waiting room. His partners must pick up his caseload. And his anxious patients may end up with a doctor they do not know.

"Schwartz, who commutes from Denver to Las Vegas every week, doesn't like
to roll the dice when it comes to air travel. After Denver- based Frontier
Airlines filed bankruptcy earlier this year, he said he bought five months'
worth of tickets on United Airlines. His first United flight was canceled. His
second was nearly two hours late.

"A consummate traveler, he said he found the airline's employees unusually
grumpy. When he called customer support, he said he could only reach people in
exotic locales who seemed scantly empowered to help him. So Schwartz bought
backup tickets on Southwest Airlines to ensure he'd be on time for his patients
each week.

Schwartz said once he's burned through his nonrefundable United
tickets, he's going back to Frontier or Southwest, or anywhere else....

"'You would have to cut my arm off before I'd ever go back to United,'" he
said. At this point, it's hard to say what might be worse. United's service? Or
a one-armed obstetrician who can't always get to his Las Vegas office on
time?"

Dr. Schwartz has clearly had it with United, and so, according to Lewis, have pilots. "They [the pilots' union] are demanding that CEO Glenn Tilton resign. They are hanging out their dirty cabin blankets on a website called Glenn Tilton Must Go. As airlines drown in rising jet fuel bills, the pilots union says Tilton's performance is among the worst....Tilton is a former oilman who took Texaco through bankruptcy and helped merge it with Chevron Corp. before joining United in September 2002. He and his crew earned tens of millions taking United through Chapter 11, hacking away at airline workers and their benefits. Along the way, they leased a shiny new headquarters on Chicago's Wacker Drive. Then they sharpened their knives again to get through an unprecedented spike in fuel prices."

It is difficult to adopt an upbeat attitude toward travel providers that not only take advantage of customers by cutting costs and downsizing their workforces but are enriching themselves in the prcoess.

Blogger Reports Bizarre TSA Agent's Treatment of Disabled Passenger

Dr. Schwartz, even if delayed, certainly can fend for himself at the airport. Denver blogger James, Future Gringo, with a pass to accompany his mother to her gate at Denver International Airport, witnessed a TSA's downright bizarre action when clearing a developmentally disabled passenger through security.

He reported, "This agent was visually inspecting the wheelchair and probing around some cushions as expected, but then she did something that I would never expect: She took an ETD (Explosive Trace Detection) Swab, and repeatedly rubbed the child’s face with the swab. She did this a few times with the swab attached to the plastic forceps. I don’t recall her putting the swab IN the machine, but after finishing she gently caressed the child’s face a few times with her hand - which I thought was equally as strange." Strange indeed.

James also commented, "Now this TSA officer was not being forceful or rude, and was actually quite gentle and friendly with the child. However the act of rubbing a child’s face with a substance bothered me. A fully able bodied person would never consent to having their FACE rubbed with a dabber or swabber. A person in a wheelchair who is cognizant and articulate would not allow this. Why should a wheelchair bound child who can’t speak for themself be subjected to this? Granted this only lasted about 15 seconds, but I didn’t think it was right or appropriate on the part of the TSA."

Prices, airline policies, arbitrary TSA procedures and all the rest nothwithstanding, I'll try to be more positive, because I like to travel. I really do.

Nottoway Plantation: 150-Year-Old Louisiana Jewel

Newly restored antebellum mansion is glorious to visit -- for a tour or for the night

In 1859, shortly before the War Between the States, John Hampden Randolph, his wife, Emily Jane Liddell Randolph, and their 11 children moved into the newly completed Nottoway Plantation in the heart of Louisiana's Plantation Country. Unlike many of the great houses built with cotton and sugarcane, Nottoway was not seriously damaged during the war even though both Union and Confederate troops camped on the grounds, and it was fired on and still bears a few bullet scars.

At 53,000 square feet, Nottoway is the largest remaining antebellum mansion in the southern United States. It was built with 64 rooms on three floors, six interior staircases, three "modern" bathrooms with flush toilets and hot and cold running water, gas lights, 22 massive square columns, 165 doors and 200 windows. Construction of this gracious and grandiose mansion is estimated to have cost $80,000.

The plantation house is open for public tours. For years, it was on the regular motorcoach day tour itinerary from New Orleans. Groups -- many on convention spouse programs -- would drive up, tour the mansion, have lunch in a large dedicaed pavilion and leave. After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the convention business took a hit -- and so did Nottoway Plantation. Paul Ramsay, an Australian entrepreneur, purchased the property and financed the restoration of the mansion, which is on the National Register of Historic Places. I've tried to find out how much the restoration cost but haven't been successful.

Most of the furniture is not original, but all reflects accuracy to the period.

When you see the 4,200 linear feet of extraordinary plaster friezework and scroll ornaments in the public rooms, it is difficult to envision it as a combination of mud, clay, horsehair and Spanish moss under the confectionary paint.The all-white ballroom is sparsely furnished, because people did have to have room to dance.

I like to see formal dining rooms with all the accoutrements of gracious 19th-century dining, from celery glasses toknife rests.

Each hand-painted plate (from France, I believe) has a different design in the center.

The second-floor veranda overlooks the levee that separates Nottoway from the Mississippi. Rock on!

Below is not a room on the manor-house tour. It was my room for the night that I spent at Nottoway, which now also operates as a bed-and-breakfast inn. My gorgeous antique-filled room in one of the wings, not in the mansion itself, was one of the simpler ones. The home also houses a new fine-dining establishment called The Mansion Restaurant.

I have to say that it was hard to tear myself away the next morning.

Nottoway Historic Inn, as the B&B is now called, has an extraordinary special through November 30: $150 per night for two, including a welcome beverage, tour and a full breakfast. 31025 Louisiana Highway 1 (off The Great River Road), White Castle, LA 70788. Reserve online or by calling 866-LASouth (866-527-6884) or 225-545-2730 (Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Central Time).

Flooding in Grand Canyon Area Forces Evacuations

Havasupai community and visitors most impacted by up to 8 inches of rain and a breached dam

It's been a tough week for the natural wonders of the West. A few days ago, as reported here, the 12th-largest arch in Arches National Park collapsed. Today (August 17), rains caused floods that breached an earthen dam Sunday in a side canyon of the Grand Canyon -- but outside of the boundaries of Grand Canyon National Park. Helicopters rescued scores of Supai village residents, visitors and campers. Up to eight inches of rain have fallen in the Grand Canyon area since Friday. The Supai village, traditional home to the Havasupai people, is located high in Havasu Canyon, a side canyon.

Gerry Blair, of the Coconino County Sheriff's Department, told Associated Press reporter Amanda Lee Myers that the breached dam was "only one factor in the flooding." The sheer volume of water itself caused flooding, and a flash flood warning has remained in effect. Blair said that search-and-rescue teams were staying in the village overnight, because not all of the 400 residents initially were evacuated. Helicopter operation had to stop when darkness fell.

AP also reported that Grand Canyon National Park spokeswoman Maureen Oltrogge confirmed to Myers that some hiking trails were washed out, footbridges were damaged, and trees were uprooted. Among those airlifted out by helicopter were 16 people (Park Service photo, above right) who were rafting the Grand Canyon on a private permit. They were all uninjured but had been stranded on a ledge where Havasu Creek joins the Colorado River after flood waters washed their rafts downriver. Rescuers escorted visitors out of the Supai Campground, about 75 west of the Grand Canyon Village, the park's leading tourist area on the South Rim.

Autumn in August

A few chilly, rainy days with snow above 10,500 feet provide foretaste of fall and winter

Colorado is a favorite summer escape for Texans and other Sunbelt/Sweatbelt dwellers seeking to escape the heat and humidity. Anyone visiting over the past several days certainly has gotten away from the heat, but steady rain have brought unusual humidity for mid-August. Right now, in Boulder, the temperature is 50 degrees and the humidity 93 percent. Earlier in the week, those numbers were reversed.

Up to six inches of snow have been reported in the high country, according to television traffic reports this morning, and Trail Ridge Road through Rocky Mountain National Park is or was closed. (Channel 9 News photo, right, taken today in Rocky Mountain National Park.)

All this is a reminder that the 2008-09 ski season is scheduled to launch less than three months from now. Keystone plans to open November 6. Arapahoe Basin still has its 2007-08 calendar online, and Loveland's website is currently down, so I don't know when these contenders for early-to-open honors plan to begin operations.

What I do know is that many people are looking to economize this season -- especially since just getting to the slopes will most likely be more expensive than in the past. With that in mind, this is the time for skiers and riders decide where in Colorado they want to slide this winter. Each ski area, large or small, has its own value-laden season pass. Examples of Colorado's big-league passes are Vail Resorts' new $579 EPIC Ski Pass (unlimited, unrestricted, season-long access Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Keystone, Heavenly and Arapahoe Basin) and the $439 Rocky Mountain Super Pass Plus (unlimited access to Winter Park/Mary Jane and Copper, plus six unrestricted days and free skiing every Friday after 12:30 p.m. at Steamboat).

Just to underscore what exceptional values these are, consider that an Aspen Premier Season Pass (Aspen Mountain, Aspen Highlands, Buttemilk, Snowmass) is $1,769 if purchased before September 12, $300 more if purchased later. That does serve to keep the riff-raff away, but then again, the riff-raff probably can't afford the gas to drive to Aspen anyway.

The best deal of all is Colorado Ski Country USA's 2008-09 GEMS card, which at just $10 (ten dollars!) is worth considering even for those purchasing a Rocky Mountain Super Pass, an EPIC Ski Pass and/or a pass to any single ski area. Ten smaller areas belong to the GEMS group: Arapahoe Basin, Echo Mountain, Eldora, Loveland Ski Area, Monarch Mountain, Powderhorn Resort, Ski Cooper, SolVista Basin and Sunlight Mountain Resort. Benefits include free lift tickets to three GEM resorts, two-for-one lift tickets at four others and discounted lift tickets at six resorts.

The rain will stop, some of that high-country snow will melt and temperatures will rise again, but the calendar pages will not stop turning, and ski season is drawing closer by the day.

San Miguel de Allende'sBotanical Garden

Charco del Ingenio showcases Western Hemisphere cacti in a protected landscape

The roughly 154 acres occupied by the unique botanical garden called Charco del Ingenio outside of San Miguel de Allende is reportedly second most important collection of cacti in Mexico, after Mexico City. That would rank Cacti Mundi that my husband and I visited in San Jose del Cabo several years ago number three or less. The Chacro del Ignenio is a pirvately funded ecological preservation area that began 18 years ago with 60 species now dispays some 550 cacti varieties from native habitats that stretch from Patagonia to Canada, but mostly species that grow in Mexico.

Mario Hernandez is knowledgeable passionate about the plants under his care. He is still awed by cacti's ability to store water and yet transform CO2 into O2 He points out that cacti are edible, and have religious, medicinal and spiritual value as well. And did I mention that they are great to look at too? He didn't bother saying that. I think he realizes that is self-evident.

Below are just a few examples of the varied and wonderful cacti growing at the Charco del Ingenio Botanical Garden.

The botanical garden includes flat dry land, a canyon, spring-fed wetlands and even a lake. The section nearest to the entrance is laced with easy paths. The natural area across the canyon is largely wild and includes the ruins of an old hacienda. We didn't have time to go look at that.

Cactus "buds" and cactus flowers.

When the Dalai Lama visited Mexico in 2005, he came to Charco del Ingnio and blessed the Plaza of the Four Winds, a ceremonial and scenic gathering place designed by architect Enrique Pliego and honoring local indigenous groups.Built with inlaid colored stones,wasinspired by the 16th-century Chichimeca-Toltec codex, the plaza is designed with four outer circles that indicate the four cardinal directions and corresponding figures that evoke the four natural resources (earth, water, flora and fauna) in traditional pre-Columbian colors. Reached by a smooth, flat but unpaved trail, it is one of the few places in San Miguel Allende that is wheelchair-accessible.

The Charco del Ingenio is open for self-guided visits, with 2 1/2-hour guided tours presently given on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 10:00 a.m. The cost is 50 pesos.

TSA-Approved Laptop Bags

Metal-free laptop cases should ease airport security hassles -- but the TSA continues its relentless intrusive ways

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Also, see "Fliers Cheer Laptop Policy Change" from USA Today, August 15 issue, published after I wrote the following report about one of these approved cases.
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First came TSA-approved luggage locks for checked luggage that the Tansportation Security Agency can open but that theoretically others who might wish to riffle through bags. Now from Pathfinder Luggage comes Checkpoint Friendly Compu Brief, a laptop carrier bag that has reportedly been redesigned in accordance with TSA instructions, without metal, zippers, closures or labels that could obscure the view of the computer as it passes through X-ray screening apparatus. The company says that they have tested it California's Ontario Airport and were able to see a clear view of the laptop.

Preorders of the two initial designs, briefcase (estimated at $120-$125) and wheeled ($150-$200), are being accepted at 800-759-9738. In addition to these bags, Pathfinder says that they are developing a fashionable, lighterweight version for the female traveler.

This new product will mean one less thing for laptop-toting flyers to deal with as they remove their shoes, belts and jackets, take keys, change, iPods and cell phones out of their pockets, and drink that last sip of water. However, it will be no solution at all for the Department of Homeland Security's new regulation permitting them to confiscate laptops from international travelers, keep them however they wish, copy information from hard drives, analyze it with forensic software and in other ways trample travelers' civil liberties.

TSA Intrusions Continue Anyway

In a new blog post called "No ID at security: Fast-track to a government “list”? Either way, why are we bothering?," Upgrade: Travel Better details all sorts of reasons not to fly anywhere, convenient new computer bag or not, domestically or internationally, if it involves the TSA. The agency has reportedly been storing personal information from all sorts of government documents about thousands of air travelers who might have forgotten their "government-issued ID" or perhaps had a wallet and driver's license stolen. I you are in that situation, Upgrade: Travel Better notes that "you’re now required to answer 20 questions about your personal life [that] is disturbing. What does this have to do with airplane safety, exactly?"

The blog further notes:

"The TSA has yet to provide an adequate explanation for how checking identification actually enhances security. Yes, there are some bad people who want to blow up planes. But if you actually search them before letting them onboard, then they should be able to walk into the airport carrying a Mickey Mouse Club membership card
and a smile and that should be that. Cockpit doors are locked, pilots have guns,
and passengers aren’t about to take crap in the sky. But you’ll
never get a straight answer out of TSA for why ID checks are necessary for domestic
travelers."

Hear! Hear!

Mega Mao Joins Other Gigantic Sculptures

The chairman joins four US presidents and one very nobel Native American leader

Sulptor Gutzon Borglum (who is always referred to as "Borglum") and his helpers carved these four gigantic heads of four important presidents out of South Dakota granite. Mt.Rushmore is now a National Monument, administered by the US Park Service.Nearly 2.5 million visitors a year come to gaze at Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson. Teddy Roosevert and Abraham Lindoln. Borglum, whose father was an immigrant from Denmark, began working on the South Dakota project in 1927 and remained involved until he died in 1941 at the age of 74.

Just seven years after Borglum's death, sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski (who is always referred to as "Korczak") began sculpting a nearby mountain into what will someday be a statue of Crazy Horse, the great Lakota chief to honor Native Americans. When completed, it will be world's largest sculpture. Born in Boston into a Polish-American family, Korczak worked virtually alone until his death in 1982, like Borglum also at the age of 74. His last words to his wife, Ruth, were, "You must work on the mountain-but go slowly so you do it right." Ruth and eight of their 10 children operate Crazy Horse Memorial Foundation board of directors and guide Crazy Horse toward eventual completion.

Meanwhile, in Mao Zedong's home province of Hunan, a gigantic head is being constructed -- not carved out of a mountain, but built on a concrete frame. China has the biggest defense wall (the Great Wall of China), the biggest dam (the Three Gorges Dam) and one of the tallest skyscrapers (the 101-story World Financial Center in Shanghai, the second tallest skyscraper on the planet -- at least until the completion of Burj Dubai).