Lightning Strikes Thrice at Hotel Check-in

Hilton Americas-Houston follows three unacceptable rooms with a winner

I'm not a prima donna. Really, I'm not. But some hotel rooms just won't do. When I checked in to the Hilton Americas Houston for the 2008 Society of American Travel Writers convention, I didn't care whether my room as in the East Tower or the West Tower or the section in the middle. I didn't care whether my room had a king bed or two doubles.

But I did care when I opened the door to my room and saw two key cards on the desk, and soiled towels and used soap in the bathroom. Plus the room smelled of smoke. I had just minutes to get to a meeting, so I called the front desk, explained the situation and asked to for a bellman to pick up my bags and transferr them. I would come down for my new keys when the meeting had ended. I was told that for "security reasons," I had to present myself to be given a new room. Is the Transportation Security Agency involved with hotel check-ins now?, I wondered.

I waited in line at the registration desk, explained the situation again and was given keys to another room on another floor. When I inserted the key card in the door lock, it flashed both red and green. Then I heard voices in "my room." I loudly asked whether anyone was in there. A couple opened the door explaining that they had just been moved to that room because the air conditioner in their original room wasn't working.

Down to the lobby again. A Hilton staffer recognized me still dragging my baggage around and asked about the problem. I explained yet again, then went back to the the desk for my third key to my third room. As I was leaving the lobby, she asked whether everything was all right. I said that I hoped so, for by now, the meeting I was supposed to be at had been going on for 15 minutes. She looked at the little folder that holds key cards and noticed that I had been given what she thought might be a smoking room.

Back we went to the desk. She looked over the shoulder of the desk clerk and old him that "we [the hotel] have to do something for this guest [me]" She offered to comp my first night's stay. I thanked her but said I was with a group and had pre-paid everything months ago. She then upgraded me to an "executive room" on a higher floor. She came up with me to make sure that my key worked (it did), that the room was clean (it was) and that no one was in it (on one was). Much to my further astonishment was that every light in the room was blazing -- in the middle of the afternoon. I know that Houston was enriched by the oil business, but this was totally unnecessary. Guests in executive rooms have access to a lounge where continental breakfast, beverages and snacks are available -- and all the lights are also always on.

I all but missed my meeting, but I have a nice, clean room that I'm not somehow sharing with strangers. It turns out that my angel was event services manager Bridget Moses. When I returned after the convention's opening ceremony, a large bowl of fruit and some juice had been delivered -- with her card and a note of apology. If this happens to you, I hope that you too have a Bridget Moses to make things right.

Big Bend Country is Very Cool & Colorado is Cold Enough for Skiing

I have been in West Texas all week, a prelude to the upcoming Society of American Travel Writers convention in Houston. I signed up for this preconvention trip because I wanted to see Big Bend National Park and raft some of the Rio Grande's most spectacular sections. To non-Texans, West Texas implies that whole southwestern region, especially the triangle south of New Mexico, but Texans know it's really the land west of the Pecos. Our small group has explored the real West Texas as expressed in the landscape and culture of Big Bend Country. We have stayed in a different place every night, eaten really well (but not once on Tex-Mex food) and seen places of unexpected interest and beauty. Internet access and time to post have been sporadic, and I haven't had cell service in days. So 20th century!

I'll post about some of my experiences when I can, but meanwhile, I found out that the ski season has started in Colorado. Arapahoe Basin and Loveland, both snowmaking-eqipped, launched the ski season on October 15, which is about as early as it gets.

TSA "Joker" Seeds Traveler's Bag with White Powder

Expect the worst from the TSA? Here's more validation

Here's an unbelievable report from USA Today: The headline reads, TSA worker accused of slipping powder-filled baggie into flier's bag ... as a joke." The story goes on to report of TSA worked who "jokingly pretended to plant a plastic bag of white powder in the carry-on luggage of a passenger at Philadelphia International Airport" on Jan. 5, according to an earlier report in the Philadelphia Inquirer."

Ha. Ha Ha. Except for the passenger, a 22-year-old University of Michigan student, who for a few scary minutes thought that she had been set up to carry explosives or perhaps heroin through secuity. The Inquirer column is worth reading. The worker reportedly no longer works for the TSA but the tale is enough to further tarnish the reputation of this agency.

Austin-Lehman Adventures Supports National Parks

Glacier National Park, celebrating centennial in 2010, is first beneficiary

“Preserve a Park” is a new conservation and educational initiative by Austin-Lehman Adveventures, an award-winning tour opeator. It will benefit a different national park each year via financial contributions to an organization that supports that park, while featuring an educational experience for guests who book one of the company’s “Preserve a Park” trips.

The first beneficiary is Glacier National Park, celebrating its centennial in 2010. This year, ALA will donate $100 per guest from each Glacier trip to the Glacier National Park Fund, a not-for-profit that supports the ongoing and future preservation of Glacier National Park’s natural beauty and cultural heritage. Austin-Lehman Adventures is offering three six-day five-night trips to Glacier: August 1-6, August 8-13, and August 15-20; price per person is $2,498.

Coupled with adjacent Waterton Lakes National Park in Canada, Glacier is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and was the world's designated Peace Park. Glacier National Park was known to Native Americans as the “Backbone of the World.” Today, even though the namesake glaciers themselves are rapidly shrinking, the park preserves more than one million acres of stunning glacier-carved terrain that encompasses old growth forest, alpine lakes, rugged mountains and sweeping meadows of wildflowers. Highlights of park trips include biking, hiking and rafting both less traveled and most famous routes. These include the celebrated Going-to-the-Sun Road, one of North America’s most scenic roads and an 11-year building feat.
 
ALA has built an international reputation for small group active travel to destinations in North, Central and South America, Europe and southern Africa. The company specializes in adult and family multi-sport, hiking, biking vacations that emphasize history, culture, and geography’s natural beauty. Trips are limited to 12 guests (18 on family departures) and feature excellent regional dining, distinctive accommodations and all-inclusive rates and services.
 
I have visited Glacier National Park three times -- always in winter and always on cross-country skis. I've nibbled at the fringes of the huge park both from the west side of the park and from the Izaak Walton Inn on the south side, including traveling there to by train to Amtrak's last flag stop in West Essex, Montana. I've seen a bit of park that way and also not seen it at all, when the snow was swirling. Summer pictures are tantalizing, and I applaud the company for supporting the organization that supports the protection of Glacier and other parks in the future.

Rockslide in Yosemite

Third natural "incident" in a National Park in just over two months

"A large slab of granite cracked loose from a cliff in Yosemite National Park early Wednesday [October 8] and crashed into the Curry Village resort with a thunderous roar, flattening tents and forcing hundreds of campers to run for their lives," reported Steve Rubenstein in a San Francisco Chronicle news story called "Rockslide Threatens Curry Village in Yosemite." The story includes photos and a map of the site.

He wrote about screaming schoolchildren, broken rock showering down, snapped trees, smashed cabin walls and a "plume of dust hundreds of feet in the air." The slide, in which the equivalent of 200 dump-truck loads of rock fell into Curry Village from more than half way up Glacier Point, occurred before 7:00 a.m. Glacier Point perches some 3,200 feet above the valley floor.

"Pandemonium" was the word used to describe the reactions of surprised and frightened park visitors, many awakened by the rocks thundering toward them. A smaller rockslide had occurred the previous day, and some cabins were evacuated then.

Wednesday's rockfall destroyed two of 180 the wooden cabins and five tent of the 427 tent cabins that, along with a hotel, comprise Curry Village. Three park visitors reportedly suffered cuts and other minor injuries. The Park Service ordered a complete evacuation of the area, and 1,005 people left the park.

"The falling rock in both slides came from the mountainside directly above Curry Village, about halfway up the granite wall between the valley floor and Glacier Point. Looking up from the valley floor Wednesday, one could see a large oblong patch of lighter granite where the chunk had broken loose. There was no word on when the rest of the camp would be reopened," Rubenstein continued.

He also quoted Gerald Wieczorek of the U.S. Geological Survey who said that rockslides "can occur as often as a dozen times a year," typically starting in fall. In July 1996, a 162,000-ton slab of granite broke off Glacier Point and fell about a mile east of Curry Village, where a resulting air blast downed over 500 trees, killed on man and injured four others, including one woman who became paralyzed.

I'm afraid I don't remember the 1996 calamity, but this one struck me because of recent incidents in two other national parks. On August 3, I posted an item about the overnight collapse of Wall Arch, the 12th-largest arch in Arches National Park near Moab, Utah. Two weeks later, I wrote about the breaching of a dam in a side canyon in the Grand Canyon National Park after up to 8 inches of rain fell.

I'm not an essentially superstitious person, but I do see that things often come in threes. When two national parks had such high-profile incidents in such a short time, I expected a third sometime in October. It took another seven weeks before the Yosemite rockslide, and I'm hoping that with three out of the way, nature will be kind to our treasured national parks and leave them be for a while.

Obey the Seatbelt Light When It Goes On

Four unbuckled passengers and two flight attendants injured when plane hit turbulence

American Airlines Flight 908 was roughly half an hour out of Miami International Airport from Buenos Aires early this morning when it hit turbulence at 30,000 feet. Even though the seatbelt light was reportedly on, some people were not buckled up. According to reports, two flight attendants and four passengers were taken to the hospital with back and neck injuries, and paramedics treated eight other people on the scene.

At that altitude, flight attendants would still be in the galleys or aisles, but there is not much of an excuse for if the passengers were not to be stapped in, whether walking around the cabin or in their seats. WTVJ, the NBC affiliate, showed footage of passengers and flight attendants being taken to hospitals.

Obviously, the thousands of daily flights where no one is hurt don't make the news as does the single rare flight where there are several injuries. However, this incident is a good reminder to take the "fasten seatbelts" sign seriously and buckle up.

Japan Airlines in Bankruptcy

Flag carrier of the Empire of the Rising Sun sinking under crushing debt load

We're accustomed to news of failed/failing/bankrupt airlines in America and even in Europe, but Asian airlines either have held up better through economic turmoil or Asian nations, unwilling to lose face, have propped up their national carriers. Japan Airlines is now in deep financial doo-doo. Its debt load, reportedly $25.6 billion, proved too much to sustain. The airline has filed for one bankruptcy protection and is facing restructuring including cutting some 16,000 jobs, cutting routes, shifting to more efficient aircraft and reducing retirees' pensions, quite a shock in the context of the nurturing Japanese social and business environment. Government support will keep JAL planes flying during this cataclysmic makeover.

Expect JAL to retire all 37 of its Boeing 747s and 16 MD-90s and replace them with 50 smaller regional jets. This will impact the long-haul routes, cutting some of the 220 airports (59 of them domestic) in 35 countries. Delta, which recently absorbed Northwest Airliner (that originally was called Northwest Orient Airlines with service to the Far East) is courting JAL to the tune of $1 billion (including $500 million in cash) to seduce JAL from American Airlines and the OneWorld frequent flyer alliance. American Airlines and its partners promise $1.4 billion cash to the Japanese airline to stay with OneWorld. The next time I fly Delta or American and am socked with a $25 fee to check a piece of luggage, I'll think about where those dollars are going. American, BTW, just reported a $347 million fourth-quarter loss, so I'm not sure whether their planning to print $1.4 billion or whether they're going to charge even more for passengers' checked baggage.