Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
There’s plenty to see without leaving America
It’s those little surprises that make a big difference when traveling.
It’s those little surprises that make a big difference when traveling. It’s a blast to mark up a map or study a AAA Tour book in advance of a trip, but those places that you didn’t know existed until discovered while on the road add so much to a journey.
While motoring along an interstate in North Dakota and stumbling upon the world’s largest Holstein cow, or the world’s largest anatomically correct buffalo, adds more life than a sip of Coke.
Nothing like truth in advertising; you’ll get wet on the Maid of the Mist boat ride at Niagara Falls (don’t forget the yellow slicker) and also on the Mist Trail at Vernal Falls, in Yosemite National Park.
Itwas hard to miss all those cars parked along the Pacific Coast Highway in California. I eased into one of the last spots. Below the boardwalk were hundreds of glorious elephant seals weighing up to 5,000 pounds and measuring 15 to 16 feet. They are a noisy group. Must get out! When snorkeling on a Florida coral reef, the guides will tell you that most sharks don’t bite. But you never do know for sure.
While wandering around the back roads of South Carolina, I discovered cotton fields. The cotton had been recently harvested and the bales were taller than me. The white splotches of cotton that got away made it look like a snowin the fields, and along the roadway, had partially melted.
It’s contagious. It sure seems like everybody says bonjour in Quebec, whether they speak French or not.
There actually are buckeye trees in Ohio. Who would have known?
You never know what you will stumble upon when out on the road.
I kept seeing six inch gashes in the snow while skiing on the Stubai Glacier in Austria. I finally stopped to see what was up and looked down into a crevasse and saw a much larger void in a glacier. It wasn’t hard to imagine falling in and disappearing.
It doesn’t take long to embrace the concept of taking a siesta in Italy. A real delight.
A billboard caught my attention in Manhattan, Kansas. We stopped early for the night. Otherwise I might still not have attended a rodeo.
I’ve slammed on the brakes several times in Florida to help a much appreciative gopher tortoise across a highway. I’m always shocked how little they weigh.
On Miami Beach, topless women sit next to their kids. A fewmiles up the road, everybody is fully naked. You learn quickly to bring plenty of sun screen.
In 1976, on Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco, we discovered sour dough bread. We had never heard
of it, but asked for a second helping. Now the stuff is available everywhere. Yum.
A tumble weed is aptly named. It oh-so tumbles.
There is so much that isn’t in the guide book.
For a bit you suspend belief—just for a second— when an Elvis impersonator steps out of the front door at Graceland in Memphis.
In most Chinese bathrooms, toilet paper is not available. You learn quickly to bring your own. In Havana, Cuba a female attendant followed me into the bathroom, handed me toilet paper, paper towels and squirted my hands with soap. She patiently stood waiting until I was done for her tip.
At the rim of an active volcano in Nicaragua, you are required to back into the parking space to facilitate a quick exit.
I had no idea that a tornado had recently destroyed much of Branson, Missouri until I got there. It looked like a huge bowling ball had bounced down the main drag. Some buildings were rubble while others, just next door, were untouched.
At that delightful tourist trap, South of the Border, shopping carts are supplied for those purchasing fireworks.
Have respect for the wildness of our Great Lakes. On Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, water from Lake Michigan was tossed 20 feet high and onto the windshield of my car.
Visiting the Devil’s Golf Course in Death Valley National Park is a treat. Only the devil could play golf on such a surface, these jagged halite salt crystal formations. The land talks back; on this 113 degree F day, I was surprised to hear pings like a golf club striking a ball. Aaaah. Travel. In downtown Detroit, at Hart Plaza, I was shocked to find several drums with mallets that might be pounded by the random passersby.
In Vail, I was amused by the number of jet-setters who traveled from resort to resort, 300 days per year.
It’s not a dirt road. I should have known better. It’s very easy to get fully stuck in Sebring, Florida sugar sand. I didn’t learn and had to be yanked out— twice.
Yes, it seems to always rain in Seattle!
Although I was aware of it going in, it’s so peaceful to take a boat to carless Mackinac Island, Michigan or Fire Island, NY. There is something so absolutely peaceful about riding a bike or walking and not hearing car horns and smelling exhaust.
Getting out is fundamental.
By chance, in a Chinese town, we decided to enter a small non-descript museum. Several times, the attendant, who didn’t speak English, pointed up. The downstairs exhibits were ho-hum but when we got to the second floor we discovered full walls of unbelievable jade art. Who would have known?
Bears make a ton of noise when they are scarfing down your food in the Yosemite backcountry.
In Tijuana, you pay extra to sit on the shady side of the bull ring and it’s worth the upcharge.
You could bend an elbow for hours, half-submerged, in volcanic heated water, at the Arenal Springs Resort bar in Costa Rica.
No lie. They’ve got tart cherry pancakes on the dinner menu at a restaurant in the “Cherry Capitol of the World,” Travers City, Michigan.
Get there once and it is obvious why Bandera, Texas is known as the Cowboy Capital of the World.
In July, the temperature might not hit the freezing mark on New Hampshire’s Mount Washington. Rather than freeze, you will wear your extra socks on your hands.
If you go to Plains, Georgia you might discover that President Jimmy Carter showered during the Great Depression while using a pail with holes drilled into it, and which was filled with a spigot.
I hit the brakes and turned around at the Siskiyou Smokejumper Base in Oregon. I was rewarded with a free private tour and heard some amazing stories.
You will fall if you don’t hold on, at the top the St. Louis Arch, when the Mid-western winds blow at 40 m.p.h.
Exploring is fundamental. See you out on the road.