Gadling

"What are you doing?"

We at Gadling want to know about the little things that happen in your life, particularly those little things surrounding travel. We want to know if you're packing for a four-wheeling trip to Utah, relaxing on the beach in Cancun, or stranded at the airport in New York. We're curious to hear if your road trip to Colorado is going well, if you're waiting for a train to Midway, or whether you just scored an awesome wooden carving from a vendor in Lusaka.

How can we do this? Follow Gadling on Twitter. Once you follow us, we'll help you connect with other travelers, and with other people who love to think and talk about travel. We'll also keep you up-to-date on breaking news, fill in the gaps on some of the travel news that can't fit on our blog, and share all sorts of (short) travel tips there.
If you don't know what Twitter is, watch this short tutorial, which explains it very clearly. If you do know what Twitter is, then what are you waiting for? Follow us!

Browsing through Gadling's offerings this week are posts about places from the people who have had first hand experience.

Jerry's trip to Pyongyang brought him an unexpected "history lesson on [his] own [Chinese] cultural heritage." His posts are an opportunity to ride along and see North Korea through his eyes. You'll also glean the impressions of his traveling companions.

For another trip into the unknown regions of New York City, Jeremy, who lives there, takes us on a journey through the naval history of Brooklyn. I had no idea there were these abandoned mansions until Jeremy wrote about them.

A drive along the Oregon coast is a trip Meg recommends. She waxes poetic about the view from McKenzie Pass located in the Willamette National Forest. As she says about the pass, "It's one of the most stunning places in the world."

Although Kent hasn't had the chance to explore Haiti because his trips there are only airport stops, his photos point out the latest devastation from recent flooding. As he puts it, the people in Haiti "can't seem to get a break."

When it comes to a shopping mall, if you're a travel writer doing book signings, our guest blogger Rolf Potts knows that it can be one heck of a lonely place to be.

With this photo, Flickr user wetboxers (interesting name) really makes me miss Ecuador, the only place I've ever surfed-- if you can call getting thrown off a longboard all day "surfing." This shot was taken in the Philippines, but similar scenes can be found all over the world.

Want your gnarly photos considered for Gadling's Photo of the Day? Submit your best shots here.

Welcome to Gadling's feature, Plane Answers, where our resident airline pilot, Kent Wien, answers your questions about everything from takeoff to touchdown and beyond. Have a question of your own? Ask away!

Dave asks:

I am a frequent flyer on several airlines (SW, UAL, Alaska). I have been flying for 25 years but always wondered about the runway numbers. I am not a pilot, but I thought the numbers had something to do with compass readings. 14L was 140 degrees. Is that correct? If I'm wrong, what do they mean?

You're absolutely right, Dave.

If there are parallel runways, they'll name the left one 14L and the right one 14R. If there are three it's usually 14L,C & R. And sometimes they'll have a parallel that's organized for example like Miami, as 8L, 8R, and 9, even though they're all the same direction. 9 just happens to be further away and south of the terminal.

These same runways are named 27, 26L, and 26R going in the opposite direction. Also, contrary to what you might see on TV and in the movies, we call them two-six right and not twenty-six right.

There's something deliciously wrong about turning a Catholic schoolhouse into a pub and brewery, but in Bend, Oregon, the delicious far outweighs the wrong. When the St. Francis School relocated, Portland-based McMenamins bought up the original building, renovated it, and reopened the Old St. Francis School as a pub, theater, and hotel in 2004.

McMenamins brews are an Oregon staple, and the restaurant has some of the best pub fare there is. The School is also a great place to catch a show. This weekend, Old St. Francis is host to the BENDFilm Festival. Then there's Monday Night Football, more movies, and live music. Coming up in November is the pub's Fourth Anniversary Weekend Party, featuring performances from the Freak Mountain Ramblers.

The property has guest rooms starting at $114 per night and cottages that sleep up to ten people, starting at $185 per night. All reservations include free admission to the movie theater and use of the Turkish-style soaking pool on the property. You can also purchase special packages that include meals, drinks, shows, and activities in and around Bend.

Can there be a better place to party than an old Catholic school?

Amtrak's long-distance, full-service dining cars are something of an oddity in... well, just about every way. You have a skeleton crew trying to perform full restaurant-style service down the equivalent of an airplane aisle in the midst of light-to-moderate turbulence that comes and goes as it pleases. Since the dining car typically opens at a specified time for dinner, Amtrak's chefs have to cook and plate upwards of 100 meals in about an hour or so, in the same conditions.

And then there's the clientele that all this cacophony has to cater to: a very strange blend of relatively well-off Sleeping Car passengers combined with whomever from coach decides that they want to splurge on an upscale-ish meal. The interesting thing is that people get along. There's something about being on a dining car cruising across the open landscape that makes travelers want to mingle, chat, and generally have a good time. The whole operation is a remarkable experience to watch, if you're interested in that sort of thing, and - at least in my opinion - an absolutely delightful way to spend a meal. Where else can you eat good food, chat with your fellow travelers in a relaxed setting, and watch the beautiful countryside roll by?

The Penjari Biosphere is a wildlife preserve in a remote corner of the West African nation of Benin. Like many such wildlife areas, it struggles with poachers and environmental problems, but tourism, in the form of photo safaris like the one in the video, is an important source of income for the area.

Even the most jaded tourist, wary of tourist traps and non-authentic experiences, would find a safari like the one in the video exciting. The fact that getting up-close and personal with wild animals is an attractive proposition is nothing new to the African tourism industry, but fully capitalizing on the tourist potential while protecting the wildlife for future tourism is the challenge. But, there are now economic reasons for creating a sustainable tourist model. The more interest in wildlife tourism grows, the more demand there will be for sustainability.

This video was taken in early morning, when the Penjari's animals all head for the nearest watering hole. Check out the menacing elephant about a minute-and-a-half in.
Video courtesy of Boing Boing

It was Monday morning and we (my mother, my husband, my son, and I) were in the rental car, a bright red Malibu, on our way from a relaxing long weekend in Ko Olina to the Honolulu airport, when I heard a long sigh from the back seat.

"I don't want to leave," said my mother, also a flight attendant, as she stared out the window at a city she once called home forty years ago. Believe it or not, this was her first trip back.

"Me, neither," I said, as the exit sign to Pearl Harbor, where my father had once worked, passed over our heads.

The husband, who was actually ready to leave, just shook his head. "Yeah, well, some of us have to go back to work."

Thank goodness I'm not one of us, I remember thinking, as the airport came into view. Way off in the distance, Diamond Head. That's when I heard my mother say, "You know I dropped my next trip, that Phoenix trip."

"Me, too! I dropped my horrid twenty-hour, three-day."

That's just one of the amazing things about my job, flexibility. We can pretty much work whenever we want, as long as there's a trip available to pick up, or someone willing to take our trip, which is usually not a problem when based in New York, the most junior base in the system.

I turned all the way around in my seat and looked at the woman who had a twinkle in her eye. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

My mother smiled real big and shrugged. "Maybe."

The husband just shook his head again. "You ladies better make up your mind! We're almost there."

As my mother flipped open her cell phone and started dialing the airline to check the passenger loads home on Wednesday, I dialed the Marriott hotel in Waikiki to see if they offered a crew discount.

Yet another amazing thing about the job. We actually get cheap rates at many hotels, as well as discounts on car rentals.

"The flight home is open," my mother said, snapping her phone shut.

It's no secret that I'm not a fan of the TSA. While I fully understand the importance of keeping our planes and airports safe, I'm just not sure the TSA is up to the job. The agency is also plagued by bad PR, mainly because of incompetent staff members and insane decisions that impact us as travelers.

The latest in a long lineup of bad press for the agency involves TSA screener Pythias Brown. This 48 year old resident of Maplewood, NJ was supposed to keep bad stuff off the plane, but instead, he was helping himself to valuable items from the bags of people entrusting him with their belongings.

Pythias started small, stealing cameras, laptop computers, gaming consoles and eventually moved on to the good stuff including a video camera belonging to CNN, and a $47,900 camera stored inside the bag of an HBO employee.

The items were sold on Ebay, and as you can see from his feedback listing, these were not cheap items.

His greed eventually came back to haunt him, when CNN found one of their cameras listed on Ebay. With a little help from the local police department and the USPS, Brown was apprehended.

When agents entered his house, they found 66 cameras, 31 laptop computers, jewelry, lenses, GPS devices and more.

The total value of the stolen items is well over $200,000, and if you have ever lost an expensive item when flying from Newark Liberty Airport, you'll be thrilled to hear that the TSA is taking the matter "seriously". News like this just reinforces the need to keep anything of value out of your checked bags.

Of course, this also makes me wonder just how on earth a TSA agent is able to leave the sterile area of his or her local airport with a $47,900 camera hidden in their bag. We passengers get screened, so perhaps it is time to start screening TSA staff when they enter and leave the airport?

Last week, Big in Japan brought you news of Rovio, the remote surveillance robot that patrols your home or office. Now, we're pleased to introduce you to Kota the Triceratops, the toy your kids will want this holiday season...

Every year, there is always one toy that drives kids mad with glee, and parents mad with frustration. From Cabbage Patch Kids and Tickle Me Elmo to Nintendo Wii and Sony Playstation, what loving parent wouldn't wait it out on long-lines in the hopes of getting their hands on the one item their children want the most?

(While we're on the subject, here's a special shout out to my Dad for all those times you hit up the Toys 'R Us in Jersey City! I was totally the first kid in my 3rd grade class to play Super Mario Bros 3 on Nintendo!)

Anyway, kids these days sure are a fickle bunch, but I'm fairly certain that they'll want their very own Kota the Triceratops. This 3 foot-tall robot has a hidden handle and a spring-loaded seat, which allows children up to 60 lbs. to sit on its back while it makes stomping sounds and plays adventure-themed songs.

How awesome is that?

Keep on reading...