Jul 31st, 2011 at 9:30AM:
Fifteen years have passed since Muhammad Ali lit the Olympic torch, Kerri Strug landed her heroic single-footed vault and Eric Robert Rudolph detonated a pipe bomb in downtown Atlanta, during the 100th anniversary of the modern Olympic Games. Well-considered development for the event has since transformed the city, which continues to draw new residents, start-up businesses and flights to ...Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
roadtrips posts
Atlanta, an Olympic City 15 Years Later
Jul 31st, 2011 at 9:30AM:
Fifteen years have passed since Muhammad Ali lit the Olympic torch, Kerri Strug landed her heroic single-footed vault and Eric Robert Rudolph detonated a pipe bomb in downtown Atlanta, during the 100th anniversary of the modern Olympic Games. Well-considered development for the event has since transformed the city, which continues to draw new residents, start-up businesses and flights to ...On the Fast Track with Richard Petty at Walt Disney World
Jul 29th, 2011 at 2:00PM:
I'm very interested in loud cars that go really fast, even if I still don't understand NASCAR. Earlier this summer, I drove my road trip ride around the speedway in Watkins Glen. As much fun as it was--lots!--I was itching to get a vehicle up to triple-digit speeds. Near the Magic Kingdom in Orlando, I had that chance at the Richard Petty Driving Experience. ...Out to the Ballgame: A Cultural Tour of Baseball for the Non-Fan
Jul 28th, 2011 at 11:00AM:
"How long have you guys been sitting down here," the drunken heckler asked me and my buddy Stephen, around the seventh inning of a Mobile BayBears game at Hank Aaron Stadium. "All game," I replied.
"So have I said any curse words?" he asked, knowing that he hadn't, his point being that if some fans didn't like his good-natured heckling, they could sit somewhere else--and lighten up. This ...Road Trip Gear: Seven Must-Have Essentials
Jul 25th, 2011 at 12:30PM:
When you've got a road trip vehicle to fill with stuff, packing becomes a headache. A corollary the old saw that work expands to fill the available time, the stuff you bring seems to expand to fill the available cargo space. Every time I check into a motel, I seem to have more junk to haul to my room.
But there's a small batch of necessities I keep coming back to day in and day out. ...Six Driving Tips from a Summer Spent on the American Road
Jul 24th, 2011 at 9:00AM:
This summer, I've driven more than 5,000 miles, from the Great Lakes to New England to Florida and beyond. Operating my car for more than 150 hours in about six weeks doesn't make me a professional driver, but it certainly has exposed me to heaps of stupidity on America's highways, interstates and surface roads. With my summer's experience, I respectfully submit the best six ways you can ...Folly Beach, South Carolina: The Country's Greatest Fourth of July
Jul 20th, 2011 at 12:00PM:
This most recent Fourth of July, on a beach in South Carolina, a guy named Freddie handed me a beer after I took his photo in front of his American flag. He'd just done his best Iwo Jima pose, and as I tapped his email address into my phone, promising to send him the pictures very soon, he insisted I take a turn hoisting the stars and stripes. Road trip tip: Do whatever a beer-toting, ...Off the Road: Kayaking Conway, South Carolina
Jul 18th, 2011 at 9:30AM:
The guy at the marina told us that alligators are usually scared of people, so we probably didn't have much to worry about after the kayaks were in the river. But the Waccamaw flows with what's called black water--water turned dark by tannins leeched from cypress trees along the banks--making it all but impossible to see beneath the surface. If there were gators about, we'd only know it ...The Greatest Road Trip Radio Show in History
Jul 17th, 2011 at 9:30AM:
The best radio station I've listened to on this road trip is Road Dog Trucking on SiriusXM. It's a channel dedicated to truckers, with an ample time for call-ins and opinion-and a plethora of regional dialects, a selective sample that seems to indicate that most of the truckers in this country are white men from the south. It's endlessly fascinating, this window onto an oft-overlooked ...Staying with Friends: On the Porch in Raleigh, North Carolina
Jul 14th, 2011 at 8:30AM:
One thing you won't find in New York City, at least at my apartment, is a screened-in porch. But in the summer in the south, the porch is the living room, kitchen, dining room and bar, a focal point of a home to rival the greatest of fireplaces. I know because I had the pleasure of enjoying a porch for a couple of days recently in Raleigh, North Carolina. ...The Ultimate Road Trip Detour: Go Kart Racing?
Jul 11th, 2011 at 11:30AM:
At the outset of this road trip, I invited friends and readers to jump in the car with me. After more than a month on the road, one of my buddies finally took me up on the offer, planning to meet me in Virginia Beach after I toured Colonial Williamsburg.
I've known Rob for more than 10 years, and while we get along wonderfully, we love competition. So it being a road trip, there was no ...Name My (Sweet) Ride for a Chance to Win a HP Veer phone
Jun 14th, 2011 at 3:30PM:
One of my colleagues once nicknamed his father's 2000 Miata "The Penis Extension". In hindsight, "Extension" could have been changed to "Reduction," but I give him credit for trying. And the guy had a point, anyone with an emotional engagement with their vehicle needs to name it -- it's a way of connecting and making the journey personal, or, if you're lucky a way to win a phone (details ...Inside the WBEZ Studios in Chicago to Learn about the Rust Belt
Jun 8th, 2011 at 5:30PM:
At the outset of my trip, I needed some guidance. A sort of Rust Belt Virgil, willing and able to orient me to the exciting and dynamic and tragic state of the Great Lakes region. With my route passing through Chicago, Detroit and Cleveland, there seemed no one better for the job than Micki Maynard, a journalist now spearheading a public radio project called Changing Gears.
More than just a ...Traveling the American Road: A Video Introduction from Chicago
Jun 6th, 2011 at 10:00AM:
Last week, I kicked off a summer-long road trip around the country, a project we're calling Traveling the American Road. After picking up my ride in Chicago, I set out to see the city, and this video intro will fill you in on the project, a quest to find out how people are confronting change in the wake of the Great Recession and determine the state of the American road trip in an era of ...Lonely Planet dishes out summer travel tips and chance at a Napa Valley trip
May 26th, 2011 at 3:00PM:
Summer is fast approaching and sure to fly by even more quickly than it came. To help Americans get the most out of the summer months, Lonely Planet has launched a special micro-site called "Weekends of Summer" that has 15 free guides for all the weekends between Memorial Day and Labor Day.
The guides reads like a summer to-do list, with suggestions like "pop a cork" and "explore the great ...Traveling the American Road: introducing AOL Travel's Road Trip Across America
May 23rd, 2011 at 11:00AM:
[Editor's note: Paul Brady has replaced Eva Holland as the pilot of the 2011 Explorer due to technical constraints. You can read his intro to the series here!]
There's something powerful about the American road trip. It's a travel tradition that's steeped in history but re-made fresh every summer by families across the country. And it's a standby in literature and pop culture – from ...Summer road trip guide: where's the cheapest gas in America?
May 18th, 2011 at 10:00AM:
Come on, people, sing it with me: "It's the most wonderful time of the year..." The summer road trip season is here – and that means photo ops at scenic viewpoints, snacks melting on sun-soaked dashboards, and nights in roadside campgrounds or fleabag memorable motels.
Unfortunately, this summer season also brings some nasty gas prices with it. So what's the best region for an American ...Summer road trip plans; don't let gas prices slow you down
Apr 20th, 2011 at 4:00PM:
If you're starting to think about that Summer road trip and how much it is going to cost, take another look at gas prices. At about 96 cents above average prices last year, experts say prices could beat July 2008's record $4.11 as Summer driving season demand, speculators and political uncertainty in Libya and the Middle East drive crude oil prices up.
"We're going to see some more ...Exploring Ethiopia's Somali region
Mar 30th, 2011 at 9:00AM:
It's the dream of every adventure traveler--to explore a region that gets virtually no tourism, to see a culture with little contact with the outside world, to be among the first to visit the sights. It can be a thrill, an amazing rush that gives you valuable insights into a foreign culture and its history.
It can also be a major pain in the ass.
To the east of Harar lies Ethiopia's Somali ...Getting to Harar: riding the bus through eastern Ethiopia
Mar 7th, 2011 at 9:00AM:
It's good to be back in Ethiopia again.
I've noticed some changes since my last trip to Ethiopia. More high-rises are going up in the capital Addis Ababa and ATMs have finally appeared. The Internet is faster too, although it isn't the full broadband promised by the government.
Addis is fun, but my real destination is Harar, a medieval walled city in eastern Ethiopia. The whole city is a ...Gas stations: then and now
Mar 1st, 2011 at 3:00PM: Once upon a time, gas stations gave away all kinds of cool stuff, most of it targeted at kids. As a child of the 70's, I clearly recall of our Exxon "NFL Helmets" drinking glass collection, and my miniature Noah's Ark collectible series (What genius ad team decided that was the perfect gas station promo?). The point is, these giveaways worked. My parents would bribe me not to annoy my older ...
