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Busch Gardens Williamsburg announces Verbolten for 2012

Busch Gardens Williamsburg announces Verbolten for 2012 Sep 20th, 2011 at 1:00PM: Last weekend, Busch Gardens Williamsburg confirmed their new 2012 roller coaster Verbolten. The multi-launch steel roller coaster will be built on the former site of the Big Bad Wolf. And, like that classic coaster, Verbolten will use the park's beautiful and hilly terrain. During its 2,835-foot course, the ride will dive to the Rhine River. The Zierer-designed roller coaster will include two ...

The 5 ugliest states in the country

The 5 ugliest states in the country Aug 17th, 2011 at 2:00PM: They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder. San Francisco Examiner writer and occasional Gadling contributor Bob Ecker doesn't behold much, at least for a few unlucky states. Ecker previously named the prettiest US states including coastal California, exotic Hawaii, diverse New York, historic Virginia, and verdant Washington. He's now determined the unfortunate ugliest states, measured by ...

Civil War graffiti covers this Virginia home

Civil War graffiti covers this Virginia home Jun 19th, 2011 at 9:00AM: Graffiti is now a fairly common part of our culture's dialogue, but did you know soldiers in the Civil War also tagged, doodled, and conversed with one another on walls? Inside a two-story home in Virginia, historians are slowly uncovering one of the largest collections of Civil War graffiti that has ever been found. Now known as the 'Graffiti House,' the home served as a field hospital for ...

Shenandoah National Park celebrates 75 years

Shenandoah National Park celebrates 75 years Jun 14th, 2011 at 10:00AM: I'm currently sitting in a rocking chair in Big Meadows Lodge at Shenandoah National Park listening to a young man talk about his day to what I presume to be his girlfriend back home. "We just spent two hours laying in the grass," he says, adding "it felt good to just be really, ridiculously lazy." I don't know who this guy is or where he is from, but I think many of us can relate to his ...

Civil War anniversary: first escaped slave to take up arms against Confederacy

Civil War anniversary: first escaped slave to take up arms against Confederacy Jun 10th, 2011 at 2:00PM: As the nation commemorates the 150th anniversary of the Civil War over the next four years, there'll be a lot of mentions of "firsts". Here at Gadling we've already covered first land battle of the Civil War and the first significant battle of the Civil War. One lesser-known but significant anniversary is happening today. By June of 1861 there had been very little fighting. Both sides were ...

Civil War's first land battle to be reenacted in West Virginia

Civil War's first land battle to be reenacted in West Virginia Jun 3rd, 2011 at 9:00AM: Today is the 150th anniversary of the first land battle of the Civil War. After the April 12 attack on Fort Sumter kicked off the Civil War, there was a lull while both sides got ready. Some scattered skirmishes took place that had few casualties and no importance, but on 3 June 1861, the town of Philippi, in what's now West Virginia, became the scene for the first big fight. Philippi stood ...

Robert E. Lee's sword to go on display at Appomattox

Robert E. Lee's sword to go on display at Appomattox May 12th, 2011 at 10:00AM: On 9 April 1865, Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant met at Appomattox, Virginia, so that Lee could surrender his Army of Northern Virginia. This momentous event effectively ended the American Civil War. With Lee and his army gone, the Confederate cause lost hope. General Joseph E. Johnston surrendered the Army of Tennessee on April 26, and in Louisiana General Kirby Smith surrendered his ...

Mobile farmers markets: the next "big thing" in food trucks?

Mobile farmers markets: the next Apr 25th, 2011 at 5:30PM: 2010 was the Year of the Food Truck, with cities from Seattle and San Francisco to D.C. taking it to the streets, literally. While street food and taco trucks have long been a part of U.S. culture in places like New York, Los Angeles, and Oakland, health regulations have historically made it considerably more difficult in other parts of the country. Eatocracy reports that Atlanta--despite its ...

Three simple reasons why Palo Alto, California is like Reston, Virginia

Three simple reasons why Palo Alto, California is like Reston, Virginia Mar 17th, 2011 at 1:00PM: Business travel often takes you to places you normally wouldn't visit. I'd never plan a vacation to Peapack, New Jersey, for example, and London, Ontario is another that surely won't make anyone's "bucket list." The upside, however, is that you get to see places you'd never visit otherwise. And, you remember that "off the beaten path" – the goal very committed traveler – isn't ...

Delta airlines puts elderly woman on wrong flight due to boarding pass mix-up

Delta airlines puts elderly woman on wrong flight due to boarding pass mix-up Feb 23rd, 2011 at 1:00PM: In a Top 10 of phone calls you probably don't want to receive from an airport official: "Your grandmother was found in baggage claim." Eighty-year-old Nefissa Yesuf's Sunday Atlanta to Dulles flight didn't go quite as planned. CNN reports that airline and airport staff failed to notice that a Delta employee had allegedly given her someone else's boarding pass by mistake. Yesuf, who is from ...

Nation gears up for Civil War sesquicentennial: reenactments, exhibitions mark the 150th anniversary of America's bloodiest conflict

Nation gears up for Civil War sesquicentennial: reenactments, exhibitions mark the 150th anniversary of America's bloodiest conflict Feb 17th, 2011 at 10:30AM: A hundred and fifty years ago, the United States descended into a bloody Civil War. Young men on both sides eagerly signed up for what they thought would be a short and glorious conflict. A typical example is this private from the Fourth Michigan Infantry, pictured here courtesy of the Library of Congress. He poses, way too young and unconvincingly cocky, in the early days of the war in 1861. It's ...

A Day's Hike In West Virginia

A Day's Hike In West Virginia Feb 3rd, 2011 at 10:45PM: A grey dawn greets us; a stark, monochromatic world is waiting for us as we wake, languid and mottled, and emerge from our tents. The night's mist and rain lies heavy in the air around us, on our tents, heavy on our souls. We are pilgrims setting foot on sacred land, a group of cowering vagrants, little more than ants to some sort of greater power that lurks in the mountains opposite our camp. ...

Gadling gear review: Outdoor Research women's Frescoe Hoody activewear

Gadling gear review: Outdoor Research women's Frescoe Hoody activewear Jan 14th, 2011 at 11:30AM: I love hoodies, and ever since I was old enough to waddle around in my brother's hand-me-downs (which unfortunately included his tighty-whiteys, until I was old enough to realize that, while my mom's thriftiness was admirable, clothing your daughter in boy's underwear was not), I've worn them. The versatility, quirky style, and marsupial-like comfort a great hoody can provide make it an unbeatable ...

Civil War secret message decoded

Civil War secret message decoded Dec 26th, 2010 at 9:30AM: A coded message sent to the beleaguered Confederate commander of Vicksburg has been cracked, the BBC reports. The Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond has had the message in its collection for more than a century. It had never tried to decipher the code of seemingly random letters until this year, when they sent it off to retired CIA codebreaker David Gaddy. While Gaddy is trained to ...

10 U.S. Cities where profanity prevails

10 U.S. Cities where profanity prevails Dec 6th, 2010 at 3:00PM: He, we're all prone to a bit of profanity every now and then – some of us more than others. I've had my ass butt handed to me by the Gadling editors over my (finally) occasional use of some foul language, though I've taken steps to (as they say) improve myself. Well, I was happy to see when flipping through my RSS feed that I'm not the only person who likes to drop an f-bomb every now and ...

10 Congested highways to make you lose your mind tonight

10 Congested highways to make you lose your mind tonight Nov 24th, 2010 at 3:30PM: We know that today and tomorrow, traffic is going to be brutal. With 42 million people traveling for the holiday – and 94 percent of them going by car – it's inevitable that someone's going to wind up frustrated. Throw in some nasty weather and highway construction, not to mention a handful of screaming kids, and you have a formula for misery. Can it get any worse? The Weather ...

Traveling with Edgar Allan Poe

Traveling with Edgar Allan Poe Oct 29th, 2010 at 9:03AM: -- "Quoth the Raven, 'Nevermore.'" Now those are words to conjure with! They are, of course, from Edgar Allan Poe's most famous poem, "The Raven." Poe casts a uniquely powerful spell among American writers. Even people who have never read him have probably heard bits of his poetry or know the titles of some stories, such as "The Tell-Tale Heart" and "The Fall of the House of Usher." Although ...

Chilhowie, Virginia: farmhouses and...fine dining?

Chilhowie, Virginia: farmhouses and...fine dining? Sep 22nd, 2010 at 3:00PM: Although I write about food for a living, it takes a lot to get me to make a pilgramage to a restaurant. For me to fly from Seattle to the East Coast, and then drive across a state (staying at a campground down the road from a correctional facility, en route), I need more than just the promise of a great meal. Town House, in the far corner of southwestern Virginia, is that sort of place. Six ...

The Festy Experience offers live music and outdoor adventure

The Festy Experience offers live music and outdoor adventure Sep 21st, 2010 at 8:00AM: Are you looking for something to do this Columbus Day weekend? Do you enjoy outdoor fun and live music? Then you'll definitely want to check out the Festy Experience, a two-day long camping festival that is scheduled to take place on October 9 and 10 at the Concert Grounds at Devil's Backbone in Nelson County, Virginia. Over the course of the weekend, there will be two stages with live music ...

Four Chincoteague tips

Four Chincoteague tips Aug 16th, 2010 at 6:00PM: Chincoteague, Virginia, located just a few miles south of the Maryland border on the Delmarva Peninsula, is best known for a children's novel, Misty of Chincoteague, published by Marguerite Henry in 1947. Misty is a beloved pony. Beloved ponies provide the key to Chincoteague, and the local ponies, called Chincoteague Ponies, are essential to the Chincoteague mystique to this day. In late July, ...

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