Starling Travel

Real Live Preacher spent some time in Gordon, Georgia. He sampled the food and amused himself taking pictures of all the signs with his name plastered all over them. You can see his story here:

• Real Live Preacher – I’m Back

“You know how it is when you go out of town. Three days feels like 10 days, but the people back home have been living their normal lives. Three days feels like one day for them. ‘What, you were gone?’ Hell yes I was gone. Gone to Georgia. GORDON Georgia.”

Real Live Preacher long ago told us his name was Gordon, but it still feels funny to think of him with that name. Where is the city named after me?

Apparently, all the Las Vegas hotels are filling up fast for July 7th, 2007. I am usually a numbers obsessive, but this date slipped right past my notice this year. 777 is a lucky number for some, so the date of 07/07/07 is filling the Vegas hotels. Or… is this article from World Hum just bogus?

• World Hum | Travel | July 7, 2007: The Magic Date

I checked the hotel reservation calendar for The Luxor Hotel in Las Vegas. This is the current listing for July. I highlighted the 7th, and the hotel room costs about as much as it usually does in July. In fact, it’s a few bucks cheaper than the following weekend.

If hotels were really filling up and booking fast for 07/07/07, then the hotel rate would reflect that. The rates for the Luxor during CES were well over $200. It sounds like World Hum’s article is more about selling hotel rooms than about what’s really going on.

Sure, there might be a run on the hotel rooms when it gets closer to July, but it’s not happening right now. I like to think that we humans are less superstitious than you make us out to be…

We just received this postcard from Brian D. in Oregon. It’s amazing that it arrived to us because it was damaged in the shipping. If you can see, our P.O. Box number was accidentally ripped off of the card. Fortunately, Brian had inadvertently written our box number as the zip code and then crossed it out. I don’t think it could have gotten to us otherwise.

Serendipity!

Brian says he’s surprised that Oregon isn’t listed in one of my places to visit, and quite frankly, I’m surprised as well. Mike and I spent a lovely week in Oregon last year at the foot of Mount Hood. I’m shocked I didn’t write about it. Never fear, Brian! I’m going to drag out the photographs I took and write a few entries about our lovely stay in Oregon!

Please send me a postcard from your travels or your hometown. If you do and it’s interesting, I will publish your postcard on Starling Travel.

Send your postcards to:

Starling Travel
Attention: Laura Moncur
P.O. Box 522032
Salt Lake City, Utah 84152

It’s like sending a postcard to the whole world when you go on vacation. It’s like bragging about your hometown to the everyone on the planet.

Nestled in the Fremont Street Experience is a quiet and unassuming casino called Mermaids, its neon beckoning to weary travelers…

Okay, no matter how I write this it’s going to sound WRONG. Mermaids is a gaudy and bright casino that hands out metallic beads to the tourists passing by. It is loud and crowded, but compared to the horrible monstrocity of The Fremont Street Experience, it is a quiet and beloved haven.

We had been bombarded with noise, light and bad acting on Freemont. There was only one thing that could make this trip worth it: Deep Fried Oreos…

We had taken in our fill of the Neon Sign Museum and had enjoyed it thoroughly, but the rest of Freemont Street was an unenjoyable mess. Instead of the exciting walks down the Las Vegas Strip, all the “excitement” coming from Fremont Street was artificial. The people there were assaulted with noise and lights. They weren’t happily talking about their win at the slot machine. It was impossible to have a conversation without yelling. When we walked into Mermaids, the ambient casino noise seemed like silence compared to the cacophony outside.

We waited in a long line, trying to figure out if this was THE line for the deep fried Oreos, deep fried Twinkies, foot-long hot dogs and mile long margaritas. Once we realized we were in the correct line, it was a fifteen minute wait just to order. Our deep fried Oreos, came quickly after ordering, though.

If you have ever dipped an Oreo into warm milk, then you’ve got a good idea of how deep fried Oreos taste. The frying process warms up the cookie and that partially hydrogenated oil in the white stuff warmed up to a tasty frosting consistency. It was good, but I only needed one bite before I was finished. Luckily, we shared.

We didn’t order the hot dog, but this gentleman was kind enough to let me take a picture of his. Frankly, I think I would have liked the hot dog with all those jalapeno peppers better than the greasy Oreos.

We have never been back to Fremont Street since. The only thing enticing us was the deep fried Oreos, but even their delicious and greasy goodness isn’t enough to entice us back to the noisy mess of The Fremont Street Experience.

Where: Mermaids Casino: 32 E Fremont Las Vegas, Nevada Google Map Phone: 702-382-5777

Josh Leo’s travel videoblog has a great introduction to a purely Michigan food: pasty. I first heard of pasties in a fiction book set “way north.” It never identified itself as Michigan and I really thought it was set in Canda. Pasties are a meaty pastry dish that was brought from Europe to the United States. It’s a portable kind of food that the miners could bring with them when they had to work at the mines. Josh Leo’s video about them just makes me want to book a flight to Michigan.

Every video episode of Josh Leo’s Wandering West Michigan has made me want to visit the state. If you ever get a chance to head up to north Michigan, eat a pasty for me!

If the snow is getting you down, watch this lovely video from Tango Diva. She took this video back in September in Half Moon Bay, California. If you are wishing you could escape on the back of a horse to a beautiful retreat, this video is for you:

Click To Play

Here is the corresponding blog entry:

• Tango Diva – Tango Diva Travel Blog » Blog Archive » Video blogs!

She talks about traveling to Europe and other destinations. You can keep up with the Tango Diva Travel Blog here:

• Tango Diva – Tango Diva Travel Blog

All the snow is Salt Lake City is getting me down, so it was nice to see this beautiful vista and imagine that it was me riding that horse!

This is a different kind of travel video that is a walking tour of the Scott Matheson Wetlands Preserve Walk in Moab, Utah. It is film of a walk around a wetlands preserve. There is no narration or corny descriptions of what you can already see. All you have are the sounds of footsteps, birds singing and maybe even a little water (although the Utah desert is not really known for water).

Here is a glimpse of what the video is like:

I have released two similar DVDs to this in the past: Swami’s Beach and Sugarhouse Walk. This video was created to watch while walking on a treadmill, but it’s a great introduction to Moab, Utah.

Estimated Distance: 2.0 Miles
Estimated Speed: 2.3 mph
Time: 52:00 Minutes

I’m offering this workout DVD for $5 including shipping and handling in the continental U.S. If you live elsewhere contact me and we’ll figure out how much it will cost to ship to you.

Order Starling Fitness Walking Videos Here

You can see the route I walked here. The video goes around the loop twice. I tried to be crafty when I was filming it so you wouldn’t notice, but just now I realized that I have to tell you that I walked the circuit twice, so that you would know the accurate mileage.

Video Description:

It was a hot day and the signs all over Moab said, “Did you remember your water?” I brought a bottle of water, but I was filming, so I couldn’t just take a swig of it. Halfway through the walk I could hear every swish it made in my backpack, wishing I could take a drink. The dry heat seemed to suck all the moisture out of my body, but the Scott Matheson Wetland Preserve was shady.

The trees protected me from the blistering sun. As I walked along the trail, I filmed wildflowers and I could even hear birds. I wanted to hide in the shade of the house at the end of the trail and watch the birds from its quiet solitude, but I was intent on walking. Investigating the little-known paths was a bonus because I found my way to Kane Creek. I turned around and walked it all over again. When I was finished, I enjoyed the red rocks and watched the off-roaders drive by.

Then I turned off my camera and gulped down all my water in one fail swoop. Should have brought two bottles…

Order Starling Fitness Walking Videos Here

For More Information about the wetlands preserve:
The Nature Conservancy in Utah – Scott M. Matheson Wetlands Preserve

If you have ever fantasized about taking a nature walk, the Mountains to Sea Trail in North Carolina might be the perfect vacation for you. When it’s completed, it will span 1000 miles. The directions are easy: just keep walking until you hit the ocean.

• N.C. Mountains to Sea Trail wins award – Yahoo! News

This trail just won the Steward for the Environment Award from REI. I don’t know what I would do with a 1000-mile trail through the wilderness. It would be hard not to keep going. I can imagine me urging Mike on, “Let’s just walk a little bit further. I’m sure the end is soon, we’ve been walking all day. It’s not like it’s going to take us all the way to the ocean or anything.” Hours later, exhausted and only partially through the trail we would come across a map, showing us that, yes it DOES take us all the way to the ocean.

For More Information:

• FMST: Friends of the Mountains to Sea Trail

• REI Stewards for the Environment 2006

I only had one thing on my list for this trip to Las Vegas. I wanted to see the Neon Museum that’s on Fremont Street. I had never been to the Fremont Street Experience, which is a travesty since I’ve been to Las Vegas so many times. There were only two interesting things at the Fremont Street Experience. One of them was Deep Fried Oreos at Mermaids and the other was the Neon Museum.

• Neon Museum – Las Vegas, NV

There is no charge to wander the dark area just off Fremont Street. I would have felt unsafe, but there was a security guard there, so I let my guard down and took out my camera to take pictures. The signs are anything but PC with depictions of scantily clad women, Indians and “smokin’ good times,” but I love them all anyway. Both the neon and the paint were in really good repair. It’s wonderful to see these old signs restored and beautiful.

If you are planning on going, I recommend going at night so you can see them in their fullest glory. A tripod is very helpful to get a steady photograph of the signs, especially since many of them flash on and off. It’s difficult to stay steady AND click at the exact right time, so a tripod is a must for photography.

One note of warning: The Fremont Street area isn’t the safest place to be in Las Vegas. Make sure you secure your valuables, stay alert and go to a busier spot if you are worried about someone following you. On our visit, we had a man follow us half-way to our car. All of us were ready to attack the guy if he had tried anything, but because it was four-to-one, he decided to leave us alone.

Where: The Neon Museum: 821 N Las Vegas Blvd, Las Vegas, NV Google Map Phone: (702) 387-6366
Admission: Free, outdoor exhibit

The Boneyard is available for photography by appointment only. Next visit to Vegas, I’m shelling out the 50 bucks to see the boneyard!

After our big trip to Texas, I got home and wanted to hide in my house for months. I didn’t even want to think about traveling. I didn’t even want to write entries for Starling Travel about other people traveling. That’s how much I wanted to concentrate on home. It has been a little over two months, and now I’m finally able to think about leaving the house.

So we planned a road trip to Las Vegas over the Thanksgiving weekend! Stay tuned for hopes, plans, ideas and actual footage!