Road Trip Map

A fun way to keep track of your travels is to highlight a physical road map. It adds an extra dimension beyond push-pins in "cities visited." Some countries have vast open spaces, and you saw a lot of terrain between those cities. I keep an updated USA and Canadian atlas, with a lot more detail than this example, and I have updated maps for several other countries. I just wish there was an electronic version available on the Internet. If there is - point me to it! But there is something to be said for an honest-to-goodness folded map with worn edges. It's an emotional connection my GPS can never replace.

Watching the Super Bowl at Disney is the New American Dream

The Super Bowl is being held in a cold weather city for the first time this year, but I chose to travel to its more traditional setting, Florida. Phil Simms had to win a Super Bowl to go to Disney World; I just had to have kids.

Home ownership and a better future for our children was the American Dream until risky credit and the pursuit of  "stuff for me, right now" put middle-America in a toy-filled house that can't be paid off in a statistically realistic lifespan. Now the dream is a family pilgrimage to the "happiest place in Earth," where debts are less likely to be forgiven, but you will learn to appreciate the yoke of your mortgage for the week you're a captive of Orlando theme park prices. Then, like all dreams, you wake up and face the bills.

Comments Activation

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Carnival on the Caribbean - Mounting Casualties on the Barrier Reef

Who would think a cruise ship excursion could be a full contact sport? Our port of call today was Roatán, Honduras, largest of the Bay Islands at the southern end of the 1000-kilometer-long Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System. The Liberty was late in clearing customs as it waited for a sister Carnival liner to dock in Mahogany Bay. Stacey and I waited patiently in line at the embarkation deck for clearance to exit. That's evidently a mistake on a cruise ship, because when the path to the gangplank opened, a crushing mass of opportunistic humanity surged in front from the sides of the line. I can't call them vultures, because those scavengers politely wait their turn at the kill. My family would never survive in the event of martial law.

After disembarking, visitors who booked shore excursions were herded into another of those generic tropical malls. I noticed the stores and even at least one restaurant were exactly the same as those in Belize City. The duty free shop has been the same in all three ports, with the unimaginative moniker "Dufry." I half expected to see the same staff. We navigated through this promenade of uniformity to the excursion staging area.

Pictures of the moment - January 23, 2014

It was -32º C (-25.6º F) on our dawn arrival in western Labrador that day (December 2, 2013), not too bad considering how low the temperature can get near the Quebec border. Still, it would have been a good day to remember a hat. The temperatures faced by much of the North American population this week are standard fare for several months in only slightly more northern climes.

Clear and Cold on the Iron Range

Cold is relative in the North Country. When the thermometer plunged a couple weeks ago, the record low temperatures were a major news story along the eastern seaboard of North America. The phenomenon was described as a "polar vortex." In Minnesota this kind of weather is called a "normal January." A friend once told me this is the price of five months of paradise. And black flies.

Temperature in farenheit (same as -31C) on Tuesday morning, January 21st.

Iron Rangers aren't especially tougher, just a different kind of acclimated. When I lived here more than one person told me they couldn't wait for the unbearable 80 degree days to relent...and for ice fishing. But there is justifiable pride in their own brand of hardiness, casual indifference to the Minneapolis climate--the "banana belt"--and respect for anywhere currently colder than home. In time, my new blood began to thicken too, and before long the winter jacket would open up like maple sap in March. The kids didn't know any different. Shortly after we moved to Ohio, a teacher chastised my son for not wearing his coat on a below-freezing winter day. "Why?" he replied. "It's not cold."

Carnival on the Caribbean - Belize City, Bannister Caye and the Barrier Reef

We moored this morning, a 10-minute tender ride off of Belize City. Today's main agenda was snorkeling on the barrier reef that runs the length of Belize, the second longest reef in the world, which has been on my wish list of destinations for a very long time.

We were picked up by a catamaran boatside. Everyone was issued the standard fins, snorkel and goggles. I was pleased to see the equipment was in good condition and very clean, which is not always the case for some operators. We were also issued a mandatory inflatable vest, though experienced snorkelers could deflate it upon entering the water. We tested equipment on the way to the reef while some couples writhed to Bob Marley, whose music is stuck in a loop track at a single station that broadcasts throughout the Caribbean.