The Week That Was #12

Welcome to my weekly collection of the Odd, the Useful, and the often Bizarre.

The Odd: ‘Yorkshire Airlines’. What with all the fuss about the way airlines are treating their passengers lately, it is good to see ‘Yorkshire Airlines’ doing the right thing by their clients, and working hard to keep them happy.

The Useful: Museum Day, Sept. 26, 2009. Did you know that in America, Saturday, September 26, 2009 is Museum Day? This means locals and visitors alike get Free Admission to hundreds of museums and "cultural venues" across every state in the Union. The Smithsonian has made it easy to find out which museums are taking part (yes, I know, all of them are), and where they are located.

You can go to its website to download a museum card, and search through a database of museums organised on a state by state basis. These include many well-known institutions like New York’s excellent Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, and the New York Transit Museum, in Brooklyn, both of which I visited during my stay in 2008.

Buy the way, if the museum you wish to visit is normally closed on a Saturday, check with them to see if there will be free entry on Sunday 27th, instead. Again, you can use the Smithsonian site to find out if your local museum is thus affected. Thanks to Rick Seaney for this one.

The Bizarre: Passenger fixes faulty airliner. Holidaymakers avoided a long delay to their flight home from the tiny Spanish island of Menorca, when a passenger fixed a mechanical problem with their plane. Having been told to expect an eight-hour wait while an engineer was flown out from the UK, one passenger identified himself as a qualified aircraft engineer and offered to try and remedy the fault. After the airline checked the mans qualifications, the engineer was able to fix the problem, and the plane landed in Glasgow only 35 minutes late. The unnamed engineer received a round of applause from other passengers for his efforts.

But would you want to stay on a plane, knowing that one of the passengers had fixed a mechanical problem? We’ll leave the last word to fellow passenger Keith Lomax, who said, “It was reassuring to know the person who had fixed it was still on the aeroplane.” Fair enough then. Read more here…

Friday Photo #10: Remembering September 11, 2001

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St Pauls Church, New York City

Late afternoon sun casts long shadows across the gravestones of St. Paul’s Chapel, New York, while in the background, dust rises from the site of the former twin towers of the World Trade Center.

Located on Church Street between Fulton and Vesey Streets, the Chapel is opposite the east side of the World Trade Center site in lower Manhattan. It is the oldest surviving church building in the city, and indeed the oldest public building in continuous use in New York City.

The Chapel survived the Great New York City Fire of 1776 when a quarter of New York City (then the area around Wall Street) burned following the British capture of the city in the American Revolutionary War.

St Paul’s Chapel was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1960. Its status as such was further strengthened after the destruction of the twin towers of the World Trade Center on the morning of September 11, 2001, when miraculously the Chapel survived without so much as a broken window.

The Chapel was turned into a makeshift memorial shrine following the September 11 attacks, and served as a place of rest and refuge for recovery workers at the WTC site. For eight months, hundreds of volunteers worked 12 hour shifts around the clock, serving meals, making beds, counselling and praying with fire fighters, construction workers, police and others. Massage therapists, chiropractors, podiatrists and musicians also tended to their needs.

I spent a several hours at the Chapel over the course of two or three visits, and was intensely moved by the many artefacts, exhibits and audio-video displays that are permanently located inside the building.

The first one when entering is "Healing Hearts and Minds", which consists of a policeman's uniform covered with police and fire fighter patches sent from all over the country, and from around the world. The most visible is the "Thread Project", which consists of several banners, each of a different colour, and woven from different locations from around the globe, hung from the upper level over the pews. There is much to see and reflect on at St Paul’s Chapel, and I highly recommend a visit there during your New York stay.

As you might imagine there are many online resources and sites memorialising the attacks of September 11, 2001. Make your first stop the website of St Paul's Chapel itself, which has a wonderful audio/visual selection of many of the artefacts on view in the Chapel. Another excellent online location is the Make History – National September 11 Memorial and Museum site.

Visit the St Paul’s Chapel website here…

Thanks to Wikipedia for the background information…

Five Road Trip Planning Commandments

~ By Tara Waechter

Many people think that all it takes for successful road trip planning is a couple of good maps or a GPS system, a car, and the urge to hit the road.

Wrong!

Without taking the road trip planning steps necessary, you could find yourself in a world of hurt when you were expecting a good time.

Obeying these five commandments will ensure that not only is your road trip trouble-free, but it's also truly fun!

The Five Commandments of Great Road Trip Planning:

Commandment One

Thou shalt not bring the wrong passengers

It seems like a no-brainer, but being a part of the road trip planning world, all I ever hear about are disasters where someone goes on a road trip with someone they barely know, or someone they know well and also know they argue with constantly, or a family member that's involved in an ongoing feud.

Before you select a destination or buy a guidebook or do a search for hotels online, figure out who you're going to bring. If you don't have a choice (it's a family or couples trip) do two things: 1) have everyone participate in selecting the destination so everyone's enthusiastic and 2) sort out any ongoing feuds or other arguments before you go. Trust me, those underlying problems are going to pop up like some demented jack-in-the-box when you're cooped up in a car together every day, and if everyone's not psyched about the destination, it will affect the trip.

Have a choice about who to bring? Select someone you know well enough - not that acquaintance from work or that neighbour you chat with occasionally. Even if you're bringing your best friend, make sure that everything is great between you (or sit down and have it out ahead of time).

Commandment Two

Thou shall avoid the Hellish Haul at all costs

A Hellish Haul is when you try to get to your destination as fast as possible, spending six or more hours behind the wheel every day. You may end up having more time at your destination, but the journey itself will simply be physical, emotional, and psychological torture. Does that sound like a vacation to you?

How to avoid a hellish haul? There are a lot of articles on my website on how to plan a road trip without ending up on a haul, but to simplify drastically: don't pick a destination that's too far away. You'll want to spend no more than four and a half hours behind the wheel every day. If you can't get there with that much driving per day and have time to enjoy your destination, either select a closer destination that appeals or fly there and skip taking a road trip this time.

Commandment Three

Thou shall Achieve Universal Destination Agreement

One pointer I made earlier about selecting a destination everyone is interested in for a family trip also applies to all road trips. You and your travel companion(s) absolutely must agree on the destination, and I'm not talking about a lukewarm agreement here. I'm talking psyched!

How do you do this? Sit down with everyone going on the trip and have everyone vote on various destinations (that are achievable without a Hellish Haul) until you find somewhere that everyone really wants to go. Now you'll have a group of really happy people and you'll need that when you get lost, or if a tire blows, or when anything goes wrong. When you're excited to go somewhere, those things really don't bother you as much (unless they just keep happening and ruin your trip, but that won't happen if you've put some time into some comprehensive road trip planning).

Commandment Four

Thou shalt not ignore thy car

An oil change is just not going to do it. Sorry! Take the time to have your car checked out thoroughly. Must-check items include:

• Tires (replace any old tires now, not on the road), alignment, rotation.

• Top off all fluids and have oil changed.

• Have belts and hoses as well as the brakes checked.

• Get new air filter (unless you just had it replaced).

• Check your manual. In it you will find a maintenance schedule for your car. Have all maintenance items taken care of before you go - getting it done on the road will not only potentially ruin your trip, you'll also be at the mercy of the garage that ends up holding your car hostage (you'll have zero leverage).

Also, make sure to get a roadside emergency kit and pack it along with other items you might need in case of a breakdown including extra water, snacks, and a blanket. I highly recommend you get a AAA membership* - not only for their great roadside assistance program, but also for the many travel discounts available through membership.

Commandment Five

Thou shall remember to pack everything you will need

Sure, you can get things on the road. Do you really want to spend your vacation, driving around trying to find these things, though? Wouldn't it be easier if you just had them along in the first place? It's not like you're flying and you're limited to one bag and one carry-on!

Start a packing list at least two weeks before your trip. Keep the list handy to you with a pen nearby. Every time you think of something you'll need, write it down. Look up general packing lists and packing tips online to help you remember everything. By the time you've got your suitcase out and you're ready to pack, you'll be in much better shape than anyone who didn't take the time to create a list and it will be highly unlikely that you'll forget something. What's even better, you won't find yourself an hour or two down the road experiencing that uh-oh feeling you get when you realize you forgot something important.

These road trip planning commandments will transform your vacation from one where everything goes wrong to one where everything (within reason) goes right and you can relax and have a wonderful time!

*AAA (American Automobile Association) Membership. In Australia you could join the Royal Automobile Association (RAA), or the Royal Automobile Club of Victoria (RACV), and other state based associations. Many countries have similar national automobile associations providing roadside assistance to travellers in need.

Tara Waechter owns http://www.planning-fun-road-trips.com - a website that covers every aspect of road trip planning including mapping tips, packing lists, road trip games and songs, trip ideas, recipes, tools, and in-depth articles. Tools offered include a road trip budget calculator and a printable checklist of to-do's to handle before you depart on your trip.

Tara has travelled extensively in the United States as well as abroad, and has learned the knowledge she passes on in her website through the "School of Hard Knocks". She is also an office manager and meeting and event planner. She resides in Cary, North Carolina with her husband, Ash.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Tara_Waechter

Image: Lost Highway #3

Photo: Jim Lesses