Manhattan Bridge Plan Tomorrow

Here's information on how to access bridge from Manhattan or Brooklyn.

Prepping for the Manhattan Bridge

The 76-Second Travel Show is taking today off, but is gearing up for the SSSTS 100th birthday celebration of the Manhattan Bridge at 11am Thursday. It's a fascinating bridge -- not too beautiful, not too controversial and completely overshadowed by its neighbor, the Brooklyn. That sort of thing appeals to me. I've asked Beau Jennings of the rock band Cheyenne to write and perform a song about the Manhattan Bridge for the occasion, and there will be homemade cake (my first) and plastic forks. (There's still a chance of a magician too.) Come if you can.

Meanwhile, I take a stab at the 'decade of travel highlights and lowlights' for Lonely Planet today -- and justify why Kansas beat out New York City, Siberia, Sardinia, Thai beaches or a Bogotá hat shop for my favorite place visited.

2010 Predictions

Everyone loves a list of what will happen in the world of travel, fashion, food, sports, news. And I fell for the temptation too, by producing my 2010 list for Lonely Planet.

Of all the claims, I am most certain that Hanoi will win for the best birthday of the year in 2010. The Vietnamese capital has been planning celebrations for years -- and it's a big one, 1000.

My perfect day in Hanoi, if I only had one and wanted a taste of attractions, is something like this:

Wake early, like 4.45am – and walk around Hoan Kiem Lake when locals do their Jazzercise routines. After breakfast, cab to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum when it opens to take a quick (bizarre) look at Vietnam’s goateed hero, then get back to the center to walk around the Old Quarter. Time it for a good lunch – pho is super at Pho Gia Tuyen (49 Bat Dan St) – and then cab to see the infamous 'Hanoi Hilton' as John McCain's one-time home -- the Hoa Lo Prison -- is known.

Before dinner, I’d have a ten-cent beer or two, and people-watch, at the fascinating 'bia hoi corner' (at Ta Hien & Luong Ngoc Quyen Sts in the Old Quarter) then taxi to the artsy, shoes-off Chim Sao (65 Ngo Hue St) for dinner, and return for a last walk around Hoan Kiem Lake after dark.

Manhattan Bridge Cake Party

A D V E R T I S E M E N T:

76-Second Travel Show's
"Manhattan Bridge's 100th
birthday celebration"
11am, Thur, Dec 31
Manhattan Bridge's south walkway

The Manhattan Bridge -- New York's last great East River crossing -- turns 100 next Thursday. The city -- dodging weather and any sense of anniversarial integrity -- celebrated in October.

We're celebrating on its birthday. And you're invited.

If you're in New York, meet at 11am December 31, mid-way across the southern-facing pedestrian walkway on the bridge. After a group handshake, we'll walk to Brooklyn -- as the original crossing of a "little calvalcade of automobiles and carriages" did a century ago -- and have cake and receive commemorative booklets in the north end of the Empire Fulton Ferry State Park (aka "Brooklyn Bridge Park," aka "Phil Collins Park" for the chosen setting at the 1:35 mark of this video) under the bridge in Brooklyn's Dumbo. It's OK to meet at the park, by 11:45am.

Music courtesy of the Spelman Brothers' "The Most Durable Thing"

76-Second Travel Show: "Robust Christmas Special"

Episode #014
F E A T U R I N G * 7 2 * B O N U S * S E C O N D S

"Three American hikers were detained on the cusp on the Iraq/Iran border today..."

Why does that sound so off? Because 'cusp' is one of those words that gets pigeonholed in its use despite a potentially broad use by its definition. We use 'cusp' only when talking of the day or two before or after a horoscope sign changes. And nothing else.

'Robust' used to be an other example -- frequently used to describe economic plans, growth in sales or (far too often) the taste of wines. But here at the SSSTS* HQ, we've spotted a growing trend. Not only are more people using 'robust' in everyday sentences, but in ways that extend beyond merlots on conference-room strategies.

In the last year, the New York Times used it to describe a Bruce Springsteen song, an old clock and a trilogy of dances by Christopher Wheeldon.

The travel world is jumping in too. Travel & Leisure likened a collection of Rubenses as 'robust,' World Hum dropped it for a morning serenade of (Texan) birds, while Jaunted pulled it out for RV camping tendencies and Gadling hopes it'll describe the travel tweet nation in 2010.

With all its merry tidings, Christmas is way behind the curve, and the SSSTS team is striving to give December 25 an ample robust boost.

But in doing so, takes a stab and returning to its original definition -- which changed in 1953 (according to Stephen M Stigler's 1973 report on the mathematical concept of 'robust estimation') from something meaning powerful, healthy yet vulgar, to something just powerful and healthy.

* The 76-Second Travel Show abbreviation is being changed from SSTS to SSSTS.

76-Second Travel Show: 'USA's Greatest Pyramid'

Episode #013

F E A T U R I N G * 3 9 * B O N U S * S E C O N D S

THE PHOENIX SPECIAL

Phoenix's Sky Harbor airport is supposed to be the worst in the world for making friends. Weather's just too good, so no stretched time for mingling during a delay, plus a relative lack of amenities. Unless you like shops selling dream catchers and 'Paint Your Own Pony' sets, Wendy's and overly lit bars with $4.40 beers and no music.

I went to see if I could debunk the notion, but broke away to Papago Park for an early m morning hike to do something serious: retrace the footsteps of my favorite dead governor, seven-time Arizona governor-elect George Hunt: a strange Missourian who called himself the 'walrus,' and his people 'his peepul,' and who died 75 years ago this Christmas.

Top 3 Travel Hugs

Thursday is for Huggers

Do we hug more when we travel? I mean, hug people you've known for 10 minutes and will never see again? I've had some memorable ones -- by teachers on train platforms, grandparents on Polish balconies, drunk telephone line workers near a crocodile-filled pond in the Yucatan. But I've narrowed it down to my most memorable trio:


IN A VIETNAM CAVE
When I first went to Vietnam in the mid '90s there was still real concern how locals would treat Americans. Sometimes things feel different on the road, like this full-on hug from a former North Vietnam captain in an empty cave in Cat Ba a couple years ago. Maybe he liked my zip-off-pants/shorts.

BY JFK (AIRPORT)
I always talk with taxi drivers, particularly on the road, because there's always stories to hear, and there's time to kill anyway. Recently my first THREE taxi drivers in Las Vegas were all women. All seemed from the same worn-out-from-Midwest club, and indeed they hailed from Ohio, Illinois and upstate New York (kinda Midwest). But the best experience was the Nigerian-American man, a very large one, who responded to my $15 tip one time with a lasting bear hug at the JFK curb.

--> New travel rule? Taxi drivers and their passengers should hug more often, particularly in New York.

IN A TINY TURKISH BAR
I've only been to Istanbul once, but the 'time spent: likely hug' ratio was stunning. At least for me. The biggest and most bruising hug came from a large bearded guy at a bar in an alley off Istiklal Caddesi. From the get-go, he sort of adopted me as his new buddy, splitting time with his laughing girlfriend and embracing me ways that I still don't comprehend. My friends thought it was hilarious. The free beer was a nice touch though.

76-Second Travel Show: "Goes to Sesame Street"

Episode #012

F E A T U R I N G * 3 7 * B O N U S * S E C O N D S

My first look at New York City wasn't from cop movies, Broadway musicals or covers of The New Yorker -- Sports Illustrated is more the norm in Oklahoma -- but of Sesame Street. I was intrigued by its urban space, with things like brownstones, stoops, a mix of diverse people, green monsters, corner shops.

I showered my mom with eager questions about a new world that seemed both inviting and foreign:

• 'Mom, why do people do their laundry in shops?'
• 'Mom, does Tulsa have an Uptown too?'
• 'Mom, why doesn't Bert have two eyebrows?'

Sesame Street -- which is filmed at the Kaufman Astoria Studios in Queens -- turned 40 a few weeks ago, and I got the chance to visit, see a segment on 'dirt' be filmed, and ask executive producer Carol-Lynn Parente, who's been there 22 years (and is still 'the new guy') where all the sets were inspired by -- a mix of neighborhoods from the Upper West Side, the Lower East Side and the Bronx. She told me she finds things walking around the streets that seem right off the set. Me too.

If you're on the Sesame Trail, here's a list of a few places to visit around the Big Apple.

Cuba podcast

Americans can travel freely to any country they choose. Except one. Cuba.

The subject came up on Lonely Planet’s new fortnightly travel podcast, done with Public Radio International's The World (where Tom Hall and I put topical news through a travel filter with PRI host Clark Boyd).

Also see here for my three questions with Lonely Planet author Conner Gorry, who has lived in the Cuban capital for seven years.

28 Things That Are Funny

1. Sandwiches
2. Pants
3. Spirals
4. Large beaked animals
5. Calgary
6. Falling down
7. Gerbil attacks
8. Fig bars
9. Faxing
10. Reporters
11. The 'Caveman' commercials
12. Cribbage
13. Words that end with -nsk
14. State quarters
15. Tonsils
16. 'Come again?'
17. That Nepal sets its time 0:45 past the hour
18. Head bands
19. Business meetings
20. The Bolivian navy (flag above)
21. The drum solo at the 1:10 mark of this video by the '80s Hungarian band Trabant:

22. Delaware
23. Speaking of which, Caesar Rodney
24. Spilled porridge
25. 'Dammit!'
26. Dean Reed:

27. Robbed tip jars
28. London, England

76-Second Travel Show: 'Saving College Football, from Fort Worth'

Episode #011
F E A T U R I N G * 3 2 * B O N U S * S E C O N D S

TCU WINS COLLEGE FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP!

If you didn't know, the USA's favorite sport isn't baseball. It's football. American football. And it's taken very seriously. The writer Hunter S Thompson actually shot himself amidst the ennui just after football season ended in 2005. The title of his suicide note? 'Football Season is Over.' And Barack Obama, early in his days as president, addressed a serious issue: the lack of a playoff system in college football.

Now, the 76-Second Travel Show (SSTS) is getting involved.

Presently a BCS ranking system sets up which of 119 college teams get to play in the cul-de-sac championship game at the end of the year. Considering seasons last 12 or 13 games, with no playoffs, it is mathematically speaking the most irrational sports league in the world.

Sure, bickering about it can be fun. But too often some undefeated teams can only look on -- like Penn State in 1994, Auburn in 2004, Boise State in 2007, Utah in 2008 -- as other undefeated teams deemed more worthy, per a complex and controversial human/computer ranking system that smacks of gymnastics judges, play for the coveted (yet butt ugly) Sears crystal trophy.

This week we'll find out who plays for this championship title in Pasadena on January 8. Mostly likely it'll be this Saturday's Florida/Alabama winner versus Texas. No real surprise. And that's the problem. Looking at the six remaining undefeated teams (right), we see a clear separation line between 'tradition' teams and 'newby' programs, the latter working off disadvantageous pre-season ranking (see blue numbers), while the big kids getting favoring ones.

That's not exactly fair.

SSTS proposes a new let-love-rule SSTS system.
No bowls. No playoffs. And NO pre-season rankings. Just bring back tie games and adopt England's Premiership model, where wins gets three points and ties one. All teams would have to play an equal number of games. In case of matching end-of-season records, first compare home/away/neutral site records (Alabama and Florida played four away games each, Texas five, TCU seven!), then the quality of opponents.

The SSTS rankings, then, would look like this:

1. TCU
2. Cincinnati
3. Alabama
4. Florida
5. Boise State
6. Texas

--> Thus, the SSTS names TCU (Texas Christian University) as the SSTS Season Champion. And to tribute the Horned Frogs' championship, we visited its hometown: Fort Worth, Texas.

Another option, I guess, is eight-team playoffs.

It's worth noting that the founders of TCU moved from the original location in Fort Worth in the 1870s because of all the whores and booze. Then moved back when things 'calmed down a bit.'

Why You Should Never Eat Squirrels

Had the pleasure of talking turquoise, Kansas side roads, Hwy 50 and why you shouldn't ever eat squirrel on Peter Greenberg's November 21 podcast.

Here's the segment:

76-Second Travel Show: "Pilgrim Hats, They Real?"

Episode #010
F E A T U R I N G * 2 2 * B O N U S * S E C O N D S

NO BUCKLE PLEASE

Americans celebrate the country's greatest holiday this week, and one must ask, again, with a sigh, about pilgrim hats. What were they called, did pilgrims at the famed 1621 picnic with the Wampanoag really wear them, how can I get one?

My Google searches found surprisingly little other than a video tutorial how to make one. And, out on the streets, walking the aisles of Wal Mart, Walgreen's, CVS in Oklahoma City, I discovered even less: despite Thanksgiving's enduring lure for American families, you'll find no pilgrim hats sandwiched between Halloween left-overs or Christmas ornaments and fake reindeer.

Apparently the pilgrim hats as we know them stem from the Spanish "capotain" or "sugar-loaf," so hip to men and women of London in the mid 1600s. And to Puritans wanting to look fussed up at Sunday meetings.

They looked fetching, but weren't very practical. Transforming a beaver pelt into one was laborious and buying one was expensive. In a wonderful 1896 New York Times article called "The Hats Men Wore," a quote from the 17th century lashes out on a felt hat called the "sugar-loaf." The writer complains the hats are "so incommodious... that every puffe of wind deprived us of them, requiring the employment of one hand to keep them on."

--> "Incommodious" means "inconvenient." Don't feel bad. I didn't know it
either.

Strong 'puffes of wind' certainly were aplenty in Plymouth, Mass, the alleged site of the first Thanksgiving. And this painting of the event  suggests pilgrims weren't that into hats afterall. At least not during cross-cultural feasts. 

Peggy Baker of the Pilgrim Hall -- in Plymouth -- told me today that the hats wouldn't have had buckles ("those came in the 1670s, and were a short-lived trend") and that they were worn on Sunday meetings only. (Pilgrim Hall actually has the only existing pilgrim hat -- a beige, buckle-free one worn in the 1640s by a woman named Constance Hopkins Snow.)

The '76-Second Travel Show' doesn't know what to think about pilgrim hats. Just that Thanksgiving -- its lack of Christmas-esque gift-giving tension, focus on family and football -- is worth the time, regardless of what hat you wear. Just as long as the hat has no buckles.

This week's episode was filmed in one continuous shot in Oklahoma City's Stockyards.

#ratspotting

REPORT THE RATS



A few months ago I started reporting rat spottings -- all rat spottings -- on Twitter under the hashtag of '#ratspotting.' I invite you to do the same, wherever you may find them.

After 11 years in New York, I had my first on-subway-platform viewing recently. One woman seeing it dropped her coffee with a shriek. I had my FlipVideo handy for the scene (but missed the coffee spill, sorry).

76-Second Travel Show: "Pirates vs Vikings"

Episode 009

F E A T U R I N G * 2 7 * B O N U S * S E C O N D S

SSTS BANS SEQUELS, REMAKES & BIO PICS
Movies -- they're out of hand. The numbers of sequels, remakes and bio pics would suggest that the Hollywoods of the world believe we, the ticket-buying public, just can't deal with anything unfamiliar. (Evident in top films this year: Transformers 2, Night at the Museum 2, Wolverine, Ice Age 3, GI Joe etc.)

Cookie-cutter scripts have always polluted Hollywood (just rewatch Elvis’ movies), but now the cookies are getting smaller. In the decade before 2001, generally only one to three of the top-ten grossing movies were sequels or remakes. After 2001, that number fattened to seven or eight, peaking in 2002 and 2003, when all of the top-ten were rehashed films.

--> This is a threat and a concern for those of who kinda like travel, and believe there's a real benefit to learning new things and meeting new people. Contrary to the notion, as psychologists put it, of 'familiarity heuristic' -- that only what's most familiar is what's most important.

So, SSTS suggests a ban of non-creative movie making (ie remakes, sequels and bio pics) until an apology is made or at least the percentage goes down.

In exchange, the SSTS offers a free, sure-fire movie idea: Vikings vs Pirates.

We don't know who'd win, offhand, so for this episode we turned to travel instead -- speaking with Moorhead, Minnesota's Heritage Hjemkomst Interpretive Center; Nassau, Bahama's Pirates of Nassau museum; North Carolina Maritime Museum in Beaufort, NC; and the fascinating L'Anse Aux Meadows National Historic Site in Newfoundland for Viking and pirate experts' insight.

--> Thanks to the experts for taking the time to help decipher this riddle, and contribute to the SSTS movie idea.

Chekhov Was Here

Ah, the "following the footsteps of" article. I'm guilty. Last year, while updating Lonely Planet's Trans-Siberian Railway, I retraced parts of the most punk-rock trips of all time (and wrote about it for World Hum): Anton Chekhov's trip across Russia in 1890 to spend a summer living in a penal colony.

It was pretty courageous. Going a year before the train construction began, and already quite sickly, Chekhov left his Moscow fame (and charming Muscovite devushki) behind for something he never really explained. Some say he wanted to do something "serious" (amidst all his critics who called his works "lightweight"), or from guilt over having never finishing his medical degree, or just to get away from Moscow.

What surprised me most about places he wrote about like Blagoveshchensk or Nikolaevsk in Russia's Far East is how locals really didn't care about their unexpected brush with one of Russia's great literary figures. No "Chekhov slept (or whored) here" signs to be found anywhere. Modern Siberia has its own worries to consider instead.

Here are some photos of the town he stayed at the longest, Aleksandrovsk-Sakhalinsk.

76-Second Travel Show: "Las Vegas: ScIeNce City"

Episode #008

F E A T U R I N G * 7 6 * B O N U S * S E C O N D S

Includes interview with "inclinator expert" at the Luxor;
music courtesy of New York City's defunct TW-in-87.

Good trips often get a "moment" -- that single experience where, when the trip's reflected on, your thoughts fall first.

For my Vegas 2009 that will ever be the sidetrip to Valley of Fire State Park - a stunning scene resembling decayed nougats of red fudge poking out of the desert floor. The bearded rangers wouldn't talk on camera for us, but they pointed out the best place to hike: not just around the White Domes Trail, at the north end of a 11-mile scenic drive, but right up them.

Atop the White Domes' prehistoric snakeskin-style "walkway," I dangled my legs over the side of a cliff and took in the desert's complete silence. There I finally learned the key to appreciating Vegas: leaving it. Just outside town, you begin to appreciate how the nation's fastest-growing city could ever grow in a Mars-like landscape of formations created 150 million years ago.

People call Vegas "Sin City," but considering the inescapable questions of geography (among other sciences) that come up here, it's a "ScIeNce City" too. And the SSTS proudly presents the SIX BEST SCIENCE ATTRACTIONS:

CSN PLANETARIUM
Few know of this back on the Strip, but the College of Southern Nevada (CSN) opens its observatory on Friday and Saturday nights for a full-on glimpse of the stars. There's also astronaut ice cream. It's $6, beginning with an astronomy program at 7:30pm. Go by rental car. The taxi would run $75 minimum, one way.

ATOMIC TESTING MUSEUM
Near the strip, this Smithsonian affiliate has a fairly defensive look at the state's involvement in atomic testing from 1961 to 1992. Plenty of videos with former employees talking about their role in the Cold War, and an interesting shop and Miss Atomic Bomb knick-knacks. You can also arrange tours of the blasted domes at the Atomic Testing Site, north of town from here.

NEON MUSEUM
All the glitter of Vegas' neon past has been collected in this non-profit museum. There are some objects to see around downtown's Fremont Street, but the real attraction is its "boneyard," an outdoor collection of rescued neon signs that can be seen by reservation only. Call 702-387-6366.

SPRINGS PRESERVE
Appearing in reality TV shows on occasion, we've noticed, this $250 million education complex features a "Desert Living Center" and two miles of (free) walking trails that piece together Nevada's cultural and natural history. Right in town.

VALLEY OF FIRE STATE PARK
It's certainly national-park-worthy and well worth bringing some food out for a fun meal in the retro picnic shelters, and taking a walk around Silica Dome, where Captain Kirk perishes in "Star Trek Generations," or so we think. Only pop and some snacks available, so pack ahead. Don't worry if you've forgotten a hat; they sell curious "Nevada State Park" hats for $15.

HOOVER DAM
Tours of the he New Deal 726-foot dam - packed between Lake Mead on one side and the distant hydroelectric plant on the other - are available, but it's worth even just a walk across. Drive to the Arizona side for free parking.

--> STTS scientific experiment: It took 38 seconds to enter the Hoover Dam gift shop and find the first souvenir that did some "dam" word play (t-shirt: "This is My Dam T-Shirt").

Science Week: Top 3 Achievements in "Augmented Travel"

"Augmented reality" (where the virtual and physical meet) is becoming the new reality, it seems. A couple months ago, Yelp’s Easter-egg app Monocle was “discovered” -- allowing one to shake an iPhone 3GS thrice, and see digital overlays of business listings/ratings through the iPhone camera. And options expanded last week with the new Motorola Google Android phone (which features apps for 10 Lonely Planet city guides).

This dosage of science into travel means a new way of searching out a good bagel or a B&B without bedbugs. Or finally joining Jay Maynard and living a life akin to the film “Tron,” but with better acting.

The buzzy notion of a sci-fi “augmented reality,” or “AR” as techies call it, actually dates from labs in the '30s, and the term was coined about two decades ago by the remarkably bearded Tom Caudell, while using head-mounted digital displays to wire aircraft at Boeing. Some reports say he did so in 1990, others 1992.

I emailed Mr Caudell to ask which was right, and he wrote back in 20 minutes:

“It was informally coined in late 1990 and first published in 1992. The name was handy to distinguish from the idea of full virtual reality. VR was catching on in a serious way at the time. And ‘augmented reality’ was handy to distinguish it from that idea.”

Considering “augment” is simply a fancy word for improvement, I thought I’d go back and cite three of the greatest “augmented travel” achievements that enable us to hit the road and explore for our own. With or without fancy headwear.

→ Apologies to trains, rail passes, post cards, guidebooks, compasses, roller suitcases and the almighty quick-dry pants.

TRAVEL MAPS
I can certainly testify that no feature in a guidebook gets more comments – some quite colorful – than its maps. They’re a staple in modern travel, but the notion of mapping out skies, sea currents, religious domains and conquests is ancient (eg the 16,000-year-old paintings at France’s Lascaux caves depict constellations, while a 9000-year-old Turkish map shows the plan of a Neolithic village). Early navigators weren’t keen on using them though. Chris Columbus, for example, used the currents and stars – maps, he said with a sigh, were “too virtual.”

Yet the first great travel map we know of – one that shows roads and services like hotels (!) – precedes him by a thousand years. The 5th-century AD Roman road map Tabula Peutingeriana connected the Roman empire from Europe to Asia. The original is MIA, but the Globe Museum at the Vienna’s Austrian National Liberary has a 12th-century copy that stretches 7m. (It’s rarely on view.)

“America,” meanwhile, made its debut on German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller’s 1507 map “Universalis Cosmographia,” thought to be the first map of the planet . A thousand copies were made, but only one survives. In 2003, US Library of Congress paid the Wolfegg Castle in Germany US$10 million for it, and put it on view for all to see.

PASSPORTS
The first "travel papers" allowing safe passage across foreign lands date to Persian travelers 2500 years ago (per the Old Testament anyway), while the 15th-century English monarch King Henry V (who was “well educated,” yet “stern and ruthless” per the official website of the British Monarchy) is credited for promoting travel with the issue of real passports. (Though he may have just wanted easier clearance to claim France.)

In medieval times, the term came up either to allow the bearer to "pass" through the "porte" (city wall gate), or, if Louis XIV is to be believed, to travel from ports in ships ("passe ports"). By the late 19th century their use softened as railroads crossed Europe, though security in WWI brought them back for good, eventually evolving from fold-out papers with attached photos to booklets after WWII. (See an interesting Wanderlust article on its history.)

Passports changed travel by bureaucracizing it, but also enabling and inspiring it. Who hasn’t looked longingly at fellow travelers’ passports stamps, or been instantly revived after a globe-hopping flight with that swift, certain stamp from an immigration officer and the smell of freshly applied ink?

HIGHWAYS
A car only goes so far without roads, and – especially in the (still train-challenged) US – the rollout of the interstate during the Eisenhower administration, and highways like Route 66 during the Depression were travel game-changers. But trace those roads back – passing all the roadside billboards, truck stops and huge balls of twine built up along the way – and you’ll find your way to the Lincoln Highway, the country’s first trans-continental highway system, dating from 1913.

It wasn’t always a pretty sight. A one-way trip from New York to San Francisco, with stops in Chicago and Yellowstone and Yosemite, could take 30 days, if averaging 20 miles an hour, and camping outdoors on the plains on many nights.

The feisty Ernest McGaffey, of the Automobile Club of Southern California, wrote of its impact in a terrific 1922 New York Times article, and noted how it was one-fifth the cost of a European tour. He wrote, proudly, “Transcontinental motoring… has grown to IMPORTANT PROPORTIONS [my emphasis] during the last few years." I want that on a t-shirt.

Of the road's great draw, Mr McAffey timelessly testified:

“Nothing braces the mind and body as much as one of these catch-as-catch-can journeys where style is banished from the calendar. Sometimes you may lose sight of what day of the week or the month it is, and even the sun may be the main reliance as to what the time is. But you will soak your soul in the primitive draughts of sun, rain, wind and freedom.”

That’s augmented vision, Mr McAffey.