Look Both Ways And Beware Of Jay Drivers

by Kevin Burton    What I see 20 feet away, you can see 200 feet away. By definition therefore, I am legally blind.    So you would think, all other things being equal, my career as a jaywalker could/should be painfully short, or maybe even disastrously shortened.    I was very nearly run over by …

Canadian Boycott Of US Travel Going Strong

by Madeline Halpert BBC    Kristy Gammon used to travel to the US from Canada at least once every other year, taking ski trips at Lake Placid in New York and traveling to Baltimore, Maryland, for her husband’s favorite Orioles baseball games.    But those trips are now over, she said. This year, the Nova …

Challenge And Opportunity On Sweetest Day

by Kevin Burton    Guys, Sweetest Day is Saturday. I am posting this on a Wednesday to give you time to react and prepare appropriately, as is my wont.    Let me break it down for you in a way you can understand:    According to social.com, 36 percent of sales in the $7.9 billion …

This French Hubby Got Some ‘Splainin To Do

by Kevin Burton    Ok baby bubba, let’s hear you talk your way out of this one!    Under the headline “Mislaid Mrs.,” The Sun newspaper of London ran a painfully short story about a Frenchman who drove nearly 200 miles on a vacation trip before realizing he had left his lawfully-wedded wife at a …

Another Helping Of Fun From Food Network

by Kevin Burton    Yesterday we rode the wayback machine and looked at one of my earliest Page 7 blog posts, one that made fun of the weird meals they make on Food Network.    We also established that since that time I have developed an appetite for Food Network and have stopped dialing up …

Food Network, Unlikely Road Dogs For Us

by Kevin Burton    My recipe for relaxation on the road has changed, just a bit, in the last couple of years.     Time was, on the road with my wife, I would put a ball game on the hotel TV before the suitcase got unpacked.    Or even opened.    Football, baseball, basketball. I …

Getaway Day, Glorious Beyond (These) Words

by Kevin Burton    It takes a little work to make a vacation happen doesn’t it? You don’t just up and go.    You have to make sure everything is taken care of. Animals, if you have them. The homestead. Plus you have to arrange for accommodations on the road.    But there comes a …

Des Moines Isn’t Boring, Really, I Mean It

by Kevin Burton    Did you know there is a Memphis, Missouri?    Fewer than 2,000 people live there. We came perilously close to joining them on vacation two weeks ago.    We had planned to see the big Memphis – the BB King-Jerry Lee Lewis-Johnny Cash Memphis – but a flood warning for the …

Mark Twain And Hannibal To The Rescue

by Kevin Burton    Thirty-six little hours before we were to set sail for Memphis, my wife Jeannette checked the weather.    And we never set sail for Memphis.    The National Weather Service had issued a flood warning covering Memphis at exactly the same time we had planned to hit town. That sort of …

Cruise Ship Tourism Threatens Alaska’s Capital

by Christian Karim Chrobog The Guardian    “The noise never stops,” says Karla Hart, her voice competing with the hum of approaching helicopters. “I can feel them before I see them.” She looks at her phone to check a website that monitors air traffic and identifies operators. Hart wants to know whether the pilots are adhering …