Destination: United States
Pulitzer Finalist Takes Road Trips to Wawa, Sheetz
by Michael Yessis | 08.27.09 | 2:08 PM ET
Hank Stuever spent part of his summer traveling to the competing convenience stores throughout the mid-Atlantic, “a local sort of road trip, a mini-mart epic.” His story about it is odd and kinda brilliant. He writes about Wawa vs. Sheetz:
It’s even a toss-up to which one gets stranger as the night wears on. They come into the Sheetz on Prince William Parkway in Dale City in the darkest of night, and poke-poke-poke at the made-to-order menus on the touch-screens. Touch the picture of the sandwich you want. Touch the picture of the kind of cheese. Now touch the pictures of lettuce, the pickles. Now touch the mustard, the ketchup. The touch-screen system is not merely there to impress you. “We used to do it where you fill out a paper form and leave it in the basket, but people got smart and realized the paper at the bottom of the basket comes first, so they’d stick theirs in at the bottom and then you get problems,” Stan Sheetz says.
Also: “You would be shocked how many people can’t read and write.”
I also love this comment on the piece from JOKR715: “Finally, a fluff piece I care about!”
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Yahoo! BuzzInterview With Allison Chipak: Photographing Katrina’s Destruction, Four Years Later
by Michael Yessis | 08.27.09 | 10:25 AM ET
Michael Yessis asks Allison Chipak about her haunting images of New Orleans and the state of the city for travelers
The Haunting Houses of New Orleans
by Allison Chipak | 08.27.09 | 10:23 AM ET
Photo by Allison Fay Four years later, the city still reels from Hurricane Katrina. Allison Chipak captures some of the destruction and decay that still remains.
See the full photo slideshow »
Immigrants, Treasure Your Heritage—and Melt
by Rick Steves | 08.26.09 | 11:43 AM ET
Exploring Europe, exploring travel as a political act
Do Not Demolish
by Kevin Fay | 08.26.09 | 10:26 AM ET
Photo by Allison Chipak Kevin Fay recently joined voluntourists still helping to rebuild New Orleans-area homes destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. Judy's house was waiting for him.
10 Great American Road Trip Books
by Eva Holland | 08.26.09 | 9:43 AM ET
When you’re through with Paul Theroux’s excellent Smithsonian essay about his first cross-country drive, be sure to check out the accompanying roundup of great American road trip reads. Several of our top 30 travel books make an appearance.
Back to the Garden?
by Eva Holland | 08.25.09 | 10:35 AM ET
ERIC THAYER / Reuters On the festival's 40th anniversary, Eva Holland goes looking for the spirit of Woodstock
Paul Theroux: ‘The Cross-Country Trip is the Supreme Example of the Journey as the Destination’
by Michael Yessis | 08.24.09 | 2:37 PM ET
Yet one of the most intrepid travel writers alive had never driven across the U.S. So when the Smithsonian asked him and five other travel writers to take on their dream assignments, he picked the cross-country trip. He delivered a beautiful story. He writes:
In my life, I had sought out other parts of the world—Patagonia, Assam, the Yangtze; I had not realized that the dramatic desert I had imagined Patagonia to be was visible on my way from Sedona to Santa Fe, that the rolling hills of West Virginia were reminiscent of Assam and that my sight of the Mississippi recalled other great rivers. I’m glad I saw the rest of the world before I drove across America. I have traveled so often in other countries and am so accustomed to other landscapes, I sometimes felt on my trip that I was seeing America, coast to coast, with the eyes of a foreigner, feeling overwhelmed, humbled and grateful.
The other five writers involved are Susan Orlean (Destination: Morocco), Francine Prose (Japan), Geoffrey C. Ward (India), Caroline Alexander (Jamaica) and Frances Mayes (Poland). Here’s Jan Morris’s introduction to the project.
‘American Chinatown’ in Photos
by Eva Holland | 08.24.09 | 9:31 AM ET
To mark the release of Bonnie Tsui’s American Chinatown: A People’s History of Five Neighborhoods, the Book Bench has a short, worthwhile slideshow.
Happy 50th Birthday, Hawaii
by Eva Holland | 08.21.09 | 2:18 PM ET
The islands are celebrating five decades of statehood today. In the New York Times, Paul Theroux offers a very, well, Theroux-like tribute to his adopted home: “I have lived in Hawaii longer than any other place in my life. I have murmured to myself in Africa, Asia and Britain, ‘I’d hate to die here.’ But I wouldn’t mind dying in Hawaii, which means I like living here.”
Travel Song of the Day: ‘Crystal Frontier’ by Calexico
by Jim Benning | 08.21.09 | 11:45 AM ET
Interview With Rose Hamid: Flight Attendant, Hijab Wearer
by Andrea Cooper | 08.21.09 | 9:44 AM ET
Photo courtesy of Rose Hamid How does she navigate the tensions between her profession and her faith in a post-9/11 world? Andrea Cooper learns more.
Have We Entered a New Age of American Travel?
by Michael Yessis | 08.20.09 | 9:34 AM ET
Yes, says Conde Nast Traveler editor in chief Klara Glowczewska. She writes:
Today, Americans appear increasingly ready to reject wariness toward the rest of the world. Something new is afoot—a rediscovery of the sheer pleasure of being abroad and a resurgence of pride in being curious, culturally aware, peripatetic Americans.
Glowczewska believes President Obama and his family have played a role in this transition. “Some of the exuberance we are sensing may derive from a new First Family that is as enthusiastic a globe-traveling bunch as any in American history,” she writes. “They are a reassertion of a particularly appealing aspect of the American character—social energy.”
Ohio: The Burger State?
by Eva Holland | 08.19.09 | 5:03 PM ET
The Cincinnati Enquirer points out that six of the top ten burgers listed in George Motz’s “Hamburger America: A State-by-State Guide to 100 Great Burger Joints” hail from Ohio. Perhaps it’s time for an update to the state nickname? (Via The Book Bench)
Dr. Phil Hops Aboard the Acela
by Eva Holland | 08.19.09 | 3:29 PM ET
The talk show host and self-help kingpin will film a special episode on Amtrak’s Acela Express on September 9, Gawker reports. According to the press release, Dr. Phil will be “speaking with Amtrak customers about everyday problems.” Somebody see if he can do something about those rubbery, microwaved turkey sandwiches, OK?