Better Road Trips

Slate.com asks Do Family Road Trips Have To Be Horrible?

1. Plan the trip together - let the kids contribute ideas & make last minute suggestions based on road signs or GPS recommendations
2. Make plenty of stops - stop and smell the roses along the way. Aim for a ratio of 40 minutes sightseeing for every 60 minutes of driving.
3. Check out  Roadside America for quirky things to visit like the Jolly Green Giant statue or the Future Birthplace of James T Kirk of Star Trek.
4. Stop for factory tours - pretzel makers, chocolate, cheese, etc. Made in the U.S.A.
5. Avoid fast food - seek out local eateries and sample regional specialties like fried mac & cheese
6. Take nature breaks - not just a potty stop but get out of the car and toss a Frisbee around.
7. Make the car ride entertaining with music, games, and family talks

How long is a couple of days?

A recent cartoon at http://xkcd.com/ reminded me of a trip to Canada to visit my sister.

The boarder guard asked how long I would be staying.

A couple of days I said.

When are you retuning?

Friday.

Wait a minute, he challenged, that's four days from now and you just said a couple of days.

Yes, I said, a couple of days for me includes 2 or 3 or 4. I'm not strict about it always meaning 2.

Bottom Line

Imagine being stopped at the boarder for incorrectly using the word "couple".

Things that are Worth the Money

“Money never made a man happy yet, nor will it. The more a man has, the more he wants. Instead of filling a vacuum, it makes one.”
-Benjamin Franklin

Typical financial advice tells you how NOT to spend money. But I like the list at wisebread.com of 11 Things That Are Worth the Money.

1. Insurance - spend a little to avoid having to pay a lot
2. Culture - I'm all for culture, my wife & I love museums and visited one just a few days ago. But it's also easy to overspend here. We don't do Broadway Plays - I'd love to but the cost is ridiculous. We also save money by renting CDs instead of going to movie theaters.
3. Doctor Visits - your health is worth spending a co-pay for
4. Education - maybe. There is much talk of a "higher-education bubble" where the cost of college now exceeds the benefits. Education is great - but look for cheaper ways to get a college degree.
5. A Haircut - it is important to look nice, people do judge by looks. Just don't overspend at post hair salons.
6. Health - buy healthy food and do what is necessary to get some exercise
7. Home Maintenance & Repair  - a home is the most expensive thing you own - treat it well.
8. A Sharp Interview Outfit - see #5
9. Well-Made Shoes - Not sure if the list is thinking of dress shoes for looking good, like #5 and #8, or well-made shoes that won't hurt your feet.
10. Travel - Don't go into debt but travel is a great form of education. And fun too.
11. Visiting Family & Friends - "maintaining those relationships is something you can't afford to not do"

Bottom Line

What items do you think are worth the money?

Steaming Semen, no Bull!

“If you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bull----.”
-W. C. Fields

In today's security concious world, everything is seen as suspicious. Recently a United plane was returned to the airport because a passenger was reading a book about airplanes. Perhaps they thought he was planning his attack during the flight itself? Or brushing up on the details? A policeman quickly released the passenger when he saw the book was about "Snoopy Red Baron stuff...", i.e. triplanes from 1921.

On August 23 in Nashville, Tennesse, an on-ramp to Interstate 65 was closed and fire and emergency HAZMAT crews called to investigate unmarked canisters alongside the road which were smelly and steaming. Naturally foul play was suspected. Could this be a bomb or a chemical attack? Bus tickets were found nearby and it was determined that the canisters had fallen out of the cargo department of a Greyhound bus. The driver was located and he identified the canisters as containing frozen bull sperm packed in liquid nitrogen from Columbus, Ohio and en route to a breeding facility in Laredo, Texas. Depending on the quality of the bull parent(s?) the lost sperm could be worth as much as $80,000.

Since the canisters used liquid nitrogen, they are not allowed on planes and must travel by ground. A Greyhound spokesperson said it's not uncommon that the bus was carrying bull sperm. If that make you nervous (eew, cudies on my luggage), Greyhound says that cargo is stored in a compartment separate from passenger belongings.

Bottom Line

It's good to stay alert but let's not overdo going to extremes.

What the fork???

“The true Christian is in all countries a pilgrim and a stranger” -George Santayana

For our wedding anniversary my wife & I traveled to Plimoth Plantation to share a Harvest Feast dinner with the "pilgrims". I put pilgrim in quotes because one of the Plimouth residents we spoke to objected to the term. "This isn't the Holy Land", he said. It turns out that only half the residents were religious pilgrims, the other half were loyal Church of England members. When the Pilgrims chartered the colony and the Mayflower they realized that their congregation was mostly weavers and tailors. For a colony to succeed they needed a blacksmith, cooper, baker, tanner, etc. So they opened up the colony to "outsiders" to get these skills with a promise that the outsiders would allow the pilgrims to worship according to their own dictates.

Anyhow, back to the Harvest Feast dinner which I mentioned. As the "shallet" (salad) course was served it quickly became apparent that there were no forks! Each place setting contained only a large spoon and a slightly dull knife. The shallet also had no dressing which is a good thing when forced to eat it with fingers.

While my wife & I enjoyed the meal, we both agree that Plimoth failed in its mission to educate. There was no discussion of why the fork was missing or what were the proper 1627 manners for eating. No mention of where the ingredients came from or why the dishes served were selected. Was the food served common or a rare treat? The only way to know was to ask one of the "locals" at the meal and that was often very difficult since they stay 100% true to character and refuse to speak of anything beyond 1627.

After arriving back at home I looked up forks on Wikipedia. It turns out Shakespeare ate with his fingers (and knife and spoon) as did all the early Americans in the 17th century. Before Christ the fork was used primarily as a serving utensil (by the ancient Greeks, and ancient Hebrews, I Samuel 2:13). Romans may have used metal forks for eating and this custom was preserved in the Byzantine East but lost in the European West during the "Dark Ages". The custom traveled from Constantinople back to Italy in the 11th century but took 500 years to become popular and common with Italians. (How do you eat spaghetti without a fork?)

The fork's adoption in northern Europe was [even] slower. Its use was first described in English by Thomas Coryat in a volume of writings on his Italian travels (1611), but for many years it was viewed as an unmanly Italian affectation. Some writers of the Roman Catholic Church expressly disapproved of its use, seeing it as "excessive delicacy": "God in his wisdom has provided man with natural forks — his fingers. Therefore it is an insult to Him to substitute artificial metallic forks for them when eating."

Some nobility in Europe would bring their personal fork to dinner but it was not until the 18th century that the fork became commonly used in Great Britain and America. So we can assume that George Washington used a fork.

Bottom  Line

Be grateful for your fork!  Dinner is a lot messier without it.

P.S.
I recall a Chinese meal of Cantonese Lobster. The lobster was chopped and covered in a thick sauce but NOT deshelled. What a mess trying to remove the sauce-covered shells. It did not matter if you used forks or chop sticks - there was no way to eat this meal without getting messy. I've never ordered it again.

International Cell Phone Costs

“To be happy in this world, first you need a cell phone and then you need an airplane. Then you're truly wireless.” - millionaire Ted Turner

Warning - Cell phone companies are only too happy to take your money when you make mistake and are quite unwilling to write off the error.

For example, the first cell phone my wife & I owned was open face, meaning the number keys are always exposed. We did not lock down the phone and the 0 key must have been accidentally hit while the phone was in my wife's purse. We were charged for 60 minutes of operator assistance time. Not cheap. We objected - if an operator had picked up, clearly they would detect the mistake and terminate the call - total time of 1 minute. Why leave a "dead" line open for 60 minutes? 
No dice - we had to pay and now we only use clam shell style phones.

The first time I called by sister in Canada I used my cell phone and discovered afterwards that the rate is 60-80 cents a minute. That adds up fast!

The Consumerist tells a story of a college student who says she checked Facebook for 5 minutes a day for a week via her phone while on family vacation in Cancun. The bill is $11,667.73 for 600MB of data services to a foreign country.

Bottom Line

Unlike a credit card, the phone companies give no warning when huge charges are piling up. A commenter on the Consumerist story has the following suggestions:

This is why when I took my phone to Canada I shut it off 10 miles from the border. So many application on your phone can transmit data without your knowledge these days it's just easier to leave it off. Facebook may not have transferred 600mb worth of data, but there are other applications which can. Many of the applications I've downloaded on my Droid X talk to the Internet in the background, the app tells me it's going to do this, I just have to keep track of them.
My recommendation: Turns your smart phone off when going on a trip and buy a pay-as-you go phone when you reach your destination. Coasts about a hundred for phone and minutes, but you have a phone when you get where you're going.

P.S.
Speaking of cell phone costs. I visited the AT&T store after losing my cell phone. I'm not eligible for a free replacement (with new contract) until November. But I can get $75 off a phone with an early contract extension. However I was shocked to find that the cost of the "free" phones is $200 and up when purchased separately so I'd have to pay $125 to replace my phone. When I declined the AT&T rep suggested they could reactive an old AT&T phone if I still had one from prior contracts. I'll give that a try.

The Magic of GPS

Though the mountains divide,
And the oceans are wide,
It's a small world after all.
-Lyrics to It's a Small World

As I’ve commented before, my wife and I are not anti-technology, we’re just cheap. So we are late adopters of technology – waiting for the prices to come done to affordable levels. But once purchased and used for awhile, it’s hard to look back and imagine how we ever lived without it. A friend recently told us about being stuck outside her locked office without a ride home “in pre-cell phone days”. And who can imagine driving without a GPS? It’s like a magic map!

Do you know the history and workings of GPS? Well here are some interesting GPS factoids courtesy of pingdom.com

• There are always at least 24 active GPS satellites circling Earth, although today there are more than 30, including a couple of spares. Their orbits are spread out so that no matter where on Earth you are, you will have at least six of them in your line of sight.

• Each GPS satellite goes around the world once every 12 hours. The satellites travel 12,500 miles (20,000 km) above us at roughly 7,000 miles per hour (11,000 km per hour). They have small boosters so they can adjust their path when needed.

• The first full constellation of 24 satellites was completed in 1994. The first of those 24 satellites was sent up in 1989.

• To get a reliable position reading, your GPS receiver will have to combine the signals from at least four satellites, although in some special cases, three are enough.

• GPS was made public due to a tragedy. In 1983, Korean Air Lines Flight 007 entered Soviet airspace after a navigation error and was shot down, killing all 269 passengers. This incident resulted in President Ronald Reagan ordering the Unites States military to make the Global Positioning System available for civilian use once it was completed, so that similar incidents could be avoided in the future.

• NAVSTAR is the US military name for the Global Positioning System.

• GPS isn’t just for navigation. It can also be used to get a very exact time stamp. Every GPS satellite has multiple atomic clocks and the time is included in the signal it sends out. With the help of these signals, a GPS receiver can determine the current time within 100 billionths of a second. These signals are for example used to synchronize base stations in cell phone networks.

• Relativistic effects. The clocks on the satellite are subject to the effects of Einstein’s theory of relativity, running slightly slower than those on Earth. This is corrected by control signals from Earth Ground antennas spread around the world.

• The 50th Space Wing of the United States Air Force operates the GPS satellites.

• Until 2000, civilian GPS use was crippled by a feature called Selective Availability. It introduced a random error of up to 328 feet (100 meters) in the civilian signal to make GPS less useful for precision navigation. (GPS has different signals for military and civilian use.) Selective Availability was deactivated in May 1, 2000. The United States still has the ability to deactivate the civilian signal, if need be even for specific regions.

• NAVSTAR GPS isn’t the only game in town. There are several other Global Navigation Satellite Systems in existence or on their way: The European Union is working on a system called Galileo, Russia has GLONASS (completed in partnership with India), and China has plans for a system called Compass. There are also systems that offer specific regional coverage, for example Japan’s QZSS and China’s Beidou.

Bottom Line

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." - Arthur C. Clarke

Out of town and out of cash

"It's not hard to meet expenses, they're everywhere." – T-shirt quote

Sorry for the spate of volcano stories but this is too good an event to pass up for a preparedness blog. It is rare events like this that test everyone and highlight weaknesses and problems.

A few asides before jumping into the main topic.

1. There is grumbling in Europe about lack of governmental preparedness dealing with stranded passengers and managing transportation alternatives. The train system is great (compared to the US) but overwhelmed now. Each country maintains its own airspace so some nations are flying, others grounded. Five days after the volcano, a Euro-level meeting of Transportation Officials was held to discuss common standards for safe flying.

2. Lot’s of grumbling over the airlines. Most have a terrible track record of handling massive flight cancellations. To improve profitability, airlines now fly fewer planes but each at full or near-full capacity. This leaves them with little space to accommodate stranded passengers.
Europeans stranded in Japan were told by Taiwan's EVA Airways that the earliest flight with openings is May 12 - but only if they are willing to pay an extra 150 euros ($200). Otherwise, they have to wait until June.

3. This problem could continue indefinitely. Eyjafjallajökull may continue erupting for a decade and it has a big brother 15 miles away, under deeper ice, that will cause an even bigger ash cloud if it wakes up.

4. A common element of many disasters is price gouging. A French tourist in Hong Kong reports, "Yesterday, we had a hotel room at 250 euros. At midday, it was 460 euros, and in the evening, the price was 800 euros for a room - we can't pay that." The hotel's general manager replied simply, "We dynamically price much like the airlines do, according to how many rooms we have to sell in the hotel." A British family in Sydney, Australia, had the same problem. Their first night stranded cost 150 Australian dollar ($138); the next day the hotel raised the price of the same room to AU$350 - simply because it could.

Which leads to the main point – having access to emergency money on a vacation or business trip. Don’t be like the family who said, "We're at the end of the holiday so we've spent all our money ... Because that's what you do on holiday."

So what are your options when traveling out of the country?

1. Credit Cards – you will pay a modest currency conversion fee but credit cards are accepted around the world.

2. ATMs – ditto on conversion fee and there may be an “out-of-country” access fee. It helps to have your money in a bank that has a global ATM network. The following banks support the “Global ATM Alliance” of mutually compatible ATM machines: Bank of America, Barclays (England), BNP Paribas (France), Deutsche Bank (Germany), Santander Serfin (Mexico), Scotiabank (Canadian), Wespac (Australia & Pacific), ABSA (South Africa), UkrSibbank (Ukraine), China Construction Bank (China). This group has branches in most countries.

Other international ATM networks include:
PLUS (allows Visa card cash withdrawals in over 200 countries.)
Cirrus (allows MasterCard cash withdrawals) Call (800) 424-7787 for locations in 210 countries.

3. Before using your Credit Card or ATM card overseas, call your bank first to warn them that you are traveling. Otherwise they may freeze your card for suspicious activity. Also write down the phone number for calling your Credit Card company in case your card is stolen overseas. Keep this number in a safe place.

4. Travelers checks – I have not used these in years. Now I find that credit cards and ATMs are easier than obtaining and then cashing travelers checks. Often the fees are lower too. Still it might not hurt to have a few $100 available just-in-case the global ATM system or credit card system breaks down due to attack or severed undersea phone/Internet cable. Also American Express Traveler Checks can be replaced if stolen – you’ll need to store the check numbers in a different place (or with a friend) so you can make a claim.

5. Commonwealth Bank of Australia offers Travel Money Cards that work like debit cards but in preloaded foreign currency. I assume other banks have something similar.

6. It's best to use a combination of money sources: a small amount of cash, a debit card, two credit cards (in case one is declined or stolen!) and some travelers checks. Some travelers swear by the ‘two wallet' technique. Keep all your documents and credit cards safely in one wallet, and then use an everyday old wallet for cash and a few less important cards. If you get mugged, just hand over the second wallet to minimize your loss.

7. Before going to a foreign country, I like to convert some money (say $100) in advance. This way if I need cash immediately (like for an airport Taxi) I’m not dependent solely on the moneychangers at the airport and their fees. Ask your bank if they can get you foreign currency (and at what rate.)

Bottom Line

In a few places above I mention storing important contact information in case you are robbed or your luggage lost/stolen. You many lose your purse, wallet or suitcase. So what’s left – a tattoo? One option is the Internet – if you can get free (or cheap) access to it. You could Google for your credit card company number, or American Embassy location, etc. Before the trip you could email yourself the list of Travel Check numbers, your passport number, and other vital numbers and leave this in your in-box. Be careful opening your email overseas. An Internet café or wifi could have someone snooping on Internet traffic or have a keystroke recorder on the PC to copy your account name and password. As a backup I’d email this same info to a trusted friend or relative that you could call.

Resources

Volcano flight chaos leaves many passengers broke

ATMs Abroad

Accessing Your Money Overseas

International Money Transfers

Travel Insurance vs Volcano

All my bags are packed I'm ready to go
I'm standin' here outside your door
... Don't know when I'll be back again.
- lyrics from "Leaving On A Jet Plane"

If you're worried about flying to Europe right now and are thinking about buying travelers insurance, "just in case" the flight is cancelled because of Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano - forget about it. The Wall Street Journal reports that the volcano is excluded from all policies purchased on or after April 13.

"It’s called the theory of the burning house. If your house is ablaze, you can’t go out and quickly buy homeowners coverage. In travel, as soon as a storm or event is known, you can buy all the insurance you want but it won’t cover those “known’’ events. Once a hurricane is named, most policies won’t cover it
if the insurance was sold after the moment the storm was identified." - WSJ

The WSJ points out that even if purchased before April 13, travel insurance may be of limited use. When airlines refund tickets for canceled trips, there’s no claim with insurers. Many policies have limits on daily expenses if you are stranded away from home. If you can’t get to a hotel that you prepaid, insurance may not kick in because the hotel isn’t “uninhabitable.’’ It's your fault for not finding another way to get to it.

Travel insurance rarely covers your cancelling due to fear of unsafe travel or unsafe conditions—for example fear of terrorism is covered only if the attack happens in your destination city. Everywhere else is safe to fly. Same with hurricanes – your resort may have to be declared uninhabitable before your insurance would cover you. It's not enough that your resort was hit hard, barely functioning, and won't be the dream vacation you paid for.

Bottom Line

Read insurance policies carefully before buying. What you have in mind may require a more-expensive “cancel for any reason’’ policy that will cover pre-existing medical conditions, family emergencies, etc. Check the daily limits for reimbursing hotels, lost luggage and other expenses.

Getting away from it all?

Sometimes as the saying goes, a picture is worth a 1000 words. The image above is part of a series available on NewScientist.com that depicts the accessibility of places around world. The brighter the color, the faster that spot can reach a city of 50,000 or more people by land or water. The model combines information on terrain and access to road, rail and river networks. It also considers how factors like altitude, steepness of terrain and hold-ups like border crossings slow travel. The world's most remote place is the Tibetan plateau - it is a three-week trip to the cities of Lhasa or Korla - one day by car and the remaining 20 on foot.

The rest of the world now is very connected with less than 10% of the land surface MORE than 48 hours from the nearest city. Most of the map depict hours of travel: white-yellow is 0-4 hours, orange is 4-8 hours, red is 9-24 hours, with black over 1 day. Naturally this is the best possible time assuming you're not lost and head for the closest city.

One reason the world is so connected in an amazing system of roads, pictured here:

The map of global river travel is nearly as dense as the road map.

Bottom Line

One thing the human race excels at is travel. Be it by plane, train, car, boat, horse, bike or on foot. Yet travel speed is quite variable as the chart here shows. A car can travel one kilometer in just 30 seconds. But the same distance on foot in a deciduous forest can take an hour. 48 minutes if trekking through snow or ice on foot. 24 minutes under favorable hiking conditions.

It pays to know the terrain when traveling. For example, a car trip can be delayed by dirt roads. Last summer our GPS put us several dirt roads as we crossed the country. Fortunately we have a new GPS for Christmas which gives us the option of excluding dirt roads from route planning.

Update

A GPS leads a couple over a remote forest road where they get stuck in a snow bank. Three days later a signal from the GPS allows rescuers to find them.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_stranded_motorists

RSNA 2009

Today I'm away on my first business trip for FujiFilm Medical System and attending a conference in Chicago. The convention is sponsored by the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) comprising 42,000 radiologists, radiation oncologists, medical physicists and allied scientists. It provides an opportunity for medical professionals to see new equipment and to attend courses on techniques and best practices.

I'm attending the show as an exhibitor. Fuji has a long history with film, not just for cameras, but also with medical devices like X-ray machines. FujiFilm Medical Systems was quick to recognize the importance of computers and was the first company to offer digital X-rays by providing a specialized cartridge that fits inside the film slot of existing X-ray machine and can then be uploaded digitally to a PACS.

PACS stands for Picture Archiving and Communication System. It's a storage and retrieval system for digital x-rays and other medical images. FujiFilm created a PACS called Synapse and I'm part of the development team that supports and enhances Synapse.

Bottom Line

I suspect I'll be a fish out of water at this show. Will let you know how it went when I return.

Did you know? Since most hospitals use digital images now, you can ask the radiology department to download your x-rays to a CD for you to take home and view on your computer.

Columbus Day & The New World

By prevailing over all obstacles and distractions, one may unfailingly arrive at his chosen goal or destination. - Christopher Columbus

My latest commuting book on CD is called, The Intellectual Devotional, American History. There are 365 “lessons” each about 5 minutes long. It’s a bit like having someone read a history text book aloud. Though not exciting, it overlapped nicely with a graphic novel I reread last night, Marvel’s 1602, and got me thinking about the colonization of America. Despite this being Columbus Day, I'll skip the early years and look at actual attempts to settle the New World.

The first successful English settlement of America was St. John's, Newfoundland. Tradition declares that the site earned its name when explorer John Cabot became the first European to sail into the harbour, on June 24, 1497 - the feast day of Saint John the Baptist. The location became a popular harbor with many nations for fishing the Grand Banks. It appears as São João on a Portuguese map in 1519. When the English mariner John Rut visited St. John's in 1527 he found Norman, Breton and Portuguese ships in the harbour. On August 5, 1583, Sir Humphrey Gilbert claimed the area as England's first overseas colony under Royal Charter of Queen Elizabeth I. When he arrived, he found 16 English fishing ships and 20 French and Portuguese vessels already there with a small (seasonal?) settlement on the north side of the harbour. The resident population grew slowly in the 17th century.

Another early attempt at English settlement was the Virginia Colony. It began with an expedition sent by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1585 to Roanoke Island, NC. But the settlement ran out of supplies and the entire population returned to England when Sir Francis Drake dropped by after attacking the Spanish at St. Augustine. In 1587 the English tried to resettle Roanoke with families. At Roanoke, Virginia Dare became the first English child born in the New World. The colony ship was sent back for supplies but became impounded in an English war with Spain. When the supply ship was allowed to return in 1590, it found that every resident had vanished and Roanoke become know as the "Lost Colony".

Bottom Line

Tomorrow I’ll continue the story of the Virginia Colony.

I should also note that other nations (particularly Spain) were also trying to colonize the New World.
1498 Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
1510 Nombre de Dios & 1519 Panama City, Panama
1511-1515 Baracoa, Santiago, and Havana in Cuba
1519 Veracruz, 1526 Acámbaro, 1531 Culiacán, 1532 Oaxaca, & others, Mexico
1521 San Juan, Puerto Rico
1524 Granada, Nicaragua
1536 San Pedro, Honduras
1541 St. John's, Canada
1558 Mérida, Venezuela
1563 Cartago, Costa Rica
1565 Saint Augustine, Florida (the oldest continuously occupied European city in the United States)

Personal Note

Columbus Day has a special, though unintended meaning for me. I'm a big fan of the number 12 and so to make the Anniversary Day easier to remember, we chose October 12 to be married. Neither my wife nor I realized that we had picked Columbus Day until:
1. My sister gave us a large book on Columbus as a wedding gift
2. Our honeymoon inn wanted to charge us more more when we arrived because it was a holiday weekend.

Budget Vacations

“Vacation is what you take when you can't take what you've been taking any longer.”

A friend and frequent reader of this blog, “SwedishMom”, has her own blog called “A Stranger Here”. Her family, with several young children, has traveled on some impressive vacations this summer while on a shoestring budget. She shares her tips for Vacations on a budget.

1. Plan & Prioritize
2. Take advantage of free attractions
3. Stay at hotels with continental breakfasts
4. Use the internet to find the best bargains for hotels and tickets
5. In big cities, consider leaving your car at the hotel and using public transportation. Find a hotel close to a subway/metro stop.
6. Look for specials and deals online (like free days or package deals)
7. Try a walking tour
8. Take advantage of recriprocal memberships at zoos and museums.
9. Look for interesting attractions close to home.

Bottom Line

I can personally confirm may of these tips. My wife & I recently joined friends for a Sunday brunch and spent just over $10 a person for a disappointing breakfast. That adds up fast on a trip. My wife works as a docent so many musuems will let us in for free when we ask. It never hurts to ask if a place will recognize your membership cards.

Luggage Thieves

“Did you ever notice that the first piece of luggage on the carousel never belongs to anyone? -Erma Bombeck

Here’s a travel warning from the NY Daily News: Sting nabs sticky-fingered JFK airport workers going through Luggage.

"When air travelers check their luggage with an airline, there is an implicit trust that their bags and their contents will meet them at their destination," said Queens District Attorney Richard Brown.

[…But] an officer with the Transportation Security Administration [TSA], was videotaped July 7 pilfering through the Miami-bound suitcase in an airport screening room while a baggage handler looked on.

He stole a laptop and cell phone from the decoy luggage as it moved through Kennedy Airport.

Bottom Line

Never pack valuables in a suitcase. Keep them with your carry-on and watch them as they pass through security.

Oh Canada

“Canadians have been so busy explaining to the Americans that we aren't British, and to the British that we aren't Americans that we haven't had time to become Canadians.”-Helen Gordon McPherson

Since my wife and I will be driving to Canada to visit my sister for her 40th birthday, I thought I’d share what I’ve learned about driving and traveling in Canada:

• U.S. driver's licenses are valid in Canada but you’ll need proof of auto insurance. My insurer provides a yellow card upon request showing that I’m covered in Canada.


• Effective June 1, 2009, Passports are required for all cross border travel.


• Distances and speeds are posted in metric units. 100 kilometers equals 62 miles. The maximum speed limit in Canada is 50km/hr in cities (31mph), 80km/hr on urban highways, and 100 km/hr on rural highways.


• Many highways do not have merge lanes for entering traffic.


• Emergency vehicles frequently enter the oncoming traffic lane to avoid congestion.


• Some signs, particularly in Québec, may be in French.


• Distances will be measured in metric units. 1 kilometer is .62 miles.


• Gas is sold in metric liters where four liters is just over one US gallon. So when you see a gas price, multiply by four and adjust for the currency conversion rate to get a US equivalent price.


• On the Island of Montréal, right turns on red are prohibited.


• At intersections, signs will indicate which turns are allowed; any other turns are prohibited.


• Seat belts are mandatory for everyone. Child car seats are required for children less than 40 pounds.


• Some provinces require drivers to keep their headlights on during the day.


• 911 works in Canada for emergencies.


• Many ATM cards, such as the PLUS or CIRRUS system, can be used throughout Canada to obtain Canadian funds on your U.S. bank account. US credit cards can also be used in Canada. The card company will charge you a 1-3% fee for handling foreign currency.
  Your US cell phone most likely will NOT work in Canada. The frequency used is different.

Bottom Line

A US plate in Canada just screams tourist. To avoid being ripped-off, keep your car locked and leave valuables at your hotel. When I lived in Italy, a friend had his car window smashed with a brick and the contents stolen while we had dinner in Rome. Canada is usually better behaved but during a trip to St. Johns, someone did steal our US flag Mickey Mouse antenna decoration. We don’t know if the thief was anti-American or wanted the decoration for him/herself.

P.S.
Happy Birthday Lisa!

Traveling with a good map

"I have an existential map. It has 'You are here' written all over it."
- Steven Wright

This morning while leaving a grocery at the main exit of the parking lot. It turns out a van had been in an accident and flipped over on its side right in the middle of the intersection. Naturally every road feeding into the intersection was closed by the emergency responders. We had to exit the parking lot via a side road that sent us in the opposite direction of where we wanted to go on local town roads.
We made a few wrong turns and a short cut through a neighborhood that didn't work out before we found a way around the accident and back to a major road. And we were not the only "lost" drivers. Others diverted from the accident were making confused turns and illegal turns (like the wrong way on a traffic circle!)
Since we carry maps in the car we didn't have to be lost - we just thought we knew the neighboring town better than we did and never considered consulting our maps. We carry several atlases in the trunk of our car - detailed county maps, state maps for NY, NJ and CT and even a national road map.

Bottom Line
Always travel with road maps. We like the Hagstrom county maps which show every road. We recently tried finding a friend's house in NJ with just the state map and of course it lacked the detail we needed for local roads. We buy maps that are a year old and discounted at book stores - not much changes in a year.
Also useful when you have a destination in mind is one of the many free online mapping services: http://www.map.google.com/, http://www.mapquest.com/ and http://www.maps.yahoo.com/.

A Stormy Vacation

While the Caribbean is the "most feared" hurricane-season destination, 64% of travelers said they would be willing to visit a destination in the hurricane zone if it meant significant savings.
- Robert's Caribbean Travel Blog

If you like traveling, check out the article Part of vacation planning includes Emergency preparedness plans! by Terrie Modesto on the blog "Train For A Hurricane". The author points out that many travelers will visit the Caribbean during Hurricane season and sometimes you get caught in a foreign country with a storm headed your way. This happened to a friend of my wife during his honeymoon.

Do you have trip insurance? Will your hotel stay open or force you into a shelter? What is your airline's policy for getting you back home? Very likely you'll be on space available standby and it can take days to obtain available seats with no guarantees.

Bottom Line
Preparedness is not just for home. If your wallet/ID/passport are stolen on vacation, do you have photocopy backups in your suitcase? You will find it very difficult to get money and board a plane with no ID.

If someone gets sick do you know your insurance company's policy for doctors and hospitals while away from home? Do you have to call to get approval prior to treatment or find a doctor within your plan? If you are traveling outside your home country, call your insurer before you leave to find out the rules for coverage in a foreign country.