Archive for August, 2009

August30

Burning the Midnight Hour

By: JoAnna

Burning the Midnight HourFeathers and leather and fur … oh my!

As my time as a Digital Vagabonding Roads Scholar draws to a close, I am prepping for the ultimate meeting of nomads on the roam—Burning Man. Held every year in Black Rock City, Nevada, Burning Man is a gathering of approximately 50,000 people who meet in a forum of radical self-expression and self-reliance. This will be my first time at Burning Man, and as I prepare for this final trip, I’ve learned that it is nothing like prepping for “just another road trip.”

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Posted in: Contemplation, Roads Scholars 20095 comments

August25

The National Park Debate

By: JoAnna

The National Park DebateIn Great Basin National Park—one of the few national parks without an entrance fee — there is a cave. You have to pay for the cave tour (either 60 or 90 minutes), which caps at around 20 people and takes you into the depths and history of what should be a truly spectacular natural creation. Lehman Cave — one of only 70 caves in the United State with formations called shields — has nine tours each day.

That’s a lot of feet that trek through the cave. Though the rule now is not to touch anything, Lehman Cave’s history consists of breaking formations for souvenirs and burning initals onto the cave ceiling as a form of graffiti. In the past, dances have been held here and Boy Scout troops have camped. The lights that mark the way throughout the cave are so warm that algae is growing near them (the good news is that they are starting to replace standard bulbs with LED lights). Once a year, the park gathers volunteers to pick lint and skin cells, which cling to the cave walls as they naturally pass through the air.

Sounds like a “natural” kind of place, huh?

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Posted in: Contemplation15 comments

August23

Images from Great Basin National Park

By: JoAnna

Nevada isn’t known for its national parks, but beyond the endless desert landscape, stunning sunsets and glittering casino lights is a natural environment begging to be explored. Great Basin National Park, a half-day’s drive north of Las Vegas on the Utah border, is home to the second highest peak in Nevada, pristine alpine lakes, a rainbow of wildflowers, the darkest sky in the lower 48 states and miles of quiet hiking trails.

It is an underrated, serene national park that I hope to visit again someday. Three days doesn’t even begin to give this hidden secret in the Silver State the justice it deserves.

Despite the haze from the California fires, every view in Great Basin National Park is a good one.

Images from Great Basin National Park

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Posted in: Photos, Roads Scholars 20092 comments

August20

6 Questions With an Around-the-World Traveler

By: JoAnna

6 Questions With an Around the World TravelerClass was over and work beckoned, but before he settled into the corporate life, there was something else Klaas Langeveld had to do. In August 2008, Klaas, then 25, packed his bag and became an around-the-world traveler. For nine months he made his way around the world, pushing the adrenaline envelope, learning words in new languages, sampling foreign food, meeting fellow travelers and mingling with the locals.

I met Klaas on the Inca Trail in Peru, and he changed my outlook on travel and life. Now back in the Netherlands, Klaas is settling back into the daily grind, but he recently took a few minutes to answer six questions about his around-the-world travels. I hope his story inspires you the way it has me.

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Posted in: Personalities4 comments

August18

Slowly, Slowly … You Will Climb The Mountain

By: JoAnna

Slowly, Slowly ... You Will Climb The MountainOne of our favorite stories from our Peace Corps service happened to a friend of ours.

At dinner one night, Josie was served a heaping plate of rice, beans, ugali … something starchy. The details of what was on the plate are foggy, but the point of the story is that it was stacked high, and, as is common when visiting many countries, it is impolite not to eat what is on your plate. Josie told us that the copious amount of food was daunting … definitely more than she could eat in a sitting. Noticing her wide eyes examining the overstuffed plate in disbelief (maybe even fear?), Josie’s mama told her, “Pole, pole. You will climb the mountain.” Pole translates to slowly … and bite by bite Josie conquered that plate of food.

As we embarked on our latest adventure — this time in Great Basin National Park in Nevada—these words swam through my head, and rightly so. We were actually climbing a mountain … and it was definitely a slow and tedious process.

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Posted in: Do, Go, Roads Scholars 20090 comments

August17

Travel Inspiration: 5 Websites That Inspire Travel — Part 2

By: JoAnna

If site visits and comments are any indication, people are interested in finding interesting travel experiences through backward thinking. The first thought to come to mind is not “I should go to …” but rather “Where should I go?”

Standard travel websites insist that you know your destination first, but that doesn’t help travelers who are more interested in the experience than the place. Sometimes it’s more fun to plan a trip around a certain type of activity or unique local festivities or random weirdness that makes a place appealing. The problem is we know we want to travel, but we always don’t know what we want beyond that.

In an attempt to find a way to feed that hungry travel bug who can’t decide between the rice noodles of Vietnam, the ugali in Kenya or the vegemite in Australia, I’ve hunted down five more websites that inspire travel — even when we don’t know where we want to go. (Make sure you check out the initial posting of six websites that inspire travel.)

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Posted in: Inspiration, Resources1 comments

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