Roadtripping

Ski season has opened in Colorado

Is it ski season already? At Arapahoe Basin in Colorado, it is. After 12 days of snowmaking, Arapahoe opened one lift and one trail Wednesday morning and reported that hundreds of skiers lined up to take to the slope.

We’re getting scattered reports of snow and snowmaking from around the country. Loveland Ski Area, also in Colorado, expects to open shortly. In Maine, Sunday River Ski Resort has started making snow and hopes to open before Halloween. And Heavenly Mountain Resort at Lake Tahoe got its first snow of the season last week, although not enough for skiing. Opening day at Heavenly is scheduled for Nov. 16.

Top photo: Skier at Arapahoe on Wednesday. Credit: Jack Dempsey/Arapahoe Basin

Bottom photo: Season's first snowman at Heavenly. Credit: Heavenly Mountain Resorts

On the road: bike-sharing programs

If you like to include bicycling in your travels, there’s a way to do that without bringing along your bike. A growing number of cities around the world have established bike-sharing programs, where people pay a membership fee, an hourly fee or both to use bicycles set up at stations around town. In many cases, you can take the bike from one station and leave it at another, so you’re not constantly circling back on your explorations. Fodor’s reports that there are more than 300 organized bike rental programs worldwide with a fleet of over 250,000 bikes.  The largest in North America? Washington D.C. Read the full report here.

Miami International Airport: TV's newest star

Guess which local player stars in television’s latest reality show?

Coming to the small screen next week: Miami International Airport.

MIA is the star of a new series on the Travel Channel: Airport 24/7: Miami. The six-episode series premieres at 9 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 2. If you’re a frequent flyer out of MIA, the show may not hold any surprises for you. But the show does underscore the complications and pressures of operating one of the biggest airports in the U.S.

Some vital stats: 38 million passengers a year (that’s more than 100,000 passengers daily moving along the concourses), 36,000 employees, 800 flights a day. Among U.S. airports, MIA is considered at high risk for terrorism and drug and currency smuggling.

In the first two episodes, all that and more make an appearance. A man “forgets” he packed a handgun in his carry-on and is hauled off by police. Another man has a knife concealed in the sole of his shoe; he’s now being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney. A dog sniffs out copious amount of cash ($20,000) on a couple who flew in from Germany — large amounts of cash are often associated with drugs or terrorism, we learn — but the two are determined to be simply wealthy European surgeons on vacation. Another dog gets excited about a load of tractor parts, and after much drilling through metal, cocaine is found in the parts. And an extra-large jar of peanut butter is confiscated from a woman who objects vociferously (but is not arrested).

Which brings us to what we do learn: Some people must have been living in caves since before 9/11, judging by what they think they can get past the security checkpoint. We see a display case with some of the other souvenirs confiscated from passengers: knives, grenades, box cutters, nunchuks, what looks like a crossbow (to bring down that elusive airline meal, no doubt).

So, you may be asking, how does one survive the dangers of a major international airport? The employees of MIA have good advice for you. Click to keep reading their 20 top tips.

Space shuttle Endeavor leaves Cape Canaveral for last time

Space shuttle Endeavor left the Kennedy Space Center and Florida for the last time on Wednesday, flying on the back of a modified 747 en route to Los Angeles, where it will become a museum display.

Weather delayed the flight for two days, but the mated aircraft finally departed near sunrise, swooping over Kennedy’s Rocket Garden, the beaches and Disney World in a final farewell.  Endeavor landed a few hours later in Houston. It will arrive in Los Angeles on Friday, then in mid-October will be towed to the California Science Center, its new home.

With Endeavor’s departure, the only shuttle remaining at Kennedy Space Center is Atlantis, which will go on display there next summer in an exhibition space now under construction.

For the Associated Press report and photo show of Wednesday’s flight, click here. For NASA’s report and photos, click here. For a video of Endeavor flying over Disney World, click here.

Photo credit: John Raoux/Associated Press

Isaac's winds uncover a 1923 shipwreck in Alabama

Here’s a sight I’d go out of my way to see if I were on a road trip: the remains of a schooner that ran aground off Mobile Bay, Alabama, nearly 90 years ago and was recently exposed by Hurricane Isaac.

It’s an interesting story. The schooner, Rachel, was blown onto the sand by a tropical storm. It was too far ashore to get it back into the water, so it was left there, on a long, thin spit of land that runs west from Gulf Shores near the mouth of Mobile Bay, on Fort Morgan Beach. Through the years, storm winds have uncovered it, then recovered it. Now, the old shipwreck is drawing a lot of attention, the Associated Press says. Read the full story here.

Photo: Melissa Nelson Gabriel/Associated Press

Countdown to Endeavor's final departure from Kennedy Space Center

As space shuttle Endeavor is being prepped for its final trip — to Los Angeles, where it will go on display at the California Science Center — consider its vital statistics: 25 missions, 299 days in space, 122,883,151 miles traveled, and 133 astronauts carried.

On Sept. 17, Endeavor will begin its flight to California on the back of the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, a specially designed Boeing 747. Kennedy Space Center is offering special tours in advance of the departure and special seating to watch the takeoff.

On Sept. 14 and 15, the Endeavor Bus Tour will drive by the mate-demate device as the shuttle is being mated to the aircraft; it will also drive by Launch Pad 39-A, from which most shuttle missions were launched. Cost is $20 ($14 children) in addition to admission to the center.

On Sept. 17, visitors can watch the takeoff and fly-over of Endeavor from the shuttle launch facility at about 7:30 a.m.; seats are $40 (plus admission). They can also watch the fly-over from the Rocket Garden of Kennedy Space Center or the live NASA broadcast in the center’s IMAX theater at no extra charge above regular admission ($50 adult/$40 child ages 3-11).

The public also can see the departure from outside Kennedy Space Center. The aircraft carrying Endeavor will fly over various parts of the Space Coast at about 1,500 feet above the ground, said Michael Curie, a NASA spokesman.

For tickets and information, click here or call 877-313-2610.

Endeavor is the last of the shuttles to depart for a permanent home in a museum. The Enterprise is in the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum in New York City, and Discovery is at Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia, part of the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum.

Atlantis will remain at Kennedy Space Center, where it will go on display in the summer of 2013 in a building now under construction. 

Photo: Space shuttles Atlantis (L) and Endeavour face each other as Endeavour backs out of the Orbiter Processing Facility and Atlantis is moved out of the Vehicle Assembly Building on Aug. 16. Roberto Gonzalez/Getty Images

Some Florida parks closed by flooding from Isaac

If you’re planning a road trip to one of Florida’s state or national parks over the Labor Day weekend, be warned: many were closed because of flooding or other problems caused by Tropical Storm (now Hurricane) Isaac.

Big Cypress and Everglades National Park reopened on Tuesday, and Dry Tortugas National Park is scheduled to reopen Thursday.

South Florida state parks are open, but some have closed specific facilities such as their visitors center or bicycle trails. Flooding problems were more extensive in the Panhandle, and many state parks there remain closed. FloridaRambler has compiled a list that you can check here. Or click here for the state’s list. 

More people plan to travel over Labor Day

If you’re planning to travel by car over Labor Day, you’ll be on the road with an estimated 28.2 million other people, the AAA says.

Eighty-five percent of the 33 million people planning to travel over the holiday are driving, according to the AAA’s travel forecast, which refers to the number of people who say they’ll travel at least 50 miles between Thursday and Monday of the long weekend. Eight percent will travel by air, and 7 percent by other transportation, mostly trains, buses and cruises.

The number of people planning to travel is up slightly (2.9 percent) over 2011, as are the number of miles they expect to cover (626) and the amount of money they expect to spend ($749).

In the South Atlantic region, which includes Florida, people plan to travel shorter distances (an average of 483 miles) and spend more ($827). The region will have more than twice as many solo travelers as the national average.

The national average price of self-serve regular gasoline as of Aug. 13 was 10 cents a gallon higher than the same time last year, but it’s 22 cents less than April, when prices peaked, AAA says. The survey found gas prices won’t have much impact on travel plans. But that’s not surprising. Consider: If you’re planning to drive 500 miles — about the distance of a round-trip between Miami and Orlando — and your car gets 25 miles per gallon, you’ll burn 20 gallons of gas. That 10-cent difference over last year amounts to $2.

Fifty shades of tourism

A movie can bring in so much tourism to the place where it was shot that local agencies  put a lot of resources into lobbying location scouts and moviemakers. Often the tourism agencies will also promote tours of movie sites after the fact. For example, VisitBritain.com has a page (click here) devoted to shooting locations titled “Britain is one glorious, gorgeous movie set.” North Carolina has put together a four-day itinerary of places where scenes from The Hunger Games move was shot (click here). Or consider Dyersville, Iowa, which built that town’s tourist industry entirely around the ballpark that was created for the shooting of Field of Dreams (click here).

Which brings us to Fifty Shades of Grey. The first book hasn’t even been made into a movie yet (it is in development at Universal), but already places mentioned in the trilogy, notably the Heathman Hotel in Portland, are being visited by curious tourists. Some hotels have created Shades of Grey-themed packages. No word on whether the packages include the, um, toys from the books. Read the story here.

 

Legendary Paris hotel to close for renovations

Mon dieu! The Paris Ritz has closed for renovations that are expected to take two years. It is the first time in its 114 years that the legendary hotel has closed. But it is not unheard of for luxury hotels to shut down while undergoing extensive renovations. In Los Angeles, for example, both the Beverly Hills Hotel and the Hotel Bel-Air closed for similar long periods while being overhauled. Fodor’s has details about the Ritz here.

Photo credit: ERIC PIERMONT/AFP/GettyImages