The Inconsistent Nomad

My favorite things: The Nuu-Muu dress

noreply@blogger.com (Carla) — Fri, 10 Apr 2015 18:49:00 +0000

I've been trying to figure out exactly what I want to wear while running for 7-8 hours over the Great Wall of China. Here's what I need (or what I would really, really like):

For purely practical purposes, I need something that won't chafe or otherwise annoy the crap out of me and is made of wicking/quick-dry fabric.
I want to feel like I look good in whatever it is that I wear. Because I'm a chick that cares more about these things than I wish I did.
I'm going to have to fit everything I need for this race and 2.5 weeks of general traveling in a small backpack. So being able to wear my race outfit outside of the race itself would be pretty sweet.

Well, thanks to the inordinate amount of time I spend window-shopping on the internet, I found the perfect thing. It's not just the perfect thing to race in - it's my new favorite piece of clothing ever.

Ladies, it's time to get yourself acquainted with the unfortunately-named Nuu-Muu dress. Aside from the name making me thing of cows and fugly Hawaiian dresses, it's amazing. It's incredibly comfortable to run in (I wear shorts with it), it looks great, it dries in no time, and there's not a single thing on it that rubs or sits funny or otherwise provokes my ire.

And it really does work for everything. I've worn it running. Out dancing. To the grocery store. On a plane. Over shorts. Over jeans. They say you can swim in it, but I haven't done that yet. Perhaps I should test it in the shower like I did with this jacket.

I absolutely love this thing. I want to hug it and squeeze it and call it George.

I ordered mine online, but there are stores throughout the country that sell them, as well. Nuu-Muu makes a regular dress for $75, and they make ones with a pocket in the back for $85. I was pretty hesitant to spend that much money on such a seemingly simple garment, but it was completely worth it. The website offers tons of colors and patterns, but of course, I was super boring and got the plain black one. They currently only offer the dress in small, medium, and large, but I read somewhere that they have plans to expand their sizing.

With this and my favorite pair of plain black running shorts, I feel set for China. Well, for the clothing part, at least. I still have a lot of running to do in the next month. And if you spot me out running, I'll probably be wearing my Nuu-Muu dress.

My favorite things: the Hoboroll

noreply@blogger.com (Carla) — Sat, 04 Apr 2015 12:37:00 +0000

You know how carefully you organize everything in your backpack before you embark on a trip? Your shoes (stuffed with socks and undies to save space, duh) are all together in the bottom. Your clothes are carefully rolled up. Your soap is totally separate from your AA batteries.

And then by Day 2 of your trip, it's all gone to hell and it's a mess in there. You're scraping soap off of battery terminals, wondering how on earth your batteries even got in your toiletry bag, and you can't find a single pair of socks to save your life.

Enter the Hoboroll. This thing is so deceptively brilliant in design that I resisted buying it for a while. But now that I've given in, it's become one of my favorite pieces of travel gear.

The Hoboroll looks like a giant Trivial Pursuit playing piece. It's a simple cylindrical piece of fabric with 5 pie piece-shaped compartments that travel its entire length. It has a drawstring closure and compression straps along the outside that also function as a handle. That's is.

Trivial Pursuit playing piece. Imagine this longer and in fabric form.

Stuff your clothes and crap into each compartment, pull the drawstrings, and tighten the straps. Your junk isn't going anywhere, and you'll know exactly where to find it.

I wasn't sure the extra bulk of the Hoboroll was going to be worth the organization, but I was totally wrong about that. The fabric is very thin, so it really doesn't add any extra bulk. And knowing where to find my underwear without fishing through the entirety of my backpack is absolutely worth it. I've taken this thing camping. I took it to Croatia. I'm sold.

Now, I've noticed that the Hoboroll has undergone a redesign since I purchased mine. The new one looks even better, and I can't lie and say I don't want the latest version (my birthday is in August in case anyone was wondering...). The latest version has made some appealing improvements: they've added a draft collar, the compression straps appear to be more user-friendly, it now comes with a storage bag, and they now offer an optional cushioned shoulder strap. It also appears to be made out of even lighter, thinner material.

Dammit, I really want a new one.

I'm going to resist buying the latest version. But you better believe I'm using this thing when I go to China next month (ohmygod that's next month). And if you want one for yourself, get it here.

*Note: I was not paid to write this review, and I did not receive a free Hoboroll in exchange for a review. I bought it on my own because I thought it was cool, and I have written this review because I thought you might like it as much as I do. So yeah, this is an honest opinion.

The post-race China plan

noreply@blogger.com (Carla) — Sat, 14 Mar 2015 14:55:00 +0000

Well, besides the obvious part of the Great Wall, that is. I think I've made it clear that I'll be all over that bitch.

But if you know me at all, surely you've guessed by now that Amy and I aren't going to fly over to China, run all over the Wall, and come straight back. Sure, we're going to torture ourselves with this race, but we're going to make up for it by seeing a few things while we're in the neighborhood.

But China is a pretty big neighborhood, and we only have a couple of weeks to explore. So Amy and I took on the daunting task of figuring out exactly where we wanted to go after surviving the Wall. GAH. As I started thumbing through the China travel guides that our wonderful friend Bo had given us both for Christmas, I got frustrated. I want to go to all the places and see all the things. Ah, traveler problems.

After a lot of back-and-forth with each other and with a few travel agencies, we got it together. While I freak-stressed over the fact that there was no way to see everything I wanted (I know it's ridiculous, but I still want to see all the things), Amy remained completely laid back and open to my travel whims. We both agreed that Shanghai was not a must-see for either of us. While I wouldn't pass up a good offer to check it out, it strikes me as an Asian New York-Las Vegas hybrid with nothing but fancy shopping on offer. I'm sure it's a lovely place, but we're going to be in plenty of other big cities, and if I ever want to shop at a fancy-pants designer store, I can do that here in the US. But I've never wanted to do that here at home, so why would I want to do it in China?

So here's how the itinerary finally worked out with Amy doing almost all of the leg work with Marathon Tours (thank you, Amy):

Fly to Hong Kong a week before the race, flit around and deal with jet lag for a couple of days
Fly to Beijing, spend 5 days checking out Tienanmen Square and other touristy stuff, run the race, and recover
Fly to Xi'an for some sweet Terra Cotta Warrior action
Go to Chengdu and play with pandas. Freakin' panda bears!
Check out Mount Emei, because I'm a hippy that can't get enough of the mountains
Go to Guilin and explore karsts and caves
End up back in Hong Kong to chill out and fly back to the US.

This whole shebang will take us about 2.5 weeks. I figure it will be just enough to make me want to go back and see all the things I missed. Maybe I'll even want to go back to see Shanghai.

Crap: China is officially happening

noreply@blogger.com (Carla) — Fri, 13 Mar 2015 13:18:00 +0000

My friend Amy and I have been talking about doing this Great Wall of China Marathon for about a year now. What started off as a conversation that went about like this...

"That looks pretty cool. I'll do it if you do it..."

"Well, I'll do it if you do it."

"Ok, let's do it?"

...has become reality. Amy and I have officially signed up. Tours have been booked. Flights have been purchased. Visas are, well, in progress.

That just leaves one thing: ALL THE RUNNING.

I've been training for almost 2 months now, and I'm still scared sh*tless of this race. I'm running long distances. Hills. Sprints. Hill sprints. I run until I feel like puking. And I'm still terrified of not being able to even finish this race. It's one of the most difficult marathons in the world - mountainous, hot and humid, and uneven terrain. And let's be honest, with it being China and all, there will probably be a decent amount of air pollution, too.

So I'm spending a lot of money and time to torture myself.

I'm also having to prepare for this trip very differently than any other trip I've taken. The usual preparations still apply, but there are a lot of new things to consider. I need to carefully plan what I'll want to wear on race day. I don't know what the race support will be like, so I need to pack my own supplies like nutrition and first aid. And I'm going to have to fit all of this in a carry-on, because I refuse to check bags.

Then there are the potential communication issues to prepare for. China blocks a lot of internet traffic, including many sites run by Google, because Google and China don't get along. I'm a bit of a Google whore, so I want to ensure that I have some way of communicating with friends and family back home. That'll take some research and advance planning.

I have my work cut out for me. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go work on my visa application. Or run. Ok, both.

Top 10 funny/embarrassing stories from Croatia

noreply@blogger.com (Carla) — Tue, 24 Feb 2015 13:40:00 +0000

I like to think I'm a pretty seasoned traveler. And then I end up in some new country in a ridiculous situation I never could have imagined, or I just make an ass of myself. Croatia was no exception to this. Here are the top 10 funny, embarrassing, or just plain weird happenings from my trip there back in September:

1. I played on a playground in Sibenik like a boss.

2. Our guide took us through a pitch black and flooded WWI bunker on the side of a mountain at night. My inner claustrophobe freaked out for 2 minutes, then I managed to calm the hell down. I didn't even mind that much when we had to crawl through a hole in a wall to continue through to the other side.

3. While kayaking around Murter, we stopped at a secluded beach where a man by himself was pushing off. He had left his hat on shore, and one of our group waded out to give it back to him. A few days later on a super secluded beach in Kornati (remember, this is not an easily accessible park), we ran into the dude's wife. She recognized our group from his description, and she nearly flipped her sh*t thinking we had kayaked all the way there from Murter (3 hours away by boat). Then, we couldn't get rid of her. She came back to us again and again exclaiming over the coincidence. Very loudly.

4. The boat that we took out to Kornati and back had the tiniest bathroom I've ever been in. I also couldn't figure out how to flush the toilet.

5. On the 3-hour boat ride back from Kornati, Alabama, my home state, somehow came up in conversation. Our guide, Pero, started singing "Sweet Home Lalalama", who legitimately thought that was the proper name.

6. We almost biked through a funeral in Murter trying to get to some Roman ruins. Upon discovering what we were leisurely pedaling through, we promptly turned around and slunk away as quickly as possible. It would not have been the first time I'd crashed a funeral abroad.

7. Pero got our park entrance tickets for us at the Krka waterfalls. We started down the trail toward the falls, and the man that Pero had picked up the from appeared and held his hand out to me. Naturally, I shook it. He started laughing, and so did Pero. He was there to rip the stub from our tickets, despite the fact that he had just sold them to our group about 60 seconds earlier. I just thought he was really friendly.

8. On our last night, a few of us went out for drinks on the beach, including Pero, who was wearing sandals with Hello Kitty socks.

9. I am utterly awful at mountain biking. I skidded and slid all over the rocky, sandy trails around Murter, and I was Captain Chicken going downhill. I was usually the very last person in the group, and they were nice enough to wait up for me every few minutes.

10. At the entrance to Manita Pec cave in Paklenica National Park was a tiny, ramshackle shed. As we were waiting to go into the cave, Pero went into the shed, pulled out a large bottle of water, and handed it to us. I took a swig. It was grain alcohol. My eyes bulged out as I swallowed it, and I grinned at Pero. Another woman took a sip, shrieked, and nearly spit it out. You have to love a guy that takes you halfway up a mountain and serves you grain alcohol from a shack.

No trip is complete without a few nutty or embarrassing events, whether you're going to Croatia or Lalalama. They make some of the best memories.

What did I do in Croatia?

noreply@blogger.com (Carla) — Fri, 13 Feb 2015 14:04:00 +0000

Hopefully I got you somewhat curious about Croatia with my last post that practically described it as the best thing since sliced bread. I ended up gushing about the country in general and Jamming Adventures a lot, so I figured I would save the beautiful details for this post instead of turning the last one into a War and Peace-sized production.

I'll start with one of my favorite things: food and drink. They make great coffee (this is very important to me), brew very nice basic beers (this is also very important to me), and boast some absolutely fantastic wines that just don't get exported (this is very perturbing to me). Influence from Italy and northern countries like Slovenia, Austria, and Hungary mean that Croatia knows its way around pizza, sausage, steak, and seafood. I had the best calamari of my life at a restaurant in a campground that we kayaked to. Sheep cheese from the region of Pag gave me a foodgasm. My stomach loved Croatia.

BEEEEEEER

And now, the stuff I got to do: Torrential rains threw a bit of a wrench into our plans for the first couple of days, but thankfully it didn't stop us from doing anything at all. We spent an afternoon running around the nearby town of Sibenik, where we explored an abandoned fort that just happened to be one of the locations where a little HBO series called Game of Thrones is filmed. There was no one there except for us and a crew setting up equipment for shooting the next day. After the rains cleared up on a couple of other days, we kayaked and biked our way around the island of Murter. We kayaked to beaches not accessible by motor vehicle and snorkeled around a small shipwreck, and we biked through sandy trails and nearby towns throughout the island, where I found out that I SUCK at mountain biking. The beautiful afternoon and picture-perfect views made up for my wimpy biking.

Walkway to the fort just outside Sibenik

Kayaking around Murter

Sailboats near Murter

Biking break

Man, I thought Murter was gorgeous. Then Jamming started taking us to national parks for more kayaking, biking, and hiking, and it got even better.

We spent a day hiking in Paklenica National Park, which boasts steep, jagged mountains that makes rock climbers drool. A steep climb up a winding, gravelly trail that criss-crossed streams and waterfalls brought us to Manita pec cave, an 8-story gigantic cave with stalactites and stalagmites that are millions of years old. It was pretty mind-boggling. It was also freezing inside. The views the entire way were incredible. Even from the parking lot. I'm going to let the pictures speak for themselves.

Another day was spent kayaking in Kornati National Park. This was my absolute favorite day, and I considered throwing a fit when we were told we needed to head home. To access the park, you need a permit - and a boat to get you there. You also need someone that knows their way around, because the park is just a bunch of (mostly) uninhabited rocky islands sitting in crystal clear blue water.

Well, Jamming knows a guy who has a boat and knows his way around. So we loaded a bunch of kayaks into his boat and spent 3 chilly hours speeding our way over. It really is nothing but clear water, hilly/rocky islands, and a few grazing sheep roaming around. It was glorious. Our guide, Pero, led us to one of the only beaches in the entire park, which was simply stunning. I would have been happy camping out and kayaking this park for days.

Our final day was spent biking around Krka National Park and visiting the enormous waterfalls that are the main draw of the park. This was (mercifully) a road biking day. I love me some road biking.

Biking around Krka

It started raining - yes, again - as we arrived at the entrance to the waterfalls. Much of the entrance area was actually flooded. It wasn't until this point that I realized just how much rain Croatia was getting. The waterfalls were completely out of control. Paul, one of the owners of Jamming that came out to meet us at the falls, reported that this was the largest the falls had been in at least 25 years. These falls were indeed incredible. But the sheer amount of water we saw being thrown around was flabbergasting. Everything - everything - turned out to be flooded. Open walkways had water rushing underneath. If this park had been in the US, it would have been closed to the public. I'm glad it wasn't, though. It was an amazing sight, and we got to see it in a way that very few people ever will. The power of water was very humbling that day.

None of this water is supposed to be here

This is the quick and dirty version of the trip, but I can't finish off talking about this trip without telling you about the funny and embarrassing stuff that always happens when visiting a new country. So I'll save that for the next post.

Oops, I fell off the wagon

noreply@blogger.com (Carla) — Sun, 08 Feb 2015 14:00:00 +0000

Sorry about that - I disappeared for 6 months. I honestly don't have a great excuse. Life and laziness. They happen. I announced I was going to Croatia, and for all you knew, I went and never came back.

That was pretty tempting, actually. Croatia is officially my new favorite country, and I could easily see moving or retiring there. For starters, it's a jaw-dropping gorgeous country. Granted, most of what I saw was coastal, but dadgum was it breathtaking. People were helpful and friendly without being too helpful and friendly. I was always treated like a person, not a tourist with "ATM" tattooed on my forehead. And I found the most refreshing was the safety. There's very little crime in Croatia. Shoot, my first night in the country, a group of us took bicycles to the town center for dinner and left them propped up against a wall without locks. There was no concern that they would be stolen. No one locks their doors. I even left my passport sitting out in the apartment I was staying in with the windows open and didn't worry in the least about someone taking it. I've been so many places where I had to keep my valuables practically in my underwear, watch my own purse like a hawk, and do research on elaborate scams that I needed to be aware of and avoid. Not having to worry about all that was glorious.

Then there was the tour that I booked. I have a history of traveling on my own, but the whole reason for this trip was to go on an adventure tour that I found on The Clymb. They offered a kayaking/biking/hiking trip through a local Croatian adventure tour company called Jamming Adventures. If the outdoors is your thing and Croatia piques your interest, I cannot recommend this company highly enough. They are super organized, very responsive, flexible, and have a fantastic lineup of activities ("so many activities!"). They also restrict their tours to a maximum of 8 people, so it doesn't even feel like an organized tour.

People look at me funny when they find out I went to Croatia but didn't go to Dubrovnik, Zagreb, or any other major city with tons of attractions. Sure, I'd love to see those places someday, too, but I couldn't have been happier going to breathtaking national and local parks that many tourists probably never get to see or don't have to resources to get to (like the Kornati Islands, which I'll talk about in a future post - very difficult to get to on your own). The tiny town of Murter where I stayed offered both a large grocery store and a dramatic hilltop view of the surrounding islands, each just a 5 minute walk from Jamming's accommodations.

I'd go back in a heartbeat.

Preparing to travel on a whim

noreply@blogger.com (Carla) — Thu, 21 Aug 2014 15:46:00 +0000

I just booked my trip to Croatia a week ago, and exactly one month from now, I'll be coated in sunscreen and paddling my way around the Adriatic Sea. I think I booked this trip on something of a whim. I know time is relative and all that jazz (and physics), but I'm not Neil deGrasse Tyson, so I'm not going to get into all of that. But I did actually do a bit of prep work in order to book this trip as last-minute as I did.

Now, if you're rolling in dough and have Kardashian as one of your best friends, then traveling prep work is not necessary for you. But if you're a cheap bastard like I am and don't want to pay a sick amount of money to be able to take a trip at a moment's notice, then setting a few things in motion long before you might want to go somewhere is totally worth the effort.

There are 2 main items that made my Croatia trip possible:

Knowledge of companies and websites that offer reasonably priced or discounted trips that are highly regarded.
A wealth of frequent flyer miles, none of which I accumulated from actually flying.

Let's talk about #1. I didn't have any specific place I wanted to go, but I did have a date range that I needed to work with. Since I'm mildly obsessed with travel in general, I already knew of a few places to look for trips that I thought might interest me.

There are places all over the internet offering trips, so that can feel pretty overwhelming. One excellent company that I've heard about for years is Intrepid Travel, which offers small group tours all over the world. Nomadic Matt has recently entered into a partnership with Intrepid, and if they're good enough for Matt, then they're, well, good. And if you're unfamiliar with Nomadic Matt, he's pretty much the Jesus of budget traveling.

Another excellent place to look for trips offered by many different, smaller outfitters is The Clymb, and this is where I found my Croatia trip. The Clymb offers not just trips (most are activity-based), but all kinds of outdoor clothing and gear at a discount. Not all the trips they offer had user reviews, but every trip that did have reviews had nothing but fantastic ones. And since booking my trip, I've also found the company to be very responsive when I've had questions.

Now on to #2, which is a little more complex. First of all, in order to pull off #2, you MUST have a decent credit score and be financially savvy enough to not ever keep a balance on your credit cards. Ever. That's because the easiest way to bulk up on frequent flyer miles is to sign up for credit cards that offer awesome deals just for signing up and using the cards for as many every day purchases as possible to get even more miles. This is one of the most frequently used strategies in what's called travel hacking. That's a subject for another day, but the bottom line is, if you keep a balance on your credit cards, this method is totally not worth it. You'll just lose a lot of money to interest, and any miles you gain from signing up and using a card will be completely negated.

Now that we have that little lecture out of the way, I'm going to assume from here on out that you are able to pay off your credit cards every month. If you want to try for #2, you need to find and sign up for a credit card or two to sign up for that offer sign-up bonuses of at least 30,000 miles (or points that can be converted 1:1 into miles) and one year fee-free. For many of these cards, you also have to charge a certain amount of money to the card in the first 3 months. But, if you just charge every day expenses and bills to your card as mentioned above, this will not be a problem at all. I would also advise against signing up for a whole bunch of cards at one time. If they all have charge minimums in order to get the sign-up bonus activated, you'll have to spend that on each card during that time period, and unless you are a super big spender in general, this would be difficult to pull off for more than one or two cards.

But there are thousands of credit cards out there for you to choose from. While there are many that are worthwhile, I'm going to focus on just a couple of them today.

The first one I'd like to mention is the British Airways Chase Visa. Once every year or 2, they offer a crazy-ass monster deal that is, well, the best sign up offer I've ever seen. You get 50,000 just for signing up alone - no strings attached. And if you spend a minimum amount on the card in the first 3 months, you get another 50,000 miles. They don't waive the fee for the first year, but paying just $95 for 100,000 miles? That's nothing! This is THE deal to pounce on when it comes around. Also, you can totally book flights on British Airways partner airlines with the points. I flew from DC to Santiago using miles earned from this card, I didn't fly British Airways, nor did I come anywhere near Great Britain. If you find out about this deal when it happens, drop what you're doing and freakin' sign up for this card. But if you don't want to wait for this insane deal, this card is still a good deal at any time with a normal sign-up bonus of 50,000 miles.

The second card I'll talk about is a good deal any time: the Chase Sapphire Visa. This is the card I used to book my flights to Croatia. There is a sign-up bonus with a minimum spend amount in the first 3 months, but there's no annual fee at all. This card builds generic points instead of miles on a specific airline. But you can redeem the points at a 1:1 ratio for miles on a whole mess of airlines. And when you use the card for either travel or dining out, you get 2 points per dollar instead of 1 point for everything else. But one of the best things about this card is redeeming the points - you can use the Chase travel center to book flights with your points. Their travel site searches all available airlines that the points can be redeemed with, and there aren't blackout dates. It's like using any other flight search engine. It is SO easy. While I love my British Airways card, I was pulling my hair out trying to figure out if I could use my miles with them to get to Croatia. I spent a long time trying different options with British Airways and came up with pretty much nothing that would work for me. But with the Chase travel center? I had viable options in 3 minutes.

I totally understand that signing up for more credit cards just to bank a bunch of frequent flyer miles might seem a little daunting, or even just straight up crazy and stupid. I was a bit nervous about it when I signed up for my first card solely for this purpose. But I've done it many times now (Delta AmEx, Starwood Hotels AmEx, Southwest Visa, US Airways MasterCard, British Airways Visa, and Chase Sapphire), and it's been absolutely worth it. I've saved thousands in airfare over the past few years, and while it takes more advanced planning and coordination than, say, finding a website that offers quality trips at a discount, the payoff is truly fantastic. Had I not signed up for my Chase Sapphire Visa approximately 2 years ago, I wouldn't have been able to purchase my Croatia trip last minute on the cheap. I'm saving about $1300 through my bookings with The Clymb and using my credit card points.

I guess you could say that I started preparing for the Croatia trip 2 years ago when I signed up for the Chase credit card and when I heard about The Clymb website for the first time (that was a few years ago, too). I know that sounds like a lot of "prep" work for a trip, but browsing some travel websites and filling out a credit card application online doesn't take a whole lot of work. I actually consider it more "travel maintenance" than anything else - keeping everything in tip-top shape so that when I'm ready to pounce on an opportunity to go somewhere, I have the tools sharpened and ready to make it happen.

The next big trip will be to...

noreply@blogger.com (Carla) — Fri, 15 Aug 2014 19:43:00 +0000

... Croatia!

Oh, you didn't know I was planning to take a trip? Well, that makes two of us.

I've known for a few weeks that I'd have much of September to do pretty much whatever floats my boat thanks to having some time between jobs. But due to many other factors, I didn't know if going anywhere during that time would be possible or even a good idea. Maybe it's not a good idea, but I just said what the hell and booked it anyway. It's on somewhat of a whim I suppose, but in a lot of ways it's really not. I'm saving that for the next blog post, though.

So what exactly will I be doing? Kayaking in the Adriatic Sea for a week, that's what. There will also be a little hiking and biking involved, and I'm going to entirely miss the crush of the main tourist season while still enjoying some rockin' weather. It's been nearly two years since my last international trip, and I've been jonesing to get off the grid and go somewhere completely and utterly different - as in can't read the street signs (if they have street signs) different.

I am just a tad excited about all of this.

How did I decide on Croatia? Well, for starters, I've never been. But that wasn't a huge factor, because I pretty much want to go everywhere that I haven't been to yet. I decided I wanted to do something, not just fly to a big city and mill around. So I limited my search to a website that I knew would offer exactly the kind of trips I was looking for. - The Clymb. Then I asked the following questions:

Does this trip sound cool?
Have I been to said destination before?
Does this trip fit my desired time frame?
Can I get there and back using frequent flyer miles?

Boom. The Croatia trip I found met all my criteria. Done. Pass the sunscreen. It's time to lather up and get pumped.

The best alternative to staying at Disney World

noreply@blogger.com (Carla) — Mon, 21 Jul 2014 15:44:00 +0000

If you've never been to Disney World, I would bet a lot of money that you're planning to go. Even if you've been before, I'd be willing to bet (not as much money) that you're planning on going back.

It's no secret that people freakin' love Disney World, and it's also no secret that it's freakin' expensive to go. While many people stay on Disney property for all the conveniences of being a stone's throw from their favorite rides, there are plenty more that stay elsewhere for the sake of saving a bit of money. I can't blame them. I'm a cheapskate, myself. If you fall into the latter category, I have just the place for you to stay:

Winter Garden, Florida.

Never heard of it? I'm not surprised. I had never heard of it until my cousin and her husband moved there. Not that I was especially up-to-date on my Florida geography since I'm not a huge fan of the state as a whole. But the town is only about a 30 minute drive from the heart of Disney, it's ridiculously adorable, and there is not a single touristy thing about it. It's awesome.

Now, my cousin and her hubby have lived in Winter Garden for a few years, but I didn't really get to absorb all the charm of this little town until my last visit, where I actually stayed in a fantastic bed and breakfast smack in the center of town. The family converged on the town for a surprise party for my cousin, so we all had to lay low and stay, well, anywhere but her house. On previous trips to the town, my cousin and I would just hole up in their house catching up, doing something along the lines of drinking PBR and watching Top Gun in our pajamas (which is a glorious thing to do with your weekend, actually).

Actually staying downtown gave me a chance to really experience the life and flavor of this town. It's completely different from Disney. It's completely different from the beach towns and cities. Being in Winter Garden almost felt like going back in time. The whole place has an old-fashioned, casual feel. And on the third Saturday of every month, downtown holds an event called Cruz-N-Cars. People from all over God-knows-where converge on the downtown strip and show off their classic cars. Oldies music is blasted from somewhere. People bring out their camp chairs and just sit on the street enjoying the cars, talking to passers-by, and simply relax. It's fantastic. And if you don't like old cars and good music and chilling outside, you are a terrorist.

I don't even care about cars, but this is still cool.

Downtown Winter Garden even has solid food choices. Good luck finding awesome food anywhere inside Disney except for Epcot. Thai Blossom Restaurant rocks. If you're in a pizza mood, Winter Garden Pizza is delicious. And Moon Cricket Grille is a standard but solid place to enjoy a few beers.

Did I mention that there's a great multi-use trail that also cuts right through downtown? Yeah, they have that, too. And a really nice bike shop tucked among all the great food joints in case you're on two wheels get a flat. Of course, you'll have to brave the oppressive Florida heat and humidity to make use of the trail. And really, that's one of the main reasons I hate the whole dadgum state. But at least they have wintertime going for them.

So where is there to stay in this oasis from Disneymania? Well, there's only one hotel downtown, but you won't need another one, because this one is fabulous. It's the Historic Edgewater Hotel, and it's really more of a bed and breakfast. The building is beautiful, they have a fascinating old hand-operated elevator, the rooms are charming and cozy, and they even make you a hot breakfast made to order.

I swear, this town really is worth the small commute to and from Disney World. It's a great place to relax and regroup before diving into the crowds, lines, and expense of the theme parks. And if you disagree, I'll be happy to pay up that money I wagered. Which was none, actually, but never mind that.

Learn more about NYC by eating

noreply@blogger.com (Carla) — Wed, 21 May 2014 13:21:00 +0000

If you look up "hangry" online, you will probably find a picture of me. Hunger and I do not get along well. So when my friend Marissa suggested taking a food tour of the Lower East Side in Manhattan two weekends ago, I was all for it. God, I love food.

The tour was offered by the Tenement Museum, also conveniently located on the Lower East Side. And despite already having a bagel and a donut earlier in the morning, I was ready to shove more food into my gullet.

We ended up being 15 minutes late because the subway is smarter than we are. But as soon as we rolled up, we were escorted to our tour group, given a hearty welcome, and promised bottled water at the next stop. I hadn't even eaten anything yet, but I was already happy.

What I didn't realize about the tour was that it's purpose is to give a glimpse into the history of the Lower East Side through the foods that have been made and consumed there through the years. We ate pretzels from a German saloon as our guide told us about the German settlers in New York. We ate pickled pineapple from a Jewish pickle vendor and learned about the demise of food carts and old time propaganda claiming that pickles were terribly unhealthy. We scored hot-right-out-of-the-oven bialys from a Polish bakery - something I'd never even heard of. And we ate green tea flavored pastries from a bakery owned by the daughter of Chinese immigrants who wanted to fuse French baking with traditional Chinese flavors (and she has definitely succeeded).

After it was over, I felt both educated and sufficiently not hungry. The tour gave great insight into various cultures and the history of New York that I doubt you'll ever get in a classroom. But exploring history and culture through food makes so much sense - it's one thing that is a central part of every human being's life. I'd never thought of that until I got to stuff my face on this tour.

Our guides were fantastic, and so was the food. In fact, I was so enamored with the pickled pineapple that I went online and ordered myself an entire gallon of it. I highly recommend this tour if you find yourself in New York, and I'm pretty darn happy that Marissa discovered it.

And now I will wait for my tub of pineapple to arrive. I'm getting hungry.

Announcing the contest winners!

noreply@blogger.com (Carla) — Tue, 20 May 2014 14:39:00 +0000

Thank you to everyone that entered the caption contest to win an Embrace Sleep Collar! You people are pretty dadgum funny. I've had myself a good ol' time reading all the entries that you submitted and a tough time picking a winner and a runner-up. And for once, I'm not going to ramble - I'll get straight to the point:

The winner and recipient of an Embrace Sleep Collar and a Good Night Eye Shade is Veronika from Washington, D.C. Congratulations!

Maybe I should have taken the Voudon Priestess seriously when she said "Your ass is grass"

And the runner-up is Pierce from San Francisco. Congratulations to you, too!

That's the last time I take THAT shortcut...

I'd also like to give a shout-out of thanks to Designs in Progress that make both the Embrace Sleep Collar and the Good Night Eye Shade. Congratulations again to the winners, and thank you to everyone that sent in captions. I have been thoroughly entertained.

Washington Deluxe should show Megabus how it's done

noreply@blogger.com (Carla) — Fri, 16 May 2014 18:51:00 +0000

Ah, New York City. So many things to see, and so many ways to get there. There are probably thousands of planes, trains, and buses that I can choose from to ferry my butt up there from DC.

But planes are expensive, often delayed, and require getting somewhat naked in order to get there. Nope.

Trains are comfortable and not usually subject to delays, but they're still expensive. Nope.

Buses are cheap. So am I. We have a winner.

And that's how Chris and I found ourselves suffering through a ridiculous ride on Megabus this past December. We swore that was our first and last trip with Megabus. I did not forget this declaration as I made plans to go to New York last weekend to hang out with a friend. After checking rates and schedules with some other, generally less crappy bus companies, I settled on Washington Deluxe.

Let's just say that Megabus could learn a thing or 20 from Washington Deluxe about how to run their operation. Buses were on time. Employees were not only competent and informative, but (gasp!) friendly. Electrical outlets actually worked. Wi-fi actually worked. People with reservations actually got seats. I could understand the driver when he spoke. I kind of wanted to hug him.

There were some other definite pluses to taking Washington Deluxe:

They went directly from DC to Manhattan and vice versa. They did not pass Go. They did not collect $200. They did not pick up people in other cities (or stop in another city just to leave people stranded because they can't figure out how a reservation system is supposed to work).
The buses are normal, garden variety sized buses that hold about 50 people. No double deckers. Fewer people meant less chaos and confusion and faster loading and unloading. This was fabulous.
Some of their scheduled trips also offer a drop-off and pick-up in Brooklyn. Since I was staying in Brooklyn, this was also pretty darn fabulous.

The only minor negative was some cramped leg room on the bus up to New York. But I'm tall, and that's just something that happens in some group seating situations. I allowed my limbs to spill out into the aisle. Problem kind of solved.

I have to admit, it was a relief to realize that not all bus companies run a sh*t show like Megabus. I mean, if I'm only paying $50 for a ride to and from New York, I'm not going to be that picky. I can barely fill up my gas tank for that amount of money. I don't expect to be served club soda and peanuts or sit in a cushy nap-inducing seat. But if you're going to run a business of any sort, you have to do right by people. And I'm happy to report that Washington Deluxe does just that.

Win an Embrace Sleep Collar!

noreply@blogger.com (Carla) — Mon, 05 May 2014 17:11:00 +0000

FREE STUFF.

Oh hello, I have your attention now, I see.

I've talked about the Embrace Sleep Collar before, and it's one of my favorite travel doo-dads. If I know I'm going to need to sleep while in transit on any trip, I have to have this thing. If you're curious about it, well, here's your chance to win one!

Embrace Sleep Collar

All you have to do is submit a caption about the picture below:

YOUR CAPTION HERE

HOW TO ENTER

Tweet your caption entry to my twitter handle, @TheIncNomad and/or use the hashtag #TINContest.
All entries must be received by 11:59 pm on Monday, May 12, 2014.

That's all you have to do. You don't have to sign up for any newsletters, buy anything funky, or donate bone marrow. Just get creative and tweet me your best. I have high expectations of you people.

OTHER GOOD INFO

One winner and one runner-up will be chosen.
The winner will receive one Embrace Sleep Collar. And, hey-o, the winner gets to choose the color!
The runner-up will receive one Good Night Eye Shade. Runner-up gets to choose among the colors black, black, and black.
Everyone else receives eternal glory from your entry in the Twitterverse.
The winner and runner-up will be notified via Twitter.

CONTEST RULES

Contest open to legal residents of the continental U.S. only. Sorry, no international entries. And my apologies to Alaska and Hawaii.
Unlimited entries allowed. Put your creative caps on.
Any entries deemed inappropriate by The Inconsistent Nomad will be automatically disqualified. I mean, I like snarkiness and four-letter words and all, but if your entry is nothing but a string of curse words, it's getting tossed.
By entering this contest, you agree to have your first name and geographical location (city, state) published on The Inconsistent Nomad.
The winner and runner up must agree to give a valid mailing address to The Inconsistent Nomad. And if you're entering, I already have your Twitter handle - booyah. Contact information will not be shared with anyone outside of The Inconsistent Nomad and Designs in Progress (manufacturer of Sleep Collar and Good Night Eye Shade). We just want to send you your swag!
No purchase necessary, void where prohibited, yada yada yada.

I'd like to give a big thank you to the guys at Designs in Progress for working with me on this. I'm really looking forward to seeing what you all come up with. Happy captioning, and good luck!

Highlights of the American Odyssey Relay Race

noreply@blogger.com (Carla) — Thu, 01 May 2014 16:39:00 +0000

Now that I've learned and shared with you what I'll do differently for my next relay race, I thought I'd relive some of my favorite parts of racing for 30.25 hours straight - and some photographic evidence.

Eating anything I wanted because I'm RUNNING.
Having the best excuse ever to use my mustache flask.

Drawing mustaches and other things that shall not be named on our van (too bad the rain washed it all off just 30 minutes later).

Enjoying the gorgeous rural countryside - fields, cows, and civil war battlefields. Not too shabby, although sometimes the smells weren't fabulous.

Running at 3:30 am in pitch darkness (except for the safety lights of a couple of runners ahead of me and the occasional car headlights) from Maryland into West Virginia. The stars were absolutely brilliant. So were my bunny ears.

Beer after the 3:30 am run.
Seeing a waning crescent moon appear just before sunrise over an open field while everyone else slept (except our wonderful driver, Liz).
A cup of piping hot black coffee at 8am after a 2-hour snooze inside the van. And Thin Mints for breakfast.
Hanging out at transitions along the gorgeous C&O Canal.

Running along the C&O Canal just outside of DC while wearing bunny ears (yes, still) and getting bewildered looks from other runners and bikers.
Seeing the rest of the awesome Stash Mob team at the finish line and crossing it together.

Our way-too-with-it team captains have already registered the team for next year's race. This gives me plenty of time to plan for fabulous costumes and headgear for next time. I can't wait.

Lessons learned from my first relay race

noreply@blogger.com (Carla) — Mon, 28 Apr 2014 12:35:00 +0000

Thanks to all the amazing people on the Stash Mob team that I ran with this weekend, I am officially a relay race fan. After running 13.2 miles, getting around 3 hours of sleep, wearing lots of pink, and eating lots of junk food, I feel fabulous. A good long shower afterward and a few hours in compression socks helped a lot, though. I was a tad funky after running three times and spending 30 hours in a van with 5 other people.

I felt fairly prepared for my first relay experience, but one can only prepare so much without experience. I really hope to do one of these again in the future (and hopefully with the same people), so these are the top 10 things that I'll do differently next time:

1. Bring more beer. You can never have too much.
2. Bring less non-running clothing. I only need one outfit to sleep in and wear in between race legs. If it's not drenched in sweat, it's good enough.
3. Bring more bourbon. After running a leg that is cold and/or wet, bourbon will warm up your insides quite quickly. Also, it's delicious.
4. Bring a hydration pack, like this one. My last leg was hot with very little shade, and I ended up borrowing one from one of our fearless team captains (thank goodness they were prepared for things like this). There are no water stops (or toilets, for that matter) on the legs. If you're thirsty or have to poop, well, good luck with that.
5. Don't bring heavy costume hats. I brought a fabulous fuzzy pink Viking helmet, and it was too warm to wear it. I hate seeing a good Viking helmet go to waste.
6. Don't wear my "Show me your boobs" trucker hat inside a church. Oops.
7. Bring instant coffee to drink before each leg. A caffeine boost really makes a difference in my energy level, and it would have been really nice to have when I started my second leg around 3:30 am. I know I could drink a Red Bull or a 5 Hour Energy, but that stuff is disgusting. I'd rather run groggy than guzzle that swill.
8. Leave the camera at home. I thought I'd want to take some more serious pictures, but digging my camera out of one of my bags was too much of a pain in the ass. I always had my phone by my side, so laziness won that battle.
9. Bring a spare pair of running shoes. It started pouring a few hours into the race, and I had visions of having to run in muddy, soaked shoes the entire time. I didn't have to run in rain and mud, but a couple of our team members did.
10. Train. I was very lucky to be asked to take someone's place on the team at the last minute, so training wasn't much of an option this time around. But I have every intention of doing it again - only faster.

All in all, everything was fine, I didn't royally screw anything up, and our team captains were impressively prepared with everything we might need that we didn't have for ourselves, including everything from mustache bracelets to Gatorade. Because you never really know when you'll have a mustache bracelet emergency.

Our fearless and colorful captains

Re-evaluating the standard packing checklist

noreply@blogger.com (Carla) — Wed, 23 Apr 2014 17:22:00 +0000

Packing for a trip tends to be a pretty standard exercise. If it wasn't, there wouldn't be standardized packing lists all over the world wide web. There's this checklist from TravelSmith, this customizable Universal Packing List, and even this camping-specific packing template from freakin' Microsoft Office of all places.

You know something has become truly standardized when Microsoft gives you a template for it.

I started packing last night for this weekend relay race trip. We'll spend tomorrow night in Gettysburg, PA before starting our run the next morning, and Friday night will be spent in a van, in random rural parking lots, or just plain running. This is nor ordinary trip, and neither is the packing list I had to put together (thanks a lot, Bill Gates). Here are some of the items that made my list that may not make most standard packing checklists:

Bunny ears. Because why not.
Body Glide. Because chafing is bad.
3 sports bras. Because I sweat like a pig in heat.
Cards Against Humanity. Because - seriously, have you played this game? It's the best.
Homemade protein bars. Because yum.
Embrace Sleep Collar. Because I hope to sleep for at least a few minutes.
Temporary mustache tattoos. Because this should really be on a standardized packing list.
Trucker hat. Because I'm from Alabama.
Fuzzy pink Viking helmet. Because it's a fuzzy pink Viking helmet.

I have all this stuff jotted down (or already out on my kitchen table), but watch me forget something basic like toothpaste. Maybe I shouldn't write off Microsoft so quickly.

So when you start to pack for your next basic trip, the internet can help you make sure you don't forget anything. But if you're going on a trip that requires dirty games and wearing pink stuff on your head, then I have a list for you. Don't worry, - either way, you're covered.

Oops, I did it again

noreply@blogger.com (Carla) — Mon, 21 Apr 2014 13:42:00 +0000

I swear, I'm not becoming a maniacal travel-runner. I'm not going to try to run a race in all 50 states and on all 7 continents. I promise I won't pull a Forest Gump and run clear across the country, and if I do, I promise to have a better reason than "I just felt like it."

Actually, I probably wouldn't have a better reason that that. I'd probably say I was doing it for bacon research or something.

But I got this email the other day:

"Hey! We just had one of our American Odyssey Relay runners drop out for a work conflict, and the race is in 2 weeks!!! I know how you love last minute adventures and running so any chance you want to come play with us?"

So do I want to join a team of 12 people that will run 198 miles from Gettysburg, PA to DC, run a half-marathon distance for my part whether its cold or rainy or the middle of the night, get little to no sleep for about 36 hours, and ride around (when not running) in a van that we've all stunk up from our running funk?

Hell yes. I have no idea what I'm doing, but YES.

So I am now the 12th member of Team Stash Mob.

I've been to Gettysburg just once. It's a beautiful and fascinating place. The drive there was lovely (there was no traffic when I went), but you don't see all that much from a highway. This time, I won't get to see anything in Gettysburg itself, but I'll get to experience the in-between in an entirely different way. This time the destination really is about the journey itself, and on top of that, I get to experience it with 11 awesome people. And that's going to be pretty sweet. Exhausting and stinky, but sweet.

And we will all be sporting hot pink sweatshirts with giant mustaches on them. That's pretty sweet, too.

Why racing is better with loved ones and a beach

noreply@blogger.com (Carla) — Thu, 17 Apr 2014 13:29:00 +0000

Runners tend to talk a lot about the pain of running a race - hitting a wall, feeling sluggish, having to poop halfway through, aching joints, blisters, etc. But a race isn't necessarily a piece of cake for the spectators, either. For example:

Me: "Hey Chris, want to come with me to a race? We can spend more time in traffic than we do sleeping, you can get up with me before the crack of dawn, wander around the finish line for 2 hours while I run, then take a picture of me when I limp in and watch me devour post-race pizza! What do you say?"

Chris: "Sure."

I'm sure at least part of him really wanted to say, "WTF? You're nuts."

He did come along to cheer me on, which was wonderful, and it really does mean a lot to know that you have a loved one or few waiting for you at the finish line. I was very grateful for that.

I was also grateful that the race was on a Saturday morning instead of a Sunday. That meant we had time to do other things besides run (or wait on a runner).

Chris has a couple of good friends in nearby Virginia Beach, and one of them happened to be hosting a cookout the night of the race. Chris got to catch up with some good friends, and I got to meet fun new people, drink water like it was going out of style, eat everything in sight, and hold my own in beer pong.

The only downside to all of this springtime road trip fabulousness was the roads. Apparently, Virginia Beach area is allergic to left-hand turns. Everywhere we went (or tried to go), turning left was either impossible or illegal. Just going across the street to get a burger was a 15 minute ordeal. I highly disapprove of this transportation planning. Especially when it causes significant delays to stuffing a burger down my gullet when I'm superhero hungry.

But enough of that.

We still had one more day in front of us. So, beach, duh. We made the quick 30-minute trip to Virginia Beach proper on Sunday and had no left turn issues.

Virginia Beach has a lot of things going for it. It has a 3-mile long boardwalk with occasional historical markers and monuments, huge swaths of sand, beach volleyball courts all over the place, and a commercial strip 1 block off the beach that is actually pretty quaint for a large beach town. It can get massively crowded in the summer months, but given that springtime has just begun, it was pretty dadgum perfect crowd-wise.

We hit the boardwalk where we were quickly greeted by King Neptune holding an angry-looking turtle.

'Sup.

Next up was lunch, because I hadn't really stopped being hungry from the day before. We stopped at Tortugas Cafe and Tiki Bar, where the food was meh, but the view and this mango daiquiri were pretty sweet.

We continued our stroll down the boardwalk. There were people walking their dogs, running, and cruising past on strange bicycle contraptions that you never see anywhere but on a beach boardwalk. We even saw a lady that appeared to be Prancercising.

And then a super cold wind picked up and started whipping up sand, and it didn't let up. The people-watching was pretty fabulous, but it didn't quite trump getting pelted by sand in the cold. It was time to go.

Despite leaving a tad earlier than planned, I was pretty darn happy with the trip results. I like the idea of taking a trip for the sake of running a race, but it's much more enjoyable - for the runner and the spectator - when you can get the race over with and then not worry about eating, drinking, and sleeping. Even better, running the race right off the bat means eating and drinking EVERYTHING for the rest of the trip and doing whatever floats your boat. Now that's a win.

The first prep race for China

noreply@blogger.com (Carla) — Wed, 16 Apr 2014 01:24:00 +0000

The Great Wall Marathon may be over a year away, but the preparation has already started. When I announced my plans to run it, my friend Stacy asked if I'd like to run a half marathon with her in Chesapeake, Virginia - the Dismal Swamp Stomp - which took place this past weekend.

Stacy is kind of not human. She's done 6 marathons, a few half Ironmans, maybe even a full Ironman (I can't remember), and she gave birth to her second child a mere three months ago. Half marathon 3 months postpartum? No problem. If you're Stacy, that is. If that were me, I'd still be trying to cross the finish line.

This small, flat race was scheduled for a Saturday morning. That meant fighting traffic leaving DC on a Friday after work, which is never, ever, ever even remotely enjoyable. Chris and I left just after 5pm. Thanks to a horrific truck accident hours earlier, we averaged a whopping 35 mph the entire trip. 6 hours after we left DC, we arrived at the hotel that I Hotwire-ninja'd a few weeks back.

I hate driving. The only thing I hate more than driving is driving in DC. And this is why.

After not enough hours of sleep, it was race time. The weather simply couldn't have been more perfect - sunny, low humidity, and temperatures in the low 60s. I was hydrated and had downed plenty of coffee, but I was still feeling the 6 hour car ride and the lack of sleep. As we took off, Chris was napping happily in the car. I was a tad jealous.

The course was an out-and-back that followed a canal trail through the Great Dismal Swamp. The name sounds like something that will suck the life out of you, but the course was beautiful. And flat. Gloriously flat.

I actually thought I had a shot at finishing in under 2 hours. Then I hit mile 11. Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope. Mile 11 was my come-to-Jesus mile. Why am I doing this? I should just walk. Why the hell did I drive 6 hours is infuriating traffic to do this to myself? Is that bird mocking me? What am I doing with my life? Why am I running on a perfectly beautiful Saturday morning? I should be getting ready to go sit on my ass and drink mimosas and then take a nap. WHY DO I HATE FUN?

And then just past the 12.5 mile marker, I started to hear people cheering. Racers that had already finished had ventured back down the course to cheer us on. Spectators at the finish line were yelling.

I picked up my pace a little bit. I got to the finish where the crowds were, including Chris waiting with his iPhone to take a picture. I tried to not look wiped the hell out. When I saw the picture later, I just looked kind of constipated. I can live with that.

Stacy finished a few minutes later, beating her goal time by about 2 minutes. She rocks.

Stacy's family came over, and we made our way over to the post-race area, where we found runner refreshments of pizza and beer.

Pizza and beer! At 10am! This is why I do this. This is why we drove 6 hours in traffic. Screw you, waterfowl, I have beer. This is why I ran 13.1 miles on a beautiful Saturday morning. THIS IS FUN.

Even better, Stacy gave me her beer tickets since she's nursing a 3 month old. More beer for Chris and me. I read once that beer is a good recovery drink. I don't care if it is or not. I'm rolling with it, and please don't tell me otherwise.

It was absolutely perfect outside at this point. Sunny, breezy, perfect temperature, band playing, good friends, and pizza and beer at 10am in a beautiful state park in southern Virginia. And I beat my old half marathon time by 9.5 minutes (!).

The next morning, Stacy's 3 year-old son was at the hotel breakfast table wearing a Superman outfit. As you do. I almost asked him where he got it, but I realized I knew the answer. He gets it from his mama. Stacy is definitely Superwoman - with super ideas like traveling to run flat half marathons in the glorious springtime weather. I'm beyond happy that she invited me to join in the fun (traffic and mile 11 be damned) and happy that we both had great races because of it. Now I just have to run twice that distance on the Great Wall of China. GAH.

My new addiction

noreply@blogger.com (Carla) — Wed, 12 Mar 2014 12:39:00 +0000

It started off as such an innocent and thoughtful suggestion. Chris discovered the BBC's Travel Geoguessr game, which shows you 5 different locations via Google Earth and prompts you to guess where in the world you are by using your mouse to move around and zoom in and out. The closer you guess, the higher you score. He thought I would like it.

He was wrong.

I am head over heels, balls to the wall obsessed with this thing now. This is my Angry Birds, Candy Crush, and Farmville all rolled into one. It's even worse than when I got Tetris on my computer as a kid and played it so much that I had dreams about playing the game.

The BBC only put this thing out on the world wide web 3 months ago. Do they have a 12-step program to help people ween themselves off of it yet?

Let me know how you like it. My highest score so far is 12,506. I have no idea if this is a good score or not, but I'll be happy to take on some competition. Like I need a reason to play this thing any more furiously.

Happy guessing, and good luck not getting completely sucked in.

How to win at the Hotwire game

noreply@blogger.com (Carla) — Mon, 10 Mar 2014 12:15:00 +0000

Hotwire is a great place to find stellar deals on flights, rental cars, and hotels. You know, as long as you don't mind being kept in the dark about where you're staying, who you're flying with, or whose car you're driving.

But you don't have to stay entirely in the dark in order to save some moolah, at least when it comes to booking a hotel through Hotwire. There are ways to figure out with some relative certainty what hotel you're booking before you seal the deal. I've won at this game twice now. That makes me an expert on hacking Hotwire hotels, right?

Actually, please don't answer that. I'd like to stay in my little warped bubble in which I am a travel hacking goddess.

But if you do find yourself hunting for a hotel on Hotwire and are hoping for a specific hotel, here's what I've done to ensure that I got the exact place I wanted. I'll let you decide whether this is expert advice or whether I'm just lucky:

1. Pull up the location of your choice hotel on Google Maps or equivalent. If you use Mapquest, don't tell me because I'll make fun of you.

2. Find the same location on the Hotwire map after searching for the locality that you want. Various areas with Hotwire deals will be shown in green on the map. Compare this with Google Maps, and click on the green area on the Hotwire map that covers the location of the hotel you ultimately want. Hotwire will then only list hotels in that specific area.

3. Look up your chosen hotel's actual website and check the amenities that they offer - free wifi, a pool, free breakfast, pet friendly, etc. Keep this open and handy.

4. Now, look up said hotel on Hotels.com, Kayak.com, or similar website. Look at the star classification and the user ratings. Note that Hotels.com will give classifications by the half-star, but Kayak.com only gives classifications by full-star. So a 3.5 star hotel may show up in Kayak as either 3 or 4 stars.

4. Go back to the Hotwire page. The Hotwire hotels will list all the things that you looked up in #3 and #4. The "approval rating" may be represented differently on Hotwire than on sites such as Google and Trip Advisor, but if the approval rating is at, say 95% on a hotel on Hotwire and the customer rating score on Hotels.com is 4.5/5 for your preferred place, then I'd say you're on to something. If the star ratings match up fairly well and the amenities are the same, then you're definitely hot on the trail. If there's only one hotel in the cluster on the Hotwire map that seems to match everything you looked up on your chosen hotel, then chances are you have pinged your hotel.

5. Book it and see if you were right! Of course, if you were wrong, don't blame me. I've only done this twice. But if you are right, feel free to pat yourself on the back and buy me a drink sometime.

Good luck, and happy Hotwire-ing.

How we react to different types of travel

noreply@blogger.com (Carla) — Fri, 07 Mar 2014 13:16:00 +0000

I've traveled in foreign countries in rickshaws, blistering hot trains with no air conditioning and hard seats, rickety buses that should be rotting in a junkyard, and even by camel (sort of). I took all of these in stride, and even enjoyed them. Well, except for the camel.

Transportation of champions

So why is it that I can spend hours on a slow-moving train beyond drenched in a puddle of my own sweat and not mind it when I'm far from home, but put me in a nice car with leather seats, butt warmers, climate control, and absolute authority over what blasts from the speakers to go to work every day, and I erupt in fits of rage? Why do we hate our every day travel that can often be far more comfortable than the travel we engage in elsewhere for kicks and giggles?

I know that in some other countries, the lack of some comforts I'm used to while traveling is simply normal. I can deal with it when I'm there. But if I hit traffic in my car or I end up in a metro train car that is freezing cold, I'm livid. My expectations are higher. Sure, I'll share a tiny ferry boat that I waited 45 minutes for with a basket full of geese. That's awesome. But cut me off in downtown DC so that I get stuck at a red light? I will curse your existence until I reach my destination, and then I'll probably just keep cursing you.

I'm sure I'm not alone here. How many people hate their daily commute? Plenty. That's how we got all this road rage. But how many people also simply chose to enjoy their journey when they're traveling freely and of their own choice? Well, if your travel plans get royally screwed up, yeah, you're going to hate that. But just the normal process of getting around your destination of choice? How bad does it normally seem? Probably not bad at all. It's an experience!

Now one could argue that part of this difference may be due to the method of transport - namely driving to work every day versus using different forms of public transportation when traveling. I won't count that out. But I do know that I can get beyond disgusted when I take the bus or the metro around DC, and I've also done some driving while traveling where I've had a blast.

I've been thinking of these differences a good bit recently, and I'd like to try to start remembering my traveling mindset on my daily commute. I usually drive to work, and I'd like to remind myself of all the advantages and opportunities that this commute gives me. I have a comfortable, reliable car that has butt warmers. God, I love those butt warmers. But best of all, my daily drive affords me some amazing sights every single day - the U.S. Capitol building, the Jefferson Memorial, the Washington Monument, the Pentagon, and the Air Force Memorial. I also drive over the Potomac River, and if I'm stuck in traffic on the bridge, I can take a moment to enjoy some pretty gorgeous views.

I'd really like to make this mindset stick. I'll try it today. I'll probably measure it by how many people I curse from the confines of my car. But if I can take a moment to enjoy the great sights I pass every day and remember that I am neither on a camel's hump nor sharing my ride with a flock of geese, I'll consider that a good start.

My interview with Amateur Traveler

noreply@blogger.com (Carla) — Wed, 05 Mar 2014 17:42:00 +0000

I had the great fortune of being interviewed about my hometown of Mobile, Alabama with Chris Christensen of Amateur Traveler for his podcast series last month, and the podcast has just been released! You can listen to it here:

Amateur Traveler Episode 409 - Travel to Mobile, Alabama

Amateur Traveler is one of the most popular travel podcasts there is, and Chris has won quite a few awards over the years for doing his thing. For any place you want to go, Chris has probably interviewed someone about it. Mongolia? Covered. Papua New Guinea? Done. South Dakota? Yep.

I first found out about Amateur Traveler from my good friend Jason at Hull Financial Planning. He and his wife snagged the 3 of us an interview with Chris about our trip to Namibia a few years back. It somehow worked with all 4 of us connected via Skype from different locations. I was downright impressed, and I've been a fan of Amateur Traveler ever since.

So if you care to know more about Mobile, or if you just want to make fun of how I sound during an interview, here's your chance. Learn/mock away!

Plane boarding decoded

noreply@blogger.com (Carla) — Wed, 26 Feb 2014 21:21:00 +0000

I came across this article by Wise Bread the other day on how airlines decide how the masses should board their planes, and it answered questions I'd always had about airline's varying boarding logic but never really thought of enough to research, myself. Thanks, Wise Bread!

Back in the day, I had Silver status on both Delta and US Air. It was wonderful. I got priority boarding, better attention from customer service, and my name was automatically added to the first class wait list for each flight (and I got upgraded quite a few times). But I lost my treasured priority status a few years ago, and I have greatly missed it. So now I play the boarding game with the rest of humanity. Will I be in the last zone to be called? How many boarding zones does this airline even have? I will totally cut off that old lady with a cane to get to the front of the line when my zone is called. Move it or lose it, lady. Will there be enough space for my carry-on bag? If they make me check my bag, I swear I will throw a tantrum to rival that of any toddler...

So from now on, instead of making offerings of stale pretzels and mini bottles to the airline gods, I'll just check this article to see what seat I should book on my chosen airline to ensure that I don't get stuck boarding last and possibly fighting with overhead bin space and overzealous flight attendants that want to rip my carry-on from my hand and shove it in the cargo hold.