Biking along Lake Michigan

So you thought the biking craze was regulated to balmy climates and hippie-focused cities? Think again. Despite bone chilling temperatures for most of the year, Chicago hosts a sizable biking community that cycles year round, wind chill and snow be damned.  That means today’s “Critical Mass Bikers Parade” through downtown is just business as usual for  fleece-covered bike fans. Read More »

Hello, true-believers! It’s time for more traveling and internet fun! Try to contain yourself.

Here’s how it works. People send emails to the contact link in the sidebar, and then we look at them and put our favorites in this list for you, the reader. We also find stuff on the Twitter, which, apparently, all the kids are using. Sometimes we find information on Facebook, but most of the time we just tend our farm and fight ninja zombies.

And that’s how computers work.

Here:

BREAKING: Two Pakistani planes receive bomb threats, via MSNBC

CNN, “What’s next in airport screening?”

To which Time replies, “It’s gotta be the shoes.”

Global Grasshopper lists 10 beautiful spots for autumn vacations.

USA Today wants to know if you would use refilled hotel toiletries?

The Disney Blog reports that Disney Cruise Lines are sponsors of environmental summer camps in the Bahamas.

Gadling reflects on 9/11.

Nerd’s Eye View looks at travel from A to Z.

Disney’s Aulani on Oahu is almost open!

Help Cape Town save the rhinos!

Bondi Beach in Australia is NatGeo’s photo of the week.

Lonely Planet helps you eat elsewhere.

Yahoo! shows that idiot tourists can be from anywhere.

Frommer’s on hurricanes and travel.

And there you have it, fellow travelers — stuff from the internets. Enjoy, and travel safe!

Sure, anyone can avoid Phoenix by honoring any number of current boycotts placed upon the city, but politics is a constant storm and those winds tend to wax and wane. The haboob, however, sneaks up on you.

A haboob is a huge dust storm that looks like the gates of hell have been blown off the hinges (hence the heat) and is a fairly common occurrence in the desert areas of the Middle East. And now, apparently the American southwest. The Heritage and Science Park may have more info — if not, they will at least put a roof over you. Dust storms are really dirty.

Granted, many publications claim that such things have been a regular fixture of wind and weather forever, but I spent 28 years in Arizona and never saw more than the occasional dust devil. When I think of an Arizona summer storm I think of a monsoon. Now there’s a reason to visit.

This post is a Wordless Wednesday entry with some words blown in like so much dust.

Photo: Ms. Phoenix via Flickr

Gobble, gobble.

Turkeys may not fly, but they’re arriving by the plate full.  Also, tofurkey.

Speaking of turkeys, people are traveling in mass this weekend and into next week.  No, I did not call you or your mother a turkey – just that one relative that you’ve called worse.  Turkey. Read More »