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4 fascinating state capitol buildings
Cindy Belt Recreation & LeisureA great place to visit in each state is a state’s capitol building. I love the history, the stories behind it, the architecture, and that visiting capitol buildings is free! Most capitols also have free tours available, so you can hear more stories. There are two issues to remember…you may need to go through a metal detector. Also, parking can be difficult in these cities. Parking an RV would be very difficult. Here are four intriguing capitol buildings.
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Going underground: America’s most amazing cave tours
Dave G. Houser Recreation & LeisureWith more than 50,000 caves within the United States, there’s a mysterious and intriguing world to explore beneath the surface. Natural caverns reveal spectacular geologic formations like you’ll never see on the surface. For some, the prospect of venturing underground is exhilarating. For others it is frightening. But as noted author and mythologist Joseph Campbell once wrote, "The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek." So, strike your best Indiana Jones pose — and let’s go spelunking!
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E-bikes grow in popularity around the world
Dave G. Houser Transportation Technology & AutomotivePerhaps you can’t afford a Tesla, but you’d still like to avoid high gas prices and polluting the atmosphere. Then you should consider another kind of electric vehicle that’s been gaining momentum worldwide: the e-bike. An e-bike (short for electric bicycle) is essentially a standard bicycle fitted with an ingeniously integrated propulsion system consisting of a mini electric motor powered by a rechargeable lithium-ion battery.
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How Anthony Bourdain changed both food and travel
Bambi Majumdar Food & BeverageThe news about Anthony Bourdain's suicide on June 8 shook the world. His work reached across the food, travel and media industries but it touched millions. From the streets of Bangkok to diners in cowboy country, he explored the food that locals loved and devoured. He taught us to celebrate the differences in culture and appreciate the exotic. He also gave us a glimpse of the restaurant world, which is as harsh as it is creative.
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The best of US battle sites
Cindy Belt Recreation & LeisureI was never big on history classes in school, but after traveling and seeing historical locations in person, I feel more connected. Each place I visit means I learn and understand a bit more. A particular part of history is our wars. Battle sites and museums can be found in many states, especially in the East. You can experience history in a more intimate way by visiting sites such as these.
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Will the days of ‘going for a drive’ come to an end?
Lucy Wallwork Transportation Technology & Automotive"Autotelic travel" is undirected travel. In contrast with directed travel, this is travel for the sake of enjoyment, not in order to reach a destination. In the United States, this has manifested culturally as the tradition of "going for a drive." But with the new sustainability agenda, and the urgent need to reduce automobile trips for environmental and societal reasons, is this a luxury we can still afford?
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Why the quickest thing you can do to shoot better is something you shouldn’t…
Mike Ox Law Enforcement, Defense & SecurityI’m going to let you in on a little firearms training secret. It’s a trick used by instructors to get shooters on target quickly when they’re having problems, but don’t have the time to work with every shooter on the line as much as they’d like. Roughly half of the shooters I work with keep using this trick for the rest of their lives. The problem is…this technique that works so well shooting paper is almost guaranteed to fail in a life-and-death shooting situation.
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TPWD now accepting drawn hunt applications for 2018-19 season
John McAdams Recreation & LeisureThe Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) is now accepting applications to its drawn hunts program for the 2018-2019 season. All told, TPWD is offering more than 9,000 permits in nearly 50 different hunting categories and more than 100 different geographic hunting areas within the Lone Star State this year. In addition to native big-game species, hunters may also apply for permits to hunt exotic species like feral hogs, axis deer, sambar deer, gemsbok, and scimitar-horned oryx.
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Gateway Arch National Park gets a makeover
Dave G. Houser Recreation & LeisureA revitalized Gateway Arch National Park was dedicated during a festive ceremony July 3 in St. Louis, the culmination of a five-year, $380 million renovation project. The park was established in 1935 as the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial to honor President Thomas Jefferson, who turned St. Louis into the Gateway to the West by doubling the size of the United States with the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. It was renamed Gateway Arch National Park through federal legislation in February to better reflect the nature of the park's main attraction.
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Yosemite’s Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias reopens after massive…
Dave G. Houser Recreation & LeisureYosemite National Park’s most popular attraction finally reopened to the public June 14. The historic Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias — home to more than 500 mature giant sequoias — had been closed since 2015 to undertake a landmark project to protect the grove and re-establish the area’s natural serenity. The $40 million renovation began in July 2015 to replace the grove’s paved trails with natural surfaces and to relocate parking lots and visitor services to improve access to the famous 209-foot-tall Grizzly Giant and the California Tunnel Tree.
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