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IT—Inside Traveler
By Jessie Johnston and Emily King

March 22, 2007:

DIY Guidebooks

Travelers whom wild horses couldn't keep from a particular city (think Jessie and London, or Jerry and Paris) will be psyched about a new product that showed up in IT's mailbox: the Moleskine City Notebook. These combination guidebook/journals help you organize all those places you won't want to miss the next time around, and they're a heck of a lot more reliable than our usual method of keeping track (ye old noggin).

IT checked out the New York City edition, and it seems pretty handy. There's everything you need to navigate the city: an extensive section with maps (including subway), a street index, and nifty translucent sheets for tracing itineraries over maps. The tabbed "archive" section is definitely geared for repeat travelers, but first-time visitors with no plans to return can still use it (and the 76 blank pages) as a travel journal, and then marvel at the ease of passing on recommendations to friends following in their footsteps.

Each City Notebook is specific to a particular destination, and they are currently available for a number of cities in Europe and the U.S., with Asia on the way. Canada waits with baited breath.

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Traipsing Through Tourist Traps

Moving on is the way of all interns, but we here at IT have never been very good at dealing with the departure of our key allies in the war on boredom (i.e. blogging). After all, one of us was a Traveler intern who managed to never leave; why can't all the others follow suit? In order to alleviate some of the pain caused by intern Katie Howell's departure, we're running one of the blog entries she bequeathed us before beetling off to Turkey:

"In my former life as a geology grad student, I found myself crisscrossing the continent several times in search of fabulous rock outcrops and out-of-the-way mountain ranges. In doing so, I spent many a long day seeing only tumbleweed as scenery. My solution to fight eight-hours-on-an-interstate boredom: Stop at every side-of-the-highway tourist trap that came along. So I'll admit, I've seen a few: the world's largest ball of twine, a Davy Crockett statue in a town he never set foot in, and a creepy wax museum in Natural Bridge, Virginia, to name a few. Needless to say, when I get bored on a long drive, it doesn't take much to lure me off the interstate. Here's a rundown of my favorite tourist trap detours.

"Graceland Too (200 East Ghoulson Avenue; +1 662 252 2515) in Holly Springs, Mississippi, is situated roughly halfway between two Elvis meccas: his birthplace in Tupelo, Mississippi, and his adult home at Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee. Graceland Too owner Paul McLeod is most likely the world's biggest Elvis fan, and has devoted more than 40 years of his life to collecting anything and everything Elvis. Inside an antebellum home in Holly Springs, a tiny town about 50 miles from Interstates 40 and 55 in Memphis, MacLeod houses and showcases his collection and is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 52 weeks a year to show off his life's work. Walls, ceilings, and floors are plastered with pictures, newspaper and magazine clippings, and continuously running TV and movie clips of the King. The shrine is home to an enviable collection of rare Elvis albums and other memorabilia. Next time you're cruising through Memphis at 2 a.m. and in need of a truly bizarre pick-me-up, head down Highway 78 to Holly Springs. You won't be disappointed.

"America's Stonehenge in Salem, New Hampshire, is the U.S.'s answer to mysteriously placed rock structures, though notably not as old nor as auspiciously endorsed as its cousin across the pond. America's Stonehenge is about 45 minutes from Boston and is thought to represent an accurate astronomical calendar. The owners are also avid alpaca breeders, so a zoo of llamas and alpacas hiss at you as you walk up the hill to the main site, which really adds to the charm of the place—as did the people performing some sort of weird ceremony on one of the rocks while I was there.

"For some reason, creepy rock worshippers and llamas didn't turn me off from Stonehenge knock-offs, so when I saw the sign for Carhenge north of Interstate 80 in the Nebraska panhandle, I was magnetically drawn. And boy was I glad I stopped. Imagine a life-size replica of Stonehenge, made entirely out of up-ended and precariously perched, gray-painted 1950s sedans rising out of the wheat fields, and you can see how I killed a good hour here: gawking.

"In all my travels, the best advertised pull-off-the-road tourist trap is the famous Wall Drug close to Mount Rushmore in western South Dakota. Skip it. Opt instead for the more modestly publicized Corn Palace in Mitchell. You won't be disappointed. Made entirely out of corn, grain, grasses, straw, and wheat, the facade of the building is updated each year by local artists to depict the "bounty of the South Dakotan soil." The inside isn't really interesting, but seeing Lewis and Clark's 20-foot (six-meter)-tall mugs made entirely out of cornhusks was worth the trip."

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From March 20, 2007:

Wired Wanderlust: Iowans in Wide Open Spaces

Some may argue that it's bad journalism to write an entire blog post about your friends. But what if their experiences are too cool not to? Assistant online editor Mary Beth LaRue thought she'd send a little link love to her fellow world-traveling University of Iowa, but only because she thinks you'll be glad she did.

Amanda Del Sur—Twenty-five-year-old Amanda May's yearlong stay in Buenos Aires is captured in an array of bright colors and stark arrangements on her photo blog. Amanda shot with a Canon EOS 20D and traveled to Rosario, Mar del Plata, and Colonia, Uruguay. She says, "I tried to show the beauty within the ugliness of Latin America. I think of the blog as an abstract documentary." Now working as a waitress in Iowa City, camera aficionado Amanda is working on launching her photography career.

No Boundaries—After graduating, Omaha-native Andy Stoll and his friend Erick daydreamed about what paths they'd take post-college. The options they considered included teaching English in Japan, working as diving guides on the Great Barrier Reef, walking along the Great Wall of China, volunteering to help AIDS victims in Africa, backpacking across Europe, exploring the rain forests of South America, and, of course, a good old nine-to-five job in America. With that many options, Andy knew he had to get to work. While working a university job, Andy researched, saved money, and plotted a trip around the world. He's now in Hong Kong with plans to travel through east and southeast Asia, New Zealand, India, and Africa over the next two years. His plan is to set up (and document online) five or six "experiences"—whether working, teaching, or volunteering—in order to encounter each place beyond the limits of the usual snapshot-taking vacation.

Exploring the Unknown—Recent Iowa graduate Brian Triplett was sitting in his 1994 Nissan Altima in the parking lot of Panera Bread in Davenport, Iowa, trying to decide where to head first on his one-year around-the-world trip when he got a phone call from two friends living in New York City. One minute later Brian was headed down I-80 East to celebrate New Year's Eve in the Big Apple. He has since sold the Altima, driven through 20 states, taken in the Sundance Film Festival, and is now hanging out in Sydney before heading to his next stop. He won't reveal where he's headed until the plane has landed, so you have to read to find out.

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The Sun Also Rises… In Oak Park, Illinois

Discovered at a National Geographic Traveler writing seminar, Brett Ashley McKenzie won IT over with her unique pitch and her literary name—she tells us her mother named her after Lady Brett Ashley from Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises, "because she hoped that I would always grow up to be a writer and because she didn't want my gender to be evident on college applications." Just as her mother hoped, she writes:

"Ernest Hemingway once described his hometown of Oak Park, Illinois, as 'a place of broad lawns and narrow minds.' Had the author lived to spend a weekend there today, he might have held his tongue.

"Unlike the dull, Prohibition-practicing suburb of Hemingway's childhood, the streets of today's Oak Park are lined with quaint shops, galleries, and cafés. At Ridge Art, you can admire antique relics from the Caribbean, which the author called home for 20 years. Cabernet & Company sells Spanish wines like those Hemingway would have sipped after a Barcelonan bullfight. Visit Minou Cafe and Bakery [104 N. Marion Street; +1 708 848 6540] for an espresso and croissant before perusing Hemingway's works at Barbara's Bookstore.

"Café LaGuardia West offers some of the freshest Cuban sandwiches and best mojitos north of Hemingway's beloved Havana. The roasted pork sandwich features tender meat marinated in savory juices on crispy French bread. Pair it with the Hemingway martini, a refreshing mix of vodka, Chambord, and pineapple.

"Hungry for Hemingway's Moveable Feast? Café le Coq is as authentic a French bistro as you will find outside of Paris. Drink in the 19th-century decor—the stained-glass window, antique bar, ornate gold-framed mirrors, and cafe-style seating—then select your own drink from the impressive wine menu. The bavette à la Bordelaise (steak with caramelized onions in red wine butter sauce) will fill you up without leaving you overstuffed, which you'll appreciate when the crème brûlée sampler (vanilla bean, chocolate, and white chocolate mocha) arrives.

"Italy has been blamed for Hemingway's expatriate tendencies: His time as an ambulance driver during World War I was the author's first exposure to travel, and inspired his novel A Farewell to Arms. Get your own Italian fix at an American Opera Group performance of Don Giovanni.

"Spend the night at the Write Inn, across the street from the Hemingway museum. Built in 1926, the inn served as a residence hotel for Chicago's working women who feared the big city. The hotel has been renovated, but the decor and Oak Park's oldest operating lift will convince you that you've traveled back in time. Enjoy Sunday's champagne brunch at the Inn's Hemmingway's Bistro (intentionally misspelled as the bistro is not affiliated with Hemingway). Rooms start at $89 a night, a better bargain (and size) than you'll find anywhere in Chicago."

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Hypothetically, if Emily King, Traveler's assistant to the editor, had to choose her honeymoon destination today (and funds were unlimited), she would rent a bungalow in the Maldives. Researcher Jessie Johnston, answering under duress, concedes that she'd spend it in a cabin on British Columbia's Pacific coast.

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