foXnoMad

The slogan adopted and originated in Austin, Texas to “keep Austin weird” was created to promote small businesses throughout the city.

The embodiment of the weirdness can be seen throughout the city as large chain restaurants and stores not easy to come by.

Travel down to the South Congress area to find a strip of individual restaurants, beer, with live music…of course. You can find weirdness in Austin, including people, places, and events at the Keep Austin Weird homepage.

I’d like to hear comments from those of you who have been to Austin, as my time there was short. Austin barely missed out on my list of the best US cities to visit on a weak dollar.

[photo by: traylev]

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The Minot International Airport, located roughly 40 miles south of the Canadian border in central North Dakota is extremely small and only hosts 3-4 flights per day. Northwest is the only airline that services the airport from Minneapolis. Minot International does not handle any flights from Canada, and gets it’s “international” designation since it has a customs service.

There are only 2 gates, one for incoming and the other for outgoing flights to Minneapolis. The airport is very easy to navigate; only a single luggage carousel, no fast food or restaurants, and one or two rental car offices (including Avis).

If you’ll be traveling out of Minot International, keep in mind that the TSA personnel search every piece of luggage and carry-on by hand. Any knives items that may have passed through the scanners at a larger airport will be confiscated (like my toothpaste, and deodorant were). You can show up to the terminal about 30 minutes before your flight, but keep in mind that your flight will be heavily dependent on the air traffic and weather in Minneapolis. Check the Orbitz Traveler Update and schedule your flights early in the day to avoid compounding delays.

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Due to heavy winds on the east coast of the United States, I’ve missed a connecting flight to North Dakota. The large Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport is filled with restaurants and multiple bathrooms, but isn’t the best airport to spend the night in.

In general, the power outlets are positioned in the hallways away from the gates making it difficult to find a spot to charge laptops and cell phones while catching some shut-eye. You’ll be able to find a good spot in between Concourse C and D, where the massage chairs are. There are tables to place your stuff and you can use the outlets for the massage chairs (or get a massage). There is no free wireless Internet, it will cost you around $8 to connect for 24 hours. A NetStumbler search will help you to locate some free maintenance networks.

The best thing to do in this situation is find a nice corner to sleep nearby the gate of my next flight. I’ll keep my cell phone alarm set to 3 hours before my flight to give me snooze and breakfast time. I’ve slept in many airports, and the lesson is the same for survival anywhere: find some food, shelter, and Starbucks.

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Everglades_Florida

SBH was kind enough to send us pictures from her recent trip to the Sawgrass Recreation Park in the Everglades, Florida.

A 30 minute group airboat tour runs about $20-25. (By the way, that’s not a group airboat below, it’s just a picture of an airboat).

Can you see the alligator?

Can you see him now?

The first airboat tour of the day leaves just after 9 a.m. and the tours continue to operate every thirty minutes throughout the day until the final airboat leaves at 4:30 p.m. We recommend that you and your group show up no later than 3 p.m. so that you may visit the animal exhibits first and then take the final tour of the day.

Over 10,000 islands make up the Everglades.

These are alligators in the Everglades, there are no crocodiles. Don’t know how to tell the difference? The easiest thing to remember is that you can see an alligators teeth when its mouth is closed.

You can visit the tour website here and see all of the pictures here. Remember, the Everglades are an endangered habitat and the home of 68 threatened and endangered species. For more information and how to help you can check the Everglades Foundation. Only about half of the original Everglades remains and 90% of the bird life has been killed by human activities.

If we don’t do anything to protect the land and the birds of the Everglades, they won’t be left for future generations to see. Questions and such you can holla in the comments.

Thanks SBH!

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These are a few of my favorites, you can click here for the rest.

Flowers in February.

Naughty pigs.

Stunt bicycle?

Cable cars (of course).

Good advice.

Where I thought the seals were:

Where they actually were:

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The Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport is littered with more fast food places than terminals. From their website:

More than 200 concessions for services, food, beverages, and retail shopping are available for your shopping or dining pleasure at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. Find what you need by using the handy search function right.

It is visually overwhelming.

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To summarize Amish country:

That’s about it. If you do decide to venture out there though, rest assured that everyone will give you conflicting directions. If one guy at the gas station says go left on Rt.30, the next woman eating a Ho-Ho down the street will says go right.

We pull up next to this old man to ask for directions, as my cousin looked at me like it was the worst idea in the world. The conversation went as such:

“Excuse me sir, could you tell me how to get to Amish country?”

To which he replied:

[audio:Amish.mp3]

[Ok the music player above may not be working...the guy said:

“Aaaaamish Cuuuntry wadduuu you waanna doo theere??”

Ah, yes…so nobody invited us in to their homes, no market with little Amish people line dancing…no nothing. Just farms. Amish country was a big let down. I didn’t even learn to say “hi” in Amish-talk. They all looked to pissed off to ask anyway.

You can see all of the pictures by clicking “Images” above, or right here!

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We made it out of Nebraska alive. Iowa was another story though. First we stopped at a podunk gas station on the west side of Iowa and go figure, kitty escapes from the car! Yep, I tried to catch him and learned that chasing a cat is totally futile… He found his way into a shallow swamp next to the gas station–swamps in Iowa smell BAD. Then we lost him. I thought he was stuck in the mud under the surface of the water, so I stepped into the swamp and started digging around. Then, surprise! he appeared on the bank at the other side of the swamp. So, we got him back into the car, but I lost my flip-flops in the mud and we smelled like stinky wet swamp for the rest of the day.

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From winky:
alllllright, so were in Ogallala Nebraska.? we passed through Wyoming, but didn’t stop.

kitty tried to kill stephanie by jumping under the gas pedal.? that scared her? so bad her shirt turned into a wife-beater.

we’ll send pictures when we can…

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