Remember the days when you could pick up the phone, dial 411, and reach a directory assistance operator who would look up a number for you for free? No? Well, perhaps I’m showing my age….

These days, a directory assistance call costs money – last time I called 411 on my cell phone it cost $1.50. This is not a service that I use with any regularity, but because I travel so much there are occasions when I simply must use my cell to find a number. So I was pleased to learn that Google has launched a new FREE directory assistance service called 1-800-GOOG-411. You don’t need a computer, an Internet connection, or even the keypad on your phone or mobile device. GOOG-411 is voice-activated, so you can access it from any phone, in any location, at any time. Here’s how it works:

Dial (1-800) GOOG-411. When prompted, say the city and state, or key in the zip code. Next, you will be asked for the business name or category. You can name a specific company (for example, Holiday Inn Hotel) or just say “hotels.” The service will respond with a numbered list of area hotels; simply respond with the number of your choice and you are instantly connected.

If you are calling from a mobile device, GOOG-411 can even send you a text message with more details and a map. Simply say “Text message” or “Map it.”

Of course, your telephone company may apply usual charges for making a phone call or receiving an SMS, but you will not be charged any additional 411 fee. Way to go, Google.

Gogo Inflight Internet, the new service that lets you surf the internet, get email, and use your mobile device while cruising at 30,000 feet at 500 mph, is offering a 50% discount on your first use through August 31, 2009.

Gogo promises that “if you can wi-fi, you can gogo.” The service is available on select AirTran, American Airlines, Delta, and Virgin America flights, and more are being added every day! It works with smartphones and other hand-held devices equipped with wi-fi, offered by all major U.S. carriers. Platforms supported include: BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Apple, and Nokia (Symbian S60).

How does it work? Once the aircraft reaches 10,000 feet and the captain gives the okay to turn on portable electronic devices, just turn on your wi-fi, connect to the gogo inflight signal, then simply launch your web browser and sign up. Read the rest of this entry »

Following two intense days at BlogHer 2009, I headed back into Chicago for Travel Blog Exchange ’09, a one day event for travel bloggers sponsored by TravelBlogExchange.com. The website was founded just last year by Kim Mance, host of Galavanting.tv, and editor-in-chief of GoGalavanting.com, as a place for those who blog about travel to connect with one another as well as members of the media, travel industry professionals, vendors, and advertisers.

Kim, along with fellow TBEXer Debbie Dubrow of DeliciousBaby.com, organized the inaugural event. And what an event! They envisioned that it would someday attract every person on their “dream list” of travel bloggers/writers they’d most like to meet. Even Kim and Debbie couldn’t have imagined their vision would become a reality on this first ever get-together, but that’s exactly what happened. Attendees included BootsnAll Travel, National Geographic Traveler ombudsman Chris Elliott, Wendy Perrin from Conde Nast Traveler, Disney, WorldHum, and Gadling, among others.

Those of you who have been following my blog for a while know that I fled from corporate life in December of 2006 to do what I love – travel writing and Read the rest of this entry »

BlogHer 2009, the quintessential gathering of women who blog, is over for another year. It was my first time at BlogHer and I was extremely impressed, although the whirlwind of keynote sessions, breakout panels, geek labs, leadership track training, exhibitions, and private parties left me exhausted.

Welcome session

The undisputed highlight of the conference was the Community Keynote, where 21 chosen BlogHer bloggers read their work. I laughed out loud as Danielle from KnottyYarn.com told us about forgetting to remove her tampon before having sex with her husband and then, when she couldn’t “find” the tampon, living in fear that she would die of toxic shock syndrome for five days before going to the doctor. It was especially amusing to me because the same thing happened to me, oh so many years ago, and it took me three days to “fish it out,” as Danielle’s doctor referred to the process.

Issa from Issa’s Crazy World stepped to the mike and, with wavering voice, related the story of her beloved uncle Marky, who suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and lived most of his life as a mentally unstable homeless person. Read the rest of this entry »

“I wonder where that road goes?”

Some insatiable curiosity has always compelled me to take the path less traveled, searching for little known landmarks, attractions, or beautiful vistas that I am certain lie along its route. I simply cannot resist the allure of the unknown. So when I returned from my westbound trek on the Silver Comet Trail the other day and learned that the ruins of an old mill could be seen on the eastern portion of the trail, I knew I could not leave Smyrna, Georgia without investigating further.

The following day I walked east on the Silver Comet, looking for the side path I had been told would lead to the ruins. Perhaps a third of a mile from the Concord Road access I came upon an unmarked narrow asphalt path that descended steeply, snaking through the forest in a series of loop-de-loops that must have been mapped out by a drunken surveyor. At the bottom of the hill the old mill leaned precariously toward Nickajack creek despite steel I-beams bracing what remained of its two-foot thick brick walls.

Concord Woolen Mills Ruin

When Concord Woolen Mills opened in 1847 it was one of the first industrial employers in the county. During the Civil War the mill made Confederate uniforms until it was burned by Sherman’s troops on July 4, 1864. After the war the mill was rebuilt and prospered until 1889, when fire again Read the rest of this entry »

Seems I have a hard time staying in one place for very long. I am on the road again, headed for Chicago to attend two blogging conferences: BlogHer and TravelBlogExchange. As usual, I am wandering a bit. In Smyrna, Georgia (a suburb of Atlanta) I stopped to check out the Silver Comet Trail, the longest paved trail in the U.S. and one that is extremely popular with walkers, bikers, joggers, and roller bladers.

Portion of the trail west of the Concord Road access in Smyrna

The vision for this trail began in 1991, when a group of cycling buddies envisioned a network of off-road trails in and around Atlanta. Each of them had biked off-road trails in other cities and understood how they connected neighborhoods and encouraged healthier lifestyles. Determined to develop this same type of amenity for the Atlanta area, they convinced the Georgia Department of Transportation to purchase miles of abandoned railroad right-of-way for a potential commuter rail corridor and allow interim use as a trail. It was named the Silver Comet Trail in honor of the Silver Comet train, which had carried passengers along this route from 1947 to 1969. Read the rest of this entry »

In early May I wrote about plans to scuttle the USS Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg, a WWII troop carrier and Cold War era spy ship, seven miles off the coast of Key West in order to create the world’s second largest artificial reef for divers. The sinking, which occurred on May 27, 2009, was done by Associated Marine Salvage and was documented by several videographers. One of the best videos, produced by Fla-Keys.com, can be viewed by clicking on the photo below:

USS Vandenberg Video

SinkTheVandenberg.com also has some fascinating, short clips, including videos from cameras mounted on the ship during the sinking. I was surprised by these views. I expected a big bang from the multiple, simultaneous detonations but it was more like a series of soft pops followed by puffs of smoke. And then, down she went – fast! Thirteen years of work to bring her to Key West ended in less than two minutes.

The Vandenberg is already attracting interest from divers all over the world and is sure to be a boon to tourism. I look forward to watching the ship morph into a living reef, and on some not-too-distant day, comparing my photo of the docked ship to one of its coral-encrusted sunken hull.

The merry-go-round has come full circle and it’s once again my turn to host the Blogging Boomers Carnival. This week our lively group of boomers are discussing an fascinating array of subjects. I’ll give you a sneak peek, but to read the full post, click on the links within each of the listings. I’ve read them all and highly recommend what’s on tap this week:

SoBabyBoomer says the expensive approach to retirement is to pile up so much money that you’ll be safe no matter how long you live or what goes wrong with your health or the markets. But for many Baby Boomers, the amount required seems ridiculously out of reach and it’s time to rethink retirement.

When setting up your LinkedIn profile, you have to decide whether to keep your connection list private or public. Andrea at The Baby Boomer Entrepreneur discusses the pros and cons of keeping your LinkedIn connections private.

The death of Walter Cronkite impacted the Midlife Crisis Queen, Laura Lee more than she ever expected.  Her personal tribute to the man explains what he meant to her.

Find out which towns in the U.S. have some of the most affordable housing at The Baby Boomer Chronicles.

If you are wondering what to wear to an outdoor party in July when the weather is 85 and humid, and you’ve been having hot flashes, then check out Fabulous after 40. The Glam Gals have some great ideas for how to keep and look cool this summer.

Over at Contemporary Retirement, Ann has the magic number for keeping weight off, once you’ve gone to all the trouble of losing it!

Old wives tales live on, in part, because they have a kernel of truth. Dina at This Marriage Thing re-examines common marriage advice and whether it’s OK to go to bed mad.

Regular physical exercise may help protect against mild cognitive impairment, according to a Mayo Clinic study. Add that to the list of reasons to get up off the couch and out for a run, ride, walk.

Janet Wendy at Gen Plus adds her own two cents on health care reform in the United States. (Hint: she’s originally from Canada)

Hope you enjoy browsing the posts as much as I did!

In the world of museums it would seem unlikely if not downright preposterous to find circus artifacts mingled with fine art, yet that is precisely what visitors find at the John and Mabel Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, Florida. With a name like Ringling, the circus connection is not surprising – the benefactors of the museum are the famed couple who owned and operated the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus for many years. What does surprise is the impressive collection of European, Asian and American paintings and sculptures.

One of numerous galleries displaying the impressive collection of Baroque paintings amassed by John and Mabel Ringling

With the great fortune amassed through their circus, John and Mabel Ringling traveled extensively throughout Europe. In Italy, especially, they developed a passion for fine art, which led to John becoming a regular at New York and London art auctions during the 1920′s. He purchased masterpieces by Rubens, Titian, Velazquez, Hals, Van Dyck, and Gainesborough, as well as a collection of Cypriot, Greek and Roman antiquities from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. By 1931, Ringling had built a museum designed after the Renaissance and Baroque palaces and museums of Italy to house their ever-growing collection.

"The Triumph of Divine Love," one of eleven enormous canvases painted by Peter Paul Rubens for his series "The Triumph of the Eucharist"

Immediately inside the front doors of the museum hang five enormous paintings by Peter Paul Rubens from the series titled The Triumph of the Eucharist. At a time when the Catholic Church was losing membership to the newer Protestant denomination, Isabella Clara Eugenia, a devout Catholic and daughter of King Philip II of Spain, commissioned Rubens to paint a set of 11 scenes depicting the Catholic celebration of Eucharist or Mass. The paintings were produced for weavers of the day, who used them as templates to create tapestries that hung on the walls of royal palaces and homes of the wealthy. After Eugenia’s death in 1633, the paintings were dispersed throughout Europe. Four of the originals were destroyed in a fire, two eventually landed in the Louvre Museum in Paris; the remaining five were purchased by the Ringlings in 1926, becoming the only large-scale painting cycle by Rubens outside of Europe. Read the rest of this entry »