Travel
Topic archive / 124 posts
Making Lemonade
Today’s plan was to squeeze a few of South Dakota’s less time-consuming sights into the 600+ miles between Mount Rushmore and Minneapolis. The first stop was Wall Drug, a drug store cum souvenir stand whose quaint roadside advertising has a blast radius reaching for hundreds of miles. The amount of time we were willing to spend browsing jackalope shot glasses and listening to children wailing about the injustice of being denied miniature, personalized South Dakota… See more →
Lurking in the Mist
One of the things that makes this country fun to explore is that its size and history imbue it with much variety, both in terms of terrain and culture. In these few short weeks on the road, I’ve driven through forests, plains, bayous, deserts, and mountains, and seen communities, food, art, and architecture representing dozens of cultures from across the globe. Surprisingly, the only thing that’s been mostly consistent has been the pleasant weather. Until… See more →
Ode to a Town Best Forgotten
Montana and Wyoming are not unattractive states, but as the mountains flattened out to hills flattened out to farms, the scenery was getting tiresome. It rained all day, at times hard enough to completely obscure the tiresome scenery, not to mention the unlit motorists with whom we were sharing I-90. So pretty much everything about the drive made us look forward to ending it. We did so upon arriving at Gillette, Wyoming, where we chose… See more →
White Is the New Yellow
Apparently, a visit to Yellowstone National Park in late May is best experienced atop a tauntaun. Maybe everyone in the world knew that, and you all assumed Wayne and I did, too. “Surely they’ve packed hats and gloves and snow boots for their May road trip,” everyone would have said to themselves, had it been obscure enough a detail to even register above their subconscious. We appreciate the benefit of the doubt you didn’t even… See more →
In Montana, No One Can Hear You Scream
To leave Seattle and stay in the US, you must go in one of two directions. Since we came from the south, our Seattle exit was east, which pointed us homeward for the first time. Whether spurred on by that closing gap, the first full day of miserable weather, or just the way people drive in this part of the country, the uncharacteristic patience I’ve displayed behind the wheel over the past 6,000 miles has… See more →
North by Northwest
The ease with which “Pacific Northwest” is abbreviated to PACNOWE made us feel unwelcome before we even got here, but we were able to resist obeying that imperative long enough to have a very fun day in Seattle.
Most of the day was spent at the Experience Music Project, a museum housed in the first Frank Gehry building I’ve gotten to see in person. The building’s effect was much what I imagined it would be:… See more →
Oregon Thanks You
Our spectacular Portland hosts were two of the 75,000 people at today’s Obama rally, which gave us just the right amount of time to handle a dire laundry situation and give the car some well-deserved love. After digging for quarters for the washer/dryer and replacing some fluids at Oil Can Henry’s (the automotive equivalent of an operating theater), we were ready for a glimpse of Portland before moving on to Seattle in the evening.
That… See more →
Doing Battle with Boredom
Neither Wayne nor I was prepared for how quickly northern California surrenders San Francisco’s unique metropolitan vistas to what I’ve come to call “New Ohio.” Flat, unremarkable farmland for miles, as far as the eye can see. The scenery eventually gives way to an astonishing panorama of snow-capped mountains, forests, lakes, and hills, but we were initially unsure of exactly how long the bland, agricultural nothingness would plague our eleven-hour drive, so we needed to… See more →
The City
The ninety-sixth episode of Full House, which marked the series’ halfway point, was called “Matchmaker Michelle.” In it, the youngest Tanner child decides to fix up her father with her preschool teacher, who is a generation older than him. What I find really interesting about this episode is that the catalyst for Michelle’s desire to find a new mother is her friend Teddy, who asks why she is always the daddy when they play house.… See more →
Xanadu
Among thousands of acres of land, a private airstrip, several species of exotic wildlife, and many millions of dollars worth of imported works of art, today belonged to Hearst Castle. I’m speaking, of course, of the incredible and excessive home that newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst built for himself over the course of more than twenty years in the early-mid twentieth century. As far as I know, it is the closest thing this country has… See more →
The Left Coast
Today’s drive was by far the prettiest of the trip so far. If I could, I’d take it out to dinner and a movie. I’d bring it home to meet my parents. I’d buy it a blood diamond and audition wedding DJs with it. We’d honeymoon at Disneyland, put a down payment on a mortgage in a Toll Brothers gated community, and have cute disagreements over paint chips. We’d have three kids named after our… See more →
City of the Angels
Yesterday, as we sped along I-15 en route to LA, signs started pointing us toward a ghost town called Calico. Naïve tourists that we are, we were startled to find people working there and asking us to pay them six dollars for admission. A town with employees, an infrastructure, a web site, and its name painted in giant letters on the side of a mountain can’t rightly be described as ghostly, so we continued on… See more →
Right Turn Only
We have reached the ocean! I was excited to begin the historic documentation of our discovery of America’s west coast, and perhaps begin plans for the construction of a city here with a thriving entertainment industry. I guess I missed the issue of National Geographic that covered someone beating me to it. Apparently I have friends here, too!
Imagine my surprise when I set foot in southern California for the first time and found it… See more →
Ready to Burn
Last night, we ate Italian food at a western-themed restaurant run by Asians. This can only happen in America. Early this morning, Wayne’s stomach revealed itself to be decidedly anti-American. His freedom-hating innards kept us from getting back on the road until well into the afternoon, but we prevailed in their crusade against our schedule, arriving in Las Vegas shortly after seven o’clock.
To get as well-rounded a Vegas experience as I could in the… See more →
A Plan for Mother’s day
It is Mother’s Day, and I am far away from my mother. She and my godmother, my Aunt Pat, are celebrating with the family today just outside Philadelphia, PA. I am at the Grand Canyon, and according to Google Maps, the distance between the two is about 2,020 miles as the crow flies. I’d love to spend the day with them and be back here in time to get to Las Vegas tonight, but it’s… See more →
Hole
In AC/DC’s 1976 classic “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap,” the late Bon Scott gleefully lists a handful of his favorite methods for ridding his clients of their enemies, including concrete shoes, cyanide, and TNT. He makes no mention of the Grand Canyon, probably because its Arizona location is geographically inconvenient for an Australian like him. But boy was he missing an opportunity.
Most people who visit the Grand Canyon are stricken by its arresting natural… See more →
Wayne Across America
Despite the Philadelphia International Airport’s best efforts to the contrary, my traveling companion and longtime friend Wayne Kobylinski arrived to meet me in Albuquerque today, only about three and a half hours late. This meant our drive up to Flagstaff was much darker than it was originally intended to be, which gave us a chance to learn not only that one of my headlights is out, but that Arizona is less beautiful when you can’t… See more →
Meet the New Mexico, Same as the Old Mexico
I seem to be hitting my stride; the four hours in the car today were nothing. The fact that the drive was equally as scenic as yesterday’s but more populated and less lengthy helped quite a bit. However, had I known what Albuquerque had in store for me, the trip probably would have seemed much longer.
I knew next to nothing about Albuquerque before today, and I now know slightly less than nothing. The little… See more →
The Stars at Night Are Big and Bright
I took one for the team tonight, folks. With apologies to the citizens of El Paso, their city is merely a stop on this trip, not a destination, so I didn’t bake in time to research local cuisine. I did get a very specific recommendation from Austin’s own Scott Sims about a good Tex-Mex place less than a mile from my hotel. But by the time I checked in, I couldn’t bring myself to get… See more →
How Do You Spell Relief? A-U-S-T-I-N
When you have as many reasons to look forward to arriving in Austin as I did today, you keep a constant eye on the speedometer, and that eye is ceaselessly disappointed. It was by no means a slow drive, but reduced-speed bridges across Louisiana’s wetlands and traffic congestion around metropolitan areas like Baton Rouge, Lake Charles, and Houston made for some uneven speeds, despite the fact that I spent nearly 500 miles on one road… See more →
Fat Monday
When this circular journey is done, I plan to publish some statistics and tips to help anyone who might want to try something similar. To whet your appetite, here’s a sneak preview: Try not to have slept in on the day you discover you’ve lost your primary point of access to your funds. You’ll need that extra time to fruitlessly tear your hotel room apart, swear a lot, and work with your financial institution to… See more →
Into the Deep
The nine hours in the car today were not very fun. First came the late discovery that the drive from Nashville to New Orleans was going to be almost two hours longer than I thought. Next came the drive itself.
The weather was beautiful and Tennessee and northern Alabama were pleasant (or at least innocuous) enough to drive through. Once I was past Birmingham, though, I started noticing long stretches of I-59 densely lined with… See more →
Jesus Saves! Gretzky Scores on the Rebound!
The original plan for today was to visit my friends Shaun and Leslie in Chattanooga, but, before I could even contact them, their sixth sense had already told them to leave town at the exact time I would be arriving. So I needed to change my route between DC and New Orleans and find something else to do. When I told my hosts in DC I had chosen Kentucky as my next stop, they assumed… See more →
Five States’ Drive
My windshield gathered an impressive collection of insects today, arthropodal inhabitants of the five states through which Google Maps sent me (Maryland, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, and Kentucky). An apocalyptic downpour washed them all away, which would surely have made an anthropomorphized version of my windshield quite happy or quite sad, depending on whether or not it was the collector type.
Hopefully the good people of Florence, KY (Florentines?) will not be offended that I… See more →
It’s a Mental State
Beginning a road trip without sleeping the night before is not really what you would call advisable. And with the physical fatigue compounded by my anxiety over the scope of the trip and a number of last minute aggravations, hitting the open road was not nearly as cathartic as I might have hoped. It was actually downright awful.
This will be both the longest time I’ve spent on the road and the longest time I’ve… See more →
The 8600-Mile Journey Home (From Home)
I am taking the month of May to drive across the country and back. I got tired of the fact that friends from abroad have seen more of the States than I have, and this year is something of a crossroads for me for a few reasons, so the time seems right. Since I design web sites, it made sense to put one together to document the trip, so that’s what you’re looking at. It… See more →
Rob Across America
Okay, I have to make this really quick, because I’m already leaving much later than I wanted to. Leaving for what, you ask? A month-long, cross-country road trip, naturally. I made a web site for it which is where I’ll be writing exclusively for the next month (not that you expected to see anything new here). My bitchin’ Corolla is leaving Philadelphia momentarily—jump in the passenger seat!
South by Southwest Interactive & Film 2008
My fourth year at Austin’s juggernaut of an interactive conference was more of a mixed bag than years past, as both I and SXSW adapted to its growing pains.
This year’s conference was, I believe, about three times the size of my first (in 2005). Daytime sessions expanded to remote areas of Austin’s sprawling convention center, and overcrowded lunch and evening activities tested even Texas’s deft corralling hand. Those who knew the territory well enough… See more →
Flying Southwest Airlines Southwest to South by Southwest
March has arrived, and since college basketball doesn’t interest me any more than a zombified messiah figure selling chocolate or an ophidiophobic Irish folk hero selling Budweiser, March means just one thing: South by Southwest. In just a few days, I will descend on Austin for nearly a week’s worth of quality time with good friends and good ideas. If you see me there, I hope you won’t hesitate to say hello. Here are some… See more →
Future of Web Design 2007
Webmaster Jam Session 2007
Thirty Days Has September
Another busy summer has come and gone, most of the fruits of which are still not quite ripe enough to talk about. I do, however, have a few things going on this month that are worth a mention.
Screens ’N’ Spokes
Throughout the year and across the country, the National Multiple Sclerosis Society hosts the MS Bike Ride, a lengthy cycling excursion whose participants have raised a considerable amount of money to fight the organization’s… See more →
An Event Apart Chicago 2007
An Event Apart Boston 2007
South by Southwest Interactive & Film 2007
Whoever “they” are, they say you never forget your first time. And in 2005, my first SXSW was definitely unforgettable. They also say twice is nice, and as such, my second SXSW was all sugar and spice. As we all know, though, the third time is the charm, and this year’s SXSW charmed the hell out of me.
The people, panels, presentations, and parties were more plentiful than ever, but I still managed to absorb… See more →
The Hunt Is on at SXSW
I’ve done a bad thing. And I didn’t act alone.
Nine esteemed colleagues and I collaborated with Friends of ED editor Chris Mills to create a book called Web Standards Creativity, which will be released early in March. It is poised to infect the minds of innumerable readers with several creative approaches to standards-based web design and development. These progressive ideas in XHTML, CSS, and DOM scripting could single-handedly set back the cause of mediocrity… See more →
How I Spent My Summer Vacation
When I saw the gorgeously dreadful October 2006 edition of Stan’s site on Sunday, I remembered that I had intended to dust off my site’s costume from last year and put it back on. I dug around in my files, and was somewhat horrified to discover that the costume had vanished. Then I realized that if I was looking for that costume, summer must have ended. And boy oh boy, was there a lot of… See more →
2006 Ottawa International Animation Festival
Dublin & Stockholm
An Event Apart New York 2006
South by Southwest Interactive & Film 2006
Although most people are completely unaware that it encompasses anything other than music, South by Southwest is one of the world’s largest interactive conferences. 2006 was the biggest SXSW Interactive ever, or so assumes this second-timer, for whom the scope of “ever” begins in 2005. There were more panels, more parties, and most importantly, more people, many of whom were old friends, and many of whom are now new friends.
Things were looking a bit… See more →
Leaving on a Jet Plane
If anyone is still reading, I’ll be leaving for Austin in a little over a week for South by Southwest, where I will be immersed in symposiums, cinema, and suds-soaked socialization for five glorious days. Last year’s SXSW was a big part of what made 2005 the best year I have had in a long time; it was a steel-toed inspirational kick in the pants, and a networking free-for-all whose participants generally inhabited more warmth… See more →
Four Things
It is a beautiful January morning in Philadelphia. The Pixelworthy office is incandescent, its twentieth story windows unable to find refuge from the sun. Shaded by a pillar, Stan glares at the iMac on his desk.
“Damn Zeldman. Fucking meme shit.”
A few feet away, Rob snickers into his cinnamon roll.
“Keep laughing. You’re getting tagged next.”
“Come now, Stan. I can’t break over three months of editorial silence by participating in some retarded meme.”
“Tough luck.”… See more →
Chicago
South by Southwest Interactive & Film 2005
2004 Ottawa International Animation Festival
I’m not often interested in shows that could conceivably sell out in less than five minutes after tickets have been made available, so imagine my disappointment when that exact thing happened on Friday as I waited in line for Darkness tickets. Now it appears that my only chances at seeing what will probably be the best show of the year are spending upwards of $100 on eBay or winning a radio station contest, neither of… See more →
Since Pittsburgh is the other big city in Pennsylvania, and I had never been there, I decided to check it out with Merritt this past weekend. The chosen weekend was timely; The Animation Show (which isn’t scheduled to visit Philadelphia) was screening in Pittsburgh, and since I wasn’t going to Ottawa this year, this was a good excuse to drive several hours to see some animation, and see whatever else Pittsburgh had to offer while… See more →
The summer technically ends on September 22 (as anyone eagerly anticipating the redesign of this site should note), but most people pack up their lawn sprinklers and sun dresses after Labor Day, moribundly lumping the whole of September into the Autumn category. Apparently Mother Nature’s embitterment toward this trend compelled her to adjust the calendar herself; it was 65º and raining in Philadelphia this afternoon. The crap weather seems to have followed me back here… See more →
Every year, I take a trip to Chicago to visit some friends and spend some time in one of my favorite cities. Every year, my trip to Chicago is scheduled to coincide with one or many Philadelphia events that I’d really rather not miss. It’s uncanny: bands, film festivals, exhibitions, and all manner of special events all pop out of the woodwork moments after my plane tickets are booked, secure and relieved in the assurance… See more →