On the road to Bigfoot, Texas
T Fords of Texas at the Bigfoot museum
Last Saturday, March 6, I had the great pleasure of taking part in a ”T Fords of Texas” club cruise around Medina County. Led by Castroville residents Tom Campbell and Wayne McBryde, a group of nine Ts traversed the area’s handsome back roads under a glowering sky, dense with dark and darker grey clouds, too high to actually rain, but very dramatic. In an open runabout T driven by Gary Bethke, I had the full opportunity to take in the wintry landscape with occasional hints of spring, such as isolated peach and red bud trees in delightfully unexpected full bloom.
The dirty lowdown on hotels
I’ve stayed in my share of seedy, cheap hotels, at least proud that I saved some bucks. But now I know, it really could have been worse.
For instance, there’s the dirtiest hotel in the United States, as rated by traveler reviews posted on TripAdvisor.
This is a place where, one guest said, “The bugs are nicer than the people.”
Another ranted, “No one should ever walk into a hotel only to find prostitutes walking around the inside.”
Where is this? Why, San Francisco. In fact, three of the 10 worst hotels in the country happen to be in California. I have no idea what that means.
I know you’re wondering. And no, San Antonio is not on the list. Neither is Texas.
On the contrary, Texas has two hotels ranked among the 10 best. The Grand Hyatt VFW in Dallas placed fifth while the Houstonian in Houston came in ninth.
The best of all? Inn New York City. Sorry Texas — but know this, New York State managed to grab only one top spot.
The lists:
100th anniversary of San Antonio’s first traffic laws
Lewis bzirdsong in a 1910 Franklin on College Street, San Antonio
It is, of course, one of the more minor centennial occasions. You probably won’t celebrate it but you will, without noticing, except for this little reminder, observe it. February 7, 2010 is the 100th anniversary of San Antonio’s first traffic ordinance. Nine years after the first gasoline powered horseless carriage, eight years after the city gained its first automobile agency, seven after the creation of the San Antonio Automobile Club, and six years after the city mandated that all vehicles be registered and display ID plates or numbers, the city introduced written rules for all road users. more »
Commuting History Roads Safety Transit Travel Uncategorized
by Hugh
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Book review: Traffic, by Tom Vanderbilt
I’ve just finished reading “TRAFFIC,” by Tom Vanderbilt, published by Vintage Books in 2009. It is subtitled, “Why we drive the way we do and what it says about us.” I heartily recommend it to anyone interested in trying to understand the mundane yet highly complex activity we call driving.
psi – check your tires
Here’s a new year’s resolution you might adopt: Check the air pressure on your vehicle’s tires at the beginning of each month. I was reminded of this when I checked mine at the beginning of this week. I began to notice my vehicle, a 2005 Dodge Caravan, was not handling as well as it should. Some of you may think it is oxymoronic to use handling characteristics in reference to a minivan but the thing just didn’t feel right. Sure enough, each tire was 4 psi – pounds per square inch – low. The ‘bus has new tires, maybe two months old, and I checked them in mid November, prior to a trip to Houston. I was surprised how much the tires went down following the recent cold snap. So, maybe you should make checking your tires a monthly chore. Just being one or two psi down can really affect miles per gallon plus, it just feels better.
Pigs will fly!
As a married man of a certain age, one expects to be given Yuletide tasks. It is a given that your regular round will be interrupted with missions for which it could be said you are not the most adapted member of the family. But it came to pass this holiday season that my dear wife provided me with one of the most extraordinary chores I have ever had to perform at this or any other Christmas. It involves flying pigs at the Mexican border.
Holiday travelers feeling the spirit
Though millions of people still look for work, Americans are starting to spend and travel more as a hobbled economy appears to limp toward a long recovery.
Over the Christmas and New Year’s break, 87.7 million Americans will travel 50 miles or more from home, up 3.8 percent from last year’s bleak season and the largest jump in six years, according to AAA.
That means one in four U.S. residents will soon be on the roads, riding rails or in the air to see friends and family this season. Travelers budgeted an average of $1,009 per household for the holidays, with two-thirds expecting to spend at least as much as they did at this time last year, an AAA survey indicates.
Thanksgiving travel shows glimmer of hope
AAA Thanksgiving 2009 Travel Forecast
Americans shaken by last year’s economic crash may be regaining enough confidence to hit the roads in higher numbers this Thanksgiving, according to AAA.
When a wobbly economy finally nose-dived last fall, Thanksgiving trips also plunged, by 25 percent from the year before, the travel association reports.
This year, with unemployment higher than it’s been since 1983 despite economic growth last quarter, 38.4 million Americans — one in eight — will travel at least 50 miles from home, up a slight 1.4 percent.
But the numbers, like the economy, could be rickety.
Commuting History Oil and gas prices Passenger rail Railroads Roads Transit Travel
by Hugh
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SA – Austin passenger rail still dead
Like the old Saturday Night sketch about Generalissimo Franco, passenger rail between San Antonio and Austin is still dead. Oh a mortician applied a new coat of make-up, but the poor old stiff ain’t going nowhere. After twelve years of failure, a new name and an application for $5 million of tax payer money was enough to create a blip of interest but even that has not lasted long. Oh well.
Last Ford Model T cruise of 2009
Model Ts at Guadalupe River State Park
I was able, among other pressing projects, to squeeze in one last Model T drive yesterday, Saturday November 14. Accompanied by three other Ts, we drove from the Texas Transportation Museum on Wetmore Road twenty seven miles to the Guadalupe River State Park. Our small convoy represented the gamut of Ts well. There was an open tourer, a closed sedan, a light duty pick-up and the “Diva,” the museum’s heavy duty truck. I began calling it the Diva due to its unfortunate habit of running perfectly well at the museum and local roads but acting up horribly at any public event while, often, being the center of attention, for reasons that both bemuse and confuse me.