|
|
|
|
Newsletter
Midwinter 2011
A LETTER
FROM HOME
As the days get longer, my
thoughts turn to gardening, carpentry projects, and travel – my own! It’s
time - as of the spring equinox I will be retiring from my work as a travel agent.
This will be my last newsletter, so I will say farewell ahead of time. It has
been a fascinating ride over the past fifteen years. My thanks to those who
have shared the excitement of travel and supported Earth Routes in promoting
green ways to travel. Stay green, and keep in touch with any great
discoveries of new destinations!
SPECIAL MESSAGE!
Time-limited offer! If you’re
thinking about a trip and will be looking for assistance in planning for it,
get in touch with Earth Routes
before March 22! I will be retiring from the travel business, turning off my
reservations system and starting to clear out my office shortly after that
date. The Earth Routes website
will stay online indefinitely, with ideas and descriptions for green
travelers, and my email address will remain open.
Trip planning fees, normally $50 per destination and
$50 per transportation plan, will be kept at the minimum rate of $100 per
trip. Start thinking beyond winter, as I have!
FEATURED
TRIP PLAN: Car, train, and bus
When you’re traveling near home,
consider taking time to explore public transportation possibilities. Your
plans are of course influenced by timetables and routes, but zooming by
traffic jams and relaxing out of the driver’s seat can make up for those
restrictions. There can be room for creativity, too.
Here’s a sample trip in New England, combining
itineraries with two travel companions and some solo time.
Day 1 – Drive to train station and park car to pick
up on the way home. Join a companion who’s driving your way for the rest of
the day’s ride. Take a scenic route; stay at a B&B with reservations made
ahead of time. Get restaurant recommendations and directions from B&B
hosts.
Day 2 – Breakfast and conversation with B&B
hosts. Enjoy animals, antiques, or other intriguing features of the B&B.
Say goodbye to onward-traveling companion; walk around destination town
before meeting second travel companion for lunch. Check into other lodging
with walking destinations/closer to the center of town. Investigate new and
near dining options. Take an evening walk.
Day 3 – Tour interesting local sites. Explore a
different restaurant for each meal. Enjoy visiting with your companion!
Day 4 – Return using bus and train connections. Since
you don’t have to drive, write about your trip adventure either on postcards
or in a journal. Drive home from train station.
Get in touch with Earth Routes (soon!) for more info.
GREEN LODGING: Solar B&B
There are many lodges and guesthouses in warm
and sunny parts of the world that make use of solar energy to keep their
buildings sustainable, but it’s uncommon to find such a place in a northern
climate. Appropriately located in “Pioneer Valley”, the Starlight Llama
B&B ventures into solar-powered lodging as the first in the region, and
provides advice and information for those who wish to “go solar” as well as a
cozy stay for travelers in western Massachusetts. A farmyard full of llamas,
goats, guinea fowl, prehistoric-looking emus, and a miniature donkey adds
both intrigue and peacefulness to the lodging. Most of the animals were
rescued either from inadequate living conditions or from becoming a meal, and
it is fitting that a vegetarian breakfast (gourmet and delicious!) is served
to B&B guests. Enjoy a stay here while visiting the historic and
culturally-rich Northampton/Amherst area. Contact Earth Routes for
more information and reservations!
RAIL TRAVEL NOTES: New England connections
The thought of a cross-country trip without worrying
about driving is appealing, but it takes some knowledge of the public
transportation landscape to make smooth connections. In Boston, there are
three Amtrak stations, with subway routes being the only way to get from one
of them to the other two and on to other rail routes. Plan plenty of extra
time to make your connections if you are traveling to or from Portland,
Maine, and the other end of your trip is somewhere other than North Station.
If you have
time, you can make an adventure out of traveling between stations. On a
recent trip between central Massachusetts and Portland, Maine, where I had
left my car, I took the opportunity to try this idea out.
My bus arrived
at South Station, and the first challenge was to orient to the different
levels and directional signs to get to the Amtrak part of the station.
Perhaps this is easy for a city-dweller, but for country folk like me the
distractions can be confounding. It was fully twenty minutes after I noticed
the very nice sound system in the terminal that I realized that there was
actually a live string quartet playing in the middle of the lobby! After I
got my bearings, the serenade and some hazelnut gelato set me up for an
enjoyable afternoon. I decided to use my extra time to make a short subway
trip and walk a bit of the Freedom Trail, taking in the artwork on the stones
at the Old Granary Burial Ground and the new(er)
Irish Famine memorial statues. My rolling duffel bag with good wheels served
me well, and I wasn’t alone in toting baggage around the city.
I misunderstood the
difference between a Charlie Card and a Charlie Ticket and had too little
credit left for my second subway ride, to get to North Station. No problem,
since I had allowed a wide margin of error. The ticket machine was willing to
make change and add credit to my ticket, and the next train was only 4
minutes away. At North Station, I soon figured out that I should follow signs
for “commuter trains”, and when I boarded the train I could see that most
passengers seemed to be commuters, traveling alone with no luggage, but
perhaps this was because I chose one of the last trips of the day.
The seats on
the Downeaster trains were comfortable, and
certainly had more legroom than most airline flights. It was gratifying to
pass lines of stopped traffic and know that the train was taking many drivers
off the roads. As I rode along, I
enjoyed dozing, reading, writing some notes, and catching views of a family
at a backyard pool in Exeter, lacrosse team practice at UNH, carnival rides
at Old Orchard Beach and a quiet marsh nearby, and aquaculture cages on a
coastal inlet. The end of the ride was quiet, and my car was handy. I look
forward to more rail trips!
FEATURED
GREEN TIP: Seek peaceful connections
By making connections with people of diverse
cultures, and by learning and using peacemaking skills, we are helping to
build a world that will sustain all beings. As travelers, we can seek
international friendships that become part of a foundation for world peace.
Participate in a homestay,
volunteer for a work project in another country, exchange homes through a
network of travelers, shop in local markets, or simply start a conversation
with a fellow traveler or a resident at your destination. To join a larger
effort, look into the work of the International Institute of Peace Tourism (www.iipt.org),
Global Exchange (www.globalexchange.org/tours),
Global Volunteers (www.globalvolunteers.org/serve/peace.asp),
or Peaceful World Conversations (http://peacefulworldfoundation.blogspot.com/)
TRAVEL TIP: Volunteers in Parks are VIP’s
The US National Park Service relies on millions of
hours of help from volunteers who value the natural and historical heritage
of these public lands. This service could be a part of your trip to a new
place, or you might help out in a state park or other public land or historic
site near home. Your commitment could be for a one-day event, a day a week
for a year, or one to three months of seasonal work.
Want to help
with trail-building in a place where you would enjoy hiking and camping? The
American Hiking Society asks that you “bring only your camping gear and a
willingness to get dirty.” They will provide the rest, on a one- to two-week
service trip to one of 70 different sites across the country, including
Alaska, Hawaii, and the US Virgin Islands. See www.americanhiking.org/volunteer-vacations/. Wilderness Volunteers and the Sierra Club
also have service trips involving camping in wonderful places, with great
descriptions - see www.wildernessvolunteers.org/
and www.sierraclub.org/outings/national/service.aspx/.
National park
volunteer positions open right now include visitor center greeters,
campground hosts, Adopt-A-Trail volunteers for basic trail maintenance, oral
history interviewers, and tour guides
aboard Amtrak trains on twelve different routes near public lands. See what
locations and projects might inspire you to use your time and talents!
Explore the possibilities at: www.nps.gov/gettinginvolved/volunteer/opportunities.htm/.
TRAVEL TIP: Open your mind!
Sorting through old travel articles on a stormy day, I
came upon a startling item: a celebration of vehicle breakdowns! The author
of an around-the-world guidebook was promoting the idea that “unreliable
transportation offers one of the best sources of adventure on or off the
road.”* We’re not talking about restful vacations here, but trips with
memorable encounters – an invitation to the home of a taxi driver after a
tour of local sights, a great conversation with a driver when hitchhiking, a
forced but happy introduction to a seatmate when bouncing into each other on
a third-world bus ride, a day of making do with what’s there when engine
failure leaves you in an isolated village.
You may not be
ready for such adventures – I’m not a bungee-jumper myself! - but milder forms of unexpected events can be intriguing,
too. Of course, you can’t really plan for these, except by raising your
tolerance threshold for discomfort, lowering your expectations for filled-up
and on-time schedules, and opening your mind to seeing things from the
perspective of a different culture. These mental preparations can forestall
your own breakdown(!) and will take you beyond being
a tourist, to being a traveler.
*Doug Lansky,
in “Rough News”, Spring 2003
Wishing you green trails and
clear horizons -
Jan Carpenter
|
