76-Second Travel Show: 'Hobo Packing Tips'

Episode #031
F E A T U R I N G * 5 7 * B O N U S * S E C O N D S

Did you know hoboes meet every August at a National Hobo Convention in Britt, Iowa and vote on a hobo king and queen? Some call this 'fauxbo' -- for more hobo outsiders than the real deal. For that you'll still find folks riding the rails on/off the Burlington line -- and at hobo gatherings like the one recently in Amory, Mississippi.

I had the pleasure of traveling with Kim Mance and Courtney McGann of GoGalavanting.com to Amory (to shoot an upcoming episode that I'm honored to be a part of). We met with hoboes like Stretch, who has been on the road for 27 straight years. And we learned how to pack like a hobo, why hobo travel beats taking the 'blue highways' across the country, and how one local even won Rush tickets in Atlanta by covering himself in cake and being licked.

We also learned how to survive in a dry county: just follow the hoboes, pack in your own liquor.

(More on hoboes to come...)

Some trips are more memorable than others.

76-Second Travel Show: "What Does Travel Teach?"

Episode #024

F E A T U R I N G * 4 5 * B O N U S * S E C O N D S

The New York Times Travel Show attracts three types of people: crusty travel vets looking for contacts, casual travelers (some keen for group tour deals) and travelers pulling rolling suitcases to fill with freebies.

In two full days, I met dozens of vendors. I posed at for a Zapata-moustache pic at the Mexico section, where I also grabbed a pink drawstring bag. The three grumpy women at Russia's Intourist Agency set out 'Trans-Siberian' tours, but shrugged in silence when I mentioned I had (co-)written a guidebook to the train ride. (Russia, please regroup on effective ways to attract people to your lovely country.)

Enjoyed many panels too. New Yorker writer Susan Orlean, in a panel of travel writers MC'ed by David Farley, confessed to not being a travel writer, and that she believed in travel 'without preparation.' Sree Sreenivasan, of Columbia University, suggested Facebook's motto is 'if it's not broken, we'll break it.'

That panel, on social media in the tourist industry, ended with a slide show on Germany, where I learned that Germany has 16 federal states but that its list of musical geniuses included Bach and Brahms, but NOT Klaus Meine of the Scorpions!

Every day has its moment -- unless you stay in and write bad poems. Mine came Friday when I lost my favorite pen, a multi-ink-jet dealie that I left by the coffee. After an hour of re-padding my empty pockets, I walked back to the scene and found an employee, Nina. 'Um, I lost a pen -- do you know if anyone saw it?' Her eyes lit up, and she pulled it out (of her sock actually -- Javits Center uniforms have no pockets, I guess). 'You mean this?'

Travel is all about little connections and kindnesses made when you least expect, and if you're lucky, most want them.

Thank you Nina. Thank you Travel.

-----------------------------------------------------
Links:

• Sean O'Neill of Budget Travel
• Kim Mance of Galavanting TV
• David Raezer of Approach Guides
• Mike Peters of NoDebtWorldTravel