Starling Travel

It’s possible for Americans to visit Cuba, but there is a ton of red tape to cut through and even more hoops to jump through before you can. If you are just a casual traveler, Cuba really isn’t an option, but you CAN see Cuba, just not today.

Here is a video travelogue from 1937, showing a pre-Castro Cuba in all its glory.

Back then, travel via airplane was a novelty and an expensive one at that, so most citizens of the United States were only able to visit Cuba vicariously through this film reel. Just like us, they were trapped in their movie theaters, unable to visit this island, but the restrictions were pecuniary, not political. Just recovering from the Great Depression, so many of our citizens were just glad to have survived.

The next time you are feeling trapped in your hometown, whether it’s because of the economy, gas prices or the fact that our countries are still locked in disagreement with each other, take a virtual vacation to Cuba and fly the Lindbergh Trail.

It seems that the more I look at camping trailers, the more interesting things I find. For example, the Fold-N-Roll Trailer. It was created in 1996 by Irv Perch, the original founder of Aristocrat Trailers, but they are a far cry the from canned ham design of his past.

It’s not as pretty as an old Aristocrat trailer, but you can’t argue with its utilitarian design. Unlike the A-Frame trailers or even the TrailManor trailers, the Fold-N-Roll unfolds entirely differently. The top slides up and over, creating a sloped roof on the front and a handy awning over the door on the back.

It was easy to find photos of the trailer in its extend position, but I could only find one photo of it closed up. It looks like a clunky and awkward mess to me.

When compared to the streamlined design of this 1959 Aristocrat trailer, the Fold-N-Roll looks like a monstrosity.

What it lacked in beauty, it more than made up in utility. It was equipped with a queen-sized bed, a separate dinette and a full bathroom. And it all folded down into an ingenious bit of trailer origami.

Sadly, the Fold-N-Roll was not long for this world and are no longer made today, so if you want one of these babies, you’ll have to find one on the used market. With gas prices as high as they are, a small trailer that folds so compactly, yet opens up into such a roomy space is exactly what most people need.

See more photos after the break: (Continue Reading…)

For longer camping trips, I make sure that we stay at campgrounds with a shower. Having the luxury of a daily shower makes camping in a tent nearly as good as staying in a hotel. The daily trek to the shower, however, can be difficult when I have to carry the shampoo, soap, my change of clothing and towel.

I struggled with that before I remembered my most excellent beach towel tote. I originally bought this towel for lying out in my backyard. It’s a LONG towel that folds into a bag. I can put my clean clothes in the towel, my shampoo and soap in the pocket and hang it on the hook that most campground showers have. I can keep it hanging on the hook while I dry myself with the long towel tail while my clean clothes stay safe in the bag. Even if it falls off the hook, the bag protects my clothes as long as I grab it quick before the clothes get wet.

When I first bought this towel, I was pretty disappointed because the terry cloth was SO thin. Compared to my regular beach towels, it felt like it was half the thickness. That cheap terry cloth, however, has been a godsend in humid climates. It will dry quickly if I hang it up in the tent. I’ve even taken this towel on cruises and it dries in the cabin, even in the most humid of locations.

The pocket to the right of the towel is supposed to hang off a beach chair and can be used to hold your gadgets or magazines. I’ve never really used that pocket, even though I thought I would. The towel is so light that anything in that pocket pulls it off the chair when you stand up. When I’m drying off in the campground shower stall, that little pocket is just a bit of extra towel for me and nothing more.

The tote portion of the towel usually fits nicely over the top of a beach chair and keeps my towel from rolling down my back when I’m trying to relax. That feature works really well and I’ve had my towel stay in place even when the wind picks up. When I’m camping, I don’t use that feature. Instead, I use that pocket to hold my clothing up and away from all the water.

The pocket on the front is perfect for holding my shampoo, soap, razor and any other toiletries I need in the shower. I would have liked it to have a zipper so that things don’t fall out of it. I lost a bottle of sunscreen out of that pocket somewhere in Roatan, so now, I’m extra vigilant when I put things in there to make sure they don’t slip out. A zipper would prevent that. I’m thinking of adding a zipper to that pocket just for my own peace of mind.

I bought my towel at my local grocery store on the seasonal aisle, but I found a few towels on Amazon that look similar.

• Beach Chair Cover Includes Terry Inflatable Pillow Cover Converts to a Beach Tote- Red: This one looks the most like the one I own, except that it includes an inflatable pillow. Bonus!
• Terry Cloth LOUNGE CHAIR COVER Pool Beach Deck YELLOW: This one doesn’t SHOW how it converts into a tote, but it looks very similar to mine.
• “ITSA” ULTRA-THICK 82″ TERRY VELOUR LOUNGE CHAIR BEACH TOWEL WITH 6 SIDE POCKETS, ZIPPERED LOWER POCKET THAT CONVERTS INTO A BEACH BAG!-PINK: This one looks similar as well.

Martha Stewart has a tutorial showing how to make a tote of your own:

• Beach-Towel Tote Bag – Martha Stewart Crafts

The handles are down the middle instead of along the sides, so I think this one might not be as comfortable to use on the lounger because one of the canvas handles would be poking you in the back instead of hanging along the back of the chair like mine does.

After seeing Martha’s inept attempt, I decided to make my own camp/beach towel tote, using some beat up and ratty bath towels that I retired to the rag pile a couple of years ago. Click to see the instructions: (Continue Reading…)

I love this video of Felicia Day’s Trip to Belize. All of us take a lot of video and photos while we’re on a trip, but her audio commentary is what makes the video so entertaining.

I’ve never been to Belize, so it was nice to see how it looked. When you’re feeling trapped at work and in need of a vacation, take a few minutes and watch this video. It will make you feel refreshed and ready to get back to the daily grind.

Last November, when Mike and I were planning our trip to Nevada, we really wanted to stay at a campsite in Valley of Fire State Park. It had electricity and water at the campsites. More importantly, the landscape looked gorgeous. We tried to see whether there was coverage for our cell phones on AT&T’s website, but they are not very complete. The only indication that we might NOT have coverage was a spot on the Valley of Fire brochure with a symbol with the words, “Possible cell service at this location.”

We wanted to stay in Valley of Fire, but planned on checking our phones before we settled on a campsite. The minute we drove into the campsite, however, our phones showed No Service. Even our trusty Verizon iPad, which seems to get coverage EVERYWHERE was without coverage. We ended up enjoying the day at Valley of Fire, and enjoyed the animal life there, but we moved on before the evening and camped at Lake Mead.

How I wish we had known about the Coverage? app [iTunes link]. If you look at the map on the right, you can CLEARLY see that there is a big white hole in the middle of Valley of Fire State Park. This is the beauty of the Coverage? app. You can see immediately how likely it is that you’ll have coverage on your travels. Here are some good things about the app:

• Easily know before you go: Avoid having to check each provider’s coverage map individually to know where you’re most likely to keep connected.
• No internet needed: All maps are stored locally, so you can see where coverage next is most likely even when you have none.
• Urban and rural maps: Maps cover the entire continental USA for AT&T, Sprint and Verizon.
• Know where to roam: view 4G, 3G, 2G and roaming areas as separate overlays, focus on the coverage type you need.
• Universal App – iPhone, iPod Touch and IPad, OS 4.2 and higher.

Here is a video explaining it:

This time, Mike and I are embarking on a trip to Quartzite, AZ for the big RV show there. Now, we know that we’ll have coverage, even though it will be just on EDGE. It’s a great little app that let’s us check for both AT&T and Verizon to know how much we’ll be able to get online.

If you travel frequently and your cell phone is your only access to the Internet, Coverage? might be a good app for you, no matter what provider you use.

I love this video recording campsite number 104 at Cape Disappointment in Washington State.

How did Cape Disappointment and Dismal Niche get their name? According to Wikipedia, it was named by a member of the Lewis and Clark team in 1805. They were trapped there by a storm and called the place a dismal niche. The name stuck, but it was not a fair assessment. The place looks like a dream!

Here is a video of the lighthouse at night:

Here is a video of Beards Hollow at Cape Disappointment. It’s better if you mute the audio because the music is rather intrusive.

Next time you’re planning a trip in the Pacific Northwest, take a look at Cape Disappointment. It promises not to live up to its name!

I usually don’t like watching cooking demonstrations. My idea of camp cooking is opening a can of beans or cooking meat over the fire. Matthew Cashmore is absolutely adorable, so watching him for twelve minutes cooking at a camp kitchen was so entertaining.

Here are the ingredients for the Bacon Curry. All of them are approximate based on what I saw in the video:

• 1/8 cup Olive Oil
• 2 large onions cut up roughly
• 2 garlic cloves chopped or crushed
• 2 stalks of celery sliced
• 3 large tomatoes chopped
• 3 Tbsp. tomato paste
• 6 tsp. cumin seeds
• 1 1/2 tsp. chili powder (more recommended)
• 2 vegetable broth cubes
• 1 small zucchini chopped
• 1/2 pound bacon sliced

If I were going to do this while camping, I would chop up the items BEFORE leaving and put the ingredients in a ziploc bag in the cooler before leaving. I’d have the onions and garlic in one bag, and the tomatoes, celery and zucchini in another. I might even replace the tomatoes with a can of tomatoes.

The thought of putting bacon into a curry is unique and it appears that Matthew is really just experimenting. After watching this video I wanted to run to the store to buy a bag of fresh produce and a packet of bacon to try to make this curry. For us Americans, courgettes are zucchini. Not quite as exotic as he made them sound, but YUM!

If you don’t really want to watch this video, just fast forward to the 9:12 minute mark to see how gracefully he handles Pink Helen’s interruption. It just made me smile to see him look at the camera!

If you want to see him taste his creation for the first time, fast forward to the 11:30 minute mark. He deems it not spicy enough because the salt in the bacon toned down the kick of the chili powder, but despite that he likes it. “That’s really good!”

Mike and I made this recipe with beef and it was absolutely delicious. If we ever find ourselves in a pinch and need to use bacon, I’m sure it will be just as good as long as I remember to add more chili powder.

Next time you’re planning your camping menu, skip the cans of chili and try cooking up this bacon curry. It sounds delightful!

I’ve been on a few cruises over the years. My first cruise was on a ship with broken stabilizers, so every other cruise has felt smooth as glass. During that bumpy and lilting first cruise, I kept reassuring myself that we could not possibly sink because the last ship to sink was the Titanic. I had convinced myself that it was impossible for the modern cruise ships to sink.

Then I heard about the Costa Concordia sinking just off the coast of Italy last night and all my fears resurfaced.

Here is a video from Sky News in Great Britain:

Just short of the one hundred year anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, we are faced with the vision of another cruise ship in dire straits. I had just calmed my nerves enough to feel that going on a cruise was a perfectly safe method of travel, but all of that is gone.

Here is the panicked video of someone on the ship:

Here’s video from the air as the rescue was happening:

Here’s a video of the ship the next day:

The difference between this sinking and the Titanic tragedy is the death count. Even though the listing of the ship disabled many of the life boats, they were able to get many of the passengers off the boat and onto the island. As of this writing, only five people have been confirmed dead and 17 people are missing. That is a far cry from the hundreds who died when the Titanic sunk, but I can’t help feeling that I should just keep on camping instead of luxury cruising for my vacation.

More Info:

• Costa Concordia: How Could This Happen to a Modern Cruise Ship? – USATODAY.com
• Costa Concordia Pictures, Video – Francesco Schettino – Zimbio
• RMS Titanic – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I absolutely adore this video of a camper showing his friend how to cook stir fry while camping.

The cameraman is laughing his head off, so I immediately assumed that they were high. The more I thought about it, though, I have found myself being just as silly and laughing over the simplest things while camping at Lake Mead while stone cold sober.

They are using the exact same pan set that Mike and I have. I can’t even remember the brand of those pots, but they have been the BEST for us. It’s obvious that these guys like them as well.

These guys don’t have a huge camp kitchen setup with a table. Instead, they just cook on the ground and put their plates on the cooler. Whenever I am camping, THIS is the feeling that I usually get from cooking, sleeping and just relaxing in the outdoors. It’s so lovely that they were able to capture that emotion on camera and brought it to me in less than two minutes!

I never really understood tent campers. If I have to pitch a tent, why not just pitch a tent?! If I have to haul a trailer, I want to be WARM and protected from the bears. A thin layer of canvas really isn’t any protection whether it’s on the ground or folded out of a camper.

After seeing the Adventure Campers from Australia, however, I kind of understand a tent camper much better. When I watched this overview video, I wasn’t very impressed. I thought, “Meh, so it has power. So it has water. So it packs up small. I still have to pitch a tent.”

When I saw this video, however, I was blown away. He shows how long in REAL time how to break camp and he does it all by himself with no help.

He was able to pack up the tent, awning and kitchen in less than ten minutes! I was shocked! I’ve seen people with motorhomes take longer to pack up to leave! Now, I realize that he has had a lot of practice with this trailer, so he’s making it look easier than it would be for a beginner. Mike and I however, have just as much practice setting up and breaking camp. We’ve timed ourselves breaking camp and the fastest time to date is just over forty minutes.

Too bad these campers are only available in Australia right now, because they marry the light weight of a teardrop camper with the utility of tent camping.