Travel Collections

    I was cleaning out my purse the other day and came across not one, not two, but three key cards from three different hotel rooms in three different parts of the country.  OOOPS . People like me are one reason the hotel industry went to electronic cards rather than keys in the first place.

  So my purse is the metaphor for today’s post, a potpourri of sorts of travel destinations.

  A couple of times, I’ve referenced stories that I was working on about the fall of the Berlin Wall. Another one is now in print, but if you’re not a AAA member in Oklahoma, you won’t get this story, so here’s a link via my website.  I really like it and am thinking about entering it into an SATW competition for best story from a recent convention site. 

The Berlin Wall exhibit in Rapid City South Dakota.

We were in Rapid City last spring (but that was not one of the hotel room cards I still had).

 I did find a key card, however, from the Hard Rock Hotel in Tulsa, which is where I stayed while visiting the Cherokee Nation a few weeks ago.  If I haven’t said a zillion times how wonderful that destination was, well it was. 

 Here are two stories and I’m feverishly working on others.

http://tinyurl.com/ygob3na

 http://tinyurl.com/yhqtfvy

     Sometimes it takes longer than I like to tell a story about a great destination, and that is the case about the Rancho de San Juan, a fabulous B&B between Santa Fe and Taos, NM.  It was a couple of years ago I was there, so it would be a sad commentary on the condition of my purse if I found that room key card.  But the place is fabulous.  I could live there.  And here’s my story:  http://tinyurl.com/yfcl7xw

And since it’s almost Halloween, you should be hysterical at this point that you haven’t finished your holiday shopping.  For those with appreciation for global cultures, I remind you of a place I visited in Indianapolis in July (don’t have that room key either).

It’s a shop called Global Gifts, a non-profit store that carries the work of  artisans in developing countries.  The store guarantees to the consumer that the products have been made in an ethical manner and the purchase truly benefits the individual artisan.   Global Gifts carries hand-made products from about 50 countries. 

And this shopping opportunity really satisfies those with a travel bug.  It’s the annual fundraising auction for the Society of American Travel Writers.  Bruce and I are both members.  As nice as it would be to say that monies from these auctions off-set costs for Bruce and I to travel to the ends of the earth, the purpose is much more substantial. 

   When Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast, our organization sent several thousand dollars to help the tourism industry rebuild.  When the Tsunami ripped apart Phuket, Thailand, we sent more relief money.  And 9/11, well…  But we also help with college scholarships of journalism students, professional development for folks like Bruce and me, and other such things.

   So check out the auction site.  There are dozens of travel gifts there, many of them hotel rooms  around the world at great bargains.  You, too, can begin a collection of room key cards.