The Everywhere blog

The Harley-Davidson museum opened its doors this month on 20-acres of reclaimed industrial land along the Milwaukee peninsula. And just in time too! Celebrations for the 105th anniversary have thousands of Harley enthusiasts riding their beloved two-wheelers across the country and straight into Milwaukee's largest summer party.

Designed by architect James Biber and his team at Pentagram Design, the plan for the museum was inspired by a photograph of an old factory, taken by Bernd and Hilla Becher. The factory theme became the common thread through the museum's structure, which exposes most of the support beams and steel that make up the frame.

One of the most symbolic elements is the  four-sided steel tower (right) at the entrance, which encases a massive Harley logo. Willie G. Davidson, chief styling officer, brought in a Lego version of his vision during the design phase and thought that since the Harley engine is the jewel in the frame of a Harley motorcycle, the Harley logo should effectively be the jewel in the frame of the museum, and mimic the look of an engine in a motorcycle frame. Pretty cool, Willie!

The opening of the Harley Davidson museum is exactly what the Grand Opening theme is all about. Celebration events for Harley's 105th anniversary will run from August 17-27, and the new museum will run for much longer than that. If you are venturing to Milwaukee for the grand opening events and anniversary celebrations tell us about it, and if you encounter any Grand Openings of your own on your travels, tell us about them here!

(Photos above: Street View of Isleton, California, by Karen Schmautz and below: Entrance to the new Harley-Davidson Museum from blog.pentagram.com.) 

Getting off the beaten track is not a new concept to all you intrepid travelers, but Cheryn Flanagan takes steering clear of the crowds to new heights in her article Riding the Ho Chi Minh Trail… And Off the Beaten Tourist Track. Cheryn recounts her journey down Vietnam's eastern seaboard and avoiding the popular Highway One, which connects Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City. Tourists who take the common route usually buy an open bus circuit ticket, which allows them to get on and off the bus as they please. While certainly a cheap and effective way to see the coast, there’s one problem: everyone is doing it and it’s getting a bit crowded.

The alternative is to do it Cheryn’s way: by motorcycle. Easy Riders, a group of freelance motorcycle guides based in the Central Highlands and South Central Coast, take travelers on the back of their bikes for a four-day adventure that spans over 500 miles. Cheryn signed up the moment she caught wind of the alternate passage. Here's how she describes the end of her 4-day journey:

When the road we’d been traveling met up with Highway One, congested with tourist buses on their way to Nha Trang, Dung (the tour guide) pulled over... “I show you real Vietnam,” he said... I looked at the bored faces staring out from windows of the tour buses speeding by and replied, “Yes Dung, you did."

Riding the Ho Chi Minh Trail …and Off the Beaten Tourist Track isn't the only delectable contribution in Cheryn’s travelogue. This lady has chock full of all the goods we love getting at Everywhere, check it her out here!

(Photo: Easy Rider, by Cheryn Flanagan.)

In their article about San Francisco’s Love Affair with Asia Ruth and Rich Carlson draw from the many Asian influences this West Coast city embodies, and walk us through the perfect travel day in San Francisco.

We begin with a tranquil yoga session at one of San Francisco's newest additions, Hotel Vitale, located on the Embarcadero. After we've found our calm, it's onto a vintage streetcar headed for the Asian Art Museum at the Civic Center Plaza, where Ruth and Rich cue us in on some of the city's rich architectural history.

Chinatown is up next as we're guided through one of the most colorful parts of town and encouraged to enjoy some artisan tea in one of the many tea houses. All this before we indulge in a lavish dinner at the splashy Japanese restaurant in the St. Regis Hotel, where the cross-cultural cuisine embodies San Francisco's Asian fusion tendency to it's finest. And a trip to the historic Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park rounds the day off nicely. With so much to do, we wont begrudge you if you stretch this one-day adventure into two!

Remember, San Francisco is a Theme for Issue 05! So if you know of any great spots or have a fantastic story from your last visit, tell us about it here!

Today at 9:05 am PDT, Amazon started reporting an outage with S3, the online storage service we use to host images on Everywhere. Because of this, all photos were unavailable, and uploading new images would also be problematic. This lasted until some time around 4:40 pm.

We're sorry about this unexpected outage! As of this time, Amazon still hasn't reported back how the problem got started. The good news is that all your uploaded images from before are fine. If you tried uploading an image during the outage, and it's not showing up on the site, uploading should now work and you can have at it again.

Being a pedestrian on the streets of Hanoi or Saigon in Vietnam requires a kind of roadway mastery only the brave and slightly reckless can achieve. But you can do just that with a little help from Tobias Peciva and his article, Crossing the Street in Vietnam. This efficient guide is a sure-fire way to get you safely crossing the daunting, traffic-congested streets in Vietnam in no time!

Don't be derailed by Tobias' first suggestion to avoid looking both ways before you cross — this makes sense if you read on.  And while your first inclination may be to run like crazy, he gently reminds us to take it slow and walk in a straight line. And if all else fails, it looks like waiting for an old lady to turn up and following closely behind her will do the trick! 

Once you feel like you can cross safely, get the scoop from Pam Mandel's article Going Underground at the Cu Chi Tunnels on the tour you can take through the Cu Chi tunnels, which were used by the National Liberation Front during the Vietnam War. Pretty eerie, but definitely an interesting way to learn more about the history of the period, and the different battle tactics used during the Vietnam War. 

Remember: Vietnam is a Theme for Everywhere 05, so if you've been there recently and have a great story to share, tell us about it here! 

(Photo: Commuting Hour, by Angus Maclaurin.)

Julianne Will's travel stories have us spellbound. This Everywhere member got her start in the editorial world filling in for a features clerk having foot surgery, and lucky for us, when the woman returned, Julianne stayed on! The rest is basically history... except for the part where she went on to build an impressive writing portfolio and joined Everywhere, making us the happiest people on the block!

Julianne first heard about Everywhere when a friend suggested it as a writing outlet for her trip to Malaga, and she's been uploading her stuff ever since! (Thanks, Julianne's friend!) Julianne's travelogue is a great mix. She contributes fantastic stuff to our recurring and issue-based themes, and does just as well when she goes off entirely on her own. And though her dream destination is constantly changing, somewhere in Asia seems up her alley, but cruising the Greek Islands, exploring Turkey, doing an African safari, or biking through French wine country are all equally enticing.

Currently however, Julianne is looking to make her way to Brazil for, believe it or not, wine! After discovering the glory of Brazilian wines at a tasting in Chicago, and starting a course to become a bona fide wine connoisseur, she's been eager to fly down and explore Brazil's wine country.

So stay tuned for more from Julianne, and in the meantime check out her travelogue to get a tour of the new Trump Tower in Chicago and tour the streets of Malaga, Spain during Holy Week!

(Photo: The Heavy Burden of Sin by, Julianne Will.)

Local Flavor is one of my favorite recurring Themes at Everywhere, especially around noon when my stomach starts doing most of the thinking for me! Finding authentic local eateries and unique local cuisine can make any journey go from good to deliciously unforgettable. You can almost smell the air in Alexis Harmon's Best Fried Potatoes in Delhi, and Matt Herold's And More Food! where he snapped a vendor cooking up some tomorokoshi (grilled corn soaked in soy sauce) in Japan, looks delish!

Marcie Low's Eat Clams definitely make me want to plan a trip to Maine (although it would have been even better if she's provided more caption text). And maybe I'm on a seafood kick, but Karen Kindler's Mixed de la Mer, is making my mouth water!

Salivating over all these submissions can be dangerous, but don't worry about me. Just keep uploading those pictures of fantastic Local Flavor cuisine, and don't forget to tell us a short story about your yummy experience in the caption. 

(The Signature Dishes at Hot Dog Johnny's in Buttzville, New Jersey, by Todd Lappin.)

Derek Baron has a problem: He's allergic to the United States.

According to his article Allergy America, when Derek is in the U.S., he's plagued by cold-like coughs and sniffles. But as soon as he leaves the country, his incessant sneezing stops.

He's tried everything he can to remedy his ongoing ailments, but the cough medicine, the meditation and sauna sessions, and perhaps the most obscure, pretending and behaving like he is in India when he's actually in Florida, isn't working. He even saw a doctor who was left dumbfounded. 

Whatever the cause may be, what a brilliant way to keep traveling! If everyone suffered like this, we would all be looking for any excuse to pack our bags! We hope the Everywhere Community can be of some help in figuring out this rather troublesome affliction!

(Photo: United States Capitol, by Nick Edens.)  

The Coca-Cola Headquarters tour in Atlanta, Georgia has jumped to the top of my travel list since Everywhere member Sloan Schang submitted his article, Walking in a Corporate Wonderland to the Weird Tours Theme for Issue 05. In his article, Sloan gives the lowdown on touring the soda-company's command post, as well as taking a CNN Studios tour. And if getting a sugar high and watching the talking heads in action doesn't suit your fancy, maybe a trip to the Stratford, Conn. dump will. In Sandra Scott's Weird Tours submission, Talking Trash, we get a peek inside The Connecticut Resources Recovery Authority Garbage Museum where trash and recyclable items are turned into art and put on display right next to the city landfill. Who doesn't want to see a 27-foot high Trash-O-Saurus?

Meanwhile, over in our Issue 05 Rejuvenation Theme, new articles and photos are cropping up everyday. A recent favorite is Jane Keeler's, Not Your Typical Day at the Spa, about the Altyn Arashan hot springs in Kyrgyzstan. While not the typical spa retreat, Jane sure makes me want to drop everything for a long weekend of soaking in a concrete-shed hot spring! And after a weekend of soaking in Kyrgyzstan, I wouldn't mind popping over to soak some more in the geothermal waters of Blue Lagoon in Iceland, where Everywhere member Lola Akinmade traveled and submitted her photo, Soak in the Blue Lagoon, Iceland.

The range of material for Issue 05 has been fantastic, so keep submitting your stories and photos to Weird Tours and Rejuvenation. And if you have any questions about how to contribute check out the Issue 05 blog post!

(Photo: Coca-Curios, by Sloan Schang.)