The Everywhere blog

As if the airline industry needed any more fuel to stoke the already burning ire of passengers the world over, American Airlines has gone and announced that it will start charging customers $15 for their first checked bag, beginning June 15. The airline company claims the new nickel-and-diming effort is part of a larger strategy to combat skyrocketing fuel prices.

The airline also plans on squeezing dollars out of passengers by implementing fees for the handling of oversized bags and that ever-so superfluous task of making reservations.

It's great news to hear the airline industry is going to target its already paying customers for the redonkulously soaring fuel prices, rather than put pressure on elected officials to do something about obviously lacking regulations regarding the importation of fuel. It's even better news that customers get more fees without any kind of trade-offs. Please note the ironic tone here.

It's one thing for an airline (or any company for that matter) to reevaluate how its doing business in a time when the country's economy is sliding quite rapidly down the tubes. Or for that matter, how a company can make itself more competitive by completely revamping its image and practices. Most businesses and industries are probably take a long hard look in the mirror these days (eh-hem, mortgage companies) and making very difficult decisions to quickly combat the United States' sinking economy.

What makes American Airlines' latest scheme so damn annoying, however, is charging customers $15 for the first bag is a whole lotta inconvenience without any real incentives. The penny pinching underway at American Airlines isn't about saving its customers money. It's only about saving American Airlines money. This isn't about American Airlines transitioning into a value airline, such as Spirit or Southwest. Fare prices will remain essentially the same, meaning in the long-run, customers will be paying more to enjoy the status quo.

Not only that, passengers are already hollered at quite vociferously by flight attendants for trying to fit stuff into the overhead bins. Guess what? Charging them for their first bag is just going to mean more headaches at take-off.

How this is going to secure American Airlines (and for that matter the airlines that will undoubtedly start doing the same darn thing) more business or customer loyalty is a huge question that someone obviously overlooked. C'mon, give your passengers some credit. They pay good money to fly your airline, and they aren't so bowled over by your free beverage service and pretzels that they won't shop around for a better deal, especially in light of the growing number of travel search engines dedicated to finding people better deals.

(Image above by Everywhere member Alana Jackson)

I hate admitting this. I really do. But there are parts of the world that I've put off seeing simply because of the local insect population.

Ok, I can feel the numerous pairs of eyes rolling already, but I swear this fear stems from a real place. It's not the lame trials and tribulations of a prissy chick who is sent into cardiac arrest because she sees a Daddy Long Legs on the kitchen ceiling, or "eeeek" it's a house fly.

No, what I'm talking about is how I've consistently put off going to Koh Samui in Thailand, where my pal's dad owns a resort, because the stories she spins about the ridiculously enormous spiders that like to hang out in the town power lines gives me the willies. (She estimates their diameter spans at least one foot.) The worst, she says, is when she's venturing out at night, and she can't see the arachnids hanging out, but she knows they're there.

And just writing that last little passage, by the way, has made my entire body itch. Quite literally, I am sitting here scratching every part of my body. If I wasn't at work, I'd probably stand up on my chair.

There's also the story of a pal who went on an absolutely breathtaking trip to New Zealand. I especially liked the parts where she talked about a spelunking expedition. Until she got to the part about New Zealand's very famous insect, the Giant Weta. Some of these bad boys grow to be as large as rats. Holy hell! In fact, a little research reveals that New Zealand overall has a rep for harboring the world's most giant insects, ever, on earth. She was cool when the tour guide pointed out the constellation of glow worms that blanketed the cave's ceiling. But further along in the tour, it became crystal clear that the ceiling was kind of moving, and when the tour guide explained that all that vigor was actually an enormous population of cave weta, an incredibly common, incredibly harmless, but oh so terrifying, insect all over New Zealand. She got out of there faster than a rocket.

Yikes! 

Have you encountered creepy-crawlies during your travels?  Did you take any pictures of 'em? If so, follow this link to contribute to everywheremag.com. Please write descriptive captions to go with your photo so we can get a sense of what we are looking at, how it all came to pass, how you reacted to the creature at hand. Tag your stories/photos with the label Bugs. Looking forward to the squirming!

Photo courtesy of New Zealand's Department of Conservation

Here at Everywhere magazine, our motto is “Travel is all around you.” And we really mean it. Whether it's the deep-pocketed jet-setter who hops on a plane at a moment's notice, the intrepid adventurer seeking out the ends of the earth, or the urbanite on the hunt for hip lounges, the idea of traveling means a lot of different things to a lot of different people.

How you explore your world says a lot about who you are, but it also can shape who you become. Think of the boutique hotel-hopper, and then think of the rough-and-tumble soul who treks to the top of Kilimanjaro. And then think of the boutique hotel-hopper who ditches the luxuries of a heated pool and room service for the unpredictable ways of the Kilimanjaro snows. They undoubtedly leave their experiences a changed person (for better or worse).

But what about the seasoned traveler who can turn a keen eye to all those wonderful sights and sounds popping up at them on their jaunt to the bus stop, in their backyard, or at the neighborhood park? They too can also emerge from the experience, a radically changed person.

Take a cue from San Francisco-based artist Kate Pocrass, whose Mundane Journeys series has been going strong since she began the project, 7 years ago.
 
An avid walker, Pocrass embarks every weekend upon, well, a mundane journey. She might stop into a dim sum house and order two different kinds of dumplings, or she'll carefully study a collection of random spoons advertised in a storefront window, or maybe she'll play hopscotch in the playground of a nearby elementary school. No matter how mundane, basic, or overlooked, Pocrass takes the greatest care to experience all those things that, most of the time, go completely inexperienced.

Pocrass then records detailed instructions for taking the journey on an answering machine. She changes the message weekly. Check it out: The phone number is (415) 364-1465.

Inviting quirkiness aside, what these journeys really offer is a chance to explore the furthest stretches of your neighborhood and/or city as a whole.  In fact, it smacks of that lovely experience of entertaining a visitor in your hometown and taking them to those tourist traps you always forget to go to visit.
 
I went on a bout of these journeys when guest artist Michael Swaine took over the series for four weeks and kept his travels restricted to the boundaries of San Francisco's seedy Tenderloin neighborhood.  Not that I recommend people leap to their feet and start journeying through their local skid row, but I have to say, I didn't see necessarily what Swaine saw, but I saw other things. And now, every time I find myself passing through that neighborhood, I have my eyes peeled for anything I've missed; eager to take on a new experience or adventure.

No matter where you are, keep a keen eye out for every day moments and experiences, that can turn out to be pretty extraordinary. These are the kinds of excursions that can teach all of us, in a sense, to be better travelers.
Go down that street you drive by every day, just to see what might be at the end of it. Make it a point to order coffee at that bodega you've always wondered about, and take your kids or dogs to new parks on a regular basis.
You'll never know what you'll find. See, we can all be explorers, even during our lunch hours.