Archive for the ‘Travel’ Category

Those Darn Staycations!

Tuesday, August 11th, 2009

This summer we’ve seen a drop in nights at the Naugas Inn, and I think it’s due to the Staycation craze.

Of course, people are staycationing (taking vacations at or close to home) because of the economy. And it’s hard to blame them, since every home town has some fun things to see and do. People are going to their local swimming pools (even backyard pools) and pretending to be on vacation. They take picnic baskets, even take their digital cameras and take lots of photographs as if they were in some exotic place.

Companies like Wal-Mart and Target are jumping on the trend, even a photo retouching company is running a sale on retouching snapshots from your staycation. Maybe they can crop out your neighbor’s car from the background in the pictures, along with slimming you.

Of course, more staycations means fewer guests for us. We just have to hang on until the economy improves and (we hope) pent-up demand will bring us cars full of happy vacationers.

Tags: ,
Posted in Travel | Comments Off

The Austin World Travelers Come to Visit

Friday, July 31st, 2009

We had guests from Austin, Texas last weekend, and they were real RATS! In this case, that stands for Retired Austin Travelers. They said they had retired from teaching in the Austin public schools, and were now “spending their children’s inheritance” by seeing the world.

The husband said they had visited 21 of the 44 nations in Europe, along with countries in Africa, Asia and South America. Their next trip was going to be to Antarctica in the “summer” (January), where they hope to see some penguins. They also enjoy flying and driving around the United States.

The wife said that there are a lot of retired people in Austin who like to do a lot of travel, and that they were by no means exceptional. They mentioned a magazine called International Travel News, where they get a lot of their information on new destinations.

They behaved themselves – no drunken brawls or running naked through the dining room – so we were glad to have them visit and invited them back the next time they were in this neck of the woods.

Posted in Retirement, Travel | Comments Off

The Geotagging Guy

Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008

We’ve been busy preparing for winter, so I haven’t done much blog writing lately.

We did have an unusual character stay with us. We nicknamed him “Mr. GPS” or “Mr. Geotagging.” He kept wandering around with his GPS gadgets and camera, noting exactly where he was. Some thought he was a surveyor in disguise, making a secret survey of the property for some reason.

I decided he was harmless, although it was disconcerting to have a guest who always wanted to know the exact boundaries of the Naugas Inn land. He used a Garmin handheld GPS to create a list of waypoints for all the features of the land. He mentioned geocaching, but I don’t think he buried any secret treasure-chest objects while he was here.

His waypoints were stored in his GPS, and they were listings of latitude and longitude of our front gate, and the front door, and the overlook, and other points of interest.

He used a little GPS gadget called an Evermore GT-800 EverPhoto with his digital camera, and he said it let him geotag all his digital photos so they could be located using Google Maps or Google Earth.

After he paid his bill, the maid said that he never peeled back the covers on his bed. She thinks he slept in a sleeping bag on top of the bed. Strange!

Tags: , , ,
Posted in GPS, Photography, Travel | Comments Off

The Guy Who Traveled Around Colorado

Thursday, July 3rd, 2008

A recent guest at the Naugas likes to travel. He told us that his favorite recent vacation was to Colorado, and he singled out two highlights:

1. The Segway rental company at Royal Gorge. He said he had never ridden a Segway scooter before, and he wasn’t sure he could do it. But when he saw that they were offering introductory rides for only a few bucks, he gave it a try. He said the Segway was very, very easy to ride. It was so easy, in fact, that he signed up for a tour that went across the Royal Gorge bridge and into the territory on the other side. He never fell off and never had a problem.

2. The Bar D Chuckwagon in Durango. He said the price was good, the food was OK and the entertainment was excellent. He felt that everyone (hundreds of people) at the evening show had a good time.

He also mentioned that he visited the House With the Eye in Leadville, Colorado. He had a hard time finding it, as it seemed that few locals had heard of The House with the Eye. The street address was 127 West 4th St. in Leadville, just half a block off the main street downtown. He said it had been a museum, but now was closed and appeared to be abandoned. The name comes from the eye of God which looks out from the roof of the house onto the street. The eye has been vandalized, and is now protected by a clear acrylic shield.

House with the Eye

House with the Eye

We hope that he tells his friends that his stay at the Naugas was equally pleasurable as his trip to Colorado.

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in Colorado, Segway, Travel | Comments Off

Comedian Visits the Naugas

Wednesday, June 18th, 2008

We had a big-name Chicago comedian visit us recently, Jamie Newell. She was hysterical in person, and a big hit around the bar. She explained that working in show business isn’t all fun and games, but it does have its advantages…like, people buy you drinks just to be near you and listen to you talk.

She said she works for companies, has acted in a movie and does the voices for TV commercials. She was able to demonstrate several unique voices.

All the regulars were sorry to see her go.

Tags: ,
Posted in Travel | Comments Off

Welcome to the Naugas Resort

Monday, June 16th, 2008

Welcome to this blog from the Naugas Resort, in the hills of America. We write about some of the interesting visitors who come our way.

Some of our visitors are vibrant, exciting people. We call them the “Hit People.”

Others remind me of conscious sedation…they talk, but afterward you don’t remember a thing they said.

If you’re a Hit Person, come see us!

If something here offends or concerns you, please notify miles99 at his gmail.com account…he will try to fix it if he remembers.

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Travel | Comments Off