Quirk Travels

Offbeat travels close to home and around the world.

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On the road in Pennsylvania Dutch country

On the road in Pennsylvania Dutch country

The hand-painted sign along the side of the road caught my eye. Homemade baked goods, root beer, jam. Behind it was large gray barn with a small farm stand in front. I peered down the gravel drive and saw a man with a beard and a hat driving a horse-drawn buggy. I’m in Bird-in-Hand, a dot on the map along Route 30 in Pennsylvania Dutch country, late in the morning on a meandering drive along farm…

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New Mex-sick-o

“How are you doing tonight?” said the man from room service as he set a cup of soup, a glass of orange juice and a Perrier onto the coffee table in my hotel room.

I had just flown in to Albuquerque from the East Coast and thrown up a few hours after I arrived. Now I was nervous that my whole weekend would be spent in bed.

“I’m actually not feeling so well,” I said.

“Well this should help you,“ he…

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The day the earth shook (again)

The day the earth shook (again)

  Mexico City’s hip Roma Norte neighborhood The night before the earth shook Mexico City this month (the 7.1 earthquake on September 19), I was writing a story to tell you all about visiting the artsy, foodie, trendy Colonia Roma, a neighborhood that had charmed the socks off of me on a visit this summer. I traveled to Mexico City to join a friend at a photography workshop in the middle of that…

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In search of bigfoot

In search of bigfoot

“I hear you’re interested in big foot.” Joe pulls his head out from under the hood of an old pickup truck and smiles. He’s wearing a black Luxor Las Vegas t-shirt, and his blonde hair is pulled back into a ponytail. I had just stepped into the backyard after spending the night a house rented out by he and his wife to travelers passing through Salida, a mountain town in central Colorado. I chose…

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Strange beasts and wild things You never know what you'll find out there on the road. It's a big country filled with many a thrilling and frightful delight.

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Somewhere between here and there

Somewhere between here and there

How do I write a story about a little town called Salome? It’s a very small spot on the map—an intersection, really—that’s not nearly as exotic as the Biblical seductress the name suggests, the dancer who asked for St. John the Baptist’s head on a platter. A couple of hours west of Phoenix, Arizona, it requires an hour-long detour off the interstate, and there aren’t many reasons to do so. There…

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Joshua Tree, California Joshua Tree is more than a whimsical national park filled with wacky trees right out of a Dr.

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Desert retreat

They say not to post pictures of yourself on Caribbean beaches or running from the bulls in Pamplona while you’re away from home because criminals are watching your Facebook feed—and apparently know where you live—and are just waiting to rob you blind. All I have to say is ‘Go for it.’ You greedy bastards are welcome to my VCR and the television my parents bought me when I moved into my first…

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Dear Blue Corn Pancake

Dear Blue Corn Pancake

Dear Blue Corn Pancake, I didn’t know what to expect when I first saw you on the menu at the Phoenix Public Market. I had never heard of a blue corn pancake. I live on the East Coast, where corn is yellow and on the cob and pancakes come stacks. The café was busy and noisy and distracting. Other options coyly called out to me. Quinoa bowl. Baker’s quiche. A Southwest breakfast mash up called The…

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Rear Window

Traveling by horse and buggy is a way of life for Mennonites in Pennsylvania Dutch Country. When I stepped up into the metal buggy, I reckoned (yes, you can use old words like this and not seem strange here in Pennsylvania Dutch Country) the carriage could be either a year old or 100 years old, so timeless it seemed. It was built like I imagined a Model T Ford—thin, flat black metal shaped into a…

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Eight '80s music videos that will take you around the world

Eight ’80s music videos that will take you around the world

I can’t look at a sailboat without thinking of Duran Duran, the wind blowing their frosted-tipped hair as they ply the clear blue seas in the ‘Rio’ video. As a teenager in the 1980s, it was pop music that helped ignite my desire to see what was outside my subdivision. Nathalie Merchant singing about the neighbor playing ‘Aida’ in “Verdi Cries” (“I’m hearing opera through the door”) led me to…

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Savannah in 12 hours

I knew three things about Savannah when I landed at the airport. There’s a famous cemetery, Spanish moss hangs on the trees, and there was a trendy restaurant in a converted Greyhound bus station that I just had to see. Five minutes in and I had already made one rookie mistake. I ordered iced tea and was surprised to find it sweet as a lollipop. (Full disclosure: I’m a lifelong Northerner.)…

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Where in the world?

Where in the world?

When I was a little girl, one of my most favorite things to do was play ‘Where in the world?’ with my dad. Together we would pore over the glossy blue globe in the sunken basement of our suburban split-level, countries splashed in bright pink and yellow colors across its smooth surface. We soaked in places with exotic names printed in small black letters across its curve. Addis Ababa. Hungary.…

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Offbeat travels close to home and around the world.

Read about offbeat travels close to home and around the world at QuirkTravels.com