Travel Info - North America

DARKER PASSIONS

NORTH AMERICA - LOS ANGELES - To fully appreciate a foreign culture, you must understand its darker passions. In Los Angeles, that means police pursuits through the city's maze of highways.

LA television networks routinely abandon scheduled programs to bring live images of these sometimes-deadly battles to hungry viewers.

Some people even have membership with some type of pursuit watch company that tells them when their local media covers live police pursuits. Before, they had to rely on word of mouth, or a “breaking news” alert on the radio or TV. But now, thanks to today’s technology, members can be alerted through a pager or by a telephone call.

STORM CHASERS

NORTH AMERICA - TORNADO ALLEY - Form storm chasers, a nice day is letdown. Every summer, these meteorological disaster buffs scour the midwestern plains from Texas to North Dakota and from Colorado to Indiana, driving hundreds of kilometers a day in hopes of witnessing a striated barberpole supercell storm, an ice-blender hail core, a laminar-outflow stogie or-best of all-a tornado.

Prompted by the success of the movie Twister, half a dozen bad-weather experts have begun advertising storm-chasing safaris. Success isn't guaranteed: most days are spent consulting meteorological data, racing to the next potential hot spot, or visiting tourist sites. Bookings can be taken for the tornado season, from May to July. All participants must sign a liability waiver.

INTERESTING INFO

NORTH AMERICA - FALL RIVER - In August 1892. an event occurred in Massachusetts which so intrigued the world it was even incorporated into children's rhymes: "Lizzie Borden took an ax..." A court found that Lizzie hadn't given her father and stepmother 40 whacks, but most students of the infamous double murder have since concluded that Borden was guilty.

Examine the scene yourself: the Second Street site of the killings is now the Lizzie Borden Bed and Breakfast, where you can spend a night in the room where Abbey Borden's body was found and eat a breakfast identical to the one consumed by Andrew and Abbey the morning they were killed. You'll dine in the room where autopsies on the couple were performed.

TRAVEL AND CRIMINAL RECORD

CANADIANS TRAVELING WITH CRIMINAL RECORD - Having a criminal record is never easy, and when you need to travel, your record will make it very hard to do so freely.

If you have a criminal record and you have been able to travel outside of Canada, the best and safest thing you can do is to apply for a US Entry Waiver. These waivers can be expensive and they take months to receive, but they will allow you to travel freely across the border for a period of 1 to 5 years. Once your waiver expires, you will need to re-apply for another one, which means beginning the process and paying the fees all over again, but if it means being able to take vacations and participate in business trips, then the cost and effort is definitely worth it! Click here for more info...