Happy Trails for a stress-free year

Written by Kathleen Walls and David Leonhardt


Continued from page 1

Take time away fromrepparttar celebrating to visit Bellingrath Gardens and home, Dauphin Island Sea Lab, Weeks Bay Preserve, and Mobile Botanical Gardens (which will introduce you torepparttar 134212 ecological diversity of Mobile as well). Then there are all of those parades. All of which are guaranteed to make you feel good.

MACON GEORGIA: SPORTS HALL OF FAME INDUCTION

For some people, sports equate happiness. The Georgia Sports Hall of Fame's 46th Induction Class, which will be held February 7-8 2003, will includes two female pioneers, arguably baseball's greatest home run hitter, one of football's best place kickers, a Peach State high school coaching legend, and one of Georgia's most celebrated golfers.

Georgia Sports Hall of Fame isrepparttar 134213 newest of Macon's attractions housing memorabilia of pro and amateur athletes in all fields. You can even experiencerepparttar 134214 thrill of driving in a Nascar event withoutrepparttar 134215 danger. Climb into a racecar and takerepparttar 134216 wheel in a fast paced race. Hearrepparttar 134217 sound when you ramrepparttar 134218 fence. Experiencerepparttar 134219 thrill ofrepparttar 134220 track. Then get repparttar 134221 results of your foray into professional racecar driving. Depending on how well you drive,repparttar 134222 results may or my not make you happy. The museum is sure to be a crowd pleaser for sports fans and non-fans alike

FORT VALLEY GEORGIA: FESTIVALOF CAMELLIAS

Flowers are a sure mood lifter, so don't missrepparttar 134223 Festival of Camellias at Massee Lane Gardens in Fort Valley Georgia encompassesrepparttar 134224 entire month of February when camellia blooms are at their peak.(Something is out of place in this sentence.) The flowers begin to show color in October and continue through late March.

Not only camellias show their beautiful faces here. Each season provides a new delight forrepparttar 134225 eyes with roses, flowering bulbs, day lilies and much more. Evenrepparttar 134226 path winding throughoutrepparttar 134227 gardens is unusual. Scattered randomly through it you will find ancient millstones gathered from middle Georgia. Also alongrepparttar 134228 path you spot granite mile stones fromrepparttar 134229 Old Wire Road witch ran from New Orleans to Washington, D. C. The road was so named because it wasrepparttar 134230 route ofrepparttar 134231 first telegraph lines inrepparttar 134232 southeast.

After you have absorbed nature's outdoor offerings, visitrepparttar 134233 two museums housingrepparttar 134234 largest public collection of Boehm Porcelains. Here you will find nature reproduced so exquisitely you will sometimes think you are looking on a live bird or a blooming flower.

ATHENS GEORGIA: TASTE OF ATHENS

Food is sure to make everyone happy and Taste of Athens, a community fund raiser, is sure to make you feel good all over. You get to sample all of repparttar 134235 exotic restaurants Athens Georgia abounds in all under on roof and contribute to a good cause atrepparttar 134236 same time this February 23th.

Athens' restaurants are hard to beat both in number and in excellent cuisine. Harry Bissett's New Orleans Cafe and Oyster Bar, where you experiencerepparttar 134237 ambience as well asrepparttar 134238 authentic food of "The Big Easy". It's housed in an old bank building andrepparttar 134239 mellow brick walls are reminiscent of some ofrepparttar 134240 French Quarter's courtyard restaurants. The majority ofrepparttar 134241 food served here is spicy, for example The Blackened Redfish, gumbo and Crawfish Etoffee, but there are enough less heated dishes to suit any taste. Any festival that brings all of these culinary delights together makes me happy.

It looks like for David, happiness is scenery, and for Kathleen, it's festivals. Whatever it is about traveling that turns you on, now'srepparttar 134242 time to hitrepparttar 134243 trail. So "Happy Trails to you until we meet again."

Kathleen Walls is publisher of American Roads Magazine at http://www.americanroads.net, and David Leonhardt is publisher of Your Daily Dose of Happiness at http://www.TheHappyGuy.com/daily-happiness-free-ezine.html.




Mopeds in Taiwan

Written by Ieuan Dolby


Continued from page 1

Something that I have often wandered about, with so many mopeds is it not easy to forget where you parkedrepparttar damned thing? Must ask somebody about that and if it ever happens! Where in Taiwan did I park that infernal machine?

It is dangerous onrepparttar 134211 roads, there is no doubt about that and one ofrepparttar 134212 reasons why I have refused to drive or even consider driving a moped around. Taiwan law states that at any accidentrepparttar 134213 vehicles must remain inrepparttar 134214 accident position untilrepparttar 134215 Police arrive – which means that traffic flow is seriously disrupted for another two hours or so.

Accidents are common and no Moped Driver has escapedrepparttar 134216 turmoil of being knocked off his seat. Some with broken legs and arms put it down to experience and climb warily intorepparttar 134217 saddle others just laugh their cuts and bruises off and carry on driving recklessly untilrepparttar 134218 next fall. Kids arerepparttar 134219 worst, they scream aroundrepparttar 134220 roads regardless of any safety rules and regulations and regardless of traffic lights and pedestrians. And they get away with it all! They arerepparttar 134221 ultimate in danger yetrepparttar 134222 Police just watch them zooming by probably knowing that they could not catch them but doing nothing allrepparttar 134223 same.

One of my favorite accidents was whererepparttar 134224 Policeman swerved aroundrepparttar 134225 corner on his moped in chase of a poor woman who had run a red light! But in doing sorepparttar 134226 Policeman ran headfirst into this other poor lady whose shopping went flying all overrepparttar 134227 road andrepparttar 134228 Policeman fell off his bike. They are to me notrepparttar 134229 authoritative figure that we associate with back home. Likerepparttar 134230 other day a woman and her kid did something wrong, maybe turnedrepparttar 134231 corner atrepparttar 134232 wrong time or did not stop atrepparttar 134233 red light. Mr. Policeman happened to be standing nearby with his pumped up chest and I am “king” attitude. Seeing what he saw he majestically clicked his fingers and through sign language toldrepparttar 134234 woman to pull over beside him. She was only going slowly, was not far away from him and obviously saw what he wanted. Back home one would pull over – don’t mess withrepparttar 134235 law, but this lady just looked at him, smiled politely and slammedrepparttar 134236 throttle to full. She was gone beforerepparttar 134237 Policeman could think about what to do next. I saw his hand going to his radio, then it went for his notebook, then he started towards his own moped and then he just sank into himself. Nothing he could do, she was out of sight and what information had he to pass across, what was that damned license plate number again? No,repparttar 134238 Police are not reallyrepparttar 134239 best when concerned with traffic violators and speeders.

Helmet wearing is now law and enforced as far as they can do it. Most people do wear helmets and those without are easy forrepparttar 134240 Police to passrepparttar 134241 message along. They have this habit of hiding behind signs and around corners and taking photographs ofrepparttar 134242 criminals and thus catching them that way. If they can get their expensive cameras up and focused that is!

There is no rule about usingrepparttar 134243 side mirrors that all mopeds come equipped with. Most mopeds seem to have had these removed either personally when they boughtrepparttar 134244 bike or through accidents alongrepparttar 134245 way. In fact many mirrors just hang sadly neglected downwards but saying torepparttar 134246 world, “I am here but nobody is interested in using me”. And along with this lack of attention to using mirrors comesrepparttar 134247 typical and forceful manner of driving in Taiwan. Drivers look forwards, they do not look backwards. The rear isrepparttar 134248 responsibility of those behind and absolutely nothing to do with those ahead. Shouldrepparttar 134249 person ahead wish to move out of lane and turn a corner, what happens behind is of no consequence and should a faster driver be coming up and intorepparttar 134250 path ofrepparttar 134251 one ahead, well that is their problem. At no point in a driver’s education does it say, “make sure nothing is coming up behind you before moving out”. Simply put, mirrors are not required and in fact are so “Not hip”.

Mopeds come in all shapes and sizes. The sleek Italian Design torepparttar 134252 ‘odds and ends’ wreck that is home built. They are driven by people of all shapes and sizes from rather large persons who drape themselves overrepparttar 134253 seat and potter along at a curvy pace, old ladies who could walk faster, teenagers who zoom along and secretaries who are followed by admiring gazes. Some bikes groan as they are pushed to their limits and other bikes seem to stiflerepparttar 134254 power that they possess. Some bikes are used as human transporters, father driving withrepparttar 134255 mother behind, two kids standing inrepparttar 134256 well atrepparttar 134257 front and one kid holding on for dear life atrepparttar 134258 back. Others still puff out a horrendous cloud of white smoke signaling that a repair is needed to all butrepparttar 134259 drivers themselves. Some bikes weave uncontrollably asrepparttar 134260 driver falls asleep or wanders off into a land of his creation, and others still gorepparttar 134261 wrong way as drivers get confused or attempt shortcuts that could shave seconds off their journey.

Many bikes can’t be started as batteries run down. Petrol stations are filled with callers for more juice and proud people wash there bikes down, buffing uprepparttar 134262 seat that they spend so many hours sitting in. Dogs ride inrepparttar 134263 wells as their owners take them out for a walk, children sit on specially designed seats fitting snugly intorepparttar 134264 well and electricians keep there tools all overrepparttar 134265 bike as they attend to some call or other. Ladies try to keep their skirts from billowing up and showing torepparttar 134266 worldrepparttar 134267 color of their underwear. Food falls out fromrepparttar 134268 front basket asrepparttar 134269 wind catches it, another drink is dropped as it rolls from betweenrepparttar 134270 feet of a forgetful driver and yet another kid nearly falls offrepparttar 134271 back as his mother gunsrepparttar 134272 throttle in excess.

People struggle to find parking spaces, whilst others scratch their heads over how to extract their moped fromrepparttar 134273 pack. Others still annoy taxi drivers as they cut across them and yet another pedestrian gets inrepparttar 134274 way. Passengers stepping off a bus narrowly escape being mowed down as a moped scrapes past and yet another driver parks his machine inrepparttar 134275 middle ofrepparttar 134276 road thus causing a bottleneck to occur.

Mopeds arerepparttar 134277 distribution systemrepparttar 134278 veins and arteries of society that keep it functioning, in motion and fed. Mopeds arerepparttar 134279 means to conduct business, to dorepparttar 134280 shopping, to get around and to be free. They arerepparttar 134281 lifelines for a whole society and one that without would just cease to function. Mopeds arerepparttar 134282 bread and butter for an entire culture.

For me asrepparttar 134283 lone pedestrian I am assigned torepparttar 134284 road to joinrepparttar 134285 melee, forced to sit on buses for endless hours and induced to spending large sums of money on taxis. For me asrepparttar 134286 odd one out of millions I am looked upon as “weird” and receive strange looks forrepparttar 134287 masses. I asrepparttar 134288 pedestrian fight against society to live on my own two feet and find it hard. I asrepparttar 134289 odd one out am thinking of riding a moped! If you can’t beat them join them.

Then again I may wait forrepparttar 134290 Underground system that is now being built in Kaohsiung – should I findrepparttar 134291 courage to waitrepparttar 134292 estimated eight years it will take to complete

Ieuan Dolby is the Author and Webmaster of Seamania . As a Chief Engineer in the Merchant Navy he has sailed the world for fifteen years. Now living in Taiwan he writes about cultures across the globe and life as he sees it.


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