I am just a week away from the start of my 2018 NCAA Vacation which will take me on a tour of Texas. If all goes well this will be pretty long trip. Right now it's looking like at least 3-weeks and maybe longer. With that being said some folks have ask a few questions about my travels and about my alter ego "The Tombstone Tourist." So I though this would be a good time to try and answer some of those questions. So here goes.
Why did you start blogging? I have always kept a journal of my travels dating by to the cross country trips that I took with my dad in 1984 and 1988. Those wasn't exactly blogs, but hand written journals in a spiral note book. From those early notebooks where I record my thoughts and documented my adventures, I have evolved into online blog containing photos of my trip. Now with my upcoming trip to Texas, I plan on incorporating video. We will see how that goes.
Why can't I comment on your blog post? The answer is you can and I like comments but I found out very quickly that all comments are not appropriate for a family friendly blog. So all comments are held in a queue for review. Once I review the comment I will decide if it is suitable for public viewing. If so the comment will be published. If it is not suitable then it will be deleted. So far I have deleted most of the comments because they are either spam or from trolls that just go around making inappropriate comments on peoples blogs. Just this morning I had 9-comments waiting for review. Six of the 9 were spam, and the other 3 were from trolls. Needless to say they were all deleted. I also do not open or publish any comments containing photos, or links. Yes, it's censorship, and some may not think it fair, but I really don't care. Play nice or don't play at all.
When you travel how often do you post and are the post live? I try and post at least every couple of days when I am traveling. The key word there is TRY. Some days are extremely long and quiet frankly when I get to the hotel the only thing I want to do it is shower and relax. That's why I again try and have some blogs already written and queued up ready to post. No, it is not live. It is usually a couple of days behind. This is for safety and a lot of work goes into each entry, especially editing the photos and videos.
How do you find the cemeteries and the grave of the people that you visit: I use a number of websites to help me find the cemeteries and graves. My go to website is Find A Grave. This website has millions of grave listings and most of the cemeteries listed have an address listed. Many of the graves within a cemetery have a plot location listed. Some even have the GPS coordinates which is really helpful. If all that is listed is the section then I usually end up walking and searching the section for the individual grave. If the GPS Coordinates are listed I can use the mapping app on my photo to quickly find a particular grave. Also many of the larger cemeteries have an online map and search feature where I can simply enter the name of the individual and it will show the plot location on a map.
Why don't you just go to the cemetery office and ask for help: Some cemeteries are very helpful others are not. Cemeteries like Bellefontaine in St. Louis have a very large number of well known graves and realize that they are a tourist attraction and welcome tourists. They have even printed a booklet that they sell at the office that is extremely helpful in locating the famous grave within their cemetery. Other cemeteries will help you with a map and the staff will mark the a couple of plot for you. Don't go into the office and expect the office staff to look up and mark 15-20 sites for you. Not going to happen and you shouldn't expect them to. There are cemeteries that charge you for looking up grave sites while other will only assist relatives.
Of the cemeteries you have visited, which one is your favorite: My favorite as far as the number of famous people who are buried there has to be Bellefontaine in St. Louis. There are more than 200 famous people buried there and as I have already said they are very tourist friendly. Probably the most beautiful cemetery is Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati. It is without a doubt one of the most beautifully landscaped cemeteries in the country.
What are some of the cemeteries that you haven't visited that are on your bucket list? Any of the cemeteries in the Los Angeles area, especially Westwood Memorial Park, Forest Lawn - Hollywood and Glendale, Hollywood Forever and Holy Cross. I plan on crossing off a bucket list cemetery on my upcoming trip to Texas by visiting the Texas State Cemetery in Austin. I also want to revisit Sparkman-Hillcrest Cemetery a few other Dallas area cemeteries.
Getting away from questions about the Blog and Cemeteries, a few people have wanted to know about my travel and how much planning goes into each trip. So while I am answering questions let me get a few travel questions out of the way.
How much planning goes into your trips: The answer is it varies. Little or no planning goes into day trips. For weekend and short trips, I research hotels and attractions in the area, but really outside of the major attractions, very little advanced planning is done. For long trips like the one coming up, I do quite a bit of planning. In fact I started planning this trip a little over a year ago. I start by laying out a general route, and looking for attractions, cemeteries and hotels along the route. The route will change several time during the early planning stage. Once I get a general Idea of where I'm going and how I am going to get there I start putting together a lose itinerary. Again this will change during the planning stage and it will change once I get on the road. Once I get the itinerary I begin to look seriously at listing attractions including addresses, GPS coordinates, hours and admission. The trip plan for the upcoming Texas trip is 27-pages and was just completed this past Thursday. Once I finish it was printed and has been placed placed in a notebook, which will serve as my trip bible once I get on the road.
How many miles a day do travel? The first day of a long vacation is what I refer to as "Get away Day." I look at anything within a days travel is something that I can always get to or go back to. So the first day is usually the longest travel day of the trip, which is usually is about 500-miles. The rest of the trip each days travel will ideally be between 250 and 300 miles or less.
How do you decide where to stay? I am a firm supporter of two hotel rewards programs; Choice and Holiday Inn. My favorite hotel chain is Choice Hotels, which feature such brands as Comfort Inn & Suites, Quality Inn and Sleep Inn. I like them because they are for the most part clean and have reasonable rates and with incentives I can get free nights quicker. I am also a member of the Holiday Inn Rewards program. Holiday Inn's are generally a little more upscale than Choice and many have on site restaurant. Plus they are about $20-$30 a night more than Choice. It also take longer to accumulate free nights. Between Choice and Holiday Inn I have enough point for about 14 - 17 free night. Just like everything, these hotels have their share of duds, and before making reservations I take each hotel that is on my long list of possibilities and I do a Yelp and Trip Advisor search and compare reviews. I can usually spot fake reviews or reviews that are written by someone who has an ax to grind and just writing a review because they didn't get their way. People who are extremely critical and have only a couple of reviews are pretty much discounted. The same can be said for reviews that are especially glowing, those reviews are either written by the hotel or a friend of the management. Those reviews I also discard. If a hotel gets good reviews on both sites then they make the short list and will probably make it into my trip book. Most locations have at least two hotels listed in the the final trip book, while large cities like Dallas may have as many as 6 or 8 that make the short list into the trip book. One thing about staying in large areas, I have found that if your stay a few miles outside the city you can save a substantial amount of money on the nightly rate. When researching my hotels for Austin, Texas, I found that hotels in Austin were well over $100 a night. But by staying a few miles outside the metro Austin area in Round Rock, I was able to save about $50 per night.
How far in advance do you make hotel reservations? Again it depends, If I know I have to be in a certain place on certain date then I make reservations well in advance. For example, I knew that I was going to be in Dallas for the tournament and those dates are not going to change, so I made my hotel reservation for my Dallas Stay back in October of 2017. Plus, I often get a good rate before the special event rate kicks in. My King room in Dallas that I booked in October is reserved for an average rate of $79 a night. Now the same room which is 6 miles from the American Airlines Center is listed at $129 a night. But most of the time when I am traveling and I am flexible I usually make my reservations a couple of nights in advance.
Do you use third party booking sites or make non-refundable reservations which are often cheaper? I have use third party booking sites a couple of times but I am not really a fan for a couple of reasons. If there is a problem with the rate or the room more often than not you have to deal with the third party site and their customer service reps are not easy to get in touch with and are not really interesting in resolving the problem. Where as if I book directly through the hotel, I am dealing with first the front desk who 99% of the time really want to help you resolve the issue. If they can't resolve the issue on site, then I can still deal the corporate office who are determined to find a resolution. One example of this was last year in Huntsville, Alabama. I booked a room using a third party site. When I got to the hotel I found that the hotel was over booked and could not honor my third party reservation. The desk clerk told me that I would have to deal with the third party site, that the hotel was under no obligation to refund my advanced payment. The only solution the third party site offered was refunding my credit card within the next 5-business days .I ended up going to a nearby Choice Hotel Property and even though they had no vacancies, the clerks were determined to helps me and called around to several other hotels and finally found me a room. I usually book my rooms through the hotel website, that way if there is a problem I am dealing directly with the hotel and not some third party. I am not a fan of the non-refundable rates, as they charge your credit card immediately and you are basically buying something sight unseen. If I get to the hotel and find it is not exactly the cleanest property or in an unsafe neighborhood, they are under no obligation to refund my non-refundable rate. I am just not into buying a pig in a poke.
Well that's about all I got for you for now. I hope you find this little question and answer sessions at least a little interesting. If you like the blog be sure to comment and if you really like it be sure to subscribe.
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