Beyond the Oyster Juice

Ships Ahoy!

Exciting news, land lubbers!  Mad Gringo has a new friend that you should meet: Rich at CruiseSource.  CruiseSource is a wonderful source for information if you're thinking about a new cruise... or a FREE CRUISE!  Yep, CruiseSource is giving away a free cruise to the Bahamas right now, and Mad Gringo is supplying the proper clothing.  Check here for the nitty-gritty.

Another cool thing that we saw at CruiseSource is the hurricane tracker.  At Mad Gringo Headquarters, we're getting all of the details on Hurricane Paloma from this post and StormCarib.com.

So, anyway, Mad Gringo is sponsoring the shirts for the Bahamas cruise.  Mr. Winner will get a Mango Madness Island Party Shirt, or Ms. Winner will get two T shirts: Sand Angels and Mad Gringo logo.  Register now!  It's free and easy, just like Mad Gringo style.

Excellent Travel Book

Have you bumped into Rolf Potts?

He's an up and coming (or maybe he's already arrived) travel writer and he's written a new book.

From his description:

"This book documents his boldest, funniest, and most revealing journeys — from getting stranded without water in the Libyan Desert, to crashing the set of a Leonardo DiCaprio movie in Thailand, to learning the secrets of Tantric sex in a dubious Indian ashram."

Oh, yeah. Count me in.

Rolf follows his inner mad gringo and has the stories to keep yours in check.

Now through November, Rolf's will talk in a number of metropolitan areas including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, New York, Philadelphia, Minneapolis, New Orleans, Kansas City, and Wichita.

Check him out and take pictures to send to me. A free tshirt to the person who gets a picture with Rolf holding a Mad Gringo beach bumper sticker. Trust me, I'm good for it.

Go slow.

Here we are

(from Yucatan Living)

Mad Gringo loves coming across articles like this when researching the next getaway:

http://www.yucatanliving.com/destinations/yucatan-taco-stand.htm

The description of eating in these little places is spot on:

"The quintessential Yucatan eating experience is attained somewhere outdoors. The view isn’t great. The tablecloth (if there is one) is oilcloth atop a cheap plastic or metal table donated to the restaurant by Coca Cola. The food is dripping with sauce, hot and tasty. Your fingers and hands are covered with it and your mouth is on fire with chili de habanero. You reach for a napkin to wipe your hands and all you get is a tiny, wafer-thin servieta. But you have to do it so you can hold that cold glass of Coca Cola or agua-de-whatever long enough to quench the fire inside for just a moment."

The napkin part is what made me laugh this time.

I need to get the Go Slow Expeditionary Force and Product Testing Department to start a new section on sauce spills on Mad Gringo tropical shirts.

The one I'm wearing today is optimized for the green chile experience.

The Destination Tortola Island Shirt.

Yes. It's good with Margaritas too.

The restaurant is called Wayane's in Merida. Wayane loosely translates to "Here we are".

And as we like to say: Wherever you are, be there.

Go slow.

Vacation Leads to Longer Lives

(photo from Brad Nordlund, flickr)

You knew this already, but it's worth repeating.

Vacation leads to Longer Life. At least for 9 years. Statistically.

I'm not kidding. Check out the scholarly journal, USA Today:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/painter/2008-07-13-your-health_N.htm

Take vacation and you're 50% less likely to die. Ever.

Well, the study group was monitored for nine years. No news on what happened in the 10th year.

Other good news, vacationers literally "slow down".

See - go slow.

Mad Gringo told you so.

Go slow.

Your Own Tropical Island

Hello? Hello? Is this thing on?

I know, it's been a while since I've posted. . .almost 2 weeks! New website - long nights - early mornings - you know the drill. 

This morning's WSJ jarred me back to my senses:

"Your Own Private Island Home"

The best part is that Melody Key (for a cool $4.9MM) is owned by Omaha's own Nick Hexum from the band 311.

That has to be worth at least $500K in a bidding war.

Once I buy it, you're all invited.

Mad Gringo to Airlines: Go Slow!

(image Getty Images)

Mad Gringo is finding out just how flexible the "Go slow" mantra can be.

Take this gem sent in by Mad Abby:

"Airlines slow down on flights to save fuel"

With all the money these cats are saving on fuel costs you'd think they would toss Mad Gringo a free ticket or two.

No problem. I didn't want to go anywhere anyway.

Sob.

I heard a similar story on the radio about "Hypermilers" who work to squeeze out every mile of a gallon of gas.

"'Hypermilers': Squeezing Out Every Mile Per Gallon"

One of their strategies - rolling through stop signs.

Yikes.

I'll stick to simply going slower.

Or I can tailgate a big rig. They proved it can work on Mythbusters.

So many ways that going slow can help save the world.

Go slow.   

Beach Vacation Wars

(WW2 Midway bunker)

Mad Gringo loves his time on Virginia Beach. Mostly because of Wild Bill and Mad Anne and their Pineapple Lanai.

So this little beach war caught my eye:

"Virginia Beach says ad crossed line in the sand"

It seems that Myrtle Beach is poaching on would be vacationers that are searching on Google.

Whoa!

This seems to have some people's inner mad gringos getting, well, mad!

Read this guy's comments:

"To be blunt, Myrtle Beach - with its miles of strip joints and acres of bad food - appeals only to golfers, lechers and other social misfits."

Ouch!

Beach vacation wars. The only thing worse could be someone sitting on the beach with a laptop getting work done.

Oh no! What is the world coming to?!?

"The beach of tomorrow, where high tide meets high tech"

I guess Mad Gringo has more minds to change.

Go slow.

Find your way to the beach, for FREE

Want to get to the nearest beach?

Just need to find your way there?

What about a FREE Rand McNally Road atlas?

Click here.

Before you go, make sure to pick up some beachwear.

Go slow.

We need more Beach Vacation Time

(image from http://4-bahamas-villa.com/)

Or rather, we need to USE the vacation time given to us to get to the beach more!

Expedia sent us a travel report that you can read about here:

http://www.4hoteliers.com/4hots_nshw.php?mwi=4386

What Mad Gringo finds interesting:

"Despite reporting an average of 14 paid vacation days again this year, the same as 2007 and two more than in 2005, an estimated 47.5MM Americans (31 percent of employed U.S. adults) -- almost as much as the entire population of California and Illinois, combined -- will not use all of their vacation days.

Again this year, employed U.S. adults will leave an average of three vacation days on the table, in essence giving back more than 460 million vacation days in 2008."

460 Million Unused Days of Vacation!?!

That's not good.

Mad Gringo's prescription: take part of the Economic Stimulus tax rebate that the US government is sending, buy some beachwear and get yourself to Florida or California!

The sunshine states need you.

Go slow.

Need a little Polynesia?

Mad Gringo has this event on his list of things to do in 2008.

Tiki Kiliki puts this production on and it looks like a riot.

Jeff Beachbum Berry will be there. The Martini Kings. The Intoxicators. Marina the Mermaid.

I can't make this stuff up.

All you need to do to get there is to visit the Hukilau site, purchase a ticket for the events and get yourself to Ft. Lauderdale in June.

http://www.thehukilau.com

Go slow.