Out of curiousity I did a Google News search for “gas prices” from April to May 27th.   The result netted me 70,529 articles –  from gas prices putting the brakes on everyday driving as well as camping and boating, to police upgrading their bikes for cycle patrol.

I’m really over hearing the laments of high gas prices.  The majority of reports say prices will continue to hover around the current range – so they can’t be considered to be “high” for much longer, at least any longer than $2.50 gas is high compared to 1980s dollar gas.  

I have sympathy for those living in rural areas, where jobs can be scarce and some truly DON’T have a choice but to travel 30-50 miles to a workplace, but in our cities and suburbs if you’re not exploring or imploring for new/alternative methods of transportation and living, then its time to make a change…   However one article I scanned that does give me some sympathy is this Savannah Morning News – on how gas prices are affecting touring local bands.  Time to suck up a higher cover charge and another buck on the PBRs.    Bike to the show and you’ll save plenty of cash.

CNN reports on South Florida Hostels.   Cool!

At the risk of being put on a watch list – I found these two immigration/customs stories interesting.  Thankfully only one took place on U.S. soil.

At Tokyo’s Narita:

An unsuspecting passenger who flew through Tokyo’s Narita airport left with $10,000 worth of free cannabis thanks to a forgetful customs officer and a sniffer dog with an unreliable nose.  The officer stuffed 142g (five ounces) of the drug into the side pocket of a randomly selected black suitcase coming off an overseas flight into Narita yesterday so that the dog could get some practice at detecting drugs.   “The dog couldn’t find it and the officer also forgot which bag he put it in,” a customs office spokeswoman said. “If by some chance passengers find it in their suitcase, we’re asking them to return it.”  The spokeswoman quoted the unnamed 38-year-old officer as saying: “I knew that using passengers’ bags is prohibited, but I did it because I wanted to improve the sniffer dog’s ability.”

And at New York’s JFK — from Flyertalk.com member “sefrischling” on Flyertalk’s Travel Safety Forum:

I handed over my passport and landing card and was met the the usual “you were away on business? what do you do?” I answered that I am a photographer and I was in Hong Kong photographing a wedding. She then asked if I worked in the US, I said yes,. She asked if I was connecting to another flight and I told her my kids were waiting outside and I was headed to the beach to see my folks before heading home…………… The next question threw me for a total loop, she asked “do you have a visa to work here in the US?” I informed the agent that she was looking at my US Passport and that as a US Citizen I need no papers to work in the US. The agent looked up at me like I had pissed her off and demanded to know if I had a visa or a permit that would allow me to work in the United States………we went round and round for a minute or two.