The Lehigh Valley Heritage Center is the history museum and artifact archive of the coal mining, steel smelting, and war loving region in the Great Appalachian Valley. The coal was used to power ships, the steel used to build ships, and men sent to operate the ships. The ships were Read more…
Human ingenuity led to the industrial revolution but it was powered by coal. Long hours and low pay, coal miners fed the machines in Detroit that built Ford Model T’s on a production line, the locomotives that shipped them all over the world, and cooked the food of the people Read more…
Allentown in the Lehigh Valley was named after its founder William Allen. His son, James Allen, built Trout Hall that stands as the site of the county’s historical museum. Its baseball team is called the Iron Pigs, named after the city’s early steel industry that began in the 1850s, the Read more…
2019 Jeep Compass Limited Distance: 4,063km Location: Switzerland, France, Liechtenstein, Italy Date: June 1-15, 2019 Up front: It’s more comfortable than most mass-market crossovers at the $30,000 price point but it’s no luxury car. What it is represents better value than similarly-priced Korean rivals. The leather seats are a nice Read more…
2019 Ford Mustang EcoBoost Premium Convertible Distance: 1,735km Location: Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri Date: August 29-September 4, 2019 Up front: It’s not a sporty car, it’s a sports car. You’re sitting on the floor, legs stretched out, and arms trying to reach the controls. The seating position for anything below Read more…
Canadian North is a small airline serving a specific domestic clientele in northern Canada. Yet, it has one of the most fascinating commercial air routes in the world. While Singapore Airlines boasts the world’s longest route, Emirates shows off luxury, and Aeroflot flies obsolete Soviet planes, Canada has an Arctic Read more…
This is a modified excerpt from my master’s research project in 2022. “Burke,” a 53-storey condo tower being erected on the corner of Sherbourne and Howard streets, just steps away from Sherbourne subway station. On the same site as the new condo there are two heritage buildings – the Anson Read more…
Scranton had a trolley system from 1896 to 1954, the first economically sustainable system in America. The Lackawanna valley was rich in anthracite, top-notch coal, and the trolleys were powered from the nearby coal-fired power plant via a third rail, unusual for interurbans. But one line, the Northern Electric Railway, Read more…
The stench of diesel wafts through the air of the industrial centre of the Pocono Mountains. Diesel locomotives transit through carrying hundreds of cars of assorted goods and commodities, they idle and stink. But not all of the trains in Scranton ran on diesel, it’s electric trolleys that were ripped Read more…
Route: Frankfurt to SingaporePlane: A380-800Date: Aug 10-11, 2024Price paid: €1514 including an onward flight to Hong Kong (originally €4169) ComfortWindow seats on the upper deck are the best seats as they have a larger sleeping surface along the wall and offer more privacy. Sit as far forward as possible to Read more…