Hit The Road

Just another WordPress weblog

In September 1991, Erica and Helmut Simon were hiking through the Tyrolean region of northeastern Italy, enjoying the scenery and getting some exercise. In between their photo ops and trail mix stops, they discovered something a little out of the ordinary: a fully-clothed but completely frozen human being. As it turned out, the body belonged to a man from the late Neolithic Age (3300-3100 BCE), whom bolzanini have nicknamed Ötzi and taken under their wing in Bolzano’s South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology. Though some too-cool locals insist that only tourists are interested in this human artifact, most take a sense of pride in the fact that Ötzi has made his way to their town.

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Maple sugar is a big deal in the Northeast. Almost all of the world’s maple syrup comes from Quebec and Vermont, and many locals argue that the region’s true heart and soul only comes out in the sugaring season. During the warm days and freezing nights of March and April, grizzled farmers, huge manufacturers, and amateurs all spend time huddled in front of stoves, boiling sap to make maple syrup. It’s no small task, either-40 gal. of sap are needed for every gallon of syrup. The sap is traditionally harvested from a sugar bush (a stand of maple trees) using a simple tap and metal bucket, but industrial farms often employ elaborate systems of hoses.

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Something crashed onto Mac Brazel’s ranch on July 4, 1947, but what it was is still up for debate. Most Roswell residents believe it was a flying saucer and have collected much evidence-and even created a museum-to prove it. Others, guffawing at the extraterrestrial hype, theorize that the object was merely a weather balloon or physics experiment gone awry. Either way, the series of events that took place are worthy of note. The perplexed Brazel took a sackful of debris to Fort Worth, where US Army Intelligence took possession of it. Brazel was told to step out of the room and claims that, when he returned, the original debris had been replaced with different material. …read more.