We were working late the other night at HOP & JAUNT’s office in the warehouse district of downtown New Orleans. There was a crawfish boil going on at the bar next door, but other than that it was a pretty quiet night. Suddenly, we heard this loud crash outside, and then roar of cheers and laughter. We jumped up from our computers and ran outside.

Sure enough there was a wreck outside. Some poor guy in a van got hit by a police car. Fortunately, the only thing injured was the police officer’s pride. The bar crowd got a big kick out of that.

A few weeks ago Alyson and I had an unique and amazing opportunity. The chance to view our city of New Orleans from aboard the world’s largest airship.

The Farmer’s Airship

The Farmers Airship Eureka is a 246 foot Zeppelin owned and operated by Airship Ventures of California. It is the only commercial passenger airship in the United States, and one of only two Zeppelins flying in the world.

Awaiting Take off

Releasing the bow line.

Take off is as smooth as going up in an elevator.

The Airship had just arrived in New Orleans to film the Zurich Golf Classic. Its ability to hover in one place makes it ideal for filming sporting events, but also for observation and scientific research. It also allowed for some great views and amazing pictures. So here are some of the incredible sights of New Orleans from 1200 feet*.

A Beautiful Day for Flying.

The aft window offered an amazing panoramic view.

Spencer Spellman, the Traveling Philosopher was also on the guest list.

Audobon Park

The Garden District. The Pilot kindly flew over our house.

The Superdome

Canal Street

The Natchez Steamboat

Mississippi River

Jackson Square and St. Louis Cathedral

The French Quarter

Hotel Monteleone

The Jazz and Heritage Festival is about to begin.

The Fairgrounds

Alyson getting what the crew calls “Zep Head”.

Eureka is currently on its Covering Communities tour of North America. It may be coming to a location near you, in which case, you can grab at the chance to take a bird’s eye view of your own city. For dates and tickets, visit Farmers Airship.

*an estimate.

*[ a Fictional Graphic Blog Episode sprinkled with tidbits of truth?]

Excerpt from Travelouge: October 31, 2010

Something is going on. I’m sure of it.

The clues have always been right there, staring me dead in the eyes, but it wasn’t until recently that I’ve been able to put them all together.

I remember when it all started just earlier this year. It was a strange news story, but nothing to make a big deal over. I didn’t even give it a second thought…until now.

But looking back I see that it was a piece of the puzzle. And as the year progressed and more seemingly unimportant and trivial news stories aired, I began to notice a pattern. A connection. And when all these stories, all these puzzle pieces are viewed as a whole then you can really see how they paint a bigger picture. A shocking and horrifying picture that may very well rock the foundation of mankind’s civilization.

I first became aware of this revelation in April of this year. Stephen Hawking had just completed a documentary about the universe for the Discovery Channel. It was creating a mild buzz with little public interest, as most science news stories do. ‘Who cares what are the latest advances in cancer research. Just tell us when the next iPhones are coming out.’ The intrigue over Hawking’s documentary stemmed from some controversial speculations he made warning mankind to cease any attempt to contact extraterrestrial life existing elsewhere in the universe. Hawking theorizes that intelligent life would most certainly present a hostile threat to earth and its inhabitants.

The subject was put up for debate by a panel of “experts” on Larry King Live. The panel included futurist, physicist Dr. Michio Kaku, senior astronomer of the SETI Institue Seth Shostak, David Brin astronomer and futurist, and Dan Aykroyd. At the time I saw this, I thought it was ridiculous and laughable. Humanity certainly has its laundry list of problems to face, (such as over-population, war, shortage of resources, disease); however, I didn’t foresee extraterrestrial life being an immediate threat…

…until now.

After the Larry King Live debate I immediately forgot about the imminent alien invasion. It neither concerned nor interested me. But since then I began to notice other news stories that seemed to be touching on a similar theme. “How should mankind prepare for a first contact with beings from other planets?”

In late September, the United Nations made a surprising announcement by appointing the First Ambassador to Alien Worlds. The new appointee, Mazlan Othman a Malaysian astrophysicist and director of the United Nations Office of Outer Space Affairs will, in theory, be Earth’s representative to future visitors. This definitely peaked my curiosity. I can appreciate the fact that the United Nations would want to plan for any and all possibilities. But why this one? To me, governments are not exceptionally keen on planning long-term strategies for possible threats in the distance future (but that might be because I’m an American). The fact that they are doing something about it, makes me wonder if there was a reason that it needed to be done. Its as eerie as finding out that your government has established a strategic plan in the event of a zombie holocaust.

Perhaps mankind has already made first contact with alien life. And slowly and carefully we are being fed clues in small doses to prepare us for the eventuality that intelligent life does exist elsewhere in the universe…and that its already here. Maybe the leaders of our world have known about this for some time. For instance, in 2008 the Vatican City announced that it is a possibility that alien life forms could exist and that believing in that would not be contradictory to a faith in God. This announcement really freaked me out because the Catholic Church does not have a long history of agreeing with astronomy theories. And while the earth’s spherical shape and its rotation around the sun maybe a scientific certainty, an evolutionary theory is still up for debate. What could be more shaking to a person religious faith than the arrival of alien beings from another planet? Is the Catholic Church attempting to prepare its followers for such an event by establishing a doctrine that would make Christian faith and alien existence coincide with one another? The Catholic Church is a very important power on our planet. And when an important power makes such an uncharacteristic announcement, I think it should be treated with serious interest.

And the most recent peculiarity in this series of bizarre news items occurred this past month in New York City. Dozens of New Yorkers were drawn from their office buildings and into the streets of Manhattan to stare at the curious spectacle of several unidentified objects hovering over the city. Air traffic controllers were unable to pick up the objects on radar even though they were clearly visible to the people and news cameras watching from below. The phenomenon had police and the Federal Aviation Administration baffled and no explanation has yet been given.

Something is definitely going on. The powers that be are assuredly covering something up from the general public. But I’m onto them. Of course, Alyson doesn’t believe me. She usually dismisses my theories as outrageous and mere paranoia. This has led me to suspect that she may be in on it. She has always been a bit strange, and if alien life were already among us she definitely an obvious candidate. We are on the precipice of something BIG and its only a matter of time until we take the plunge off the other side. Until then…trust no one.

Everything has been a blur since we’ve returned to sweet home Alabama after our trip to New York City this summer. Alyson and I have been steadily busy doing work for our clients at HOP & JAUNT Creative Design. Here are couple you may have seen within the travel community recently.

This was a custom blog designed for Spencer Spellman of The Traveling Philosopher fame. We met Spence in New York at TBEX10 and decided to meet up again down in Mobile, Alabama. He wanted a great looking site to accompany his great writing. I really love the custom Twitter, RSS and Stumble Upon badges we did. Check out Spencer’s site when you get a chance. He has some entertaining articles, and each includes a bit of southern charm and wit.

HOP & JAUNT did this custom logo and header for Matt Long of Landlopers.com . The circular mark of the Landlopers logo represents a path leading into the distance between two mountain peaks. Its sleek, simple and iconic (which makes my graphic design senses tingle). Check out Matt’s site too, cause he has a lot of great advice for getting around the globe without breaking the bank.

So, what else is new from the desks of the traveling designers. We’ve done blogs, websites, ebooks and now…perhaps theater.

When Alyson and I were in NYC we saw a Broadway play. The set and costume designs inspired me to use our trip photos to create a mock-broadway production of our trip. Check out some of the images from the soon-to-be Off-Off-Off Broadway play, “HOP & JAUNT TEAR UP the BIG APPLE”.

We arrive in New York City!

We rented an apartment for the week.

We took a trip to the top of the Rockefeller Building and watched the sunset and the city’s lights come on.

We advanced down Wall Street.

On Independence Day we visited Liberty Isle and Ellis Island.

For the long ride home, we caught the Crescent Line back to Birmingham.

After our first night out in the Big Apple, Alyson and I just managed to slip into our cozy hostel bunks before the “tranquility” of dawn descended on the city of New York. The symphony of the morning began pianissimo before a quick crescendo of trumpeting cab horns and thundering garbage trucks. Burying my head beneath my pillow, I began to understand the meaning behind “the city that never sleeps“.

Stairs in our hostel.

The view from the roof of the Jazz on the Town Hostel.

We somehow managed to resurrect ourselves, grab a cup of coffee, and make it to the conference just in time to be a half hour late. The fact that we arrived late puzzled us a bit, but we were too tired to dwell on it. Only later did we discover that our mobile phone had not automatically updated to the new time zone. We spent the rest of the weekend arriving fashionably late to all of the TBEX functions.

After our morning boost of caffeine had begun to take effect, we made our way into the crowded auditorium. It was a packed house. Travel bloggers from URL’s all across the globe were in attendance. Surely, some world record for largest group of people simultaneously twittering had been broken. We had all taken our pilgrimage here to study, discuss and learn the revered ways of Travel Blogging. Very important issues were discussed such as, “What makes good stories?“, “How do you do Podcasts and Videos“, and “How the Hell Do You Make Money at Blogging?” Time will soon show whether Alyson and I were listening closely enough.

In the thick of it at TBEX TEN.

Yours Truly.

Aside from the panel discussions, the remaining two days of TBEX were filled with glorious gifts, platters of free food, and cups that overflowed. Alyson and I were seriously impressed (and impressing Alyson is no easy task). I have to say that both NYC and TBEX far exceeded my expectations. Understandably, the glittering lights and tall buildings of the Big Apple would ‘WOW’ anyone just off the plane from a sleepy, small Alabama town, but I still found it amazing that a group of backpackers and travelers could pull off such a well done convention.

Those glittering lights and tall buildings you just read about.

Obviously, a church.

Alyson twittering as usual.

At the close of the conference each afternoon we would all join a mass exodus and head to the pub hosting the “After Party”. These social engagements lasted well into the late evenings. Apparently, travel bloggers not only love 1) Travel and 2) Blogging, but also 3) Talking and 4) Drinking. The after party events have all become a blur to me. Not because of drinking to the point of memory loss…no, but because of the shear number of people we met during these soirées. The names, faces, web addresses and twitter handles have all become a jumbled collection of information hastily stored within my short-term memory. Perhaps self hypnosis memory recall could help sort out the details, but for now I will go ahead and apologize in case we meet again and I seem to have forgotten you. I blame the beer.

Naturally, after the “After Party” came the pub crawling. Though we managed to stumble our way in and back out of several fine establishments, by far my favorite was McSorley’s Old Ale House. McSorley’s is a 156 year old pub that is still open and going strong. They only serve a choice of either light or dark ale, but the selection wasn’t the attraction. The charm is all in the history. The walls are adorned with old photographs and newspaper clippings. Behind the bar looms an old wooden ice box and in the center of the pub stands a pot belly stove. You can smell the dust. The waiters walk up with fistfuls of beer mugs and slam them before you on the thick wooden tables. Some of the more famous patrons to McSorley’s have been Abraham Lincoln, John Lennon, and Woody Guthrie. Even American poet E.E. Cummings published a poem titled, “Sitting in McSorley’s”. After having danced where George Washington once danced in Charleston, we were happy to drink where Lincoln once had merriment in New York.

McSorley’s Old Ale House

Inspiration for travel writing.

The watering hole. Paul, Candice and Alyson wet their lips.

Paul Thompson enjoying some McSorley’s Dark Ale.

This bar is like a time capsule.

Sawdust strewn floors.

When not at the conference or pub crawling with other bloggers, Alyson and I spent our time wandering aimlessly through Greenwich Village. The summer sun was really beating down one Sunday afternoon so we stopped to cool off in the shade of the trees in Washington Square. The squares of NYC really reminded me of the plazas in Colombia. People flock to these oases hidden throughout the concrete corridors of the city. The squares are gathering spots, resting spots, and places to just sit and think. There were children and students cooling off in a large fountain and splashing around in its refreshing waters. Alyson and I watched in silent envy wishing we could join them. We wiped the beads of sweat from our brow and continued on our walk to find something to eat.

A shady stroll through Washington Square.

The arch at Washington Square. Notice the food vendors.

The fountain at Washington Square.

A shop in Greenwich Village that sells only Chess Games.

Shopping for records in Greenwich Village.

The concrete corridors of NYC.

Man, I could live on NYC street food… (but Alyson would never allow it). There is such a fulfilling yet simple pleasure from standing on a sidewalk and being offered grilled meats on a stick. And the best part is the food carts are everywhere. No matter where in Manhattan we went the wind always carried the savory smells of chicken and pork sizzling over a charcoal flame down the long avenues and right to my nose. Hot Dogs in Central Park, Kabobs at Union Square, Gyros at the Battery. Pizza on our stoop. It was like being at a county fair every day.

Pizza on the Stoop.

Hot Dogs in Central Park.

Sunflowers at Union Square.

Union Square, near our hostel, was a great place to score cheap, delicious grub. It was conveniently located with plenty of food carts and lots of shady resting places. While taking a rest from meandering around one afternoon we stopped at Union Square for some casual people watching and spicy chicken kabobs. I’ve never seen a city so historically old and yet internally young. Hordes of young professionals and hipsters covered the city sidewalks, filled the shops and cafes, and lounged on the emerald green grass of the square. They strummed guitars for change, surrounded outdoor chess boards awaiting their turn to play, and desperately promoted themselves from behind card tables of CDs. We watched a group of enthusiastic activists try to convince passers-by to take off their clothes. They held picket signs that read, “Its Okay to Be Naked” and sashayed around the square with barely anything on. Surprisingly, several pedestrians they had stopped would comply with their demands and disrobe while the young nudists shouted and cheered. Dinner and a show for four bucks fifty…perhaps only in New York.