Awhile back, I wrote a post about how Langston Hughes' train trip to Mexico to visit his father influenced his poem "A Negro Speaks of Rivers." I recently heard that Katherine Anne Porter's writing is also connected to travel to Mexico, but years before Langston made his way there.

Because May 15 was Porter's birthday (She died September 18, 1980) Garrison Keillor presented a short retrospective on her life during yesterday's "Writer's Almanac . "

Travel changed Porter's life. Prior to her trip to Mexico, on the invite of Mexicans who told her about the revolution that was about to blow, Porter had never been out of the U.S.--she hadn't been much further than Texas where she was born. To head to Mexico in 1919, as a female and alone, was rare.

With the success of her short stories inspired by her Mexico experience, Porter later headed to Europe where she began to write about Texas. As she found, often when you leave your home, that's when you can truly see it and have something to say about it that has any meaning.

The collection Flowering Judas and Other Stories was a result of her Mexico travels. She wrote her novel set in Texas, Noon Wine, in Europe.

Here's a quote from Katherine Anne Porter to enlighten your day as a traveler.

"Miracles are instantaneous, they cannot be summoned, but come of themselves, usually at unlikely moments and to those who least expect them."

Cash and Treasures, as mentioned in a previous post, is a Travel Channel show that often features kid friendly places. Host Kirsten Gum, an engaging sort, heads to where you can dig up treasure. I've been watching every Wednesday for the past several weeks, finding out more and more about the bounty one can find above and below ground. The finder gets to keep all of it for a price.

Episode: Digging for black opals

What are they? Stones of a variety of color ranging from black to blue with the shades in between that shine up into various patterns and designs. The design influences their value. Most of the opals in the world--95% come from this part of the world.

Location: Lightning Ridge, Australia--a small mining town that's a bit of a poke to get to. Gum said it took 11 hours through the Outback.

Digging details: Gum started her quest by heading to Black Opal Tours located in Lightening Ridge. This tour establishment is a place to find out about the various types of opal patterns and their value, as well as the history of opal mining in the area. While Gum was in Lightning Ridge, besides digging, she hob-nobbed with some of the miners and downed some beers, "stubbies," to find out about the miners experience and secrets. They kept the secrets to themselves. None of them looked like they are getting rich.

As I'm pawing through warm weather clothes and putting winter clothes away, I'm casting some of them off. Eventually, they may end up on the racks at a charity store in Columbus or in a pile at a market someplace in Africa.

Oprah, though, has enough cast-off clothes that she recently opened a store in Chicago so we can buy them. We can also buy her shoes. I have maybe two pairs of shoes that I could let someone buy. Usually, by the time I get rid of shoes, no one would want them. Oprah, though, has dozens. Clothes range from things she's worn to some that maybe hung in her closet until she decided they are a no show--except, of course, on you. They are sold in the Oprah's Closet section of the Oprah Store in Chicago.

To capitalize on all things Oprah, the Oprah Store also has Oprah inspired items--things that a person really needs like items peddled on her Web site. The thing is, I have so many Jamie things, that if I bought an Oprah thing, my house would explode.

If you do buy Oprah's old things, the money does go to Oprah's charity--the Angel Network. My stuff is heading to Volunteers of America. They'll come get it. [Listen to recent Weekend Edition story on NPR]

If you're looking for a cheap way to travel, and a cultural experience that will bring you past wandering in a country, hoping something significant in your life happens, here's an organization that looks like a promising possibility.

I read about it in a travel blurb and then headed to the Web site to check it out. Bridges for Education is a short term program where participants teach conversational English in exchange for cheap room and board and a week of cultural tours at the end of the teaching obligation.

The premise of the organization is that, by using teaching English as a tool, tolerance and understanding between cultures is fostered. Originally set up to answer the need for English language acquisition programs in Eastern Europe, the reach has expanded to Zhangzhou, China.

Friday, when J. Patrick Lewis, a children's book writer was signing copies of Earth and Me at a writers conference I was attending in Dublin, Ohio, he mentioned that his mother was coming up for a visit for Mother's Day. I asked where she lives.

"Richmond, Kentucky," he said, as if I perhaps I wouldn't know the place.

"I was born there," I said. I left Richmond in the front seat of a U-Haul moving van sitting next to at an age when I still can remember the trip. My mom followed us in our car with my brother.

As J. Patrick Lewis and I talked, it became clear that perhaps our paths crossed when I was a child. I think he visited my elementary school.

I certainly didn't expect J. Patrick Lewis to be connected to my elementary school at the time I would have attended, back when I was in 2nd grade. Talking with him flashed me to the time I was happy to fasten a beak to my face with elastic so it covered my nose. I wore a red dress for a classroom play and said the lines, "I am a cardinal. I stay here for the winter." The cardinal is the state bird of Kentucky.

Years ago, when I was on a ferry between France and Ireland, I saw a woman wearing a Penn State sweatshirt. When I left Kentucky in that moving van we headed to State College, Pennsylvania. Penn State became part of my history. The woman on the ferry turned out to be connected to my history as well. During our conversation, I found out that her brother was the cutest boy in my 4th grade class.

One of the things I enjoy about traveling is that chance encounter with someone that helps make life feel as if it's going in some logical direction--those people that connect the dots for us. Although, I have been in State College fairly recently, I haven't been to Richmond for years. J. Patrick Lewis has. He still drives past the school where I once was a bird. I'm glad to know it still exists. Perhaps, some 2nd grader is slipping on a beak.

As wedding bells are ringing for Jenna Bush, so are some cash registers in Crawford, Texas shops. Jenna, President Bush's daughter is getting married today in Crawford. Knowing a business opportunity when they see one, some proprietors, in the tradition of commemorating occasions with kitch, are selling mugs with Jenna and hubby's mug on them. Last month, Pope Benedict XVI made it to gift shop shelves in various forms because of his U.S. visit.

If you have enough mugs, you can also get Jenna and Henry key chains, buttons, refrigerator magnets and trays. I haven't heard about bobble heads, though.

Sometime this year, I wonder if there will be an influx of Pope Benedict XVI and Jenna Bush memorabilia at stores like Big Lots? Or maybe they'll be at a flea market sometime this summer. Maybe there will be an incentive at coffee shops like buy a mug and get free coffee refills. What do people do with unsold merchandise like this one? On Christmas morning, or during a birthday party, will someone open a gift and say, "Oh, you shouldn't have!"?

Actually, if anyone is looking for a funky coffee bar theme, why not buy up unsold memorabilia type mugs and use them? Sort of like those breakfast places that use old Howard Johnson plates.

The last two weeks of The Travel Channel's Cash and Treasures on Wednesday night haven't included kids at the dig sites, a quality I was impressed by early on. Still, I continue to be hooked into this show. This week, I stuck around for the back to back episodes because host Kristin Gum headed out of the United States for points south in what worked as a double feature. Normally, the first half hour show satisfies me. The episode right after the first usually has a totally different theme.

Episodes: Digging for aquamarines, morganites and more.

What are they? Gems that can be worth beau coups bucks. Aquamarines range from dark green to a light blue, like clear water. Morganites are light pinkish. Gum found an aquamarine worth $3,000 and a morganite worth $1,481, once they were cut and polished.

Location: In the mountains and hills of Southeastern Brazil before the jaunt to Rio de Janeiro for the cutting and polishing. The first episode was shot in Governardor Valadares in the state of Minas Gerais at the Jaco Mine. The second episode was at the Rio Doce Mine near Rio Doce.

Getting to the Jaco Mine involved first taking a train and then a jeep on an unpaved road with 32 switchbacks. The bonus of the effort, besides the gems, was the gorgeous scenery. Gum was given mining tips by the mine's owner and his son. The snaking tunnel of the mines where the walls shimmered turned up nothing, but once Gum sifted through the tailings using a large screen, she found several aquamarines. One of them was large piece that was turned into the $3,000 beauty. The others were the type you'd put in a collection and were not considered valuable.

This morning, when there was one woman (me) in one car (a Toyota Corolla) going along 3 streets in 5 minutes on my way to teach a class, I heard about these 3 guys who are in a car traveling this week to all 48 states in the continental U.S. They're not traveling through each state, but are at least crossing borders to say they've been in each one.

One of the guys, Joshua Keeler, was being interviewed on the radio about the trip. Originally, years ago, this was going to be his father's trip. His dad, James, had mapped out the journey, but James' mother's death kept him from going. Joshua got hold of the maps and corralled his two friends Joey Stocking and Adam Gatherum to go along with him on this journey they are calling, "The Great American Road Trip." There is an attempt to break the Guinness record for a similar trip, although, Guinness no longer keeps such records for road safety sake.

April Fool's Day, 2007, I wrote a post on Linfen, China. Although it was written as a joke, the premise is true. Linfen is a royal mess. Its mighty pollution problem has earned it the number 2 spot on the recent "Hells on Earth" list. The air quality in Linfen is so horrific that there is a perpetual feeling of dusk in this coal dust laden city.

Here's the rest of the ten places that have a hellish quality. Perhaps you know of others that should have made the cut.

I posted a story about an on-line test developed by the University of Chicago to help people learn about their tendencies to think a wallet or a cell phone may be a gun depending on the color of the person's skin. Two commenters wondered what the study has to do with travel. I think most things have to do with travel, but I majored in sociology as an undergraduate, so I see connections in EVERYTHING. Name two subjects and I'll find the connecting dots somewhere.

Since my post, Iva wrote a post about gun related deaths in Chicago during one weekend, and the people she knows who wants to see bad neighborhoods. This is not that different, I don't think, than people who drive through Appalachia looking to see if people have teeth.

When I learned about the study about racism and guns, I flashed to ideas about safety and travel. Perhaps, I was thinking, people's ideas about safety have something to do with where they choose to go on vacation, and perhaps, if they travel at all. There are plenty of reasons why people choose vacation spots, but there are reasons why people don't pick certain destinations as well. I don't think racism is it, but a sense of security and the predictable is.

There's a reason why Disneyland and Disney World get a crowd. Part of it has something to do with feeling safe, I would guess. The Magic Kingdom has a far-reaching comfort zone. When our daughter was five-years -old, we lost her in Disneyland for a few minutes because my husband thought she was holding my hand, and I thought she was holding his. We were busy arguing about something, thus distracted. Our daughter had stopped to look at something and we had kept going. We freaked a bit, running pell mell, retracing our steps, but I didn't think something bad would have happened. Disneyland is about as controlled an environment as one can get.