green living, smart spending
The Canstatter Volksfest in Stuttgart is a smaller version of Munich’s gigantic Oktoberfest, although the suds-fueled merry-making is just as raucuous. When some 5,000 people get together in a tent with mountains of food, rivers of foamy brews and a band encouraging sing-a-longs, it is just not possible to sit quietly for long. Okay, I’ll
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The automobile was born on August 26, 1885. That is the day Gottlieb Daimler filed a patent for his ‘riding car’, the world’s first vehicle with an internal combustion engine. Dr. Carl Benz registered a patent for a similar device six months earlier, with three wheels and large enough to carry passengers. So you
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It’s a great destination any time of year, including panning for gold, hiking on a glacier, soaking in hot springs, quirky museums and a traditional Athabaskan native village, spotting wildlife and visiting Santa at his North Pole village, all of which I did on a recent visit.
Automotive History: How Mercedes Got its Name 125 years ago, the name of an eleven-year-old girl became the epitome of cars and the first luxury car brand in the world. On April 2, 1900, Gottlieb Daimler named the vehicles produced by his Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft (Daimler Motor Company) as Mercédès, after the daughter of Daimler’s biggest customer,
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Bertha Benz was the first documented woman driver, of the first documented road trip, and the first woman we would describe today as an automotive marketing pro or influencer. Her pioneering 65 mile drive on August 5, 1888 between home and her mother’s house became a media sensation and helped drive sales of her husband’s
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It was a day that would change the world by setting it in motion. Happy 137th birthday to the automobile, born January 29, 1886, when German engineer Dr. Carl Benz applied for a patent on his “gas-powered vehicle”. Later the same year and independently of Benz, German engineer and tinkerer Gottlieb Daimler built his motorized
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The recent catastrophic flooding in Libya had me remembering my one and only visit to Libya many years ago. And a reason to re-publish this article. I was overlanding decades before the term existed, in the 1960s, when it was called – simply – touring. It was my honeymoon, an extended road trip through Europe
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The US Postal Service has issued a love letter to the American Pony Car, with new Forever Stamps that honor legendary 1960s models. The Pony Car stamps celebrate five iconic U.S. automobiles — the 1969 Ford Mustang Boss 302 (think Steve McQueen in Bullitt), the 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T, the 1969 Chevrolet Camaro Z/28, the
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Pierce Arrow. Studebaker. Packard. Hudson. Tucker. AMC. Pontiac. DeSoto. These and other automakers of the past no longer in business are showcased in wonderful new exhibit at the Hershey Auto Museum in Pennsylvania. 100 years ago, even 50 years ago, there were dozens of small companies making cars in the USA. Some survived, like Ford.
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Cuba is a fabulous “bucket list” destination, with those memorable vintage cars, historic architecture, music and dancing everywhere, including in the streets, interesting art and history museums, including the home of Hemingway, and friendly people hungry for contact with Americans. I’ve been to Cuba twice in the last six years, and ready to return to
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