Elsewhere

Here’s my wrap up from the Outdoor Retailer show on Practical Travel Gear. What’s the OR show? It’s a huge display of gear by companies looking to get their gear onto retails shelves and in between the pages of magazines. It’s a fun scene, full of people who love to play outside and love to travel.

The one minimally gray cloud over the weekend was the attitude I got from a few dudes who wouldn’t take the time to show me some of the more performance oriented gear when I said I didn’t do back country travel. I’m pretty sure my tent doesn’t care how it got to the campsite and, dude, camping is an all weather pursuit. Lighten up, activity snob!

That said, I was psyched to connect with Ian from Wend, Kraig, my fellow Gadling gear head and writer behind The Adventure Blog, Anna from Undersolen Media, Nathan from Away.com … and oh, my, so many other cool travel and play outside types. Never mind that my feet were throbbing at the end of every day, it was (mostly) a good time.

Speaking of gear, here’s the first of a smattering of reviews to come from all that stuff I laid eyes on at the show. It’s coffee fueled, but what isn’t, I ask you.

You might remember how I went to Austria and then, didn’t get to do anything I had planned to do. Well, I did do some eating, and that inspired this piece. People, it’s not all schnitzel all the time.

Oh, hey! This is huge. We’re open for Passports with Purpose this year and we’re funding libraries. We love reading! We love writing! We love libraries! Learn more about this year’s PwP efforts here.

Image: Mozart rubber ducks in a Salzburg souvenir shop window. Yours for EU 10.90. about 15.00 US, because really, who doesn’t need a bewigged, violin playing rubber duck?