Foster Braun

American Road TripTalk (Podcast)-Tonia Buell The Green Highway Click here to listen... Clickhere to download... Sticker shock at the pump in 2011 and the fact that this year's Car of the Year at the Detroit International Auto Show was the electric powered Chevrolet Volt seem to indicate that Americans are beginning to take electric cars seriously. Nissan and Ford have joined GM in producing electric vehicles but the biggest limitation seems to be: How far can you go on the batteries? The State of Washington is tackling this issue head on with their participation in the West Coast Green Highway that will one day stretch from Vancouver, Canada to Baja California. Washington is building a series of rapid recharging stations that will release the electric cars from the urban grid and let them breath the air of wide open spaces. My guest, Tonia Buell, Program Developer and Communications Manager for the Washington State Dept. of Transportation, explains the scope of this great green highway and the schedule for implementation in 2011. American Road TripTalk (Podcast)-Tonia Buell The Green Highway Click here to listen... Click here to download... Chautauqua County New York. Come to Chautauqua in June and get ready for summer with a new hobby or skill during Chautauqua in June, a celebration of vacation and lifelong learning, June 3-23, 2011. The three-week festival is packed with more than 50 workshops held in indoor and outdoor settings throughout Chautauqua County, New York - The World's Learning Center. Feel free to comment, criticize and correct our podcasts because we are always looking to make them better. In particular, if you know of anyone who might make a good subject for these podcasts, please let me know in the comments section. See you soon on the great American Road.

American Road Trip Talk (podcast)- Rollin Southwell: The Loneliest Highway Click here to listen... Click here to download... His voice reminds you of smoke filled saloons, tall tales around campfires and sun-baked days on the high desert. Rollin Southwell personifies the area that he calls the Loneliest and Oldest Highway in Nevada, US 50, part of the Lincoln Highway. His Lincoln Highway website chronicles this dusty road that makes its way through central Nevada like a rattle snake through sagebrush. I spoke with Rollin about the fall of the Shoe Tree near Middlegate, Nevada around Christmas 2010 and how his website is preserving the history of this wild west roadway, the Lincoln Highway. American Road Trip Talk (podcast)- Rollin Southwell: The Loneliest Highway Click here to listen... Click here to download... Chautauqua County New York. Come to Chautauqua in June and get ready for summer with a new hobby or skill during Chautauqua in June, a celebration of vacation and lifelong learning, June 3-23, 2011. The three-week festival is packed with more than 50 workshops held in indoor and outdoor settings throughout Chautauqua County, New York - The World's Learning Center. Feel free to comment, criticize and correct our podcasts because we are always looking to make them better. In particular, if you know of anyone who might make a good subject for these podcasts, please let me know in the comments section. See you soon on the great American Road.

American Road Trip Talk (Podcast)– Janet Leopold: Hawaiian Jurassic Park Click here to listen... Click here to download... When filmmakers want to create a dinosaur domain for our imaginations, there is one favorite place on earth that they go to create their prehistoric settings: The Hawaiian island of Kauai. Specifically, they set up their cameras in the National Tropical Botanical Gardens. Our spring issue of American Road Magazine is built around the theme of dinosaurs so I dialed up the NTBG and spoke with communications director Janet Leopold about this remarkable tropical gem. Kauai is the westernmost of the Hawaiian islands and the many gardens that make up the National Tropical Botanical Gardens have provided lush settings for everything from South Pacific to Blue Hawaii with Elvis. It was these lush jungles, waterfalls and exotic plants that gave Steven Spielberg the perfect setting for many of the scenes in his 1993 prehistoric classic, Jurassic Park. Janet was there for the filming and has some interesting stories to share on this podcast, but she just couldn't tell us the name of the film that just finished shooting in this tropical paradise. We'll let you know as soon as we know! The Gardens themselves are a veritable Noah's Ark of some of the most delicate and endangered tropical plants on the earth and the NTBG is dedicated to preserving all that they can. Janet has full details on that mission as well as movie stories. American Road Trip Talk (Podcast)– Janet Leopold: Hawaiian Jurassic Park Click here to listen... Click here to download... Chautauqua County New York. Come to Chautauqua in June and get ready for summer with a new hobby or skill during Chautauqua in June, a celebration of vacation and lifelong learning, June 3-23, 2011. The three-week festival is packed with more than 50 workshops held in indoor and outdoor settings throughout Chautauqua County, New York - The World's Learning Center. Feel free to comment, criticize and correct our podcasts because we are always looking to make them better. In particular, if you know of anyone who might make a good subject for these podcasts, please let me know in the comments section. See you soon on the great American Road.