Want to help TripAdvisor givie away $1 million dollars?

They are conducting an experiment in ‘diplomatic philanthropy’ with their “More than Footprints” initiative.

Having chosen 5 travel-related non-profit organizations to give the money…

* Conservation International

* Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)

* National Geographic Society

* The Nature Conservancy

* Save the Children

… they are now asking everyone to help them decide how much each organization gets of the $1 million dollar pie.

Cast your vote here

By voting , you not only get to have a say, but you’ll also receive a free e-book from TripAdvisor listing eco-friendly destinations.

Any Amazing Race fans out there?

I see a new series has just started (Sunday’s on CBS).

I’m a hugh fan of Amazing Race and of it’s presenter/producer - Phil Keoghan. After all, he’s a hometown boy. So was interested to learn, out of all the countries that Amazing Race has been to, what his favorite places were.

Not surprising, New Zealand tops the list. Then comes Scotland, Bolivia, Thailand, Costa Rica, Itay, Mongolia, Ethopia, India, and Japan.

You can find out why Phil Keoghan finds each of these places special at Phil Keoghan’s Top 10 ‘Amazing Race’ Destinations.

Sometimes our readers can provide more interesting material than I can come up with on my own, especially after a night when the baby decided that sleep is for the weak and two in the morning is a ripe time for playing peek-a-boo.

The entry on advice for women’s use of the squat toilet generated a hefty pile of comments, but none more thought-provoking than this link sent by Kim from Galavanting magazine: an ad for a paper cone designed to let women pee standing up. Take a look and see if you don’t agree with Kim’s assessment as interesting, a little creepy, and possibly very useful. I suppose I’ll have to give it a shot, but … brrr, it’s just kinda weird. All I can say is take that Freud — penis envy no longer.

And in response to my post on Calvin Beale, Kathy Kassel sent a link to the rural America demographer’s incredible collection of photographs. Beale was fascinated with architecture and rural small towns, interests he combined in his photos of county courthouses all over the country.

National Public Radio this weekend ran a fascinating story, a memorial obituary of one of the most interesting and dedicated travelers you’ve never heard of. Demographer Calvin Beale worked for the US Agriculture Department for 55 years before his death on September 1st. Beale didn’t think of himself as a traveler — he simply spent decades cataloging life and images in rural America as part of his job and the work he loved.

Beale had a knowledge of rural America that is unmatched. He helped guide federal policy because he knew of the changes in farmland, heartland, and small towns years before the Census Bureau became aware of them. Isn’t that what we ask of the best of our travelers and travel writers? That they pay attention to the places they see and the people they meet? Paying attention seems to have been integral to Calvin Beale’s nature.

NPR’s website is still running a memorial to Beale, and as part of that they’ve reposted links to an incredible collection of tales, photos, and videos, some from Beale himself, some of Beale himself, and many part of the story “On the Rural Road” that journalist Jim Wildman worked on with Beale five years ago. The photos and video interviews are particularly interesting. Beale was evidently a photography enthusiast. His fascination with rural county courthouses deserves a place on Perceptive Travel’s increasing catalog of America’s quirkiest, rarest, and most interesting art.

This past weekend, I stayed in a pretty heinous hotel.

I knew it would probably be a dump, and it was, but it was the only place in town where I could find a room so that I could cover the NHRA Fall Nationals drag race for Fast Machines.  Yes, I called six months ahead of time and it did not matter; everything was already full because race fans return year after year.

It was the Waxahachie, Texas America’s Best Value Inn, to be specific, but the exact hotel is really not all that important.  No, I did not go over and launch a fusillade of disgust on TripAdvisor; it wouldn’t change the hotel one iota because I’m not sure the owners really care what their customers think. Plenty of unsuspecting people will keep staying there who do not read TripAdvisor, and I was grossed out enough without running around documenting everything with my camera.

The issue is whether I expect too much from budget lodging, and whether I expect overly high standards from US hotel chains (since one would assume that a chain would want to maintain a decent reputation across its properties.) After all, the Holiday Inn chain was started in 1952 to provide inexpensive lodging for families; lodging that also adhered to consistent standards across all Holiday Inns. The founder didn’t like the wildly varying quality that he found across most Mom and Pop places.

Is it too much to ask to not have to look at gouged/stained wallpaper, cigarette-burned/stained carpet, chairs so blackened and filthy I wouldn’t sit in them, cheapo clothes hangar holders but no hangars in them, and a laundry list of monstrosities in the bathroom?

You will be pleased to know that the bed was decent and I did not personally spy any vermin running around. I’m a mellow, non-judgmental sort, you know.

There was free, functioning WiFi. The front desk personnel were nice - the young woman at the front desk on Sunday morning asked everyone checking out how their room was, then the poor thing stood there and listened to rant after rant. Maybe she was new, but she seemed genuinely surprised that everyone checking out reported that the rooms were a disaster. I gave her a rundown on my room but it seemed like piling on.

My room had a small fridge that worked, and a microwave that warned I would blow the circuits if I used it at the same time I used any other large electrical device.  There was a holder for an iron and board, but no iron or board.

The race weekend rate was $89 a day for this room.

I imagine that on a regular weekend, the rate is more like $50-ish, including taxes.

Is that what I can expect from $50/night? Really? Am I nuts to expect better?

Please, dear readers, enlighten me.  I want a basic but clean, well-maintained room to lay my head.

Do any of you stay regularly at one of the US budget lodging chains like Days Inn, Motel 6 or Super 8 that consistently provides an acceptable room for $50-$60 a night? As a point of reference, my favorite mid-range US hotel chain is the Hampton Inn.

I would love to hear from you in the comments. I hope you do not tell me to give it up and sleep in my car in the future. :)