Throughout the history of man, it has always been in our blood to travel, take long voyages, and explore new territories of land on Earth. Just about every man, woman, and child living on this planet today, has that curiosity inside of them and we always want to see what is on the other side. Now that we have made it to the 21st century without destroying our race with disease, nuclear weapons, or other things that could put us back into the caveman days. We have just about went to all of the corners of the Earth and there is only a few remote pieces of land we haven’t stepped foot on and the bottoms of our oceans are still a bit of a mystery, but we have conquered Mother Earth for the most part. The only other direction we have left is up and space will be man’s next and biggest challenge ever, when it comes to feeding this curiosity we have about the moons, stars, and other planets; which do exist in our solar system.

Yes, the next big Lewis & Clark adventure will take place in outer space and we already have a lot of good technology in place, that is making space travel possible in the first part of our new millennium. While the space program was invented in the 20th century and very much operational then too, it’s really not that big of a story; when it comes to our abilities to travel away from the Earth in the 21st century. However, only highly trained astronauts and space people were getting the chance to leave the planet and go where very few other men and women have gone before. If you wanted to travel to space in the 20th century, you would have had to complete a high level of education courses and training for the chance to go. The overall numbers are still relatively low for those who have traveled to space compared to the 8+ billion people on our planet who hasn’t been beyond Earth’s gravitational field yet.

Other than a few other high-tech countries, the main launching pad for space travel has always been reserved for the men and women working with NASA. If you ever wanted to go or had dreams about traveling to outer space, you were going to have to get NASA’s permission; not to mention the use of their technology and space shuttles to get you there.

Today the study and technological advancements for outer space and space travel come from a variety of really smart people, private companies, the military for various countries, and the wealthy citizens of the World. All of these modern sources are contributing things and ideas to the astrological equations; which could make traveling to space a real possibility for more than just NASA employees and astronauts.

I find it interesting at the number of wealthy men living in our country and in other parts of the world and how a lot of these filthy rich men want to make the trip into space one day. The 21st century is going to create multiple space vehicles, for multiple paths into the open space that is beyond Earth’s furthest atmosphere from her ground. Some of these billionaires will still be young enough to make the trip and most of them will get a chance to conquer one of the last thing’s in their life, they haven’t conquered yet, because you figured most challenges they have over came to be so rich now.

I haven’t made up my mind yet, if given the opportunity by NASA or a private space travelling company, if I would choose to go. I can tell you one thing for certain. If I had a few million dollars in the bank; then there is no way in the World I would think about travelling to outer space. Why risk it? I know for the rich people out there, they have always had everything they needed or wanted in life (for the most part). I don’t have dreams about taking trips to space, but I do have plenty of dreams and desires of being rich enough, so money wasn’t an issue in my life. I know they say the more money you have, the more problems that come with it. Well I have lived the life of a poor man for almost 4 decades now and the problems I have had to face in life hasn’t been a bowl of cherries. I would like to be given the opportunity to face those rich man’s problems and the ones that come with having a lot of money. I can’t even for one second see how any of those problems would even come close to the everyday problems and real life struggles I have today. So my dream is a simple one. I could make a million dollars last for the rest of my life. I actually figured it out to a smaller number and came up with 680,000 dollars. If I was given or won 680,000 dollars; then I would be able to do enough online work to put with my monthly interest I would earn on that sum of money and could sail through life a million times better than now! Guaranteed!

Now getting back to the trips to outer space. How much would you be willing to spend or what lengths would you go through, just to have the chance to make a trip to space one time? Instead of charging a price for a ticket to space, it looks like the private companies are posing these questions to the men and women, who really want to fly into space one day. The trips to space for common people is going to be a bidding war or work much like an auction does. The ones who have the biggest bank accounts, will be the ones getting those first seats into the dark and never-ending reaches of outer space. I don’t really have a problem with that. Obviously there is going to be a lot more people wanting to go; than these spaceships have the seating capacity for. So something would have been needed to make it a fair chance for all. Money does not equal power, so letting the ones willing to pay the most, is a fair way to choose passengers for space and using money would be in the best interest of these private flights to space companies.

I do look forward to seeing average people making these trips to space. I know most of us should see at least one person we know, go to space in our lifetimes. It’s going to be that common, where a conversation will take place at the water cooler and each employee will have known a neighbor, a relative, a former employee, a friend, or someone who has signed up and taken one of these private trips, toward the stars of the pitch dark sky, which we simply know as outer space. As far as we know, this is truly man’s last frontier…

I’m sure you have traveled to some strange places, where you had to look for a place to stay for the night. You decide your going to find the nearest hotel and crash for the night. Your main goal is to just find a place to stay for 1 night, but then you decide you want more than just a room for the night. You get lured in to a hotel that is offering HBO or some other paid cable channel and perhaps they even have a hot tub for their guests too. Now the plans change and you decide to have the time of your life and you pay extra for the hot tub and cable TV.

After you see a lot of these hot tubs in the hotels, you may want to get your money back. They usually are not that nice at your cheap 1 night stay hotels. I don’t think they do any sort of hot tub maintenance’s or put a hot tub cover over them; while they’re not in use. The television is 19 inches or smaller and doesn’t even offer a clear picture. Sure you got HBO and a few other good movie channels, but how much TV do you really plan to watch? After all, you only got the room for a place to sleep and not a lot of time to enjoy the 100 channels you have at your finger tips.

Be cautious of these hotel signs when you do go out on a road trip. No sense in paying for cable television, hot tubs, and other hotel luxuries; when you only need a bed for the night. I don’t mind the cheap hotels and I will gladly stay in the cheapest one I can find. It is nice to check-in and see your hotel offering something you didn’t expect, but I believe saving money is the bottom line. I don’t want to have to pay for the hotel’s water bill or their cable bill either!

The other choice many will choose to take is going to the mountains. The mountains or any place that is miles away from any modern conveniences. A camping trip or a log cabin in the woods is the 2nd most common travel destination for families who take a summer vacation each year.

I enjoy doing both and don’t really have a favorite. It all depends on what type of mood I am in. The sun and the beach is a great choice and I love going to the ocean. I have been to South Carolina and Florida for most of my ocean vacations. If I see the ocean down in Mississippi or on the Alabama coast, I am usually going on a gambling trip to Biloxi, Mississippi. A lot of families like to visit a casino on their vacations, but since the kids aren’t allowed in, this really isn’t the best family vacation choices.

If you just want to get away from it all, then I strongly suggest a trip to the mountains. I’m not sure how close of a trip this would be for your family. My home in North Georgia is a real close drive to the mountains in my area. Taking a one day trip or a weekend getaway to the Smokies in Tennessee is no problem for me. I even like the mountains in North Georgia and all of the beauty and silence they offer.

If you got the opportunity to pick which place you wanted to travel to for a summer vacation, which destination spot would you choose? Does the beach or mountains make the most sense for your taste and idea on what the perfect vacation is all about? For a family with small kids, they will usually pick the beach. This also saves you money, since the beach is free to do and more than likely there is a free pool your children can take advantage of too. A trip to the mountains doesn’t offer too many of the free things that kids like to do. You can take them fishing and swimming, but most of the other activities will cost you money. If I had kids, I would certainly put their interests above mine; when choosing where to go on a summer vacation.

I am a new gold prospector in the 21st century. I haven’t tried any of the modern equipment yet for finding gold. I am still trying to learn like the gold prospectors of yesterday. Who had to go out and find gold without the use of modern technology. I believe gold is just about everywhere and finding it does not require luck. If you know where to look for gold and how to prospect it, you can find gold on most days.

My first few times out I found no gold. Not even a tiny flake and I was looking in some pretty good places, at least that is what I thought. You would think gold would travel down a river or a stream bed and get trapped behind the rocks in the water. While this may be true in some cases, it’s not where the majority of your gold will be. If you want to find gold on your next outing, please listen to my number one piece of advice for finding gold in a river, creek, stream, or any water way that has flowing water.

The gold isn’t getting trapped behind the rocks. The gold is actually washing over the rocks and will settle down in front of them. Any structure in the water that is changing the flow of water will be a good place for finding gold. Just don’t look at the back side of the rock or the upstream side. Reverse your thinking on this part, because it is very important if you want to find gold. The gold is collecting by the big rocks in front of them or on the down stream side. Gold gets pushed over the rocks during floods and after passing the rock, the water current will have less strength on the opposite side of the rock. This change in water flow will create a more calm water flow and allow the heavy gold to sink. The gold sinks to the bottom and will collect in front of the rock.

Most of the gold in rivers will be found on the down stream side of the rock. Please keep this in mind, when you and your buddies go out looking for gold in the rivers. You can pay attention to other factors, like gold being found on the inside of a bend and not the outside. It’s good to keep all of this prospecting information in your head for finding the most gold possible, but beginning prospectors will have the most luck, if they will take my advice on the best way to find gold in the shortest amount of time. You simply just need to look on the front side of the rocks and dig out that material in front of the rock. If you will pan that material out or run it through your sluice box, you will find much more gold; than if you try getting gold from the material on the back side of the rocks. It may seem a little strange, but gold prospectors shouldn’t be concerned about strange. We just want to go where the gold is and most of the gold is on the down stream side of a rock or other obstructions in the rivers and creeks. This method does work best after a big flood has recently passed by. However, the gold doesn’t really move much in the days, weeks, months, and years after the flood, so there should always be some gold in front of the rocks.

Avoid trying to pull material out; which is under the water. You will lose gold this way and just disturb the area, so gold can get washed down further in the rivers. Dig along the sides of the river, which probably go under water during the floods and you can retain a lot more of the gold. Gold prospectors need to mostly focus on dry digging and not put their shovels in a place where they will get wet. A dry shovel means a better chance of keeping all of the gold that is in front of a rock in the river. A wet shovel might land you some gold, but how much did you lose to the currents in the water? Keep the shovel dry and dig in front of the rocks and you will see the shinny golden flakes in your pan.

Maldive Islands

In the Indian Ocean, you can find a beautiful stretch of islands known as the Maldive Islands. It would be hard to put any island or chain of islands ahead of the Maldives. This may be my top choice in the whole world, I would like to travel to some day. The beautiful colors of the clear water around these islands are really something to see. They look so good in pictures, I’m sure their real-life beauty is much greater. Have you ever been to the Maldives? Please share your stories or experiences on these beautiful islands in the Indian Ocean.

Tahiti Island

The large island of Tahiti would be another good choice for anyone that was looking for paradise. I love how they have these little cottages sitting on top of the beautiful aqua-colored waters of the Pacific Ocean. Tahiti is located in the southern Pacific. You would have warm temperatures all year long in Tahiti. I probably could live here for a year and it would feel like a week. I just can’t imagine time ever moves on this big island. There is a large population of almost 200,000 people living on this island known as the Tahiti Island.

Cook Islands

There are 15 islands located in the South Pacific that make up the Cook Islands. This chain of islands has a lot to offer. The beautiful palm trees and white sandy beaches are just the starting point for all the beauty you can find on the Cook Islands. I could just stay on the beach all day long, if I was vacationing in this part of the world. I believe New Zealand holds the ownership of these scenic Pacific islands. I wouldn’t mind seeing the waterfalls in New Zealand first, before I made my way by boat to the Cook Islands for a little R&R.

Bali Island

The Island of Bali in Indonesia would have to be high on my list of islands to travel to. I have already found the location on Bali I would like to stay at on my visit. I’m sure there are many locations on this beautiful island a tourist could enjoy. The scenery here is second to none and anyone composing the top tropical islands of the world, would have to include Bali on their list. Truly one of the top island destinations the world has to offer.

Curacao Island

Not an island most have heard of before, but the Curacao Island is one of the world’s best. This island is located off the coast of Venezuela in the southern Caribbean Sea. I believe this is one of the closer islands located to me from the United States. It wouldn’t take me long to make a trip down to this part of the world, to see the beautiful Curacao live and in person. Have you ever heard of the Curacao Island before? It has everything a tropical island is suppose to have and more!

Do you have any other tropical islands that would make your list of top travel destinations? The big island of Hawaii can’t be overlooked and it would be a trip to paradise too. There are many other beautiful islands that you can’t forget about. Go ahead and add the island of Fiji, the Galapagos Islands, Aeolian Islands in Italy, Cayman Islands, Easter Islands, and Bora Bora to the list of exotic and beautiful islands I would like to travel to.

In Europe, I wouldn’t mind a visit to the Canary Islands or the British Isles. The Seychelles in Africa would be a splendid site to see in person and I would also want to travel here one day. A more realistic approach to my island travels, would probably be to plan trips a lot closer to home. Central America offers a huge selection of islands to tour and visit. In Central America, I would add the Bay Islands, Baja Islands, Cocos Islands, and the Island of Cancun to my island travel dreams. It would take a long time to visit all the best islands in the world. I guess I better hurry up and start, so I can spend an extended amount of time on each island.

There isn’t a better way to take a family trip in a big camper, motorhome, or RV. It makes from traveling to point A to point B a lot more easy and relaxing for the ones who are not driving. If the driver has a back up driver on the journey; then it makes everyone enjoy the ride so much better. No matter where your travel destination takes you to, the trip there is half of the fun. I would love to go on a long vacation in a recreational vehicle, because it does make a big difference compared to driving there by car. Have a safe trip this year and don’t forget to take care of the motorhome repairs before you leave the house.

Not sure when the nightmare will end for USC, but Seantrel Henderson could have avoided it and is choosing to walk right into the college mess USC is having to deal with. The funny thing about the USC punishments, we keep waiting month after month an now year after year and they keep on adding new charges to their own resume. Why is it taking so long for a ruling to come down? Oh yes, what was i thinking. It’s a money issue again. The NCAA is terrified of losing that money in Southern California from all those rich boosters, they are having to walk a very thin line here. Actually for those of us that see the USC football program and the NCAA as the same body of legislature, you have already waited too long to hand down punishment. Isn’t this matter really simple? Other schools have committed these violations in the past and they wasn’t allowed to play in a bowl game. Now USC has did it twice, they will need to sit for at least 2 bowl games and hopefully they do a better job in the future covering their money trails.

High school football recruits coming out in 2011, 2012, 2013, or 2014 should all be avoiding the USC Football Program. You want the full college experience and the guys running the show out there are going to cost their Trojan football team a lot of future bowl games. If you have talent and can play football, go to a school where you have the chance to play in front of a big TV audience that takes place for all the college football bowl games. The USC Trojans is the worse college football program a talented recruit could join in the next 4 to 7 years. If you plan to make your college debut in 2018; then maybe things will be better then. The USC Trojans are done in bowl games and will lose recruits for their cheating ways.  This will continue up to the year 2017, so from 2010 to 2017; you need to stay away from the USC Trojan football program.

Who knows when the Matt Leniert Scam will be over. Who knows when the Reggie Bush Scam will be over. Who knows when the Pete Carol Scam will be over. It’s hard to predict anything, with so many USC scams currently under investigation and the new ones that will appear this fall. The ESPN USC Scam, NCAA USC Scam, and Kirk Herbstreet USC Scam will all have light shed on them soon. Money was also paid to the leading rusher and tailback for the USC Trojans last year and the 2009/2010 USC Scam will also need to be cleared up.

Shamu is the main attraction for people that visit Sea World each year. Not sure what the theme park plans to do now; since Shamu has attacked and killed the trainer that was working with him/her. I guess we will have to wait for more information to come out. It’s a tragic event and I’m sure many folks are shook up right now with the killer whale’s deadly act today in central Florida. The Sea World theme park is located next to Disney World in Florida.

The whole world is looking in on Canada today. It’s time for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games to begin and it all gets started in Vancouver, Canada. I think Canada is a great choice for the Winter Olympics and they have a lot of room to host all the different events that make up the 2010 Games. I haven’t checked the schedule yet to see which events will take place on certain days and times. I will be eager to see when a lot of these events will come on television, so I can take-in this years 2010 Olympics.

The USA Hockey Team will be high on my list of things to watch this year. It seems we get a little bit better each time and now we are 4 more years into the future. I have already seen one headline at Yahoo talking about the Russian Hockey Team and how they look unstoppable on paper. I believe they have 16 players on their team that also play in the NHL or National Hockey League. The paid athletes wasn’t always allowed to play in the Olympics. Many changes have been made to the rules over the years and now they do allow professional athletes to compete in the Winter and Summer Olympic Games. What are your thoughts on professionals participating in the Olympics?

Do you think professional athletes should be allowed to play in the Olympics?

A. Yes

B. No

C. In Some Events

I think the correction was long over due and I love seeing my favorite professional athletes competing in the Olympics. For the Summer Olympics there is nothing better than watching the USA Basketball Team or “Dream Team” play against the other countries in basketball. That first Dream Team was special when we got to see Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Dominique Wilkins, Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing, and Michael Jordan playing on the same team. There has never been a time where that much talent was on the same team in the same sport competing against other teams in that same sport. Those guys had it going on and the original Dream Team still stands out today. The Dream Teams that followed the original one, never was able to assemble the best of the best on one team. I would love to be able to hand select our Dream Team in 2012 for the Summer Olympics. My cast of NBA players for the 2012 Olympic Dream Team would be:

1. Kobe Bryant

2. Dwayne Wade

3. Carmelo Anthony

4. Kevin Durant

5. Josh Smith

6. Dwight Howard

7. Tim Duncan

8. LeBron James

9. Chris Bosh

10. Carlos Boozer

11. Kevin Martin

12. Derrick Rose

I think these will be the 12 best basketball players the Americans could offer up in the 2012 Olympic Games. Feel free to give me your list of the best 12 players you think will be available for the Summer Olympics that is still a little over 2 years away. Perhaps someone over at Yahoo Sports sees the Russian Hockey Team as the “Dream Team” for the Winter Games in Vancouver this year. I guess I will have to root for the USA Hockey Team every time and who ever is playing against the Russians in hockey.

All the athletes are now in Canada and ready to go for gold in their special events. Let the games begin and let’s see which country has the greatest athletes competing in Vancouver this year. It should be interesting to see how the Americans do against all the other countries that are known for their strengths in the 2010 Winter Olympics.