Sunday April 11, 2010 Travel and Tourism Division State Department of Commerce Raleigh (919) 733-4171
TRAGEDY: Fetal alcohol syndrome is 100 percent preventable. 6E
High Point Convention and Visitors Bureau www.highpoint.org
(336) 884-5255
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Cyclorama at center of debate
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ETTYSBURG, Pa. (AP) – Lovers of modern architecture have won a round in their fight to preserve a halfcentury-old building at Gettysburg despite efforts by the Civil War purists to demolish the structure to restore the battlefield to its original appearance. The National Park Service has been seeking for a decade to demolish the Cyclorama Building, built in 1958 by famed modernist architect Richard Neutra to house a massive circular painting of the famous 1863 battle which has been relocated. The building is near one of the highest points on Cemetery Ridge, a key defensive position where nearly 1,000 Union soldiers were killed or wounded during Pickett’s Charge. The National Parks Service would like to remove the building to preserve the battlesite, but an architectural preservation group says the building is also historically important. A federal judge in Washington ruled last week that the park service did not follow procedure on the matter. U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Hogan told the park that it must go back and reconsider its 1999 decision to raze the building before it can take any action to knock down the structure. In March 2009, U.S. Magistrate Judge Alan Kay recommended that the U.S. District Court rule in favor of the suit by the Recent Past Preservation Network and ordered the park to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement evaluating the potential impacts and review alternatives to demolition. Neither Gettysburg National Military Park nor the National Park Service has commented on the decision. Andrew Ames, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Justice, said the agency is reviewing it and has not decided on the government’s next step. Los Angeles architect Dion Neutra, who worked alongside his father on the center a half-century ago, said the Cyclorama was “way up� on his father’s list of the most important buildings of his career. Architectural luminaries like Frank Gehry and Robert A.M. Stern have agreed, sending letters in support of preserving it. Neutra said his father had a broader vision for the museum than simply housing the 377-foot long, 40-foot high painting depicting Pickett’s Charge. “He wanted to commemorate the Gettysburg Address as opposed to just commemorating the battle,� he said.
FILE | AP
On a rented motorcycle, Chris Holman and his 77-year-old mother, Betty, approach Valley of Fire State Park near Las Vegas.
Renting motorcycle enhances high-adventure touring BY GLENN ADAMS ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
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ALLEY OF FIRE STATE PARK, Nev. – If you love touring by motorcycle, but your destination is too far from home to take your bike, a rental may be the perfect alternative. Motorcycle rentals are available almost anywhere worth seeing, whether it’s riding from Chicago to Los Angeles on Route 66, through northwest Canada to Alaska, or even in the Himalayas or the Alps. My choice was a Harley-Davidson for a ride through an expanse of desert in southern Nevada, where the scorching summer temperatures were matched only by the breathtaking vistas. Petrified sand dunes have been shaped here over the millennia into red formations with illusions of flames that give the place its name and feel: Valley of Fire. My trip started in Las Vegas, where no fewer than three dealerships
offer motorcycle rentals. I took a deep breath when I first gazed at the 1,500-cubic centimeter bike I rented, twice the size of the 750-cubic centimeter BMW I’ve driven for 33 years – and a tad bigger than the motor in at least one car I’ve owned. (Cubic centimeters are a measure of engine power in a motorcycle, like horsepower in a car engine.) But as I became accustomed to the feel of the big machine, I was grateful for its power and weight, which kept the machine stable as it cut effortlessly through gusts of blast-furnace wind that whipped across the highway. The trip was a family affair, with my wife riding with me; two of her brothers, each driving, and her sister-in-law, who proved to be quite adept at snapping photos while driving her machine one-handed. A note for the faint of heart: My 77-year-old motherin-law went along too, riding on the back of her son’s bike.
Leaving the glitz, gambling and neon 40 miles behind us, we stopped at a cantina that specialized in three items: Beer, fireworks and slot machines. For us, it was a water break. With the temperature already over 100 degrees and headed up to 115, we needed all of the bottled water we’d socked away in our saddlebags and drank at every possible opportunity. The shimmering twolane highway led to the park, where the roads cut sweeping swaths and tight S-turns through the highs and lows of the valley. We sidetracked to the White Domes Trail, which offers vistas of towering, multicolored formations molded over time by erosion and wind. Back on the main trail, we passed mountain ridges rising from the flatlands where creosote and burro bush were the main inhabitants, aside from the occasional coyote, roadrunner and lizard. There’s no store or gas
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station in these parts, so a ride to Overton, a sunbaked town northeast of the park, was necessary to fill our tanks, cool off and rehydrate ourselves. The importance of water can’t be overstated, and in our case we hired an air-conditioned chase car to follow us. That proved to be the right decision, because before our 150-mile trip was over, three of our riders were near heat exhaustion and off the bikes for a cooler ride back to Las Vegas. The desert ride is just a taste of what the avid biker can sample on a rental. Companies such as EagleRider, Ayres Adventures and Alaska Rider offer rentals, selfguided or guided tours
on a variety motorcycles in an array of settings. Ours was a fairly simple rental, with no set itinerary and just a bike for 24 hours. My bill, including taxes and $30 supplemental insurance, came to $196.56. But rental tours can get a lot more elaborate in an industry that seems as boundless as the American West.
JOIN JESSE & BARBARA ON THESE GREAT TRIPS! April 29 - Sound of Music/ Wytheville, VA May 12-15 - Jesse’s birthday Mystery Tour May 25-27 Amish Country/ “Joseph�/Gettysburg, PA Dec 2-4 - MotorcoachChristmas Festival/Myrtle Beach