You'll find many travel websites in this newsletter. You may have firmed up your vacation travel plans already, but in case you haven't here are more possibilities. Several are "adventure travel" sites. You would be amazed at how many of them there are. Maybe I've listed too many, but, who knows, one of you may have a lifelong wish to experience the Gobi Desert, and this is the only year you could do it.

     Which reminds me: a friend took a similar tour and really enjoyed it. The tour guide had a solution for rest stops in the middle of the desert with no human habitations for miles. They all got out of the bus, the men walked in one direction and the women in the other. If this sounds like fun to you, make a reservation!

----Table of Contents----

1. Pollen.com
2. Do This While You're Healthy
3. Adding Herbs to Your Table
4. Coloring Pages for Children
5. Fr*ee Cat Stuff
6. For Travellers with Disabilities
7. Walking Adventures
8. Mongolia and the Gobi Desert Beckon
9. Archaeology Beckons Too
10. Pilot a Plane Over Moscow
11. Air Travel Bargains
12. Bed and Breakfasts
13. National Cornbread Festival Winners
14. Recipe: Coalminers' Pie

1. POLLEN.COM

     Of course the Internet has a website on pollen! How could it not? Apparently written by someone who has known suffering, it takes a serious interest in a subject people who don't have hay fever tend to take lightly, thus increasing the suffering of those who do have it. Not only does this site take your suffering seriously, you'll find links to an informative Asthma and Allergy Resource Center. Plus Allergy Alert material you can post on your website.

http://pollen.com/Pollen.com.asp

2. DO THIS WHILE YOU'RE HEALTHY!

     BEFORE you have symptoms of a heart attack: call your local hospital cardiology departments to find out which perform emergency angioplasty to open blocked arteries -- and if this is done less than 90 minutes after arrival at the hospital. Ideally your doctor should have admitting privileges at this hospital.

     This little survey may save your life!

     And do take a further look at this excellent Hospital Compare website. The information is top-notch.

http://www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov/

3. ADDING HERBS TO YOUR TABLE

     Do you have deer that eat your garden -- or what would be a garden if they didn't eat it all? One thing they leave alone is herbs. The taste is too strong for them to stomach. I'm not sure if woodchucks and wild rabbits feel the same way, but I suspect they might. This site will tell you how to grow herbs and how to use them in cooking. And if you want recipes that call for fresh herbs, try the Cooking Light website I mentioned in my last newsletter. Most of their recipes call for fresh herbs.

http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/gl_herbs/

4. COLORING PAGES FOR CHILDREN

     If you have small children + rainy day, this site can be a lifesaver. You'll find many coloring pages -- plus links to others all over the Web.

http://thecoloringspot.com/

5. FR*EE CATSTUFF

     Here's the address of a great cat site, with cat graphics, cat folklore, cat games -- all fr*ee. Also "links to hundreds of cat-themed screensavers, desktop themes, icons, software programs, cursors, fonts, and much more for you!" Catstuff also features a collector's set of Mainzer cat postcards, which are not fr*ee but are utterly charming period pieces.

http://www.xmission.com/~emailbox/catstuff.htm

6. FOR TRAVELERS WITH DISABILITIES

     I've done quite a bit of wheelchair pushing, and I can tell you that a simple trip downtown with one is an adventure. Particularly when you get 3/4 of the way across a street, the traffic is zooming down on you, and there's no curb cut to enable you to get the wheelchair back on the sidewalk out of the traffic's way. I therefore admire people with disabilities who want to experience foreign countries complete with their traffic zooming down on them.

     This website operates as a clearinghouse, with information on businesses from around the world that specialize in travel for people with disabilities. Here you'll find specialized travel agents, accessible vans, travel companions, home exchanges . . . and even adventure travel!

     My hat is off to these adventurous souls!

http://www.disabledtravelers.com/

7. WALKING ADVENTURES

     I'd consider it exciting to take a walking tour of France or Italy. But these people also list walking tours of Beijing and the Great Wall of China, Central America, Australia/New Zealand, and Iceland. They generally bus you to an interesting site, and after that you walk.

     They say, "In addition to nature trails, WAI offers walks that explore attractions of the world's great cities, connecting must-see sites and out of the way gems in places such as Copenhagen, Boston, London, Savannah, and Paris. The most memorable element of our walks, however, is the priceless opportunity to connect with the locals, members of local walking clubs who come out to walk simply for the joy of camaraderie along the trail!"

http://walkingadventures.com/

8. MONGOLIA AND THE GOBI DESERT BECKON

     Be prepared: this site greets you with authentic Mongolian music. The tours are for people who want to sample the "real Mongolia" and perhaps the Gobi Desert as well, going as far down as Tibet.

http://nomadicexpeditions.com/

9. ARCHAEOLOGY BECKONS TOO

     Click on "Fieldwork" to discover how you can spend the summer in a hole. Along with genuine archaeologists of course.

http://archaeological.org/

10. PILOT A PLANE OVER MOSCOW

     Yes, these people offer you a chance to pilot a Russian MiG. You can also have shark adventures and space flight training. And skydive of course. When they promise adventure, they mean it.

http://www.incredible-adventures.com/

11. AIR TRAVEL BARGAINS

     The Internet offers many bargain air fare websites. You do NOT get your tickets through the ones I've listed here. You use them to find the best buy, then go to that airline's website to buy the tickets. My husband recently checked out the two sites below. He said they were both good and offered similar information.

     Kayak.com searches more than 60 travel sites for great deals. Find them by clicking here:

http://kayak.com/

And Cheapflights.com also enables you to compare airline flight schedules and prices:

http://cheapflights.com/

12. BED AND BREAKFASTS

     My husband also used the following website, which offers 40,000 bed and breakfast listings from around the world. The site showed four listings for the area we were interested in. One had a nice ad and the other three were simply names. No prices and no e-mail addresses for any of them. Clearly the website wanted us to work through them, so they could collect a fee from the place listed. Which was fine, everyone needs to earn a living, but we wanted prices before we made up our minds.

     So we Googled, of course. Got two e-mail addresses, wrote them, and selected what sounded like the better one. And here's the bed-and-breakfast site address:

http://lanierbb.com/

13. NATIONAL CORNBREAD FESTIVAL WINNERS

     Ah . . . you didn't know there was a National Cornbread Festival, did you? Much less winners of the same. But here they are, online, with an array of all-American cornbread recipes.

http://nationalcornbread.com/recipeindex.html

14. RECIPE: COALMINER'S PIE

     This issue's recipe also comes from the National Cornbread Festival website. Coalminer's Pie was invented by a little girl named Brittany Davis, from Harriman, Tennessee. She was a finalist in the 2002 4-H Cornbread Cook-Off. As you can see, it calls for tomato soup, which no gourmet cooking magazine would allow within miles, but which I have loved since childhood and you probably have too. And if you use low-fat ground beef it's a healthy recipe.

1 lb. ground beef
1 cup chopped onion
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
15 oz. can tomato soup
1 can corn, drained
2 medium bell peppers
1 tsp. chili powder
1-1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. pepper
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1 tablespoon flour
1 tablespoon shortning or oil
1 cup cornmeal

     Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Brown meat and onion in fat, preferably using a deep, cast-iron, oven-proof skillet. Pour off any excess fat and stir in tomato soup, bell pepper, corn, chili powder, 1 tsp. salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, lower heat. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes. Beat together eggs, oil, and milk for 1 minute in small bowl. Beat in cornmeal, flour, and remaining salt until well blended. Pour over meat to cover entire surface. Bake for 20 minutes.

     Tour the Sites newsletter comes out on the first and fifteenth of each month, and we'll NEVER give or sell your e-mail address to anyone else. Plus, these breathtaking "tours of the sites" are absolutely free!

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     Janette Blackwell