Spectacular autumnal road trip on Utah's Highway 12

Utah's Highway 12 is also known as Journey Through Time Scenic Byway. This 125-mile curvaceous two-lane road is jam-packed with four state parks, two national parks, a national forest, and the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument. It is particularly spectacular during the fall.

Start from outside Panguitch (about 250 miles south of Salt Lake City), to red canyons, hoodoos, Bryce Canyon National Park (with Fairyland Point, just outside the gate, as a highlight). Next, move on to Kodachrome Basin State Park with its gravity-defying sandstone chimneys, and then to Escalante Petrified Forest State Park with multi-colored petrified trees.

At milepost 75, you climb up Hogsback with views of the rounded dome of Navajo Mountain. After passing by Boulder Mountain, you end in Torrey, where you can hustle over to the Capitol Reef National Park.

And don't miss out on Hell's Backbone Grill, which is a gourmet destination.

For more information, see http://www.utah.com/byways/highway_12.htm and AAA Via magazine.

Picture from: http://utahpictures.com/Highway_12_Dec.php

Researching your hotel

If you travel a lot, booking hotels is one of the most time consuming part of your research. Besides the price, you have to worry about the cleanliness, location, parking, facilities, bathroom quality, and other such things.

Of course, the pictures look great and the description makes the place sound like a resort spa, but you kinda suspect that the PR people were feeling creative. They never tell you things like how the available parking will cost you $25 a night and that they have only 12 spots. The hotel knows that once you show up, you are not likely to ditch them for another hotel, especially if they already have your credit card information. 

I once booked a hotel that described itself as "hip" and "urban," but it turned out to be an euphemism for "Motel 6-esque with a bit more style." There were no bedbugs, though, so I can't really complain. 

So if you really want a better idea of what you are booking, go to http://www.oyster.com/ first. They send investigators to write honest reports and take lots of pictures. And I mean lots of pictures (see the Photos tab). You'll have a good idea of what you are booking. Finally, a WYSIWYG travel site. 

Bedbugs: Non-emo vampires that like the dark and won't sparkle in sunlight

Bedbugs give us the heebie-jeebies. These vampires were wiped out from the United States back in the day when people sprayed DDT on anything that scuttled or moved, including pesky coworkers and overly smelly men. But they (the bedbugs, not the smelly men, who—to the disappointment of women in that era—never disappeared) were reintroduced into the country when international travel became common.

Photo: Visuals Unlimited / Corbis | Source: New York Daily News

Like Jason in Friday the 13th, pesticide-resistent bed bugs are notoriously difficult to get rid of. If even a single female with eggs survive the extermination, you have another infestation in your hands. Temporarily moving out of your house won't help since a bedbug can survive for up to 18* months without food [ This is your cue to run to the showers screaming. ].

The best way to deal with bedbugs is not get them in the first place. Here are a few precautions you should follow when you travel:

• Before you book a hotel, check with the Bedbug Registry. 
• When you arrive at the hotel, do not put your luggage and stuff on the bed. Put them on non-upholstered furniture (the luggage stand, for example) instead.
• Do not lay your clothes in the drawer (bedbugs like wood, crevices, and protected areas). Instead, keep your stuff in your luggage or hang your clothes up in the closet. Keeping them in the bathroom works. 
• Learn what bedbugs look like.  
• Take out the bedsheets and check the mattresses (all of them, not just the one you are laying on) for signs of blood or bedbugs. Lift the mattress over your head to check for signs under the mattress. Carefully inspect the folds and creases of the mattress. Check the entire length of the fold around the mattress, both top and bottom. 
• Check the headboards. Lift them off from their hinges and inspect the crevices. Headboards are unwieldy, so it's easier to work with another person, but one strong person can manage it.
• Use a very bright headlamp (like the kind they sell in outdoor stores) while doing the inspection.

Other tips:

• Avoid used stuff. 
• Be aware that they're not just in hotel rooms. They have been discovered  in offices, stores (Abercombie in New York had to close down for fumigation), theaters, trains, hospital waiting rooms, and gyms. No need to be paranoid, but just keep an eye out for itchy welts, so that you can take precautions (described next).   
• If you discover itchy welts that you suspect are bedbug bites, take precautions before you return home. Heat will kill them. Bag all your clothes, wash them (including ones you didn't wear) and dry them in high heat (greater than 125 degrees Fahrenheit). Bag your luggage and leave them in the back of your car under the hot sun for at least a day. Once the infestation starts, the nightmare begins. 
• See our article on spotting an existing infestation. 

For a more thorough article, see the University of Kentucky: College of Agriculture site. 

* This figure is based on older records about earlier infestations. Some reports recorded 12 months, which is still creepily long. The pesticide-resistent strain in our era might live to only 2 months without a bloodmeal. But still. Eww.