Travel broadens the mind but it also, less famously, connects the heart. You visit a place and it becomes real to you in a way it never was before. If it shows up in the news, you listen more closely; if the news is bad, you feel it more deeply.

I've been thinking about Iowa lately because of the floods, and because it was the first Midwestern state I ever visited. It also was an election year, about the only time - barring natural disasters - that the coastal commentators pay any attention to the people in the Heartland.

I rented a car in Des Moines and for the next 10 days discovered a cornucopia of rich Americana: the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake (where Buddy Holly had his last performance), the National Hobo Convention in nearby Britt, the Field of Dreams in Dyersville, Grant Wood's old artist colony in Stone City.

I skipped through Cedar Rapids but stopped in Iowa City, which quickly became one of my favorite college towns, with one of my favorite independent bookstores, Prairie Lights. I assume the bookstore's OK, but I heard about the people forming a chain to move books out of the first floor of the university library, where I spent a quiet June afternoon just three summers ago.

Everywhere I went in Iowa, on both my trips, people lived up to their reputation as friendly, considerate, decent - the kind of folks you'd like to have as neighbors. I always thought that if foreigners really wanted to learn about this country, they should visit Iowa.

It pains me to think of all the destruction - to houses, communities, lives - that the people of Cedar Rapids and other towns are now having to endure. It seems unfair that such a disaster should befall such good people. Yet if there's anyone with the dedication, fortitude, and good samaritanism to bounce back from such a blow, it's Iowans.

AP Photo by Hannah van Zutphen-Kann

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I just got an e-mail from a woman I met at an educational travel conference in February. Her name is Mei and her organization is WildChina:

It's been such an emotional day here, dealing with the aftermath of the quake in China.

I just want to give you a quick update on WildChina and our clients. Overall, all of our clients, guides and drivers are safe in the area. The most amazing thing was to experience the outpouring of support and concern from our past clients and future clients.

We did not have any clients in the epicenter, fortunately. But we do have a few individual travelers in Xi'an who felt the jolt strongly. Two of our American travelers just checked into the hotel in Xi'an when they felt the strong shake. They were immediately evacuated outside. They stayed in the street for a few hours before the hotel declared it safe to go back in. Some of our other travelers were out touring at the time the quake happened. We are working very closely with these travelers to determine whether to reroute them home earlier than expected. We are also keeping their relatives at home informed of developments.

We have in the pipeline, a group of 30 travelers to Chengdu in the next month. We are rerouting them. Another five departures for small family groups planned to go to Jiuzhaigou National Park, which is to the North of Chengdu in the Tibetan area. We are rerouting them as well.

Our local guides in Chengdu are all fine. One of our guides actually dashed out of safety to accompany a US news organization to the epicenter to cover the story. We have reached all our guides either by phone or by email.

Now, from our clients, our office was flooded with phone-calls and emails of concern and support. Most clients are already in action to bring grassroots relief to the region. One particular client - an educational institution - has been planning a trip to go to Sichuan. They've expressed clear wishes that they want to stay with the course to go there, but to help! All our employees in the office are very touched by this outpouring. It's one of those rare opportunities to know that their mundane activities of ticket and hotel booking are connecting people in different ways and are helping people in need.

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I don't know about you, but I can't get too excited about the proposed merger of Delta and Northwest.

I mean, they're both American airlines.

Last week I had lunch with a well-traveled acquaintance and we talked about that letdown you feel whenever you come back into the U.S. on a foreign carrier and then have to board a domestic for the connecting flight home. It's not just goodbye exotic flavors, it's goodbye food. Goodbye good manners. Goodbye smiles.

Normally, I'm not crazy about foreigners buying American companies, but I'd happily make an exception for airlines.

Singapore Airlines taking over American. Thai Airways taking over United. Qantas taking over Delta. Emirates taking over Continental. Cathay Pacific taking over US Airways

Oh, baby, let the mergers begin!

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I was a little preoccupied last week, so didn't have time to comment on the reported banning of Naomi Campbell from all future British Airways flights.

You may recall that the supermodel allegedly spit at a police officer after one of her bags failed to make it onto her plane at Heathrow's new terminal 5.

Of course, nobody takes the side of a spitting supermodel.

I don't condone spitting (except in baseball) but aren't we ALL fed up with the treatment we get when we travel these days? But who among us has had the courage to stand up and show the world that something's not right? Naomi Campbell - that's who!

Do you think it's a coincidence that one week after her blow-up American Airlines cancelled thousands of flights? Yes, it was a huge inconvenience, but consider how much safer flying is today. I think we have Naomi to thank for that.

So let's try to show a little more understanding the next time an incredibly rich, beautiful, pampered, self-centered person tries to do what she can for the little guy.

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I was very moved watching her sail away yesterday.

Because I took her to France when I was 23, she has always been for me the embodiment of youthful adventure, yearning, enterprise, hope.

As I talked to people on the beach yesterday, I would sometimes mention that I had sailed her in '75. "Congratulations," one woman said, as if she knew the whole story.

In France I learned a new language and, as sometimes happens, acquired a new identity. I also penetrated a culture, working on a 500-year-old farm in Alsace. (Months later I would make a joke of a job application at the Trenton Times - "Why did you leave your last employment?" "I was tired of stepping in cow pies." - which would so amuse the editor he would hire me as a feature writer.)

Because the voyage to France had been so memorable, I booked passage home on a Russian ship that sailed out of England. (In those years, two Russian ships and a Polish ship joined the QE2 in trans-Atlantic crossings.) Arriving in London a few days early, I met a Polish woman working in my hotel and, four years later, I was a married man in Warsaw, teaching English, learning another language, gathering material for my first book.

Most of what I value most dearly in my career and my personal life can be linked to the QE2. So yes, yesterday I was a little misty-eyed.

Photo by Michael Laughlin, Sun-Sentinel

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"If you're flying American Airlines today," the announcer on NPR said this morning, "you have a lot of time to listen to this program."

After cancelling 1,094 flights yesterday, stranding over 100,000 people, American cancelled over 900 flights today.

The reason: to conduct proper safety inspections of wiring on the wing.

The disruption is tremendous, as is the financial hit to American, which is covering the costs incurred by inconvenienced travelers.

Nothing seems to be going right for airlines today except this: We are experiencing, according to the Secretary of Transportation, "the safest five-year period in aviation history."

Something to keep in mind whille you wait for your flight.

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The annual survey of airline quality just came out and the conclusion is that things are a mess. This is no surprise.

We've all experienced, or at least heard of, the increase in costs, delays, discomfort, and dissatisfaction. And we've seen a troubling decrease in options, as airlines pull planes that don't meet safety standards, discontinue routes, or simply go out of business - as ATA, Aloha and Skybus did last week.

What IS surprising is that during all of this nobody has brought up the idea of travel by train. This is partly because of our sorry excuse for a train system, Amtrak, whose monumental delays sometimes make airlines look like, well, Swiss trains. And it is also because of the great distances in this country, and the amount of time it takes to go by land.

Way to go?

But now we have not only a broken air travel system, but growing concerns about the environment. If you're worried about your carbon footprint, shouldn't you at least consider the train? It would seem to be the perfect time to start talking about improving Amtrak, and increasing Americans' vacation time, so we'd be able to travel more leisurely (not to mention join most of the rest of the industrialized world).

Candidates?


photo: AP

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One of the wonderful things about the Sony Ericsson Open, apart from the great tennis, is being among people from other countries, hearing different languages.

It's a very American thing, ours being a nation of immigrants. But lately tourists - at least those who don't play tennis - haven't been so eager to come here. A recent report from the U.S. Department of Commerce noted that we had two million fewer overseas visitors last year than we had in 2000. And this at a time when the dollar's as attractive as George Clooney.

There are a number of explanations, stricter visa and immigration policies being among them. But there is also the inescapable fact that a lot of people are upset at the United States and no amount of bargains will convince them to visit.

A warmer welcome?

It's a start. But it's not enough. Please help by sending me your ideas - serious or ridiculous - on how we can get more people to visit the U.S.


photo: Mary Jane Watson / http://www.flickr.com/photos/avigon/

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Interior of Havana's Hotel Florida
Now Cubans can see it (staff photo)

This new ruling reminded me of my first and only visit to the island in 2001. I was on a so-called "educational exchange" - still allowed by OUR government at that time - and by the second day one naive young man in our group was already complaining about being taken only to tourist restaurants. Someone had to explain to him that there wasn't much choice, as most Cubans couldn't afford to eat out.

Now, Cubans who can't afford restaurants are free to stay in hotels.

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Eating breakfast this morning, I heard a report about the wire tapping and racketeering trial of Hollywood private investigator Anthony Pellicano. A tape was played of one of his phone conversations, in which he told his client "these conversations have to be between you and I."

And I thought: "Sentence him!"

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I'm thinking of getting a nipple ring.

I know, it seems a little out of character. But it's not for my image. It's so I can challenge the idiocy of TSA officials when they stop me from boarding a plane.

This is what happened to a woman in Lubbock, Texas, back in February.

Yes, the ring set a handheld detector (not the metal detector) buzzing. But the woman explained the reason, and offered to show it to female officers.

It's another case of TSA, which on the whole does an excellent job, being a little too zealous - and a little too dense. A little common sense would be welcome.

Now I just need to decide which nipple to pierce.

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