Here’s a very useful website and optional fare alert service you may wish to explore.

It’s called Airfare Watchdog .

Some of the features I like are:
- daily (or less often) e-mailing of fare information for cities you are interested in. If you select Chico (CIC) you can also see prices from Sacramento (SMF). (You might also want to track Redding [RDD].)
- Weekly internet only, last minute fares are included.
- Unlike Kayak, Sidestep, Orbitz, etc., they also compile fares for Southwest Airlines and other “outlier” carriers such as Allegiant.
- a chart listing current domestic airline baggage fees
- an entertaining and newsy blog (the “Airfarewatchblog”)

Airfare Watchdog is not a booking website. You go to an airline or travel agency website to book. (Note that on-line or off-line agencies may add booking fees in addition to the price of the ticket.)

Fares shown for domestic travel do include the 7.5% Federal excise tax and flight segment fees but do not include security fees and passenger facility (airport) fees.

For instance, the bargain fare they list of $195 round-trip on United between Chico and Philadelphia comes to a grand total $221.50 including the additional fees for the typical routing via SFO and then nonstop to Philly. (The same kind of fare on United out of Sacramento including all fees would be $190.)

You’ll find many more resources available here but you can discover the rest on your own. Take a look and see what you think.

I'm going to start a convention on my blog whereby I'll cue the potential reader to the general subject. That way if you're not a runner and the topic (as in this post) is about running (and you'd sooner drink Draino than run) you can skip it. Or if it's about airlines and you've taken a vow to never fly again after your last wonderful trip by air you can skip that. You get the idea. If I can't think of a catch-all summary I won't assign one and then it will be "reader beware".

OK, on to the subject of this blog.

Today was the Whiskeytown Relays at Whiskeytown Lake west of Redding. If you're a runner and you've never done a relay then you really are missing out. Whiskeytown is a great way to start since it's close to Chico, it's a manageable distance (not quite 20 miles split among four runners), and it's very well organized. Add a beautiful course and reliably good weather to make it a winner. The race takes place annually toward the end of September.

At least three teams from Chico participated (pictures below) along with 80 others. (If anyone else from Chico ran in a team this year please comment.)

My swift teammates surprised me. I ran the last leg (# 4) and was expecting to get tagged by our third runner (Dave) around 10:00 a.m. or so. Well, lo and behold a full 10 minutes before that came Dave. I saw him about 75 feet before he got to the hand-off point so I just managed to be there for the tag. (A major relay faux pas is not being there on time to be ready for the tag from your teammate.)

We finished in 2 hours 39 minutes 32 seconds for an average pace on the 19.9 mile course of 8 minutes and 1 second per mile, and 19th out of 83 teams. To put that in context, the fastest time was 2:04:42 (four guys each around age 20 with the funny team name of "Me Gusta Chinese Food"), and the slowest time was 4:31:45. For complete team results click here.

We won first place in our division (I think there was only one other team in what amounted to four guys in their 50s) and took home cool beer glasses with the event logo.

Our team's name was "215 Years From Chico" (our cumulative ages) consisting of (l to r below) Dave Burkland, John Maretti, Keith Slaughter, and yours truly.

Heather, Terry, Susan, and Kristina:

Max, Danielle, Tracie, and Dave, while standing in front is Whiskeytown Relays Race Director Extraordinaire, Tori Parks of Redding's SWEAT Running Club:

Speaking of relays, Fleet Feet Chico is planning to have a Relay Night event in November to shine the spotlight on these cool events. Watch for more from Fleet Feet. I'll blog and flog the relay night when they announce it.

Have you ever woken up feeling that today was the day that you absolutely must go to Winnemucca?

It wasn't quite so spur-of-the-moment but about a month ago I found out a major trackwork project in the vicinity of Donner Pass would force the Union Pacific to close the mainline entirely for five 24 hour periods between 12 August and 9 September 2008. As a result, Amtrak quietly made it known that on each of the five days that the line would be shut down it would operate the Emeryville (Oakland)-Chicago California Zephyr by way of the Feather River canyon.

If you know anything about trains in the West then you recognize just what a treat this promised to be. However for non-rail-crazy folks here's the significance. Prior to Amtrak's assuming the operation of long-distance passenger trains in May 1971, the Western Pacific (in conjunction with the Denver & Rio Grande and Burlington railroads) ran one of the most famous long-distance passenger trains in postwar history: the California Zephyr. (Above and to the left is a W.P. timetable from 27 April 1958.)

The original California Zephyr began in Oakland, stopped in Stockton, Sacramento, Marysville and Oroville before tackling the Sierras by way of the Feather River canyon. It stopped in Keddie and Portola and then passed out of the Sierras about where Hwy. 70 has its junction with U.S. 395. From there it went northeast some distance to the small towns of Herlong and Gerlach, Nev., and then continued in a mostly easterly direction toward Winnemucca, and on through Utah, Colorado and ultimately to Chicago.

... I’m a man of – well, you know the lyrics if you’re around my age.

Unfortunately I’m not a man of wealth, and as for taste – well, you’ll have to be the judge of that.

What I can legitimately claim to be is a guy with years of experience in the travel industry. Since 1979 I’ve worked for airlines, travel agencies, AAA, and Amtrak.

The blog’s title is a fairly accurate summary of what I’m going to be blogging about. Planes (lots), trains (lots), and automobiles (not so much except for the occasional observation about car rentals).

Additionally I’ll write about destinations near and far that I like, leaning heavily on the not-too-faraway places.

To round out things, now and then I’ll drop in a column about one of my favorite interests: running.

And perhaps once in a while you'll encounter an article that combines them all: planes, trains, automobiles, destinations and running.

When it comes to transportation the emphasis is going to be on the practical.

I’m trying to get a little enterprise off of the ground that involves training business travelers and executive assistants at being better at arranging business trips. In part, some of the information you’ll see in my blog will be elements from my training curriculum for clients.

So please relax, sit back and enjoy your flight.

Look for my first bona fide blog article soon. It’s going to cover something I hope you’ll find interesting: my ride last Tuesday on Amtrak’s California Zephyr as it detoured through the Feather River canyon along the route of the historic Western Pacific California Zephyr of yore. Pictures, too!