Sunday, August 19, 2012

Have Passport, Will Travel


 As I looked through my regular Internet news sources this morning I found that I was repeatedly drawn to the travel sections. When I travel, I always try to experience something new, do something or eat something that I couldn't in my home state. The highlight of my recent trip to Honduras was dancing, or rather trying, to do the Punta dance. I'll just tell you it was beautiful when the natives did it, and leave it at that.  My daughter recently traveled to Japan.  She was amazed at their use of technology, the wealth of healthy food choices, and especially....drum roll...the vending machines! Yes, the vending machines.  Apparently, there are vending machines for everything including pizza. I can't wait to schedule a trip the Japan to see it for myself.  

Several months ago while in Las Vegas, outside of my hotel I noticed a vending machine that sold ladies flat ballet shoes.  The Venetian hotel has a popular nightclub, and I simply thought...hmmm, excellent product placement, and moved on.  Can you imagine the number of women leaving the nightclub with sore feet after dancing all night in 5 inch heels??? Easy sell.  But this vending machine thing seems to be catching on.  Way down south, all the way in Texas, we have a cupcake vending machine.  It's in an area that's pretty upscale, and I've only seen the one (let me know if you've spotted others), but when it reaches Texas, it's a trend.  

I'm a curious person by nature, so this train of thought had me searching for interesting vending machines in other locales.  Of course we've all seen the tech store vending machines at the airports... just in case your have a sudden urge to buy an mp3 player or headphones on the way to your gate.  Somebody must be buying these things, but who are these people?  There is a pecan company near Austin, Texas with a vending machine that sells pecan pies.  There's one in Florida that sells sunscreen and goggles, okay, that makes sense.  There's one in Boston that sells underwear and t-shirts... really? There's one in Atlantic City that sells gold bars, I can't make this stuff up.  And not to be outdone, there's a vending machine in New York that will sell you the keys to a new Bentley Arnage T, just in case you find yourself stranded and need a ride in the middle of the night.....



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