Though most guidebook writers come home eventually, there are people in the travel industry who stay on the road practically all year long, chasing the seasons from continent to continent. Rafting guides are a good example. A special breed of traveler, these folks spend much of the year in the outdoors, sleeping in tents, cooking at campfires, and following the water, as they say, wherever it's running. For the rest of us in the real world, winter is cold, slippery and it seems to go on forever.
Some people hibernate.
But others, like visitors to Ottawa, Ontario, try to make the best of it. As the Great Lakes Radio Consortium's Karen Kelly found, Ottawa is home to the longest skating rink in the world. The Genesis of Vacation Reading from the first book of the Travel Bible. Hear how The Vacation was created by the almighty travel agent in the sky. A monastic retreat isn't for everyone, but sometimes it's worth trying these things just for the pure adventure of it.