Year-end Update

I know, I haven't posted all week. Sorry about that. It's been crazy around here, trying to close up as many deals as possible before the end of the year, planning a road trip and, to top it off, I feel a bit of a cold coming on.

Planning the road trip has been far from the least exciting part of the week. I'll be taking an Acela Express train from NY Penn Station to Union Station in Washington D.C. Family from West Virgina will be there to pick me up. Do a little tour of the city, have lunch and then head west. Our first stop is Nashville, TN. Along the way, from D.C. to Nashville, we'll have the pleasure of the smoky mountains. After Nashville, it's Austin for several days.

We're staying at the Driskill Hotel in Austin which, frankly, looks beautiful (and has room rates to match). They say that the Driskill is the most haunted hotel in Texas. I'll be looking for the little boy with the bouncing red ball on the grand staircase.

We'll spend Christmas day in Austin and a few days after Christmas before heading back and hitting up Memphis. We didn't really mean it to, but this has turned somewhat into a tour of America's great music cities. Too bad we won't have time for New Orleans.

Anyway, I'll try to post up pictures along the way, but if I don't (this is my vacation, after all), I'll hit you all up in the New Year.

A Different Kind of Travel Site

I'm planning a few trips out of town. For the week of Thanksgiving I'll be out in Denver, visiting some friends and hopefully doing some skiing.

My office is closed the entire week of Christmas and I'd like to take a trip somewhere warm. So far I've found the best deals on Priceline, but it's a real pain the the ass, to be frank. I want a package - flight and hotel - but I don't really care where I actually end up. What I'd like to do is specify my travel dates, set a budget and a general location (Mexico, Caribbean, etc) and then be shown my choices.

The way it works now, I have to indicate specific cities. So, I've got Google Maps open and I'm typing in the names of destination cities... over and over. Really not fun.

Does this exist?