The Mid-Valley Travel Club is an informal group of people living in the Mid-Willamette Valley of Oregon, who are interested in travel. We get together once a month from September through June at Salem Public Library to share travel information and listen to presentations by Club members and invited guests on travel to interesting destinations. We are not travel agents, so we do not organize group or individual travel. Our mission is purely educational.
Membership Information
There is no formal procedure for becoming a member of the Mid-Valley Travel Club. You are welcome to come to any of our meetings (see links to "Travel Club Schedule" and "Meeting Details" below). If you want to receive e-mail reminders of meetings and notification of new information on the Club's web site, please send an e-mail using the form below under "Contact the Club President." In addition to your e-mail address, we need your phone number, as experience has shown that people change their e-mail address frequently, and usually forget to notify us of the change. If we have your phone number, we can chase you down to get your new e-mail address. We do not share your e-mail address or phone number with any third parties. If you do notify us of an e-mail address change, please indicate that it is for the Travel Club database, as I keep databases for several different organizations.
Please contact the Program Chairman (see "Contact the Club President or Program Chairman" below).
Guidelines for Presenters
Suggestions for a successful Travel Club presentation
Please click on this link and read the suggestions before making a presentation to the Club. It will help ensure a smooth, gratifying experience for presenter and audience alike.
Duties of Meeting Moderator
In case of new or substitute Travel Club meeting moderator
Rarely, a substitute meeting Moderator needs to be called upon to run a Travel Club meeting, particularly if both Club President and Program Chairman are engaged in the activity for which the Travel Club exists: traveling. This link leads to a page written for the benefit of the substitute Moderator. It lists the Moderator's duties.
Meeting Details
Location, times, dues
Click here for details of meeting location, dates, times and dues.
Directions
Need help to find the Club's meeting room?
Club meetings are usually held in the Loucks Auditorium at Salem Public Library. Rarely, a meeting will be moved to the Anderson Room on the Library's lower level if the Library has an unavoidable scheduling conflict. Click on this link for directions to the Loucks Auditorium and Anderson Room.
Resources
Need advice on a travel destination?
Going to Bhutan, Mongolia, Morocco, Australia, or some other exotic locale? Or perhaps somewhere a little less exotic such as the U.K., France or Switzerland? You don't have to reinvent the wheel. Click here for a list of club members with intimate knowledge of your destination, who are willing to advise you.
Travel Sites on the Web
Want to surf the web for travel bargains and travel information?
There are a million web sites offering information useful for travellers, from cheap fares, to health data, to U.S. Consulate addresses around the world and U.S. State Department warnings. Click here for a selection.
Members' Travel Announcements
On Purchasing a Timeshare
Member John Avery gives some information about purchasing a vacation timeshare, and offers his own for purchase.
Travel Advisories
Club members' warnings and recommendations
Click on this link for a new page on the Club's web site, on which Club members can pass on warnings about travel difficulties they have encountered or make recommendations of places where they have had favorable travel experiences. If you have such tips you would like to pass on to Club members, please email the Club President (see "Contact the Club President or Program Chairman" below) and your material will be added to the "Travel Tips" page.
Tim Murphy's Letters from Mexico
Tim's dispatches about life south of the border
Travel Club member, Tim Murphy, is now living in N.W. Mexico. Click on this link for a series of articles by Tim on this region of Mexico. Tim writes that he welcomes feedback from Club members. You can contact him by obtaining his email address from the Club President (see form below).
What do we do with your email address?
There are about 350 members on the Club's mailing list. Contacting them all using the United States Mail is expensive. By using your email address we can regularly send announcements of schedule changes and reminders about meetings, as well as seek your input on proposed changes to Club policies and procedures. We do not distribute your email address to any outside parties. Click on this link to see our privacy statement.
Contact the Club President or Program Chairman
This email form is compatible with the following browsers:
Firefox, Safari, Netscape, Internet Explorer for Windows, but NOT with Internet Explorer for Macintosh. (I have not tested other, less often used browsers.)
Please use a compatible browser if you wish to send an email message to the Club President or Program Chairman. I recommend Safari and Firefox.
IMPORTANT: If you would like to be added to our e-mail list, please include both your e-mail address and phone number, so we can phone you when you change your e-mail address and forget to notify us!
For summaries of past "Travel Skills" topics, choose the appropriate topic from one of the drop-down menus below:
Announcements
Mid-Valley Travel Club Meeting
June 14, 2012 (Eighteenth Season)
Loucks Auditorium Salem Public Library 585 Liberty St. SE
7:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Iridescent Iran by Margaret Egeland
Iran, the ancient land of Persia. Iran, a modern culturally-rich country. Iran, a political thorn in America's side. Iran regularly dominates headlines in the U.S. Yet, for many Americans, Iran is a concept conjuring only carpets, Persian cats, covered women and anti-American sentiment.
Come on a journey with Margaret, exploring the ancient roots of Persia and the complex culture of modern Iran. This tour takes you to the manic traffic of Tehran, the eternal gardens of Shiraz and Kashon, the fire temples of Yazd, the enchanting bridges of Esfahan, the Qashqai village of Firuzabad, and Persepolis-the remains of the magnificent capital of the Persian Empire.
Experience ruins, caravanserais on the old Silk Road, tombs of poets, traditional carpet making, bazaars, mosques, palaces, teahouses, and bathhouses. Mix with locals in schools, libraries and public gathering places, as ordinary people go about living their lives. Discover a people more like us than different. Ponder the startling revelation that, in spite of media hype to the contrary, Iranians love Americans!
Who can resist the call to visit a country so ancient, enigmatic, politically charged, and little-known to Americans?
TRAVEL SKILLS TOPIC: "Finding the best hikes and bike rides when you travel." Discussion introduced by Kris Gorsuch.
Meetings of the MVTC are free and open to the public.
Your participation in a free and lively discussion is encouraged.
Previous Presentations
Summaries of past "Destination" topics since October, 2004 can be found in the Archive section (see link near bottom of left column). Click on the link for the desired year.
Summaries of past "Travel Skills" topics since December, 2004 are also at bottom left. Click on the desired topic from the appropriate pull-down list.
Tim Murphy's
"Letters from Mexico"
Travel Club member Tim Murphy's letters comprise a series of colorful, short articles on northwest Mexico. Tim's letters can be seen by clicking on the link under "Tim Murphy's Letters from Mexico" at left.
Pritam Rohila's
Travel Blog
Travel Club member Pritam Rohila has provided a link to his travel blog: http://pritam-rohila-travels.blogspot.com. It is very well presented, with excellent photos. Pritam writes:
"Right now I am working on my recent travels in Romania, Turkey, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Albania, Montenegro, Croatia, Slovenia and Austria. I have already posted parts of my travels there. Other parts will be posted in the near future. The site also has blogs about my previous travels in Israel, Egypt, Jordan, and India."
Received from Pritam on 6/24/09:
To my travel blog: http://pritam-rohila-travels.blogspot.com/
I have just added a brief story and a few pictures about my visit to Seoul, South Korea. In the next few weeks, I will add reports on my 2008 travels in India and Pakistan.
Received from Pritam on 11/24/10:
I have recently posted to my travel-blog at http://pritam-rohila-travels.blogspot.com/
my travel experiences and pictures, in 39 parts, about our May 23-June 10, 2010 trip to China. We visited Beijing, Yichang, Three Gorges Dam, Shennong Stream, Shi Bao Zhi, Fengdu, Chongqing, Lhasa, Chengdu, Xian, Suzhou and Shanghai, enjoyed 4-night Yangtze River Cruise from Yichang to Chongqing, and spent a day at the 2010 Shangahi Expo.
Bob & Eunice Goetz's
"Laughing Nomad" Travel Blog
Travel Club members Bob and Eunice Goetz are probably the most traveled members of the Travel Club. Eunice has emailed me offering a link to their travel blog for any Travel Club member who would like to read about the Goetz's travels. The link is: http://blogs.bootsnall.com/nomads
The blog has entries from over 60 countries and cities, some of which I haven't even heard of! And, if you go to: http://web.mac.com/laughingnomad/iWeb/Travel%202006-2008/Navigation%20Menu.html
and http://homepage.mac.com/laughingnomad/2002-5
you'll find movies and pictures of their travels (broadband Internet connection advisable). This is wonderful material. I commend it to you.
Alan & Belinda Scott's Travel Blog
Another high quality blog, this one by Alan and Belinda Scott, on Egypt, Jordan and Israel, can be found at: http://egypt-israel2009.blogspot.com/
It's another excellent example of what can be achieved with blogging software available free on the Web.
Message: We are retired librarians who have made 4 trips to Bulgaria and plan more. We would be happy to answer questions about Bulgaria, but we live in Michigan. If you are interested, we have pictures on our website: http://www.weliverstravels.com/photos.html and I have a link to a travel blog there, too. http://blogs.record-eagle.com/?cat=96
Evelyn
Peter Ronai
Webmaster
Mid-Valley Travel Club
Salem, Oregon
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