A quarter of domestic flights failed to arrive on time in 2007 - the industry’s second poorest performance on record - and analysts say it is likely to get worse.More than 26 percent of commercial flights in the U.S. arrived late or were canceled last year as rising passenger demand and an industry preference for smaller planes intensified congestion in the skies and on runways. The air-travel logjam, reported Tuesday by the Department of Transportation, comes as a growing number of air traffic controllers near retirement age - a trend the controllers’ union says will magnify the problem.The only time passengers had more difficulty getting to their destinations on time was in 2000, when more than 27 percent of flights were tardy or canceled. Back then, there were 31 percent fewer flights than in 2007, when carriers operated nearly 7.5 million one-way trips.Excluding cancellations, however, 2007 was the worst on record for flight delays, with 24.2 percent arriving late, compared with 23.9 percent in 2000, according to government statistics that date back to 1995. The worst month of the year for the nation’s 20 largest airlines was December, when more than a third of all flights were late or canceled, mostly because of the weather.There is no sign of improvement on the horizon, analysts said, because airlines continue to replace larger aircraft with smaller ones. The practice is intended to maximize profit margins by flying with fewer empty seats, but it also means more flights and more congestion and delays.The use of smaller planes also increases airlines’ exposure to rising fuel prices, since it costs them more money per seat to operate, said Robert Mann, an airline consultant in Port Washington, N.Y. The industry has said that rising fuel prices are expected to again cut into profits this year and some airlines have raised their fuel surcharges to compensate.President Bush has demanded action to avoid another summer of record delays, but there is little consensus among airlines, airport operators, Congress and the administration on what should be done.The Federal Aviation Administration has been locked in a contract dispute with the union representing air traffic controllers since 2006. While the agency insists staffing has no impact on flight delays, the union says congestion problems will worsen unless the government hires more air traffic controllers and pays them better.”A smaller, less experienced work force will have an adverse impact on system efficiency,” said Paul Rinaldi, executive vice president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association.In an effort to address the airline delay problem, Transportation Secretary Mary Peters earlier this month said congested airports can charge landing fees based on the time flights land and traffic volume to encourage carriers to spread operations more evenly throughout the day.But the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which runs John F. Kennedy International Airport, LaGuardia and Newark Liberty, said the new policy was a minor fix for a major problem. In 2007, those three airports had the lowest on-time arrival rates, and aviation officials say delays there cascade throughout the system and cause three-quarters of all flight delays.The Air Transport Association, which represents the nation’s largest airlines, also said a more comprehensive fix is needed.The trade group and the Port Authority prefer flight-path changes and improvements aimed at increasing the flight capacity at airports.Under another federal plan, New York City area airports will start flight caps in March with JFK limited to about 80 flights per hour at peak times, down from about 100 that had been scheduled last summer. Similar caps, which already exist at LaGuardia, also will go into effect at Newark.The airlines and the FAA, meanwhile, are pressing for a new $15 billion satellite-based air traffic control system, dubbed NextGen, that will take nearly 20 years to complete to improve operations.Peters on Monday said the Bush administration’s $68 billion fiscal 2009 budget proposal for the department would more than double the investment in NextGen technology to $688 million. But airport operators criticized the proposal for cutting the FAA’s airport improvement program to $2.75 billion in funding, which is $765 million less than this year.Atlantic Southeast Airlines, a subsidiary of SkyWest Inc., had the worst on-time arrival rate last year at 64.7 percent, while Hawaiian Airlines topped the list at more than 93 percent. American Eagle Airlines, which operates regional flights for AMR Corp.’s American Airlines, had the worst December with more than 46 percent of its flights delayed by at least 15 minutes. Aloha Airlines had the best on-time arrival rate in December at 93 percent.

The public may yet learn what thousands of pilots told NASA about air safety. Congress moved Monday to analyze data from a project that the space agency cast aside and then withheld results in fear they could alarm the public and hurt airline profits.The House Science and Technology Committee told the investigative arm of Congress, the Government Accountability Office, to use its statistical, aviation and survey experts to analyze NASA’s more than 24,000 telephone interviews with pilots.Committee Chairman Bart Gordon, D-Tenn., called the effort a high priority for Congress and the flying public.”When the public pays for five years of government work designed to help us improve flying safety, I think the public deserves to get a report back on what was learned. NASA won’t do the work, so I am asking the GAO to bring back some answers to the committee that we can then share with the country,” Gordon said in a statement.One goal will be to see how rates of events reported by the pilots compare to information collected in other ways by the Federal Aviation Administration.NASA interviewed the pilots about dozens of safety incidents, including equipment failure and near collisions, that they encounter. The idea was to help identify precursors to accidents. The survey had an 80 percent response rate from the randomly contacted pilots.NASA scuttled the survey and in 2006 closed the $11.3 million project, known as the National Aviation Operations Monitoring System. After The Associated Press reported last October that NASA was refusing to disclose results on grounds it might upset air travelers, Gordon’s committee demanded the raw data.Under congressional pressure, NASA Administrator Michael Griffin released on New Year’s Eve a partial online version of the data, thousands of pages scrambled to make sure no one could figure out how to identify the unnamed pilots. They had been promised anonymity. The redactions made that information “almost worthless for analysis,” Gordon said.Griffin has belittled the quality of the survey while experts who worked on it and NASA union representatives have described it as state of the art. NASA’s inspector general is conducting an audit of the program’s management.The FAA has questioned the project’s results showing more safety incidents than the FAA’s own data, saying it reflected pilots’ subjective opinions.

When Deanie Parker stepped into the Stax Museum of American Soul Music in south Memphis to view the Otis Redding exhibit for the first time, it was as if she’d seen a ghost.The exhibit, “Otis Redding: From Macon to Memphis,” is set inside the museum’s replica of Stax Records’ Studio A. It’s reconstructed on the studio’s original McLemore Avenue footprint, sloping floor and all. And it’s where Redding recorded such R&B classics as “Try a Little Tenderness” and “(Sittin’ on) the Dock of the Bay.” The latter was recorded just days before he died, in a 1967 plane crash.”I walked into the studio and looked up and it was almost as if Otis’ spirit was right there,” said Parker, who arrived at Stax in 1963 and stayed — as singer, composer, secretary, publicist — until the family-run record label went belly up in 1975.”Once again, he’s back in his space,” added Parker, now a museum complex board member. “In Studio A, where he used to prance back and forth as he was recording and teaching the musicians the arrangements to the songs.”The Stax exhibit is a state-line-jumping continuation of a similar Redding exhibit that opened this fall and is still running in Macon, Ga., at the Georgia Music Hall of Fame. Both exhibits commemorate the 40th anniversary of the artist’s death at age 26. Both are dominated by memorabilia provided by Redding’s widow.”When you walk into either exhibit, you’ll know what Otis Redding was about and the legacy he left,” said Zelma Redding, 65. She is Otis’ widow and still living near Macon. “But everyone tells a different story. When you go to Stax, the story is more about their history. They’ve worked so hard to tell the story of that room. And it’s a great part of the story.”The Stax exhibit centerpiece is a collection of rare photographs of Redding on the 300-acre ranch he purchased in the hills about 25 miles outside Macon. Taken two weeks before his death, they show an offstage Redding patting cows, baling hay, playing with his kids.It also includes telegrams Zelma received after his death from fans, musicians (the Temptations, Nina Simone) and politicians, including one Jimmy Carter sent later, when a bridge in Macon was officially named for Redding.Other artifacts: receipts from the hotel Redding stayed in with his pilot and crew just before his death, and a poster from what became known as “the concert that never was” — the Madison, Wis., show (with opening act Grim Reaper, later morphing into Cheap Trick) that Redding was headed to when his twin-engine Beechcraft dropped into icy Lake Monona, just outside Madison.But more profound than any relic is the context of where the exhibit is housed. Stax Records was R&B’s rawer, sweatier parallel universe to the smooth, hard-waxed sounds of Motown.With a name that combined brother-and-sister founders Jim Stewart (the “St”) and Estelle Axton (the “ax”), Stax was run inside a former movie house like an integrated soul family in the heart of the South. The lettering for years on the old movie marquee: Soulsville USA.The label produced more than 400 hits on the pop and R&B charts before it filed for bankruptcy in 1975. Artists included Booker T. & the MGs, Rufus and Carla Thomas, Sam and Dave, the Staple Singers and Isaac Hayes.But at the top of the heap was Redding. Stax became what Zelma Redding calls “his second home,” a place where “they produced and made all those hits but, first and foremost, it was the family of Stax Records. It was love first and hits second.”He arrived there from Macon in 1962 as the driver for Johnny Jenkins & the Pinetoppers, who came to record a single. With a half-hour of studio time left, Redding, who occasionally performed with the band and who’d begged all day for a chance to sing, was allowed to record a ballad he wrote called “These Arms of Mine.” It wasn’t long before he became the label’s biggest star.And it all came out of Studio A. The original Stax building was razed in 1989, but a replica was built on the same site four years ago as part of a Soulsville USA complex. The studio was re-created right down to the sloping movie house floor and random Billboard magazines littered around the furniture. “From Macon to Memphis” is the first exhibit hosted inside the space.”His presence was a lot like Elvis Presley and Billy Graham — one of those guys who when he walks into a room, the room changes,” recalled Wayne Jackson, a member of the Memphis Horns, who backed Redding on many hits. “He was the same in the studio as he was onstage — he marched up and down that room, just like he marched up and down the stage, and he’d sing the horn parts to us and get in our face until we were frothing at the mouth. He could instill that kind of excitement.`’He knew in his heart he didn’t have long to discharge all this genius,” added Jackson, now 66 and living in Nashville, Tenn. `’And when I say genius, I mean touched by God. He walked into that studio knowing the song and everything in it — the rhythm section, the drums, the horn lines.”He drove a wedge in the world of music, and all of us fell into it,” Jackson said. “When he was killed, we dispersed. It was all over for Stax.”What little is left is now at the Stax Museum of American Soul Music until April 30.Remembering Redding”Otis Redding: From Macon to Memphis” is at Stax Museum of American Soul Music, 926 E. McLemore Ave., Memphis, Tenn., through April 30. Admission: $10; $9 for 62 and older; $7 for ages 9-12; 8 and younger, free.. Hours: 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday-Saturday; 1-4 p.m. Sunday. Details: 901-946-2535; www.soulsvilleusa.com.

7 super swamps These parks and preserves in the Carolinas teem with life, and winter is a superb time to go Kelly WilliamsIf it seems as though winter is the least likely time of year you’d take a vacation to a swamp, think again. Actually, it’s an ideal time of the year.Why?Two words: Low bugs.Swamps kinda get a bad name. Are you aware many are muck-optional? At some in the Carolinas, you can stroll above them on boardwalks or glide above the green ripples in canoes or kayaks.In a swamp, you can unwind in peace and quiet broken only by commentaries from birds — endangered, threatened and otherwise — that contentedly roost there. You can also find the yellow water lily. Maybe the rare Hessel’s hairstreak butterfly (it has mint-green wings). And living trees that were saplings during the Dark Ages.Admit it: It’s been too long since you’ve been around a real American coot.Here are seven super swamps to see in the Carolinas.Dismal Swamp State Park, South MillsJoy Greenwood, superintendent of the new Dismal Swamp State Park, is set to open in March in Camden County, in northeast North Carolina.”In the cooler months of the year, the biting insects are at an all-time low,” she says. “This makes the swamp an inviting place to take a walk or bike ride on a brisk winter day.”The new park is a lush 14,344 acres that will provide 20 miles of paths for hiking (including the 4.5-mile Dismal Swamp Canal Trail) and bike riding. The park will offer canoe/kayak rides on the swamp for boating enthusiasts. Bird watchers will flock to the swamp to observe 200-plus species.Swamp-goers will access the park via an innovative 80-foot swinging bridge, which crosses Dismal Swamp Canal.Part of the swamp lies in Virginia; that includes the Great Dismal Swamp Wildlife Refuge. Two hundred years ago, the swamp fed into a canal built over 12 years by slave labor. The Dismal Swamp Canal connected the Elizabeth and Pasquotank rivers, thereby allowing access between the Chesapeake Bay and the Albemarle Sound.Get there: Take Interstate 85 North to Interstate 40 East; keep left and take Interstate 440 East/U.S. 64 East toward Rocky Mount. Take U.S. 64 East to Williamston, then U.S. 17 North to South Mill Exit. Drive time: Six hours.Details: Open 8 a.m.-6 p.m. daily. No admission charged.Things to do: Canoe/kayak, hike, bird watch, picnic, mountain bike, tour the new environmental education center/visitor center.Things you could see: Black bears, bobcats, river otters; poisonous snakes, yellow-bellied and spotted turtles; birds.Event: Fifth Annual Paddle for the Border, May 3, from Chesapeake, Va., to South Mills, N.C. Details: 877-771-8333.Info: 252-771-6593; www.dismalswamp.com.Pettigrew State Park, CreswellOutdoors enthusiasts as well as history buffs can escape to this park near Albemarle Sound. It offers five hiking trails of varying lengths on 1,200 acres of cypress and hardwood forest. Water activities are provided on nearby Lake Phelps, which boasts 16,600 acres of water and is five miles across. Phelps is North Carolina’s second-largest natural lake, and is believed to be 38,000 years old. Deep? Nah: The average depth is only 4.5 feet. Unlike most lakes, Phelps is fed only by rainfall.There’s boating and picnicking, and you can fish on the boardwalk at Cypress Pond or simply stroll the boardwalk and observe the lake’s abundant waterfowl.On the grounds is Somerset Place, a restored antebellum mansion and State Historic Site on the edge of Lake Phelps. Of the plantation’s original 100,000 acres, 31 remain, while seven of the site’s buildings still stand. For a history of the area, take a free, 90-minute tour of the plantation’s buildings and grounds.Get there: From Raleigh, take U.S. 64 East to just beyond Plymouth; at Roper; turn right on Newland Road and follow signs to Pettigrew State Park. Drive time: 5 1/2 hours.Details: Pettigrew State Park is open 8 a.m.-6 p.m. daily through February; open later when days are longer. Closed Christmas Day. No admission charge; fee for camping and optional picnic-site shelter reservations.Somerset Place is open 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Saturday and 1-5 p.m. Sunday. No admission charge.No hunting or alcoholic beverages; pets must be kept on a leash no longer than 6 feet.Things to do: Canoe/kayak on Lake Phelps, fish, hike, camp, bike (designated bike trails), picnic, tour Somerset Place.Things you could see: Trees (sweet and black gums, poplars and pawpaws, bald cypresses, shagbark hickories, sycamores and chestnut oaks); black bears, white-tailed deer, fox, bobcat, raccoon, mink, muskrat, otter and other mammals; birds (owls and hawks, herons and egrets, kingfishers; wildflowers).Info: Pettigrew State Park: 252-797-4475; http://ils.unc.edu/parkproject/visit/pett/do.htmlInfo on Somerset Place: See closeup, page 2.Green Swamp Preserve, near SupplyThe preserve, southwest of Wilmington, is actually a long-leaf pine savanna, a woodland ecosystem. The trees are small and widely spaced — the “ceiling” to the sky doesn’t close. To reach the savanna, traverse a boardwalk built over a small pond.It’s one of the best-preserved savannas on the Atlantic coast and has the highest diversity of carnivorous plants in the world. Get this: 95 percent of all Venus flytraps are found naturally in North Carolina. Famed British broadcaster/naturalist David Attenborough filmed the meat-eaters here for his 1994 public TV documentary, “The Private Life of Plants.”Factoid: Long-leaf pine savannas require periodic fires, so the swamp’s owner — The Nature Conservancy — periodically burns the forest to maintain it. When exposed to the high temperatures of the fire, pine cones open and release seeds. (Grasses protect other plants from the extreme highs.)Get there: Take U.S. 74 East to N.C. 211 (just east of Lake Waccamaw); take N.C. 211 South to preserve parking area, north of Supply on the east side of N.C. 211.Details: Hours: Dawn to dusk. No admission charged.Things to do: Hike, bird watch, hunt (specific times/species through N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission’s Game Land Program: www.ncwildlife.org), observe meat-eating plants.Things you could see: Long-leaf pines, orchids, Venus flytraps — plus a dozen species of other meat-eating plants, including sundews and pitcher plants; alligators, fox squirrels, black bears, bobcats; bald eagles (summer), Swainson’s and prothonotary warblers (summer), Henslow’s and Bachman’s sparrows, red-cockaded woodpeckers (endangered); Hessel’s hairstreak butterfly.Info: 910-395-5000; www.nature.org/wherewework /northamerica/states/north carolina/preserves/ art5606.html.Congaree National Park, Hopkins, S.C.Got a thing for trees? The Congaree floodplain forest, near Columbia, is home to 90 species, many of which hold the S.C. record for size. National champs, too: The biggest loblolly pine (about 17 stories!), overcup oak (about 14 stories tall, with a 20-foot circumference). Congaree contains everything from water tupelos to bald cypresses.Paddlers can canoe Cedar Creek via a marked trail or hike one of Congaree’s six trails (18 miles of trails available). For a shorter hike, make your way along the 8-foot high, 2.4-mile boardwalk.All eight Southeastern species of woodpecker live in the area; break out your binoculars and look for the endangered red-cockaded. If owls seem more interesting, sign up for the park’s Friday Night Owl Prowl, a 2.5-mile nocturnal hike led by a park ranger in spring and fall. The two-hour walk begins at dusk and is free of charge. Reservations two weeks in advance are required, however.Note: A swamp is usually under water; the low land here is usually flooded 10 times per year — so it is technically a floodplain forest. The flooding is usually December-April, so call the park office for an update before you go.Get there: Take Interstate 77 South to the Columbia area; take the Bluff Road Exit; turn left onto Bluff Road and continue about 14 miles to Mount View Road. Turn right; at stop sign, turn right onto Old Bluff Road, then a left at National Park Road to the gate. Drive time: About two hours.Details: Harry Hampton Visitors Center is open 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m.; until 7 p.m. Friday-Sunday during Daylight Savings Time. No admission charge; activities free of charge.Things to do: Hike (six trails, up to 10.4 miles in length), camp at The Bluff or after-hours campsites or back-country camp (free permits available at visitor center), picnic, take guided canoe tour, tour Harry Hampton Visitor Center, take a self-guided tour on the boardwalk.No pets on boardwalk. No hunting or weapons in park.Things you could see: 90 tree species; bobcats, white-tailed deer, swamp foxes, raccoons, otters and other mammals; salamanders, barred owls, eight woodpecker species, including endangered red-cockaded.Events: Nature Fest is April 19-20; guided walks and talks, animals on display. Annual Swamp Fest held in October includes walkathon, Native American dancing, guided walks, hayrides, etc.Info: 803-776-4396; www.columbiasouthcarolina.com/congaree.html.Black River Swamp Preserve, near Andrews, S.C.The 66-mile Black River empties into the Pee Dee River in Georgetown County, S.C., and the S.C. Nature Conservancy owns and maintains the 1,276-acres swamp along it.According to the Nature Conservancy’s Eric Krueger, “The value of the Black River is that it’s just a wonderful corridor for boating. It’s a beautiful cypress swamp with black water. You’ll see all types of wading birds.” Alligators, too.The river is believed to contain endangered short-nose sturgeon.Why does the water look black? Organic chemicals known as tannins, from tree leaves and other materials, deposit into it.The preserve contains nine virgin loblolly pine islands, accessible only by foot. Look for rare plant species as you’re walking. Along the river, you’ll see the sarvis holly, light purple-pink false dragonhead and riverbank quillwort (the state’s only location for quillwort).Get there: Take I-77 South to Columbia, then U.S. 378 East to Interstate 95; take I-95 South to U.S. 521 South; drive south east into Andrews. Take S.C. 41 North to Secondary Road 38; turn right and in about two miles, turn right onto the dirt road. Go to Pine Tree public boat ramp. The preserve is on the east side of the river. Drive time. 3 hours, 45 minutes.Details: Hours: 24-hour access. No admission charge.Things to do: Canoe/kayak (bring your own watercraft), fish, bird watch.Things you could see: Mature bald cypresses, swamp tupelo, oaks, red maple, mixed bottomland hardwoods; alligators; wood ducks, ibis and wood storks (endangered); yellow water lily.Info: 803-254-9049; www.nature.org/wherewework /northamerica/states/south carolina/preserves/art1398.htmlFour Holes Swamp, Harleyville, S.C.The Nature Conservancy and National Audubon Society pooled resources and purchased the Francis Beidler Forest in 1969; it’s part of the Four Holes Swamp, which drains into the Edisto River. Today, this 15,000-acre tract holds the world’s largest virgin cypress-tupelo swamp forest. Some of the swamp’s trees are well over 1,000 years old.The swamp offers guided walking tours with a park naturalist. Among them: the popular Nightwalk after-dark tour. There’s also a self-guided walking tour via the swamp’s 1.75-mile boardwalk (handicapped-accessible.)Also guided: four-hour canoe trips held Saturdays in spring, led by a park naturalist.Any park or preserve with an Audubon Center means bird preservation is key. The one here is no exception (it also has a Swamp Shop that sells souvenirs.) More than 100 species of birds live in the area, including the prothonotary warbler, barred owl, yellow-crowned night heron and parula warbler. Rare but there: the American coot (first spotted in the sanctuary in 2006).Get there: Take I-77 South to Interstate 26 East; take I-26 East to Exit 177 (Harleyville); follow the signs. Drive time: three hours.Details: Open 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday; closed Mondays and major holidays.Guided walking tour with naturalist: $7; $3.50 for ages 6-18; $6 for Audubon members. Minimum group size: 10. Call for info on guided canoe tours.Things to do: Hike (boardwalk trail is 1.75 miles), tour the Environmental Education Center, take four-hour guided canoe trip ($20 per person), take naturalist-guided day-walk or Nightwalk ($8 per person), bird watch, tour wildlife sanctuary.No pets allowed on boardwalk.Things you could see: Bald cypresses, tupelo gums; alligators, white-tailed deer, gray and red foxes, river otters; cottonmouth snakes, spotted turtles; great horned owls, Mississippi kites, white ibis, pileated woodpeckers, American woodcocks, ruby-throated hummingbird.Info: 843-462-2150; www.sc.audubon.org.Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge, Awendaw, S.C.Established in 1932 as a rest-stop for migratory birds, this national wildlife refuge encompasses 22 miles along the Atlantic coast. It’s made of barrier islands, many of which are difficult to reach or use. But you can check out Bulls Island, whose 5,000 or so acres are set up for visitors. It’s accessible through the Coastal Expeditions ferry service (see below).Cape Romain is home to 277 species of birds. Go to the Web site and download a checklist that has them all, and details what season(s) each is likely to be spotted. It’s a handy record of your trip.The refuge also has the largest nesting population of loggerhead turtles north of Florida. The refuge has a program that aids in the recovery of the threatened turtles. Interested in volunteering with the program? Get the details at 843-928-3264, or visit www.fws.gov/caperomain/volunteers.html.Bulls Island doesn’t have a true swamp, though it is swamp-looking. The low-lying isle is edged by a saltwater or tidal marsh. In the Bulls interior are eight impoundments — staff-built ponds where birds swoop and alligators bask. How many gators? A couple hundred. A true swamp has trees in it; these ponds don’t — so you get pretty clear gator glimpses. The Turkey Walk Trail loops between two impoundments.Get there: Take I-77 South to I-26 East. In metro Charleston, take Interstate 526 East to Mount Pleasant; take U.S. 17 North to Awendaw. Drive time: four hours.Details: Open sunrise to sunset daily; office open 8 a.m.-4 p.m. weekdays. No admission charged, but you need transportation to Bull Island. Coastal Expeditions provides ferry service; call 843-881-4582. Right now, the ferry makes one trip to Bulls Island per week (on Saturday); March-November, the ferry operates twice a day, four days a week. Ferry cost: $30; $15 for 12 and younger.Things you can do: Hike (two trails), archery hunt for deer (a week in November, a week in December), gather shells on the beach (limit: one bag), bike (only on Bull Island roads, not on trails or beaches), tour mainland’s Sewee Visitor and Environmental Education Center (open 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday; on the mainland, next to headquarters; includes exhibits, red wolf viewing area, auditorium and nature trail).No camping.Things you could see: 24 types of reptiles, including alligators; 12 varieties of amphibians; 36 species of mammals, including deer and black fox squirrels; 227 species of birds, including piping plovers and wood storks (both endangered); loggerhead turtles (threatened).Info: 843-928-3264; www.fws.gov/caperomain.Swamp-going: The must-havesBring bug spray (despite the low volume of insects during winter), water, food and a first-aid kit (include poison ivy treatment).Wear long pants and socks (due to chiggers and ticks).Check yourself for ticks when you exit a swamp.Going to be in a boat? Make sure you bring life jackets.The Nature Conservancy: Who are they?This international conservation group, headquartered in Arlington, Va., aims to conserve the land and preserve biodiversity. It makes agreements with willing landowners, companies and government agencies on land use. There are chapters in North and South Carolina. Info: www.nature.org.

Golf fans the world over can attest to why Augusta, Ga., is known as the “Garden City of the South” when they tune into The Masters golf tournament every April and see the lush greenery and gorgeous azaleas surrounding the course at Augusta National. Don’t even try to visit this former capital of Georgia during that week unless you’re one of the lucky ones to have scored one of the toughest-to-get tickets in sports.We opted to explore Augusta “off” season and were delighted to find out how much more the city has to offer.After driving about 150 miles east from Atlanta, we stayed in the lovely, historic Partridge Inn (www.partridgeinn.com).Built in the 1820s as a two-story residence, the inn opened as a hotel in 1908 and underwent a major renovation in October 2006. It’s on the edge of the historic neighborhood of Summerville, where residents built homes to escape the heat and mosquitoes found downtown, where the city borders the Savannah River.One highlight from a weekend visit: a stop at Woodrow Wilson’s childhood home (www.wilsonboyhoodhome.org), built for his father, a minister for First Presbyterian Church.You can see where the future president etched his name on one of the downstairs windows.But our favorite activity was a boat ride down the Augusta Canal, which brought an industrial boom to the city after its construction in 1845. After years of neglect, it was revived and became a National Heritage Area. An ornate bridge on the canal named after Maj. Archibald Butt, who died on the Titanic, was saved from destruction after a citywide “Save Our Butt” campaign.Big fans of sweets, my husband and I still weren’t quite up to the challenge of eating an entire piece of cake at Boll Weevil Cafe and Sweetery, which we decided takes a village to devour. With a wide variety of ethnic offerings, Blue Sky Kitchen downtown is worth a stop for lunch or dinner.

AUGUSTA INFO

www.augustaga.org

Here is a Matthews resident, along with a Charlottean now living in Sweden and two Swedish friends, at a sidewalk restaurant and pub in Stockholm in August. They are Jake Hargett (left), Jim Bean, Michael Immelback and Lina Browall. Bean and his wife, Suzanne, have been living in Sweden for two years now, notes Hargett, who lives in Matthews. They’re sitting at a place called The Doors, “and the pub’s owner has promised to put this article on his wall inside the restaurant,” Hargett writes. MORE PHOTOS AT OUR SLIDESHOW E-mail us a JPEG of your vacation — or mail us a print — that depicts someone holding a copy of the Travel section. We’ll try to include it in our weekly slideshow at www.charlotte.com /travel. And if yours is selected to be printed in the Observer, we’ll also mail you an “I Travel With The Charlotte Observer” T-shirt.DIRECTIONS: Tell us who’s in the photo, who took it and where and when. Include address and daytime phone number. E-mail your JPEG image with the requested info to itravel@charlotteobserver.com. Or, mail your nonreturnable print (with the requested info) to: I Travel With The Charlotte Observer, P.O. Box 30308, Charlotte, NC 28230-0308.

Q. Two friends and I are looking for a travel midpoint that we can each get to via nonstop flights. One lives in Tokyo, one in New York and I live in suburban Washington. Do you have any suggestions? We often get compromise destination questions, and our general rule is to pick places that require the shortest average flying time for the participants. With that in mind, you’re going on a trip for three to — cue “Price Is Right” music — Seattle! Boasting several nonstop flights for all involved, a great culinary scene, a dynamic theater community and a coffee culture that practically begs old friends to spend hours catching up. Seattle info: www.visitseattle.org.Seattle is just a touch less exotic than our No. 2 recommendation: Vancouver. British Columbia’s largest metropolis is almost as convenient for the parties involved and possesses just as much to recommend it, even as the 2010 Winter Olympics loom large on the horizon. Oh, yeah, don’t forget: Tickets for the games go on sale this October (visit www.vancouver2010.com).Q. What percentage of the cost of an airline ticket goes toward fuel? A growing percentage, as you might imagine. Whereas jet fuel used to account for just 10 to 15 percent of an airline’s costs, that figure is now up to 29 percent, according to the Air Transport Association (ATA), an industry trade organization. That’s largely because the price of jet fuel has more than doubled since 2000. But the airlines, rightly fearing a disastrous effect on their business, haven’t passed on the entire increase to consumers, at least so far. The ATA says that domestic fares are actually down 9 percent since 2000 (although that figure doesn’t include government taxes and fees).Q. If I had a night’s layover at the airport in San Juan, Puerto Rico, would I have enough time to visit the town? Luis Munoz Marin airport is just a few miles from Puerto Rico’s capital and eight miles from Old San Juan, which you should have time to visit, however briefly, during a long layover. Buses of all shapes and price ranges shuttle regularly between the airport and that storied walled city, where cobblestone-studded streets are still confusing despite their grid pattern. A map is essential, as is a quick trip up the hill to the Spanish fort El Morro. Details: www.gotopuertorico.com.

Here’s the problem: Half of her airline seat is missing. An extra-large passenger is sitting in it, forcing her to lean into the aisle or sit on the passenger’s lap. Not a comfortable way to fly, nor, for that matter a safe way to fly. But when she asks her airline for compensation, she’s turned down. What’s next?Here’s the problem: “I was on a Delta Air Lines flight from Philadelphia to Atlanta and was one of the last people to board the aircraft. When I got to my seat, half of it was missing.”Sitting next to me, in the middle seat, was an extremely large woman. So large that she not only took up her own seat, but half of mine. There was no way for her to put the armrest down. She said she hoped there was room for me.”I discreetly asked one of the flight attendants if I could buy a seat in first class and was told that first class was full. I asked if the remainder of the plane was full, and they said that there were no empty seats.”A flight attendant suggested that the only way to change my seat was to `find a cute boy or girl’ and sit on their lap. Not only did I find this offensive, but also it was distressing.One of the flight attendants came over and offered the large passenger next to me a seat belt extender. I tried to sit down, but ended up spending half of the flight on this woman’s lap and the other half spilling over into the aisle.I e-mailed Delta after the flight and asked for a refund. I bought one seat, and I didn’t even have half of one. Delta thanked me for the feedback but refused to do anything. Don’t you think I deserve something?” — Julie Liening, Henderson, Nev.Here’s the solution: You paid for a whole seat, but got only half of one. You got ripped off.Or maybe it would be more accurate to say the XL passenger next to you got a deal on her ticket — two seats for the price of one. Either way, it’s wrong — and the attitude of Delta’s flight attendants and customer service representatives didn’t exactly help.Delta, and most of the other network airlines, tend to look the other way when someone unusually tall or wide boards the aircraft.At least one carrier, Southwest Airlines, doesn’t. It requires that plus-sized passengers buy an extra seat (but they get their money back if there are empty seats). I could find no policy regarding these above-average travelers on Delta’s Web site, which says to me that your seatmate wasn’t out of line in booking only one seat.I think you took all the right first steps in resolving this dispute.Asking a flight attendant for another seat, and offering to buy a first-class seat, was a good start. You were also smart to brush off the crew member’s insensitive comments. Your next step would have been to appeal this to the chief purser and pilot. Obstructing the aisle of an aircraft is a safety hazard, not a punch line in a flight attendant’s joke.Similarly, your decision to e-mail Delta was correct. But you shouldn’t have taken its “no” for an answer. You could have — and should have — appealed this to someone higher up. I list all of the customer-service contacts at Delta and other major U.S. airlines on my Web site: www.elliott.org, (click “Help” for details).I encouraged you to appeal Delta’s denial.This time, the airline sent you a flight voucher for $250 and an apology. — Charlotte-born Elliott is the ombudsman for National Geographic Traveler magazine. Reach him at celliott@ngs.org.

Once a bustling seaport, Beaufort likes to boast that it’s the third-oldest town in North Carolina, dating from 1709.Another distinction is its claim that it was once the headquarters of Blackbeard, the notorious pirate.Today, it is better known for the dozens of historic homes and commercial buildings that line its small but marvelously preserved downtown.Beaufort’s business district is reminiscent of a small European town, because old homes and businesses are still used today as they have been for the past three centuries.The main street lies along Taylor’s Creek, a tidal tributary off Beaufort Inlet. Where the creek once saw commercial sailing vessels anchored and waiting to moor along the seawall, today’s vessels are nearly all pleasure craft.Beaufort still has a significant fleet of commercial fishing boats, which was the major economic activity from the end of the Civil War until well into the last century.We stayed at the Inlet Inn, built in 1985 to re-create a historic hotel that sat on the site from 1850 until it was torn down in 1967.With its big, airy, high-ceilinged rooms, the inn (800-554-5466, www.inlet-inn.com) is one of the upscale hotels in the area, but the rates are modest, ranging from $95 in the off-season to $155 in summer for a waterfront room with a porch where you can have breakfast and perhaps see some of the wild horses that roam an island across the harbor.Beaufort now offers tours of the historic district and the 300-year-old cemetery that holds soldiers from both the Revolutionary War and War of 1812.This area is being promoted as the Crystal Coast, an apt name for a place that boasts vast expanses of protected bays and inlets off 20-mile-wide Pamlico Sound and miles of nearby ocean beaches where the surf rolls onto golden sands.The climate here tends to be milder in winter than it is 20 miles across the sound and 50 miles up the coast, where the Outer Banks make a sharp turn north at Cape Hatteras. But the entire area benefits from the warm waters of the Gulf Stream rolling past about 30 miles offshore.For more information: www.beaufort-nc.com

As far as I’m concerned, no man properly pays homage to a kilt quite like Mel Gibson does in “Braveheart.”OK, Liam Neeson in “Rob Roy” comes in a close second - make that a very close second.My husband, Roy, and I both are of Scottish ancestry. He’s of Clan Anderson, and I’m of Clan Brown from my mother’s side of the family.The rest of Roy’s blood comes from Cherokee and Irish. And interestingly enough, so does mine, but with a bit of English and Dutch mixed in for good measure.But of all our ethnicity, it is the Scottish part that most intrigues. For that, we both blame a rainy, blustery afternoon with little else to do but watch a cable rerun of “Braveheart.”For if ever there was a movie that inspires emotion - and travel, for that matter - it is “Braveheart.”You might remember near the end of the movie, just before Gibson’s character of William Wallace, one of the early champions Scotland’s freedom from the English throne, is publicly executed for treason and other crimes, the royal magistrate declares to the restless crowd, “The prisoner wishes to say a word.”Then with guttural passion and utter defiance, Gibson speaks his “word” -”Freeeedoooommmmm!” - and during that moment, no matter what your DNA, you are somehow mysteriously and powerfully transformed to the bloodlines of medieval Scotland and you want to be Scottish.When I look back now, I think it was maybe that one scene in the movie that inspired our own ancestral journey to Scotland.After quite a bit of background work searching family histories and pecking away for information on Ancestry.Com, Genealogy.com, and Rootsweb.com, we were on our way across the Pond and to our hereditary stomping grounds.On our first full morning in Edinburgh, Scotland’s stunningly beautiful and utterly captivating capital city crowned by the landmark Royal Mile and Edinburgh Castle, we went straight to the General Register Office (GRO).Located on historic Princes Street, the GRO is among the best repositories in the world for ancestral records.Combined with the Scotland’s People Center, which opens later this year and is to be contained within the GRO and the National Archives of Scotland, you’ll have access to birth, marriage, death, church, estate, and untold thousands of other legal documents, some dating to the 12th century.Steve Bruce, our guide at the GRO, set out to help us to find our ancestors, and we soon traced Roy’s family roots back to the late 1600s. (Alas, William Wallace is no long-lost cousin.) As Steve guided us through the research process, I noted his last name and asked him if he were related to Robert the Bruce, the King of Scots who supported Wallace’s efforts. That would have linked him to royalty, but no, he said, the bloodlines didn’t match.In addition to our family records, Steve the Bruce of modern day showed us others that were intriguing. He produced a copy of a marriage certificate dated December 22, 2000, uniting Guy Stuart Richie and Madonna Louise Ciccone in holy matrimony at Skibo Castle, and then another that stated Ashley Judd wed Dario Franchitti at the same castle a year later.The poet Robert Burns’s birth certificate is also on file in the Registry, verifying that he was born in 1759 to William and Agnes Burns. And if you’re a “Treasure Island” fan, then you can check out Robert Louis Stevenson’s birth record. He was born in Edinburgh in 1851 to Margaret and Thomas Stevenson. My favorite James Bond, Sean Connery, also was born in Edinburgh on August 25, 1930, to Joseph and Euphemia McQueen Connery.You can see all these records and make copies, if you wish.If you’re now wondering whether you’ve had a bagpiper or two in the family, the most common surnames in Scotland are Anderson, Brown, Black, Wallace, Stewart, Stuart, Stevenson, Murray, Scott, Campbell, Ferguson, Duncan, Robertson, and all the “Mac’s” and “Mc’s,” with MacDonald, MacKenzie, MacLeod, McGregor, and McIntosh among them.The ease of use of research is phenomenal, and the GRO, the National Archives and the Peoples Center combine both free and premium services.With more and more records added every year, the goal is to digitalize all records, although some are so old and fragile that they will always remain untouched by human hands to preserve them.Bruce also cautions that since records were so scattered for centuries, there is always that margin for error and that sometimes you must use guesswork to find your ancestors. The branches of the Anderson family tree grew wide, we learned, and nearly every single male Anderson ancestor had been named James or John, just about all the ladies were named Margaret, and that all those Jameses, Johns, and Margarets were scattered from the Highlands to the Hebrides and from St. Andrews to Aberdeen.Since Anderson translates to “Andrew’s Son,” Roy and I took off across the Firth of Forth from Edinburgh and up the back roads to St. Andrews, taking time to explore the quiet Scottish countryside that’s dotted with sheep farms, heather-filled meadows, and scenery so gorgeous that I often wondered why our ancestors chose to leave this breathtaking place.Hubby’s love of golf apparently comes naturally from his family’s homeland - Scotland is the birthplace of golf - and at the Old Course at St. Andrews, he was overwhelmed to see the place where the finest legends in golf have played. As we sat having a pint and a sandwich on the creaky wooden benches in the Jigger Inn that overlooks the course, we wondered aloud which of the great duffers or even our ancestors had also dined there.From St. Andrews, we drove through the famous Scottish mists and through medieval forests to the village of Stirling to see the National Wallace Monument. The massive monument overlooks the scene of William Wallace’s victory at the Battle of Stirling Bridge, a humbling reminder of all the blood spilled for Scotland’s freedom. If you’re a “Braveheart” fan, the monument is a must-see.A word of caution: Unless you truly are brave of heart, or at least absolutely certain you can drive on the left-hand side of the road, you may want to hire a driver rather than rent a car.As Roy navigated through all those roundabouts and maneuvered red lights that seemed to appear from nowhere, I was having an extremely unladylike-but-quite-Southern “hissy fit,” which is essentially an endless round of cursing, a nervous breakdown, and a heart attack all packaged together.Oh, one more thing to note, especially for the ladies: Tradition dictates that Scottish gents wear nothing under their kilts. Remember that next time you watch “Braveheart.”IF YOU GO:We wanted the full United Kingdom experience, so we flew on British Airways (www.britishairways.com) from Atlanta, changing planes in London before flying into Edinburgh.There are magnificent hotels in Edinburgh, including the Sheraton Grand Hotel & Spa (www.StarwoodHotels.com/Sheraton), which has a genealogy concierge service, and the five-star Balmoral Hotel (www.thebalmoralhotel.com), which also contains Number One, one of the few Michelin-starred restaurants in the city and is directly across from the GRO. In St. Andrews, we stayed at the White Lodge (www.TheStAndrewsExperience.com), a wonderful bed-and-breakfast complete with lush gardens; and on our last night in Scotland, we stayed at the comfortable and charming Ashcroft Farmhouse (www.ashcroftfarmhouse.com), a guesthouse near Edinburgh’s airport, perfect for those with early morning flights like ours.There are plenty of Web sites to start you on your ancestral journey, beginning with www.visitscotland.com, home of VisitScotland, the official Scottish tourist board. Other excellent sites include:www.nas.gov.uk (the National Archives of Scotland)www.AncestralScotland.comwww.HomecomingScotland.comwww.ScotlandsPeopleHub.gov.ukwww.edinburgh.comwww.Historic-Scotland.gov.ukwww.NationalWallaceMonument.comwww.standrews.co.uk.