Dinner At The El Rancho Hotel

Above, the El Rancho Hotel in Gallup, New Mexico. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Since Gov. "Malevolent Michelle" Lujan Grisham is locking down the state for two weeks (so far) starting tomorrow, Russell Asbill and I figured we'd best head into Gallup last evening to partake in some Mexican food at the El Rancho Hotel's restaurant and, after that, do some grocery shopping. (I had chile rellenos.)

Already, the hoarders cleaned out the toilet paper shelves at the Gallup Safeway. Thankfully, I already bought some a week ago, so I am in good shape where that's concerned.

The Travel Channel recent aired a Ghost Adventures program on hauntings at the El Rancho. No, we didn't see or hear anything unusual while we were at the El Rancho. Unfortunately, since I don't have cable or satellite (my choice), I haven't viewed the program. For more information on it, go here.

Travel Channel's Hiroshima Today

Above, the Hiroshima Memorial Cenotaph. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

The Travel Channel has a new show in the works, and executive producer Brian Leonard paid a visit to Hiroshima last July to feature the city in the pilot show.

He posted an article on his Hiroshima visit, which also included a visit to nearby Miyajima.

He begins his article with:

In July, I was lucky enough to travel to Hiroshima, Japan, from the Washington, DC, area for a shoot. I was working on an exciting new pilot for Travel Channel that looks at places where something big once occurred — either manmade or natural — that changed the place forever, and we find out what makes it different today. It’s a very inspiring project, and I wanted to feature cities that are not the “normal” vacation and tourist destinations. So Hiroshima was a great place to start. 

It looks like this will be an interesting show to watch.

As Godzilla fans know, the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, along with the Lucky Dragon No. 5 incident, were big influences on the creation of the Godzilla character. Hiroshima is spotlighted on page 44 of The Monster Movie Fan's Guide To Japan.

To read the article, go here.