Travel briefs
Travel briefs: Sunday, July 6, 2008

Published: July 6, 2008

ALTUS — The 26th annual Altus Grape Festival will be July 25-26 in the city park. A street dance and fireworks are planned from 8 to 11 p.m. July 25, with the festival from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. July 26. Sample wine or try to making it yourself at the grape stomp. Admission is free. Call (479) 468-4684 or go online to www.altusgrapefest.com.

Ready to start roughing it this summer? The updated Oklahoma RV Parks, Lakes & Campgrounds Guide is packed full of helpful tips and information.

Travelers also can rediscover the call of the Mother Road with the new Oklahoma Route 66 Guide. The brochure features the state's 400-mile stretch of the famed highway in incredible detail, including information about Ribbon Road — the only original strip of Route 66 still existing. The guide is filled with museums, restaurants, iconic structures and more.

Both publications are free and can be ordered online at TravelOK.com or by calling (800) 652-6552. They are also available at the state's 12 Tourism Information Centers statewide.

Cheap buffets, 99-cent shrimp cocktails and single-deck blackjack are becoming "endangered species” in Las Vegas.

And the list of endangered species just got longer. A Komodo dragon has arrived at the Shark Reef Aquarium at Mandalay Bay casino on the Las Vegas Strip.

The 87-pound, 7-foot-long endangered lizard was acquired from the Miami, Fla., Metro Zoo for the aquarium's eighth anniversary.

It's among 75 such lizards held in zoos and aquariums in the U.S. and Canada, according to Shark Reef officials. From 3,000 to 5,000 exist in the wild, largely on Komodo Island and three surrounding islands in southeastern Indonesia.

"He is just an incredible, regal and unflappable animal that has an air about him that really transfers,” curator Jack Jewell said.

A Komodo dragon has sharklike, serrated teeth and a bite can be deadly. Its saliva contains roughly 50 known bacteria strains, so if a wound is not cleaned properly, septicemia sets in quickly.

Hearst Corp. executive Phil Bronstein made headlines when he was attacked and bitten by a Komodo dragon during a tour of the Los Angeles Zoo.

Jewell said Las Vegas' high rollers shouldn't gamble on special access to this lizard.

"That's just foolhardy behavior,” he said.

From Wire Reports

Comments