Bizarre Travel Tales podcast

In this episode: Actor make highway history! Archaeologists in Egypt find a beer-making operation from before Stonehenge existed! Air New Zealand gets 'brand ambassadors' to use their heads!

In this episode: Buyer pays $100,000 for a replica of most unfortunate station wagon in road-trip history. Thanks to GPS, a Belgian woman driving to the Brussels airport to pick up a friend ends up in Croatia.

Whether it's "I've Been Everywhere" by Johnny Cash or Chuck Berry's version of "Route 66," road-trip anthems are a great part of travel culture. But there's a big difference between "road-trip songs" and "songs that are fun to play on a road-trip." On this episode of GROUNDED!, I talk about the difference and why it matters.

In this episode: The ruins of a Korean king's castle still reside in the world's most dangerous eco-park! Geography trivia from South (and North) of the Border! A relic of one of science's saints is at home in Florence.

In this episode: The TSA scans a carry-on corpse that gives new meaning to the term "dead-heading!" Secret Garden State: The mystery behind New Jersey's only nude beach!

In this episode: Fan's of JK Rowling's books seek out selfies in grave situations! A Florida man continues his 30-year quest for Bigfoot's cousin.

In this episode: Why Everest isn't really the tallest; the reason United Airlines has a PR department; and a museum dedicated to the inventor of Top Ramen.

In this episode: Why France's high-speed rail system needs a bigger plunger; why a European village calls UFOs illegal aliens; and why a British restaurant owner thinks his take-out food should be taken waaay out.

In this episode of Bizarre Travel Tales: Eskimo homes in the Caribbean; why the greatest American road trip song isn't American; a skyscraper proves not everything is bigger in Texas.

In this episode of Bizarre Travel Tales: Exploring chest size in the furniture capital of the world! Running of the bulls author should have read his own book! What happens when Japanese airport security stashes pot in your luggage.

We rely so much on spoken and written language when we travel, but is it possible that focusing too much on it prevents us from communicating other ways? Longtime travel journalist Spud Hilton explores the topic in a new Inappropriate Traveler podcast feature called Grounded!, an audio column looking at the myths, cliches and assumptions that many make about travel.

Longtime travel blogger and train fanatic Nora Dunn talks about what happens when Eastern medicine goes south, emptying vomit buckets in Peru, the downside to skydiving naked, and why zip-off convertible pants are a sign of the apocalypse. (Episode contains adult language and content.)

Drag performer Afrika America brings fun and fabulousness to everything she does — including her day job as a flight attendant. She chats about tragically oblivious passengers, why Chicago is great for cutting loose (Boystown!), being a glutton in New Orleans, and discovering there are African American people in Salt Lake City. (Episode contains adult language and content.)

Longtime blogger, entreprenuer and author Matt Kepnes talks about what life on the road for a decade is really like, missing a flight because of a hangover, why Paris is great for the deadly sin of gluttony, and a failed attempt to sleep through an orgy in Prague. (Episode contains adult language and content.)

Veteran blogger and outspoken travel advocate Pam Mandel (@NerdsEyeView) chats about people-watching in Waikiki, why road trips are the best travel (hint: stopping for pie), telling truth to tourism outlets, and lusting after Cambodian monks.

Gary Arndt, one of the world's most popular travel gurus, talks about where to get pork ribs in Tel Aviv, the art of "paleo showering," his Catholic-suffering approach to air travel, the origin or the "pornstache" and why he would prefer snakes over infants on an airplane. (Episode contains adult language and content.)

Veteran travel writer and blogger Rich Grant talks about drinking scotch from Coke cups, why the ruins at Pompeii need a bar, supplying strippers with convention swag, and why Disney's Star Wars land is better than the Pyramids of Egypt.

Host: Spud Hilton (@spudhilton)

Location: Anaheim Hilton, Anaheim, Calif., USA

Theme music: "Camelboots," by 84 Rooms (1982)