Read and ride

Sunday's story about Fresno />Yosemite International was very good news. We get a lot of visitors from out of town and the less we have to leave town to pick up guests or catch our flights, the better. We like FYI very much and almost always fly out of Fresno. It's a good airport and we'd always rather leave from here. But it all comes down to the fares for our visitors, who are quite often students on very tight budgets. When we get more competitive rates, there will be no need to go through all the hassle of driving north or south, paying to park the car, getting hit with hotel bills going and coming - ugh.

Is it too greedy to wish for some nonstop Mexicana flights to the Mexican Riviera? I'm dreaming now. Think of that - get on the plane in your beach clothes in the morning, snooze for a couple of hours in the air and by lunch time you're eating shrimp, drinking limeade - or something -- on the beach at Mazatlan and speaking Spanish. Sigh.

While we are on the topic of airports, I just heard about a program I really like called the "Read and Return" program. At certain airport bookstores run by Paradies, you can buy a book when you leave on your trip, then return it within six months for a 50% refund. They even tape the receipt to the inside of the book so you don't lose it. You can also buy "pre-read" books there for 50% off. I like that idea! Similarly, the Cracker Barrel Old Country Store restaurants, owned by CBRL Group in Lebanon, Tenn., have developed a following for a program that lets travelers buy an audiobook at any of their 519 locations in 41 states. They can then return it in at any other store minus a weekly fee of $3.49. I'd sure like to see similar programs in Fresno. Even without a program by the bookstore, putting bins out so travelers could donate books they've already read to our library just might work.