Video: The 2008 Extra Mile Awards

I spent a good chunk of my pre-teen years obsessing over horses. Because I couldn’t have my own—my parents had this crazy idea that our backyard wasn't big enough—I had to feed my obsession in other ways. I read every horse book I could get my hands on, watched Black Beauty more times than I should admit, and drew pictures of horses on the front covers of all my school folders (until my brother told me the horses looked like their legs were broken—then I drew them on the inside covers). Obsessions never really die, so even though I have enough sense not to sketch horses on my notepad at work, I do still gravitate toward all things equestrian. So when a book called Equitrekking came across my desk recently, it made perfect sense to drop everything else I was doing and read it. The book, a companion guide to the public television series of the same name, follows author Darley Newman as she rides horses through amazing destination after amazing destination—the coast of Ireland, Iceland, the Carolinas, Vermont, Hawaii's Big Island, and lots more. As you can imagine, traveling on horseback lets you see areas you'd never be able to access in a car, or even on foot, so the photographs in this book are pretty striking. But there's also some great description and history about each place, and for the equestrian-minded, there are a few sections devoted entirely to horses: Ireland's Connemara Pony and Wyoming's Wild Mustangs; The Virginia Gold Cup; and Morgan Horse Farm, in Vermont. We're always looking for new ways of seeing the world here at Budget Travel, and this, to me, is a pretty great one. It's probably good that my 12-year-old self never knew about this equitrekking thing—I would have campaigned for every family trip to be on horseback. But I'm glad to know about it now, and glad to have this gorgeous book to flip through when I need an equestrian fix. What is the Equitrekking series like? Check out this video for a taste. See Equitrekking.com for more info on the book and series. And here's the trailer for the movie Black Beauty. Book signing info: Tonight, Thursday, October 16th Rizzoli Bookstore 31 West 57th St. NY, NY

In 2006 Chicago O'Hare became the first major airport to offer passengers flu vaccines at kiosks in the gates—right next to sports bars and magazine stands. Nearly a dozen other airports had already been offering them at clinics in out-of-the-way spots in the terminals. USA Today reports that this flu season (December through March) O'Hare plans to give out 6,000 vaccinations. The paper also posted online where you can find flu shot kiosks or clinics at about 20 airports.

At times Naples has seemed like a hard city to love, with a reputation for vice, unemployment, and garbage. Over at the New York Times, Michael Kimmelman files an update from the center, where the "loveliness" is now impossible to overlook. Still, the city as a whole remains in a "funk," and it's not at all clear that the pristine beauty of the city center is something that will spread through other, less-touristy parts. The city's Madre Museum, devoted to contemporary art and partially housed inside a "glorious," consecrated church, recently tried to turn the garbage stereotype on its ear: to accompany an exhibit, it put together an ad campaign that used works that were partially composed of trash.