Top 10 for golfers

The top places to practice your golf swing, from www.escapehomes.com, a site for second homes:

1. Palm Springs, Calif.

2. Orlando

3. Sedona, Ariz

4. Myrtle Beach, S.C.

5. Palm Beach, Fla.

6. Las Vegas

7. Scottsdale, Ariz.

8. Kauai, Hawaii

9. Hilton Head, S.C.

10. Maui, Hawaii

New excursion train tours Carter country

A state-operated excursion train to former President Jimmy Carter’s childhood home will start its run through southwest Georgia this fall.

SAM Shortline which stands for Savannah-Americus-Montgomery, the line’s historic route will travel from Cordele to Plains, gliding through cotton fields, pecan groves and peanut farms and over Lake Blackshear. Officials hope the project will stimulate tourism in southwest Georgia.

“It’s like a rolling state park,” says Tommy Bagby, project sales manager for the state Department of Natural Resources.

The service links two of Georgia’s national historic sites the Jimmy Carter National Historic Site in Plains and the Andersonville National Historic Site in northern Sumter County.

Fares will be $20 for adults and $10 for children in the passenger cars, and $30 and $15 in the club car.

Scotland tops for UFO visits

Scotland, the home of the Loch Ness monster, wherever it may lurk, also ranks tops on the planet for spotting unidentified flying objects, otherwise known as flying saucers.

The region’s vigilant spotters report sighting 300 UFOs each year, the most per square kilometer of anywhere in the world, according to VisitScotland, the country’s official tourist agency.

Only 2,000 UFOs are reported being sighted each year in the much larger United States.