Tuesday Travel Ticker: Yosemite road closing

Yosemite National Park’s Big Oak Flat Road (Highway 120) within the park will close for six weeks beginning Feb. 29, to repair damage caused by a large rockslide. The road will be closed between the Foresta Road Junction on the Big Oak Flat Road (Highway 120) and the El Portal Road (Highway 140) junction.Yosemite Valley remains accessible via El Portal Road (Highway 140) coming from Merced/ Mariposa and via Wawona Road (Highway 41) coming from Fresno/ Oakhurst . . . . The National Steinbeck Center presents the 32nd Annual Steinbeck Festival, in collaboration with The Woody Guthrie Centennial, May 3-6. The event will take place at the National Steinbeck Center in Salinas, For more info, go to www.steinbeck.org . . . . The Live Oak Music Festival takes place in the hills above Santa Barbara on Father’s Day weekend, June 15?17. For info, go to www.liveoakfest.org . . . . Don Rickles returns to Las Vegas March 24-25, at the Orleans Showroom. Tickets start at $74.95, plus tax and convenience fees. Call (702) 365-7075, or visit www.orleanscasino.com. . . . . Today is Mardi Gras, and though tomorrow is the beginning of Lent, it also marks the beginnings of New Orleans’ busy spring tourist season. For instance, walking tours of Tennessee Williams’ New Orleans residences, including the St. Peter Street address where he penned “A Streecar Named Desire,” will be held during the literary festival in his honor, March 21-25. For tickets, click here . . . . More than 200 passengers of an Air Australia flight found out at the airport gate last week that they would need to find another way out of Honolulu. The Brisbane-based international and domestic airline, formerly known as Strategic Airlines, said all flights had been canceled and the airline would not be accepting new bookings because it could no longer pay its bills. The passengers retrieved their baggage and then scrambled to make arrangements with other carriers . . . . Travel quote of the day: “Two of the greatest gifts we can give our children are roots and wings.” (Hodding Carter)