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Love of Travel Turns into Couple's Website
Belleville News-Democrat
September 03, 2007
Mapping their vacation online was not satisfying to Paul and Laurie Lindauer.
'It's been frustrating to try to find information all in one place,' said Paul
Lindauer. 'You might have a great site out there in Denver or Kansas City or a
state might have a great site, but there is not one location that has
everything.'
'States or cities and even small regions may have a Web site with all of the
attractions applicable to go to, but if you're going across state lines and
traveling to places like Denver or Cincinnati, you want places to stop along the
way,' said Laurie Lindauer.
The Belleville couple wanted a way to not only find their destination, but stops
along the way. However, they found that many Web sites merely provide links back
to other Web sites. They wanted something that was more complete, and you could
also do great searches by key words that could be organized by category.
So the Lindauers took their love of travel and launched their own travel Web
site, GuidePostUSA.com, in June. The Web page provides tourists a one-stop spot
to plan their travel itinerary by way of state-of-the-art GPS technology that
pinpoints every stop and attraction from landmarks to restaurants and shopping
centers.
Paul Lindauer quit his job as director of youth and adult ministry and creative
programming at the Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows after 13 years to make it
happen. Laurie Lindauer takes care of the couple's children but works when she
can. They opened their office at 1026 Caseyville Ave. in Belleville.
'Its been on the back burner,' Laurie Lindauer said. 'We just decided to take
the plunge.'
'It's just something we wanted to do, to compile a lot of the information we
have from books or magazines you see. Our favorite thing to do is to stop by
visitor centers with brochures and cards and racks of things, and we fill our
whole bag.'
The Lindauers hired a contractor to design GuidepostUSA and have added data
plotting many destinations. The Web site lists museums, art galleries, golf
courses, antique shops, restaurants, bed and breakfasts, parks, hotels, resorts,
amusement parks, farms, historical and cultural landmarks, botanical gardens,
visitor centers, zoos and more.
'We have other states on there with a lot of information, but not as
comprehensive as Illinois and Missori,' Paul Lindauer said.
Any tourism site operator or destination may create their own listing on
GuidepostUSA for free. Premium online listings that offer detailed information
including e-mail and Web site links, photos and logos, are available for an
annual subscription of $50.
'We've entered a lot of the information, ourselves,' Paul Lindauer said. 'The
individual places are encouraged do it and put information on for free. We've
worked with convention and visitors' bureaus and chambers of commerce and asked
them to send us their information and get the word out to their constituents.'
Contact reporter Will Buss at wbuss@bnd.com or 618-345-7822, ext. 24.
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