One of my cousins, who lives in North Carolina, posted an article from Only In Your State about the Outer Banks Scenic Byway a few months ago. I had never been here and thought it would be a great road trip. I booked extra time in Pensacola (not a problem, since I love that city) so it would be warmer when I visited. It wasn’t warm enough for enjoying the beach, of course, but I mostly had good weather to…
Pensacola is very adamant about being the FIRST colony in the current US. Tristan de Luna y Arellano came to Pensacola in 1559 with 1400 people on 11 ships to settle the area. Unfortunately, a hurricane came and destroyed a number of their ships and most of their supplies and they abandoned the colony within a few years. Even the French Fort Caroline, by present day Jacksonville, was founded in 1564, a year before St. Augustine. St. Augustine was founded on…
After Nashville, I had 6 weeks booked in Savannah but they cancelled my reservation in November not long after I booked. I tried for several weeks to find another place. I wanted to stay close to downtown so I could walk to the squares and historic center of town easily. But nothing was reasonable, Savannah is a very expensive town! The cheapest place I found was over $2000 more than the other place and I also would have had to…
I’ve never been to Nashville so on my next leg of travel I decided to come to Music City for several weeks. The late fall, early winter weather is fairly mild (is supposed to be) and I thought there’d be a lot to see both in town and around the area. Recommendations Activities My first day in Nashville, I went to the downtown area to pick up guides and maps from the visitor center. It’s conveniently located right on Broadway…
I spent two weeks in the upper peninsula. My first week I was in the Keweenaw Peninsula, the upper upper peninsula, on Lake Superior. I drove further east to Goetzville on Lake Huron for the second week. I didn’t research either place much, just found some affordable, nice looking AirBNBs after leaving Door County. I was wasting a couple weeks before visiting my daughter on the lower peninsula of Michigan for Thanksgiving. Mid-November is definitely ‘off-season’ in the upper peninsula….
I stayed in the studio cottage at the Beach Harbor Resort in Sturgeon Bay. It was a very nice and comfortable stay, except the couch. That was quite uncomfortable! I was right on the water and a short walk from the southern entrance to Potawatomi State Park. It was just down the street from my hotel/AirBNB and I could walk the trails along Sturgeon Bay, out to Green Bay, without driving around to the main entrance. Boo and I enjoyed this…
I had a long drive, over 600 miles and 9 hours, to Rapid City from Vernal, Utah. We made several stops along the way, once for gas but 3 or 4 times to stretch my legs and take Boo for walks. One of our stops was Independence Rock Historic Site in Wyoming. A short but interesting visit; we learned that this area saw 550,000 settlers who stopped here. Boo and I followed the trail around the rock. Many of the…
I had read about the American Royal World Series of BBQ and thought it would be interesting to go sometime. So “on the way” back to Illinois to get my car title and some other papers, I took a bit of a detour and stopped in Kansas City for three nights. The World Series is too big for the American Royal Center downtown so it is now held at the Kansas Speedway. I had purchased the “Royal Tour” tickets with a guided…
Today is the anniversary of closing on my house sale and a full year that I’ve been on the road. 28,344 miles. Stays in 17 states: New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Texas, New Mexico, Utah, California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, South Dakota, Kansas. I’ve visited 13 National Parks; over a dozen National Monuments and Historic Parks; 2 National Military Parks; 2 National Seashores; many National Forests; seven National Scenic Byways from the Blue Ridge Parkway…
Like several parks I’ve visited recently, I’ve been to Badlands National Park before, both with my parents decades ago and with my daughter in the late 90’s. I didn’t remember the beautiful colors, thinking the park was just various shades of tan, but there are yellow, pale greens, purple/pinks, gray colors all over the park. So beautiful. I drove all the way down I-90 to the Ben Reifel Visitor Center. I should have entered at the Pinnacles entrance, exit 110,…