I met a married couple in Beaufort. Sarah Gibbs was married to a man by the name of Jacob Shepard. The couple told me in the chatter of morning wind how Jacob’s ship went out to sea, never to return, or so it would seem. In the meantime, Sarah moved on, accepting that her husband would never return. She remarried and had a child with Nathaniel Gibbs, a man I did not meet. However, the plot thickens. Becoming his own Odysseus of sorts, Jacob would return several years later, miraculously, only to find his wife had married another. Rather than a good old-fashioned dueling, the two men came to an Continue Reading
24 Hours of Ambling Around Asheville
I wonder what Thomas Wolfe really thought of Asheville, North Carolina. A man who would never live down penning the line, “You can’t go home again,” did have a home in Asheville and his remains are still here. George Vanderbilt would disagree about this mountain town, ideally located in Blue Ridge and Great Smoky Mountain territory. Not only could he make a home in Asheville, but he could envision what would become the largest home in America, one he would go home to again and again. Something tells me, the two probably wouldn’t see eye to eye, or home to home. Arriving in Asheville Continue Reading
The Outer Banks Wish You Were Here
Flashes of lightening send the sky into an identity crisis between blinding light and extreme darkness. Rain lends a natural carwash, sounding more like sprinkles meeting the ground after falling from the kitchen cabinet. The mad dash indoors begins. One. Two. Three. Go. This night seems fitting for my first on North Carolina’s Outer Banks. The Outer Banks of North Carolina stretch from the Virginia state line to Cape Lookout in the south, joined by bridges and ferries. A storm far greater than the one I am in tonight decided to rip through this vulnerable stretch just weeks before my Continue Reading
They Taught Us To Fly
“I hate flying,” the man seated next to me said. I instantly started to consider the little boy on a previous flight, who proudly told the pilot the flight was fun. Flyers become jaded at a certain point. There are so many factors working against enjoying flying, I suppose. I sat back as the plane took a bumpy landing, just before rejoining the ground in Tulsa. I began my trip out to North Carolina, where I am now, with a plane ride. It has become so routine. We board a flight. We hope it travels safely. And then, we land. What I don’t always consider is just how impressive it is, how Continue Reading
Moonlight Over Greece in Tennessee
Long days spent in the car have forced my sightseeing to take to the night. Tonight my moonlight moseying brings me to Greece. The blaring neon lights of Broadway along with those stumbling to see the light from bar after bar seem far from any Greece I have envisioned. And then, lit up like a Christmas tree, a lone monument imitating one in Greece stands in Nashville, Tennessee, of all places. The Parthenon was built to look just like its original in Athens, the one with traces back to 438 B.C. However, this testament to construction and Athena was built for Tennessee’s 1897 Centennial Continue Reading
Khiva, Uzbekistan Wishes You Were Here
This week’s Wish You Were Here post comes from Cynthia of CynthiaOrd.com, Thoughts on Tourism, People and the Earth. Cynthia is fascinated with travel and tourism as an industry and its impacts. She likes to visit unlikely places and see how many people she can convince to go there. Be sure to check out her blog and follow her on twitter at @cynthiaord. When visiting Uzbekistan, save your stacks of cym for Khiva. Cym is the local currency of Uzbekistan, and depending if you go formal or black market, the exchange is about 2,400 cym per U.S. dollar. Once you turn in your dollars for Continue Reading
Barcelona Wishes You Were Here
Despite the extra pounds of luggage wearing on me and the engulfing heat, I knew instantly I could only love Barcelona. After checking into my hostel, complete with a shower right in the middle of the room, the quirks of Barcelona began to spread out on to the table. The first sight I had to see, one that is synonymous with the city, was La Sagrada Familia. That day, Antoni Gaudi’s creation looked as though it was melting in the Spanish sun. Rising from the subway, I was put off but the snaking line to get in to see La Sagrada Familia. After pondering whether to go inside, I did for I Continue Reading