“We were absolutely isolated,” Confederate commander, Col. Charles H. Olmsted said of the bombardment on Fort Pulaski in Georgia. I muttered to myself the same as I approached this 19th century fort on Cockspur Island, around 15 miles east of Savannah. A glassy moat surrounding fortified bricks only furthers those feelings of being very much alone. Fort Pulaski doesn’t seem inviting based on its outward appearance, moat, drawbridge and all. The construction on Fort Pulaski began in 1829. It would take $1 million dollars, 25 million bricks and 18 years to build. Many believed it to be Continue Reading
Northwest Arkansas Wishes You Were Here
It’s Saturday night and Alice Walton is calling the hogs. The traditional Arkansas Razorback football hog call is something outsiders like myself never completely understand. The “Woo, Pig, Sooie!” cannot be uttered at certain times and comes with an entire set of hand gestures akin to jazz hands, jazz hands. And yet, in this northwest corner of Arkansas and throughout the state for that matter, great care, great devotion is paid to the University of Arkansas Fayetteville’s football team. You come here to call the hogs, just as Alice Walton is tonight. Alice Walton, the heiress to the Continue Reading
The Bold Civility of Montgomery, Alabama
“Alright Big Daddy girl, will you have a banana pudding?”, the rough and tough waitress asked me in Montgomery, Alabama. I had ordered a barbecue pork sandwich called the “Big Daddy” which apparently gave me the fine title of “Big Daddy Girl” for the evening. She was the type of waitress who told me Blue Moon was a local beer, calmly frazzled on her first day of work. The sun had just set on Montgomery when I overheard a conversation. A group of guys shouted across the street to their friend heading on her own way. They asked her if she would be fine walking to her car. She joked in the Continue Reading
Savannah, Georgia Wishes You Were Here
Spanish moss drapes over live oak trees in the creepiest of fashions. I could only be in one city, supposedly America’s most haunted, depending on whom you ask. Savannah, Georgia regales in the thought of being both beautiful and exceedingly spooky. Laid out on a series of grids, disrupted by over 20 public squares, driving up and down Savannah is enough to make you go mad. As I hit one square after the other, the roundabouts grow tiresome. Like being trapped in a maze, you can’t escape Savannah by design. The reason for its spooky nature does not just come in the way in which the Continue Reading
Charmed by Charleston, South Carolina
A woman weaves a sweetgrass basket for the tourists in Charleston, baskets that have been made for nearly 400 years in this area. Originally used to collect rice and cotton in the plantation fields, the baskets today come in all shapes, designs and price points. Charleston is a city of traditions, from the architecture to the food. From the minute I first met Charleston's streets, I was charmed by this southern city. Unlike any other in the United States, Charleston knows its past and isn’t afraid to show it in every way, shape or form. Perhaps that is why you seldom hear a bad thing about Continue Reading
Pawleys Island, South Carolina Wishes You Were Here
It is a Saturday, the perfect day for unadulterated laziness. The week is gone and the weekend has arrived. I hop in the car with coffee in hand on this Saturday morning to explore Pawleys Island. Crossing over a causeway, embraced by salt marshes on each side, the disconnect between the mainland to this barrier island lends the sensation of leaving it all behind, as only few places can. Just 70 miles north of Charleston and 25 miles south of Myrtle Beach, Pawleys Island seems to forever remain floating in a lazy Saturday state of mind. The barrier island is less than four miles long, but 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