“Take me to Texas,” I said. I wouldn’t be the first to utter such a demand. I can only imagine what this request would mean for a fourteen-year-old orphan from Mississippi in the late 1800s. This was Bettie Howard’s predicament. She just wanted someone to take her to Texas. Bettie would find her transport in James Howard, a surveyor rolling through Mississippi. She made him a deal. She wouldn’t promise to love him, but if he married her and took her to Texas, she would bear his children. It’s not a deal you hear everyday. I feel bad for poor James for a moment. This woman was seemingly Continue Reading
A Taste of Spain in Texas at Mission San José
I step inside the walls of what could be a motel compound. Wooden doors line up a uniform fashion, equidistant from one another just like at a single-story motel. Checking in to these rooms wasn’t of the travel variety. The spaces weren’t used just for a night’s sleep. Checking in to these spaces meant giving up one’s own beliefs to follow one god and one king oceans away. I am within the confines of the Mission San José, part of the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park. While the park encompasses four missions south of San Antonio, I am focusing my attention on good old Saint Continue Reading
Fort Pulaski, Georgia Wishes You Were Here
“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
How To Go About Breaking Your Diet in New Orleans
My feet land in New Orleans and I instantly know this city is all about food and drink. While the masses of seemingly underage spring break college kids tote around their green grenade filled drinks hunting for the next bar, I am in search of something a little more innocent, a grape snowball. With a band rocking out on a stage set up in the French Market, people aren’t the only spectators. The scents of crawfish cakes and shrimp balls swarm the crowds. Going on a diet in New Orleans might be the greatest impossibility. With so much food and drink to be had, I brought my empty stomach and Continue Reading
Jackson Square in New Orleans Wishes You Were Here
It was on Good Friday in 1788 that the bells of St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans went silent. The silence of the bells for the holy day inadvertently failed to alarm the city of a raging fire that would destroy much of New Orleans, the cathedral included. This would not be the beginning or end of the cathedral’s troubles, but like most aspects to New Orleans, there is an insatiable spirit to move on, fires, hurricanes and all. St. Louis Cathedral sets up in Jackson Square, the center of the original settlement of New Orleans. It boasts of being the oldest continuously active Catholic Continue Reading
A Hurricane and Hope in the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans
The French Quarter is just three miles away from where I stand and yet, I feel like I’m in a different world. There is a sobering photograph in front of me: a picture after Hurricane Katrina and a little arrow pointing out, “You are here”. Back in August of 2005 if I had been standing under the arrow’s point, I would have been completely submerged in water and debris. A man mows an empty patch of property nearby, one where you can see the foundations of a house, the place a family used to call home. I am in New Orleans’ Lower 9th Ward, an area of the city that was hit the hardest by Continue Reading
Memphis, Tennessee Wishes You Were Here
“You can always order more,” he says slowly, surely and calmly. Worried about having just the right amount of Memphis barbecue, I was quickly assured to settle down. There is also more to be had. The streets of Memphis seem deserted, until you round the corner to go to Charlie Vergos’ Rendezvous. Turn down into the unsuspecting alley and a whole crowd is waiting to sink their teeth into Rendezvous’ famous charcoal-broiled pork ribs. I am no different as I grab a seat at the bar upstairs to wait with the masses for a table. It all began in 1948 when Charlie Vergos decided to convert his Continue Reading