The sound of a baseball meeting a catcher’s glove signifies everything about spring for me. I get chills to hear it for the first time, especially after a long winter. Shadows are cast over a bullpen plate as a game takes place just steps away. Hordes of fans like myself watch the pitcher-catcher duo practice their duet, almost like animals at a zoo. Their exchange barely seems human in the way in which the pitcher moves and the catcher receives. If you find yourself traveling throughout the United States from April to October, most likely you will find a baseball game taking place. It is Continue Reading
Goodland, Kansas Wishes You Were Here
I saw the sun rise over the plains of Colorado on my way to completing a secret goal. This past June, I drove from Denver to the California Coast. In September, I drove from Fayetteville, Arkansas out to the Carolina Coast. The only missing piece to this great American road trip, truly going from coast to coast in a year, was the lonely, often forgotten stretch from Denver down to Arkansas. And so when the opportunity presents itself, I joined an impromptu ride from Denver to Fayetteville and saw the sunrise, something I hadn’t seen in years. While I could say this completion of driving 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
New York City Wishes You Were Here
I get in line behind construction workers and a few men in suits. My mom and I are the only women around, with the exception of a Fox News anchor getting ready for her moment in the sun. As luck would have it, in one of the biggest cities in the world, we stumble upon a schnitzel food truck, Schnitzel and Things. Having heard about this New York City staple food truck, perhaps only in my dreams, it all seems meant to be to stop for an early lunch. My mom and I sit on the steps of a bank building, along with our fellow diners of businessmen and those in construction. Gorging on my schnitzel Continue Reading
Turning the page at New York’s Library Hotel
Full Disclosure: I received a complimentary night at the Library Hotel. These are my opinions about my experience. Your opinions my vary. The libraries at my elementary school, high school and college were anything but inspirational. Going to any one of the three meant a paper of great length where a dozen sources from actual books were required. I spent much of my senior semester of college on the spooky third floor of my college’s library, figuring out how to use microfilm and read through every book on the Sicilian mafia in the state of California for my thesis. And while the space 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