In the weeks leading up to our trip to Vogel, I came up with a long list of things to do in the area. Unfortunately, I wrote it down on an actual piece of paper with an actual pencil like in olden times, and then I lost it. But then I managed to mostly reconstruct […]
A Few Days in Vogel State Park, Blairsville, GA: Campground Review
Not to get too political, but I love it when Big Government sends hundreds of thousands of unemployed young men off to build state parks for me and my family to enjoy eighty years later. Vogel State Park, on the southern end of the Appalachian Mountains and about two hours north of Atlanta, is the […]
Two Days in Shenandoah National Park
When I was in college, my roommate Suzanne and I took a road trip up to Washington, DC and back. My memory on this might be completely wrong, but I feel like this involved driving the entire length of the Blue Ridge Parkway AND Skyline Drive. In the Chevy Cavalier I’d inherited from my grandmother, […]
Birmingham, Alabama with Kids: The Remains of Industry Tour
There’s something very….American about a city founded with the express purpose of becoming an industrial giant. Birmingham (named, confidently, for the industrial city in England) was founded in 1871 at the site of a planned railroad crossing in an area rich with iron, coal, and limestone–the three materials which, it just so happens, are the […]
52 Hikes in a Year
One time, several years ago, I decided to do a 52 books in a year challenge. I didn’t read 52 books that year. But I DID read way more books than I would have otherwise. Which is not nothing. So. I don’t know that we’ll really make it to 52 hikes this year. I hope […]