A Weekend Jaunt to Historic St. Augustine

There were many terrible things about the global pandemic of 2020-2021 — sickness, death, fear, and loss of social interactions spring to mind — but even after finally returning to normal life there is one thing that was still bothering me. Back in March of 2020, we were traveling through Florida and just days away … Read more

POWs and Peanuts in Rural Georgia

Our 2022 summer sojourn finished up with several days of driving on rural roads punctuated by two short stops in Georgia. And our stops provided a fitting bookend to a summer that started with a very challenging and thought-provoking stop in Montgomery. Hard Labor Creek State Park On our way south from Asheville, we made … Read more

We Went to Holland (Not That Holland)

For our final stop along the shore of Lake Michigan, we traveled south to the town of Holland, in the middle of a stretch of touristy little beach towns like Saugatuck and Grand Haven. Holland is situated along the shores of Lake Macatawa, an interior lake spanning about 6 miles with an artificial channel out … Read more

Across the Mackinac Straits to Mackinaw City and Mackinac Island

In this part of Michigan, the indigenous Odawa (or Ottawa) and the French fur traders have conspired to turn the spelling of words and the pronunciation of those words into concepts that are loosely related, at best. Trust me when I say that everything is pronounced “MACK-in-awe” and that it’s easier to just say “Mac.” … Read more