Exploring the American Landscape
Immediately after completing our two short trips to the mountains in May and June we got to work on planning visits to the beach. As noted in my prior post, we are following the wisdom of the local crowds, since mountain and beach trips are summer staples in this area. We checked out two different … Read more
Our home away from home for the month of July is the Big Sandy Mush, a secluded valley located about 15 miles northwest of Asheville. European settlement of the valley dates back to around 1800, but the mountains ringing the valley kept it fairly isolated. Generations of residents raised all their own food, kept cows … Read more
We finished our five-week exploration of Michigan with a stay in southeast Michigan near Ann Arbor, where we rode out the always-busy Labor Day weekend. Southeast Michigan, which includes both Detroit and Ann Arbor, is the most populous area of the state and has both the amenities and the traffic to prove it. University of … Read more
One of the persistent truths about our travels is that so many places around the USA are surprisingly great. We visited Sheboygan on this trip for two principal reasons: 1) there is a highly-rated lakefront state park close to town, and 2) saying “Sheboygan” is very fun indeed. So our expectations for sightseeing in town … Read more
After relatively brief stays on our route north, we are starting a pattern of longer visits as we explore our primary summer destinations, Wisconsin and Michigan. We began with eight days in Madison, Wisconsin that included the Independence Day holiday weekend. Having a longer stay (and holiday closures) meant we had time for errands, reading, … Read more