Winston-Salem, a College Town

The heyday of cigarette and underwear companies as employers in Winston-Salem was during the middle years of the 20th century. Eventually automation, the lower cost of overseas labor, and general market changes led to much of the manufacturing exiting the area, leaving Winston-Salem relatively bereft of major employers. The 1980s were not a great time … Read more

Winston-Salem, a Company Town

Judging by today’s numbers, Winston-Salem doesn’t seem like a powerhouse in North Carolina. With a population of about 250,000, it ranks as the fifth-largest city in the state and isn’t even the largest in its immediate region, with Greensboro taking top honors in the Piedmont Triad. But today’s population figures obscure the significance of Winston-Salem … Read more

Wrapping Up Our Tour of Michigan in Ann Arbor

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

Hot Nashville (and I Don’t Mean the Chicken)

When we planned our transit through Nashville months ago, we didn’t expect it to coincide with a heat wave bringing record-breaking high temperatures. We know from spending a miserable summer in Florida living in our Airstream that RVs are just not made for extreme temperatures. So we were a little nervous when we saw forecasts … Read more