Tag: American History
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Set your brain in reverse for a moment, back to early May… You can imagine our raised eyebrows when we saw sign after sign for The Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania. Oh, sweetie. After a very good breakfast at the only and somewhat dubious-looking restaurant in Tioga, Pennsylvania, we drove over to see this natural phenomenon.…
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Memorial Day, as it often does, has had me thinking. Although Jeff and I live out West now, we were both raised, educated, and lived nearly all our lives in the Midwest. That makes us Northerners. (Yankees, some might say.) And our understanding of American life, history, and culture is framed by that fact. It…
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Hi, I’m Jamie, he’s Jeff, and we’re traveling full time in a small teardrop trailer we call The HMS Beangle. Ok, it hasn’t been that long since my last post, but it’s definitely been a minute. The last few weeks have involved much reading, much relaxing, and some very wonderful days spent camping with Bob…
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Beginning six weeks ago, we met a new nemesis, a very demon from hell sent to test our patience. We fought it valiantly, and I believe we finally have the upper hand. For this spring, at least. Remnants remain, though, in nooks and crannies of the trailer, the truck, and our lungs, eyes, and souls. Both Fairy…
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Our time in Raleigh while interesting enough in its own way was fairly quiet overall. But of all that we did and saw, the biggest draw for me was Bennett Place. For some time now, it had been in my top five list of places to see. In the front room of the Bennett family…
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A lot of people out West like to talk smack about the Appalachians and other eastern mountains, and we admit to it as well. But after spending almost 4 months at or near sea level, it was a little thrilling to see the word Mountain in a campground’s name again. While hiking, biking, and driving…
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First and foremost, I have a grievous error to acknowledge. I have been misleading you all about Longleaf Pines for some time, and for that I apologize. What I often thought was a Longleaf (Pinus palustris) was instead a Loblolly Pine (Pinus taeda). I know. I know. It was a careless, but I also learned…
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We toured a lesser known plantation that was less flash and more pan, if you get my drift, and walked around the grounds of two others that were near our Buck Hall campsite. Since cost is a factor for us and these places are expensive to visit, we decided to visit one that puts their…
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Walking around Charleston is a lot like walking around Vienna. Because things were meticulously rebuilt or restored to their former image, it’s easy to forget that the city was so damaged near the end of the Civil War. It’s a beautiful city, and the favorite of several people I know. To me, it often felt…
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At first I was going to write about three different forts individually. Then I decided that three forts in a row, when they all followed the same basic design and were part of the Civil War conflict, was asking a bit much of anyone’s patience. So I’m going to mostly write about Fort Pulaski, which…
