When people asked me before the start of Project 100 which national park I was most excited to visit, the Everglades — with its vastly different landscape and wildlife from that of Phoenix, Arizona — was one of the first…
Bear Lake – Grin and Bear It
Passing run-down rural houses with junk-filled yards and Confederate flags on the drive to Bear Lake in Florida’s Blackwater River State Forest northeast of Pensacola, we wondered what we were in for. Pulling into the campground, however, we were relieved…
Gulf Islands, We Hardly Knew You
The sky was dark and the forecast called for rain as we departed New Orleans and headed east through little snippets of Mississippi and Alabama on our way to Florida. Hector had awoken with a sore throat and chills so…
The New Orleans Feast Continues
On Saturday we had to forgo beignets because the line stretched to more than 100 people — even for the take-out window. Instead we passed through the French Market and swung around to the Central Grocery for another item on…
Letting the Good Times Roll in New Orleans
New Orleans is one of America’s best places to eat, drink and be merry, and we spent a long weekend soaking up as much of the city’s food, music and history as we could. We met my brother Matt at…
Camping in Alligator Country
The beauty of an extended road trip is the ability to tweak our itinerary and destinations as we go along. With a focus on national parks, we hadn’t planned on visiting many state parks but saw Louisiana’s Lake Fausse Point…
Bigfoot in Big Thicket?
From the historic town of Natchez, we crossed the Mississippi River, cut across Louisiana and headed to southeast Texas to check out Big Thicket National Preserve. Rather than being in one contiguous area, Big Thicket is a series of nine…
Driving the Natchez Trace Parkway
Our next park destination was a joy to experience. The entire Natchez Trace Parkway runs from Nashville in Tennessee through Alabama and into Mississippi to its terminus in Natchez. We picked up the parkway a little more than a third…
Finding Grace in Memphis
We arrived in Memphis after dark and checked into what, on Google Street View during the day, looked like a decent hotel in a decent neighborhood. It was, after all, just down the street from Graceland, and certainly The King…
Dipping into Hot Springs History
We wondered whether we should backtrack from Memphis to pick up Hot Springs National Park, but we were so glad we did. Not having read anything about the park’s history beforehand, I admit to thinking of Hot Springs as little…