Category: Travel

The indigenous people of the Great Lakes were the first summer visitors to Mackinac Island. Because it was a hump-shaped island rising out of Lakes Heron and Michigan, they called the island Michilimackinac which...

Lake Michigan is the second largest of the Great Lakes by volume and the only one that is entirely in the United States. The name is derived from the Ojibwa word Michi Gami which...

The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan is one of the finest museums in the nation. Of course, with a name like “Ford” they have a fine collection of automobiles, but the museum’s collections...

Every since I was a little boy, I have always enjoyed watching the Indianapolis 500 on Memorial Day weekend. For a long time, it was on my bucket list to attend the iconic race...

This was not my first visit to Gettysburg. Jack and I were here in July 2013 for the 150th anniversary of the battle. That was an incredible experience, but the weather was extremely hot...

About an hour south of Gettysburg is another historic battlefield that I’ve always wanted to visit. I can recall vividly the photographs of the dead in the Bloody Lane found in my junior year...

Running 105 miles along the mountaintops of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia is Shenandoah Nation Park. The park was created in 1935 in an age when tall skyscrapers were all the rage to...

On my way out of Pigeon Forge, I had to make one final stop! Just off I-40 in Sevierville, Tennessee is Buc-ee’s which is the world’s biggest gas station. Buc-ee’s is a cultural phenomenon...

A short drive down from the Great Smoky Mountains is Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. This is a heavily developed tourist town with many resorts as well as tons of tourist attractions like wax museums, alpine...

After several great days in Asheville, it was time to visit my first national park. The Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GSMNP) is 814 square miles in the southern tip of the Appalachians along...