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The Blue Ridge Parkway follows the crest of the Blue Ridge Mountains through the states of North Carolina and Virginia. It is regularly ranked as one of the top scenic drives in the United States. Running for 469 miles, the Parkway is roughly the same distance from beginning to end…
Read moreFor those of us who enjoy classic television, few shows hold such a warm place in our hearts as The Andy Griffith Show. Running for eight seasons between 1960 and 1968, the show about Sheriff Andy Taylor and the good people of Mayberry had something few other shows could match,…
Read moreFor three months in the spring and summer of 1993 rain pounded the Mississippi River basin relentlessly. From Minnesota to Missouri, rivers were out of their banks. Engorged tributaries carried flood waters into the Mississippi. The great river rose steadily. By July 13th the river was fifteen feet above flood…
Read moreIn early autumn of 1903, something bizarre and terrifying happened in the town of Van Meter, Iowa. People have been talking about it ever since. On the night of September 29th a farm implement salesman named U.G. Griffith was returning late from his rounds when he saw something odd. It…
Read moreThere are innovations that, when we first experience them, are so striking, so clearly a terrific idea, that we cannot conceive of their ever fading away. For anyone born before the year 2000, the indoor shopping mall was one of those things. Repositories of consumer culture and social engagement in…
Read moreEighty-nine-year-old Marjorie Congdon has been called both a sociopath and a psychopath. The terms are not interchangeable. Sociopaths have a conscience, but their moral compass is weak. Psychopaths are without a conscience. They are cold-hearted, deceitful, manipulative, and cruel. In addition, they are charming, charismatic and engaging. People are drawn…
Read moreDo a simple Google search on “gateway to hell” and you’ll be surprised at how many results you get. Some are sites of underground fires that keep on burning, such as a natural gas fire in Turkmenistan, or an underground coal fire in Centralia, Pennsylvania. Others are active volcanoes like…
Read moreThe story goes like this. Two young enlisted men in their early twenties were tasked with operating a nuclear reactor in the Lost River Desert of Idaho. They were not scientists or engineers. They lacked college degrees. They were graduates of a crash course in how to operate a nuclear…
Read moreIn 1945 at the end of World War II a soldier named Bob Rodgers found himself stationed in the German province of Bavaria. While there, he fell in love with the people, the food, and the charming Bavarian architecture. After returning home to Seattle, he took a job as an…
Read moreIn a recent New York Times article entitled “Travel and the Art of Anticipation”, psychology professor Elizabeth Dunn said, “When we begin traveling again after months of being holed up at home, we will likely experience a ‘happiness reset’— the result of which may be that even modest, less costly…
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