Kathleen Walls
6-4-2024
It was on June 6, 1944, on the beaches of
Normandy that the event occurred that foreshadowed the end of WW ll
and of Hitler's reign of terror. Operation
Overlord, the Allies code name for the invasion of France. It
began on the storm torn beaches of Normandy and ended at the
Arch de Triumph with the liberation of Paris. Over my years
travel writing, I've visited many places commemorating the day
know to the world as D-Day. It is something that needs to be
taught in every school and never forgotten.
Kathleen Walls
6-1-2024
Jonathan
Dickinson State Park on the Loxahatchee River is the largest
state park in Southeast Florida. It's the perfect place to
visit any time of the year. It's in Martin County, Florida,
which offers you wonderful places to explore while camping at
Jonathan Dickinson Park. One of my visits here was on a
comped press trip, but my opinions are my own.
Kathleen Walls
Updated 5-26-2024
It's been awhile since I first visited
Kansas City but my latest
visit shows it still offers a visitor a hot time in a cool city, Kansas City has it all: hot jazz, spicy barbecue and
tons of sparkling fountains. It's a blend of
Kansas and
Missouri's best
and a city (make that cities) everyone will enjoy.
Kathleen Walls
Published 5-13-2024
Often a historic cemetery reflects that
city’s history. That is the case with beautiful Elmwood
Cemetery in
Memphis. Elmwood was founded in 1852. Elmwood’s
executive director Kim Beaden and Amanda Zorn,
Historian/Visitor Services & Volunteer Coordinator, showed me
around the cemetery. It has the feel of a garden with beautiful
southern magnolia, poplar tulip, and giant water oak trees.
Elmwood is divided into sections including the Masonic Section,
the Confederate Rest section, the Yellow Fever Section, African
American Section, and others. Many of the tombstone sculptures
resemble a museum.
Kathleen Walls
Published 5-3-2024
You may think of
Little Rock as just the
capital of Arkansas, but did you know it has many unusual
attractions worth a trip. Little Rock has attractions that are
the biggest, oldest, first, or only one of a kind ranging from
history to nature and culture. Here are a few things you will
find only in Little Rock.
Story and photos
by Kathleen Walls
Published 4-30-2024
.JPG)
This
year I was fortunate enough to be invited to the Southeast
Tourism Society Showcase in Little Rock. As those of you who
follow my trips know, that usually includes a post trip. This
year it was a delightful deep dive into newer territory for
me. We visited Murfreesboro and
Hot Springs. It was an
interesting trip as I learned so much I had not known before,
ranging from pre-historic colonies, digging for diamonds, to
conflicts with the law. One of the most fun places we visited
was the Gangster Museum in Hot Springs. We visited Crater of
Diamonds State Park, where we dug for diamonds. Had we found
any, we could have kept them. Perfectly legal. Unfortunately,
I didn’t find any diamonds but got a deeper insight into
legal situations in a short run-in with a Barney Fife
Wannabe.
Story and photos
by Kathleen Walls
Published 3-6-2024
Great
Smoky Mountain National Park is a place you could spend days
or even weeks exploring. It is America’s most visited
national park.
Cades Cove is one of the most popular places in the park, but
there is another lesser-known section where history still
lives.
Pink Jeep Tours takes you there.
Story and photos
by Kathleen Walls
Published 1-21-2024
For the first half of the 20th
century Onslow County was a quiet fishing village. It also
produced naval stores, lumber, and tobacco crops as its main
source of income. Then in 1941, Onslow County and the entire
world changed. WWII brought Marine Barracks Camp Lejeune to
Jacksonville, Onslow’s main city. Today, tourism plays a major
role in the area. It has varied attractions and world-class
dining you won’t find anywhere else.
Story and photos
by Tom Straka
Published 12-26-2023
Some cities are full of museums. For a
history buff like me, it is fortunate cities often put a
priority on preserving local history, making history museums
fairly common.
Greenville, South Carolina has an unusual
assortment of
museums,
including two military history museums, a creative arts center,
museum of art, children’s museum, music museum, and even a
Shoeless Joe Jackson museum and baseball library. One of the
art museum
collections in the city is said to be the second largest
collection of religious art in the world (second to the
Vatican). Most of these museums are walking distance from one
another, so Greenville offers a great opportunity for
museum-lovers.
Story and photos
by Kathleen Walls
Published 12-16-2023
As a long-time Florida resident, I am
familiar with palm trees but until I visited St. Johns
Botanical Garden and Nature Preserve (SJBGNP), I had no idea
there were so many variants. Dr. John Rossi, founder and
resident biologist led our small group on a tour of the garden.
The garden is
St. Johns County’s newest attraction. It focuses
on an important, but often neglected side of the county, the
natural side.
Story and photos
by Kathleen Walls
Published 12-10-2023
Lafayette
Parish in Louisiana is alive with music. It's a part of their
culture. In the
1760s, thousands of Arcadians driven out of Canada because of
their religion were welcomed in Catholic Spanish owned
Louisiana. They brought their music with them. However, in
the new environment, it modified to create a totally
different music from French Canadian. Ranger Jodie at the
Acardian Cultural Center in Lafayette explained, "The main
instrument in Cajun music is the German accordion. And then
we have the fiddle which is French we also have a guitar
which is a Spanish influence and we have the triangle, rub
board and spoons which are African instruments."
Srory and photos
by Kathleen Walls
Published 10-26-2023
.JPG)
The
Jacksonville Zoo And Gardens is one of the top zoos in the
United States. They are doing it big for Halloween with their
36th annual
Spooktacular. A few ghosts and ghouls fit right in with the
wildlife. You enter beneath the watchful eye of some giant
skeletons. Then pass under a Spooktacular archway.
Bristol: Birthplace of Country Music
Story and photos by
Kathleen Walls
Published 9-14-2023
Birthplace of Country Music in
Bristol,
Virginia/Tennessee has a fantastic history behind it. The
Museum tells how country music was recognized as a genre at the
famous 1927 Bristol Sessions. It’s an amazing story.
Story by Tom Straka
Photographs by Pat Straka
Published 9-4-2023
About a year ago we spent the better part of a day at
Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson. The details are in an
earlier article in this digital magazine. While Monticello
is recognized as one of America’s most famous homes, the
grounds surrounding Monticello are almost as interesting as the
house. They were attractive enough to bring us back for a
second visit, centered on the restored vegetable and flower
gardens, orchards, Jefferson’s favorite trees, and a bunch of
fascinating outbuildings. They were well worth a second better
part of a day. Tours at Monticello have various options, mainly
the house tour and the
gardens and grounds tour.
Story and photos
by Kathleen Walls Published 7-27-2023
I
just visited
Cleveland’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It’s an
amazing time travel trip into American music. Sure, it’s
about rock and roll, but remember rock and roll evolved from
blues and country with many other genres adding a touch or
two. What I love about the museum is that it takes that into
consideration and showcases those early influences. Over the
years, they have inducted many influencers, including Sister
Rosetta Tharpe,
Ma
Rainey,
Robert Johnson, Hank Williams, Bob Willis, and countless
other musician whose music led to rock and roll.
Story and photos
by Tom Straka
Published 7-17-2023
Newsweek magazine recently
published an
article
with a catchy title: “The Weirdest, Most Extraterrestrial Spots
You Can Visit, Here on Earth,” promising “some of Earth’s most
bizarrely surreal natural wonders.” There were eleven
locations, ranging from a national forest park in China with
bizarre rock formations, a desert in Canada’s Yukon, Easter
Island, the world’s largest salt flat in Bolivia, the Skeleton
Coast of Namibia, to Glowworm Caves in New Zealand. One
location caught my eye, as it is only a few hours away. The
Arabia Mountain Natural Area, just east of Atlanta, was
described as “as close to the experience of walking on the
moon’s surface as we have on Earth.” As you begin the hike up
Arabia Mountain, shown in the lead photograph, you are on solid
rock, and the scant forest soon gives way to the “lunar
surface.” You’ll be on a monadnock.
Kathleen Walls
Published 7-2-2023
I
had a wonderful experience when I visited New Iberia. There
was so much more than I expected.
New Iberia
is a quiet
little town on the banks of Bayou Teche with a big history.
Founded in 1779, by Spaniards New Iberia is the only
Louisiana city retaining a Spanish name. Later, the Acadians,
settled there after being driven out of Nova Scotia by the
British.
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