It’s been called the best country store in South Carolina. You can buy Virginia cured hams there, and you can buy gas, diesel, propane, shotgun shells, wrenches and frying pans. Why you can even buy hog heads for headcheese, red hash, fig jam, hoop cheese, Blenheim’s Ginger Ale and cheap wine there. As country stores […]

Drive south about 177 miles to McClellanville and you will find yourself at the intersection of two imaginary streets: “Much To See” and “Much To Do.” McClellanville, often described as a quaint fishing village, is in fact picturesque and strategically located. It sits in an area where there is much to do and see and […]

Drive east about 173 miles to White Lake, N.C., (about three hours) and you’ll get a triple treat. You’ll see a Carolina bay, White Lake, which was a legendary shag haunt during the early days of North and South Carolina’s official state dance. You’ll see to a miniature Myrtle Beach. It was here that the […]

Perhaps you recall the book and movie, “Midnight in The Garden of Good and Evil.” If you do, you will recall, too, that I was set in a special Southern locale. Drive 3 hours south, about 191 miles, and you’ll arrive in a distinctive Southern city, Savannah, Ga. We have to go way back to […]

Remember these lines from an old Chuck Berry song? “Cruisin’ and playin’ the radio/With no particular place to go.” Well, the next time you have no particular place to go I have a suggestion. Drive into the countryside and see what “vintage Southern yard art” you can find. Take a camera. Look for tree trunks […]

A 2-hour and 12-minute drive into North Carolina, about 132 miles, will take you to the home of Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and writer Carl Sandburg. For a bonus, plan a trip when the leaves are in rich color. Combine literature and leaves in one trip to Flat Rock. Born in Galesburg, Ill., in 1878, Carl […]

Ready for a long trip to Paris, France? How does 4,208 miles across the Atlantic sound? Much too far? No passport? Well no need to fret. You don’t have to fly to Paris. Just drive 40 miles southwest to the Lake Murray Dam and you’ll see a touch of Paris and more. The Pont des […]

A buddy of mine lived in Florida for a few years and what he missed most were the seasons, especially fall and its splendid colors. You can have flat, sandy, mono-season Florida. I’ll take a granite ledge that hangs 1,000 feet over a valley carpeted with red, yellow and orange leaves every time. As summer […]

Last month I was on assignment in a remote place; the kind of place where you see trucks and tractors but few cars. Farm territory. I parked along a weedy, poorly maintained road and as I stepped from the car I saw a sight from childhood. A tangled thicket of briars with succulent, shiny blackberries […]

Experience the outdoors. Enjoy nature. Fish. Kayak and canoe, and walk the nature trail. You can do this and more at a stretch of river that reveals how many Southern rivers used to be. In older days a lot of hardworking inland farm families vacationed by the banks of shoals. It was their Myrtle Beach. […]