STORIES
Eight ’80s music videos that will take you around the world
In the 1980s, the then-new medium of music videos and globe-trotting rock stars took me on a trip around the world, from the streets of Paris to the canals of Venice, and ignited my own wanderlust. Here are the top eight ’80s music videos that rocked my world.
Sand and Solitude: Secret Beaches of the Chesapeake
No need to travel to busy beaches along the Atlantic coast when you can find your own spot of sand close to home. There are nearly 7,000 miles of shoreline along the Maryland portion of the Chesapeake Bay, 761 public access sites, and many secret spots waiting to be discovered.
On the road in Pennsylvania Dutch country
The hand-painted sign along the side of the road caught my eye. Homemade baked goods, root beer, jam. Behind it was large gray barn with a small farm stand in front. I peered down the gravel drive and saw a man with a beard and a hat driving a horse-drawn buggy. I’m in Bird-in-Hand, a dot on the map along Route 30 in Pennsylvania Dutch country, late in the morning on a meandering drive along farm roads that hum with grooves carved by the metal buggy wheels, looking for signs of a good reason to stop. Here was everything I needed.
Rear Window
When I stepped up into the metal buggy, I reckoned (yes, you can use old words like this and not seem strange here in Pennsylvania Dutch Country) the carriage could be either a year old or 100 years old, so timeless it seemed.
Life on the runway
There is a place in the desert of Arizona where people live on runways instead of driveways. They have hangars instead of garages. They fly to breakfast not long after the sun rises and gather on plastic chairs in the shade, beer in hand, to talk about it all when the sun sets. It is an oasis for airplane lovers. I spent 48 hours with a group of flight-minded retirees living the dream in the Arizona desert.
FOR THE LOVE OF MANATEES
I had one goal in traveling to Florida. To kayak with the manatees. I pictured a lazy, blue river so clear you could see the bottom. Schools of mellow manatees enjoying the warmth of the springs that feed the waterway, like smiling submarines on vacation. The reality was something different.
Lost in Big Bend country
Big Bend National Park is big. Texas big. 800,000 acres. That’s slightly larger than Rhode Island. It’s the meeting of Texas and the states of Coahuila and Chihuahua in Mexico, separated only by high canyon walls and the twisting Rio Grande. It is the Chihuahuan desert, Chisos mountains, and the river converging in one place. It is 200 miles from the closest Wal Mart. Water and gasoline sources are few and far between, according to the park brochure. And cell phone service is limited and unreliable.
Somewhere between here and there
How do I write a story about a little town called Salome? It’s a very small spot on the map—an intersection, really—that’s not nearly as exotic as the Biblical seductress the name suggests, the dancer who asked for St. John the Baptist’s head on a platter.
Savannah in 12 hours
I knew three things about Savannah when I landed at the airport. There’s a famous cemetery, Spanish moss hangs on the trees, and there was a trendy restaurant in a converted Greyhound bus station that I just had to see. Here’s what you shouldn’t miss if you have a day in Savannah.
Dear Blue Corn Pancake
Dear Blue Corn Pancake…I didn’t know what to expect when I first saw you on the menu , but I will never forget you.
In search of Bigfoot
The telescope in the window of the breakfast nook was trained on a mountainside, part of the Saguache Range that includes some of the highest peaks in the heart of the Rocky Mountains. Plenty of room for Bigfoot to roam.
Out of this world
Twenty six. That’s the number UFOs Judy Messoline has seen from her UFO Watchtower since opening 15 years ago in Hooper, Colorado. As long as this viewing platform has been here, there have been 96 documented viewings, she says. The UFO Watchtower only rises a story off the ground, but it offers a sweeping view of the otherwise flat-as-a-pancake 7,600-foot San Luis Valley, high in the Rocky Mountains.
A little slice of vintage camper heaven
Sylvia Davids smiles from behind the camp store counter, framed by Kit-Kat clocks with swinging tails and swiveling eyes, Chapstick, packets of laundry detergent, a photo of Elvis, and a sign that reads “FRESH COFFEE ANYTIME”…