Impromptu Scamp Alert! I’m heading to Los Angeles and San Diego and who knows where else, starting with a visit with friends and the opening reception for a show in L.A. this week.
Tag Archives: Roadside attractions
It’s Probably a Good Thing He Didn’t Answer
I haven’t written much about my Southern Scamp from last year. It was an interesting trip, with plenty of beauty and kitsch and hospitality. (And barbecue. Obviously.) But there were also some odd moments. Creepy, even.
Posted in Travel
Also tagged Mississippi, Places I don't want to go back to, Restaurants, Weirdness
Subterfuge at Belle Meade Plantation in Nashville
If you visit the South, you have to see at least one plantation. I took the tour at Belle Meade Plantation in Nashville, and heard stories about what happened there during the Civil War (the main house got shot up a bit), the families who lived there (worthy of any modern-day soap opera), and how it was a legendary horse-breeding farm (producing Iroquois, a horse […]
Songbirds and Greeks in Nashville
Nashville is home to Music Row, the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, and is the capital of Tennessee, but despite all that the city feels pretty soulless. (Whereas Memphis is loaded with soul, in all senses of the word.)
Rolling in the Kitsch in Pigeon Forge
Pigeon Forge is the gateway to the Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee, and to say that the two places are different is an understatement. The Great Smokies are these beautiful natural wonderlands, while Pigeon Forge looks like God threw up signs and parking lots. But that’s not to say I didn’t have a good time in Pigeon Forge.
I’m Going To Graceland
I didn’t know what to expect with Graceland, and I was pleasantly surprised. Elvis paid $100,000 for the property in the ’50s, and when you see it now it’s decorated as he left it in when he died in 1977. Which is to say AWESOME.
Mary and Jesus in Guam
I must be feeling bad about saying no one should ever go to Guam, because I feel compelled to post another beautiful photo from that weekend, as if I’m a schoolyard bully having a change of heart. If only I’d taken a picture of the spectacular jerk chicken I had at a Jamaican restaurant, we’d have proof of the trilogy of good things from my […]
Where to Stay and What to Do in the Texas Panhandle (and Oklahoma)
In the interest of providing useful information, which is rare with me I know, here are links to a few things I recommend. (Real reason: it’s a hodgepodge link-fest because I’m still comatose from the giant meal I made yesterday. And even though I’ve been trying to lose four pounds for, oh, the last six months, I made a feast that is basically the opposite […]
Why I Love Small Towns
Though I now live in Taos, I’ve spent most of my life in big cities – San Diego, San Francisco, Oakland, New York. I love them and their energy, the sense that you can make anything happen. But these days, I seem to only care about exploring small towns.
Posted in Travel
Also tagged Dying towns, Oklahoma, Route 66, Texas
King of the Road and Rednecks
Erick, OK is in the Oklahoma panhandle, just across the border from the Texas. I bet Oklahoma’s petite panhandle feels inferior to Texas’s giant one, and Oklahoma is like, Hey ya’ll! We’ve got a panhandle, too! And it even looks like an actual panhandle, not like Texas’s where you have to turn your head sideways to see it! And then Oklahoma sighs a weary sigh […]