For most American families, vacations – those once-a-year, major road trips – take place in late June through the middle of August. Other than being able to bake to a red crisp on a sandy beach along the coast, I can’t think of a worse time to take a road trip. Traffic is awful, gas prices mysteriously go up, the rates for cottages and motels are at their peak, the lines to restaurants are … [Read more...]

I was tourist fishing. Tourist fishing means you pay no attention to the wind, tides or time of day. You just go fishing when it’s convenient, because you’re a tourist on vacation. As a rule, tourist fishing usually translates into empty stringers. You don’t catch much. But on a morning at Kiptopeke State Park on the Eastern Shore, it was pretty much a fish on every cast. I was tossing out bottom … [Read more...]

Generally, the Road Trips column serves as a source of for interesting destinations. But sometimes, how you prepare for a road trip is as important as where you go. For the past two years, my wife Nancy and I have been fortunate enough to be allowed to take our Atlanta grandchildren on road trips to Cherrystone Campground on the Eastern Shore. It’s a place that we took our own kids as far back … [Read more...]

The Chickahominy Lake is among Virginia’s most scenic bodies of water. Home to a multitude of fish and a variety of wildlife, cypress trees line the shore of the Chick and extend out into the water. Boats and kayaks can explore the inlets and lagoons and never be disappointed. The lake is a 1230-acre water supply reservoir located along the New Kent-Charles City county line. This impoundment of … [Read more...]

  My wife, Nancy, and I took a little road trip last weekend. A 500-mile road trip – each way. We went to Atlanta for our grandson’s confirmation. We stayed at a nice hotel in downtown Atlanta – the Crown Plaza. From our 4th floor balcony we happened to overlook one of my favorite restaurants in the whole, wide world – The Varsity. The Varsity is an Atlanta institution. Located across … [Read more...]

  The Shenandoah Valley is awash with spring beauty. The redbuds are showing their stuff, the grasses are greener than green and the sky across the Valley seems bluer in spring than anywhere else in the world. What a place for a road trip, and here is an ideal destination – CrossKeys Vineyards in Mt. Crawford. Our good friend, and a sterling musician, Jimmy O, was playing a Sunday … [Read more...]