Tag: travel

Day Off

The Portly Politico2 Comments

Yours portly is taking the day off from blogging.  I’m enjoying time with my girl (the human one, not Murphy; Murphy is enjoying time with my neighbors).

I was hoping to run Ponty’s response to my masterpiece review of Donnie Darko (2001) today.  You’ll hear from Ponty on a different topic later this week, but I can only assume his extended tardiness in sending along a detailed critique is a tacit indication that he has come around to my viewpoint.  Indeed, readers will readily agree that the only reasonable reason he hasn’t sent his review—surely it’s not due to busyness, or illness, or spending time with Tina—is that dear Ponty has realized I was right all along, and there’s no point in challenging me further on the issue.

So with that note of brotherly reconciliation and rhetorical dominance, I bid everyone a wonderful Monday.  I’ll be enjoying a relaxing day with my girl, basking in the knowledge that I’ve once again swayed public opinion about twenty-plus-year-old movies in a positive direction.

Cheers!

—TPP

SubscribeStar Saturday: Back to the Mountains, Part II

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Three years ago my family took a trip to the mountains around Burnsville, North Carolina, to celebrate my older brother’s fortieth birthday.  I wrote about it extensively in my book Arizonan Sojourn, South Carolinian Dreams: And Other Stories (currently just $12.68 in paperback).  The area is truly lovely, and is very accessible from South Carolina.  My girlfriend and I had the opportunity to do just that over the long MLK Weekend.

After a Saturday full of adventures in the small towns around Mount Mitchell, we decided some hiking was in order for Sunday.  First, however, we rose just early enough to catch the sunrise.  Sunrise in our little patch of the mountains on Sunday, 14 January 2024 was around 7:38 Eastern Standard Time, so we were up shortly after 7 AM.  We threw open the curtains of the large windows, which faced westward.

Because we weren’t facing the rising sun, we watched as the sunlight crept down the side of the mountains to our west, their eastern faces slowly melding from a blueish grey into a glowing red.  Sipping coffee and marveling at God’s daily light show was the perfect way to spend a day spent largely in His Creation.

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SubscribeStar Saturday: Back to the Mountains, Part I

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Three years ago my family took a trip to the mountains around Burnsville, North Carolina, to celebrate my older brother’s fortieth birthday.  I wrote about it extensively in my book Arizonan Sojourn, South Carolinian Dreams: And Other Stories (currently just $12.68 in paperback).  The area is truly lovely, and is very accessible from South Carolina.  Ever since that celebratory trip, I have been eager to return.

The long MLK Weekend—which yours portly extended by burning a personal day—offered the perfect opportunity to get back there.  My travel-loving flight attendant girlfriend and I were super excited to hit the road with Murphy for a few days of hiking, exploring, and good eating, and scored an excellent deal on three nights at a cabin/barndominium in the mountains.

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Some of the links in this post are links through the Amazon Affiliate Program. If you make any purchase through these links, a small portion of the proceeds go to me, at no additional cost to you.

TBT: More Mountain Musings

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Over MLK Weekend my girlfriend and I took the dogs up to around Mount Mitchell, high in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Appalachia.

I love the mountains.  The mountains are in my blood, and although my home is the coastal South Carolina, every so often I need to baptize myself in the solitude and ruggedness of the Appalachian Mountains.

This trip was not my first to this region.  I went there four years ago to celebrate my older brother’s fortieth birthday.  Here’s a bit my travels during that trip.

With that, here is 21 September 2020’s “More Mountain Musings“:

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Paw Patrol

The Portly Politico4 Comments

Longtime readers will recall that I adopted my chunky dog, Murphy, through The Bull Terrier Rescue Mission, a group dedicated to finding home for members of this comical, stubborn, oft-misunderstood breed.  They do really remarkable work through a system of volunteers, and really go to great lengths to get these dogs to their new homes.

On Thursday, 14 December 2023, I received a message from the executive director checking in on Murphy.  I hear from him about once or twice a year, so didn’t think much of it.  He then asked if I’d be able to help transport a dog to Eastover, North Carolina, on Saturday, 16 December 2023, as part of the pup’s journey north.  After making sure my schedule was clear, I agreed to lend a hand.

The dog’s name was Mavis, and her ultimate destination was a family in the New Jersey/New York area.  I was the second leg of her journey.  A couple from around Savannah, Georgia, drove a considerable distance and handed her off to me at a Krispy Kreme in Florence, South Carolina (a decidedly sweet and delicious place to pick up a sweet puppy).  My task was then to drive her to Fox’s Pizza Den (naturally, I loved this route) in Eastover, North Carolina, where a young man would continue Mavis along her freedom ride.

I’ve never done this kind of canine transport before, but I was thankful for the opportunity, and that God opened up the door for me to be part of Mavis’s journey home.  Saturday, 16 December 2023 was literally my last free Saturday of the calendar year, so it worked out perfectly.

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SubscribeStar Saturday: Festival in the Park

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‘Tis festival season, and yours portly is living it up.  In just a couple of weekends I’ll be hawking my humble wares at the South Carolina Bigfoot Festival, which will be either my Hastings or my Gallipoli.

Before I return to my spot inside the tent, however, I’m enjoying experiencing festivals from outside.  The coming of autumn means it is the height of festival season, and yours portly couldn’t be happier.

After a successful visit to the Columbia Greek Festival two weeks ago, I had the opportunity to take in Charlotte, North Carolina’s Festival in the Park last weekend.  It is, perhaps, the best festival I’ve attended in recent years.

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TBT^2: Road Trip!

The Portly Politico6 Comments

Right after the start of the new school year, I had the opportunity to hoof it down to Orlando for a day at Universal Studios with my family.  After going way too many times in 2020, I haven’t been back much since, so it was good to get back into the parks, even if for only a day.

Before school resumed, I found myself driving all over South Carolina to dine with an array of beauties.  That also provided ample opportunity to explore the highways and byways of my beloved State.

There is a beautiful drive through the countryside between my home of Lamar, South Carolina, and I-95, which GPS always recommends when I head to the Charleston/Mount Pleasant region of South Carolina.  It winds south of town on US-401 to the unincorporated community of Elliott, South Carolina, then veers off onto SC-527 for several miles before hitting I-95 South.  There’s a beautiful old church in Elliott with stained glass windows; across from it is a postage stamp-sized post office, proudly flying its American Flag on a mostly empty street corner.

Along SC-527 is an abandoned middle school, overgrown with weeds and brambles.  While I’m sure there is nothing there now but raccoons and spiders, I’d like to poke around in those remains.  I also wonder what it was like attending classes at this brick-and-concrete edifice in the middle of corn fields in a remote corner of the State, and what devastating depopulation had to occur for a school to find itself, empty and abandoned, so far from anything.  What must it be like for a school to die?  If a school dies, it means the community has already died much earlier.

I’ve come to enjoy these little trips.  There’s a great deal to see, and I enjoy the quiet drives.  After one (quite successful—fingers crossed!) excursion to Summerville, I found myself driving back during a massive storm.  Fortunately, the driving was easy, but the lightning was terrific—blasting out in huge bursts that turned night into day.  I was listening to A Flock of Seagull’s hit “I Ran,” and the lightning would sometimes hit in time with the constantly moving synthesizer part, creating a cinematic effect that could never be duplicated.

My advice to readers:  hit the road!

With that, here is 1 September 2022’s “TBT: Road Trip!“:

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Lazy Sunday CCXIII: D.C., Part I

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Back in March 2023 I chaperoned a particularly difficult group of students on a trip to Washington, D.C.  Some of the behavior and shenanigans I witnessed from other kids—and, sadly, even from my own students—was quite discouraging.  That aside, it was a good, albeit whirlwind, trip, and I’m in the process of finishing off the essays in this mini-saga.

With that said, here are the first three installments of the Washington, D.C. Trip series:

Happy Sunday!

—TPP

Other Lazy Sunday Installments:

SubscribeStar Saturday: Washington, D.C. Trip Part VI: Arlington, Holocaust Museum, Home

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After a hairy night of elevator-related shenanigans, everyone was pretty ready to hit the road.  That said, we still had a long hike through Arlington National Cemetery, followed by a trip to the Holocaust Museum, before heading home to South Carolina.

Sadly, it appears I lost the photographs I took at Arlington National Cemetery, as well as the powerful World War II Memorial from the previous night.  It’s a shame, because it’s a humbling and breathtaking place.  The cemetery is massive, with graves everywhere; even so, it is running out of space.

We chanced upon the changing of the guard ceremony, where the guards stand vigil over the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.  Our tour group was a bit late hiking up the hill to the Tomb, but our students managed to position themselves in such a way as to witness the guards perform the ceremony.

Even with our typically rambunctious group and dozens of other school groups, it was very quiet.  After two long days of trying to explain to them why these places were sacred, the awe and reverence of Arlington did more to quiet their ever-running mouths more than any of my self-righteous jeremiads ever could.

Following the quiet, contemplative morning at Arlington, we had a quick lunch at a mall food court, then headed to the Holocaust Museum—a sobering final coda to our trip.

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SubscribeStar Saturday: Washington, D.C. Trip Part V: Elevator Shuffle

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I’m finally getting back to this series about a late-March 2023 trip my school’s ninth- and tenth-graders took to Washington, D.C.  I put it on hold due to a number of factors, few of which I can recall anymore.  Travel posts with tons of pictures are always a bit time-consuming (even as I’m realizing I don’t have any pictures for this post—d’oh!), and the end of the school year likely left me with inadequate time.  Whatever the reasons—lame or otherwise—I’m continuing the saga of the field trip that nearly made me quit education for good.

Our school trip to Washington, D.C., was going pretty well up to this point.  Despite the kids being knuckleheads and talking over the tour guide, we were at least herding them efficiently from one place to another on this rather frenetic trip around our nation’s capital.

What struck me on this trip is how little common sense teenagers possess.  I should know this truth by now, having taught fourteen-to-sixteen-year olds for over a decade.  Still, some lingering bit of vestigial optimism clings stubbornly to my mind, and I always think they know better.

Nothing dissuaded me of that incorrect notion more than what happened when we got back to the hotel that second night in D.C., and a group of rowdy teens overloaded an elevator.

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