Travel Dreaming in Football Season (Part 2)
House of Mark Twain By Makemake, CC BY-SA 3.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=751488
Continuing with the Southeastern Conference states (read part 1 here) – which we don’t travel to much in the fall due to watching football nonstop on Saturdays – here are a few more places on my list for future, post-season exploring:
Mississippi – My husband is a foodie, and a far better hand in the kitchen than I am, but over the years he has made me more appreciative of great food, and also of great cooking. On our bucket list is a trip to the Viking Cooking School in Greenwood, Mississippi. Not only does the cooking school receive rave reviews, but it is across the street from the Alluvian Hotel, a luxurious and historic property to enjoy when you’ve kneaded enough bread and stirred enough sauces for one day. Viking ranges are made in Leflore County, Mississippi, where Greenwood is located, and the Greenwood offers small-town charm along the Yazoo River, complete with some bistros and restaurants if you tire of cooking yourself. Featured in Travel & Leisure, the Viking Cooking School also has a kitchen supplies store – but don’t tell my husband that or we will have to rent a bigger car for the trip. https://www.thealluvian.com.
Missouri – Several years back on a road trip to a college roommate’s wedding in New England, a friend and I stopped at the Mark Twain House and Museum in Hartford, Connecticut, and it was worth the trip. For an encore engagement with the man William Faulkner called “the father of American literature,” I would like to visit the Mark Twain Boyhood Home & Museum in Hannibal, Missouri. Hannibal may be a small city, but it is visited by people from all over the United States and all over the world every year, primarily because they want to see the place that inspired Twain’s novels, particularly The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The home, where Twain lived from 1844-1853, is the core of the attractions but it’s also part of a larger complex that includes a museum which hosts events throughout the year – the annual Beard & Mustache Competition, a quilt raffle, an annual food and wine festival, and, of course, performances by a renowned Twain reenactor. Learn more at:
South Carolina – I’ve seen a lot of South Carolina (not that you can ever have enough – it’s a gorgeous state) but still on my list is Beaufort. Located on Port Royal Island, close to Hilton Head, much of the town has been designated as a National Historic Landmark. It is also a major location for filming, including for several movie adaptations of Pat Conroy’s novels (Conroy also used Beaufort as the geographic basis for many of his books, having spent his teenage years there). I’m told it’s imperative to spend a day wandering on Bay Street checking out the antebellum homes, making sure to eat some great lowcountry meals, and not forgetting to enjoy the sunset over the water. Beaufort is also the home of Parris Island, the location of the U.S. Marine Corp Training Facility, and the Parris Island Museum could be a destination on its own if you are interested in the history of the Marine Corps and how it fits within the broader region. https://www.beaufort.com.
Tennessee – A good friend of mine swears that all his childhood vacations were spent in the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee, and it made him swear off camping until much later in life. Growing up further north in the Appalachian Mountains, and more focused on the Blue Ridge area of Virginia, I know less about the Great Smoky region, and I’m also less a camper than a hotel person when I travel. But thanks to the ongoing trend of glamping, I can still get my fill of nature without having to rough it and pitch tents in the rain. To my rescue would be Under Canvas, a swanky “safari-style” experience touted by Conde Nast as one of the best in the country. Located near Gatlinburg, it sounds pretty awesome to me. Who wouldn’t like camping with your own lounge area in a vast tent (pitched by someone else, of course), a private bathroom (most importantly, with a flushing toilet), West Elm furnishings, and organic bath products. With the addition of s’mores around a fire pit that I don’t have to build or stay up late at night to extinguish, I’m sold. https://www.undercanvas.com/camps/great-smoky-mountains/.
Texas – I expect you could live in Texas for a lifetime, and only see a fraction of the Lone Star State. I’ve traveled to most of the larger cities but often just for work as a road-weary warrior and there is one place on my list that I’ve yet to see: Austin. Not only is it the capital of the state but there’s so much there to see it’s hard to know where to start – great food, music, arts scene, clubs, hotels, film, theater, libraries, design, and so much more. Home to Whole Foods Market, a gazillion start-ups and tech companies, revered by both the chic Texas set and the chic Hollywood types, I can’t imagine how to you could spend just a weekend there and feel you’d really experienced it. It’s hard to know where to start, the Lyndon Johnson presidential library, hitting the SoCo district, or dining at any of the Michelin-worthy restaurants that Food & Wine, Bon Appetit, and the New York Times gush over in any given review. Add to that a stay at Mirval, and you’ve convinced me that Texas really is an amazing place. https://www.austintexas.org.
-Laura Flippin | Wheels Up
