I believe that one defines oneself by reinvention…To be yourself. To cut yourself out of stone.
—Henry Rollins
To iconic punk artist Henry Rollins being stagnant and unimaginative is among the biggest transgressions one can make in life. From his time as the frontman for the pioneering hard-core band Black Flag to his work as a vocal advocate for social change, Rollins is constantly challenging himself and others to break the mold. As a musician, poet, radio host, and actor, he is known for his passion, intensity, and refusal to stop creating. With these words from his 1997 collection of writing, The Portable Henry Rollins, Rollins challenges us to travel down life’s unbeaten paths, do things our way, and embrace the qualities that make us unique.
Going down the path less traveled or choosing to go off the beaten path involves taking risks, choosing a different journey, and pushing your comfort zone.
Planning an RV trip for a different time of year? Check out my monthly travel recommendations for the best places to travel in August and September. Also, check out my recommendations for October 2021 and November 2021.
Escape to San Antonio’s Riverwalk
A century ago it started as a flood management project, but today San Antonio’s Riverwalk is a flourishing urban waterway and one of the most cherished attractions in Texas. Visitors can drift underneath cypress trees by hopping on board one of the iconic riverboat tours that ply the nearly 15 miles of waterway. The banks of the river come alive all day (and all night) with musical performers, endless shops and boutiques, and numerous dining options. Plan your visit during the week of July 4th to experience the Bud Light Stars, Stripes, & Light exhibition when one thousand American flags will line the banks of the river.
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Wilderness of Countless Canyons and Buttes
Canyonlands invites you to explore a wilderness of countless canyons and fantastically formed buttes carved by the Colorado River and its tributaries. Rivers divide the park into four districts: the Island in the Sky, the Needles, the Maze, and the rivers themselves. These areas share a primitive desert atmosphere but each offers different opportunities for sightseeing and adventure.
Canyonlands National Park preserves one of the last, relatively undisturbed areas of the Colorado Plateau, a geological province that encompasses much of the Colorado River and its tributaries. Carved out of vast sedimentary rock deposits this landscape of canyons, mesas, and deep river gorges possess remarkable natural features that are part of a unique desert ecosystem. With elevations ranging from 3,700 to 7,200 feet Canyonlands experiences very hot summers, cold winters, and less than ten inches of rain each year. Even daily temperatures may fluctuate as much as 50 degrees.
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Jacksonville
Located on the outskirts of Medford in southern Oregon, Jacksonville is both a scenic small town and a National Historic Landmark. Gold deposits brought prosperity and settlers before Oregon officially became a state, but today, Jacksonville is better known for its yearly Britt Music & Arts Festival and a plethora of antique shops. The Jacksonville Trolley provides a 45-minute tour of the area’s unique history and architecture in the summer months. Or, come in October and get the haunted version.
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St. Marys Seafood Festival
Located on the easternmost fringes of the Florida-Georgia line, the city of St. Marys is perhaps best-known as the launching point for those visiting Cumberland Island, the largest of Georgia’s idyllic seaside isles. Though Cumberland’s sprawling sandy beaches and centuries-old ruins are truly a sight to behold, St. Marys is fully capable of holding its own as a fascinating destination packed full of historic landmarks, museums, wild horses, and dining venues.
The St. Marys Seafood Festival returns on October 1. The festival brings a full day of family fun in St. Marys including a 5K and 10K run, a themed 10:00 a.m. parade featuring floats, fire trucks, tractors, golf carts, and, of course, seafood concessionaires. You’ll also find entertainment, demonstrations, arts and crafts vendors, and more
A favorite part of the day will be the food! The restaurants will be offering seafood festival specials and there will be food trucks and vendors with sensational seafood fare.
The festival is on the waterfront in St. Marys historic district and offers visitors a relaxing small-town feel. Cumberland Island National Seashore celebrates 50 years this month.
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The Killer Bee of Hidalgo
Located across from Reynosa, Mexico in the Rio Grande Valley, Hidalgo has a rich, multicultural history and a vibrant community. It has two of the largest annual events in South Texas: the music, culture, and heritage festival Borderfest (early April) and the holiday show Festival of Lights in December. Also, it is home to the day trip-worthy Old Hidalgo Pumphouse Museum & World Birding Center.
But in terms of the town’s enduring symbolism, it is hard to beat the 2,000-pound Killer Bee statue that inhabits the entrance to Hidalgo’s City Hall. How did this large insect sculpture come to stand in Hidalgo? And perhaps more importantly, why?
The buzz started in 1990 when the first colony of “Africanized” killer bees was found to have reached the United States via Brazil—the outcome, literally, of a scientific experiment gone wrong. The bees decided to settle just outside of Hidalgo upon arrival where news of the event provoked widespread panic among many.
The Killer Bee of Hidalgo or “The World’s Largest Killer Bee” as it’s advertised was commissioned by the City of Hidalgo. The black and yellow sculpture reaches to about 10 feet tall and 20 feet long, not including its ominous antennae.
Home of Champions
Astonishing biodiversity exists in South Carolina’s Congaree National Park, the largest intact expanse of old-growth bottomland hardwood forest remaining in the southeastern United States. Waters from the Congaree and Wateree Rivers sweep through the floodplain carrying nutrients and sediments that nourish and rejuvenate this ecosystem and support the growth of national and state champion trees. Prehistoric foragers hunted the area and fished its waters.
Attempts to make the land suitable for planting as well as grazing continued through 1860. The floodplain’s minor changes in elevation and consequent flooding stifled agricultural activity but the intermittent flooding allowed for soil nutrient renewal and enabled the area’s trees to thrive.
Bald Cypress, in particular, became a target for logging. By 1905, the Santee River Cypress Lumber Company owned by Francis Beidler had acquired much of the land. Poor accessibility by land confined logging to tracts near waterways so that logs could be floated down the river. In the perpetual dampness, though, many of the cut trees remained too green to float. Operations were suspended within ten years leaving the floodplain untouched.
The Boardwalk Loop is a must when visiting Congaree. It is 2.4 miles right through the swamps and jungle-like forests.
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America’s Most Visited National Park
Ridge upon ridge of forest straddles the border between North Carolina and Tennessee in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. World-renowned for its diversity of plant and animal life, the beauty of its ancient mountains, and the quality of its remnants of Southern Appalachian mountain culture, this is America’s most visited national park. Feel the cool spray of a waterfall. Camp under the stars. Explore a historic grist mill. There’s plenty to see and do in the park!
Great Smoky Mountains National Park preserves a rich cultural tapestry of Southern Appalachian history. The mountains have had a long human history spanning thousands of years from the prehistoric Paleo Indians to early European settlement in the 1800s to loggers and Civilian Conservation Corps in the 20th century. The park strives to protect the historic structures, landscapes, and artifacts that tell the varied stories of people who once called these mountains home.
Biological diversity is the hallmark of Great Smoky Mountains National Park which encompasses over 800 square miles in the Southern Appalachian Mountains. No other area of equal size in a temperate climate can match the park’s amazing diversity of plants and animals. Over 17,000 species have been documented in the park: Scientists believe an additional 30,000-80,000 species may live here. Why such wondrous diversity? Mountains, glaciers, and weather are the big reasons.
The park is the largest federally protected upland landmass east of the Mississippi River. Dominated by plant-covered, gently contoured mountains the crest of the Great Smokies forms the boundary between Tennessee and North Carolina bisecting the park from northeast to southwest in an unbroken chain that rises more than 5,000 feet for over 36 miles. Elevations in the park range from 875 to 6,643 feet. This range in altitude mimics the latitudinal changes you would experience driving north or south across the eastern United States say from Georgia to Maine. Plants and animals common in the southern United States thrive in the lowlands of the Smokies while species common in the northern states find suitable habitats at the higher elevations.
The Great Smoky Mountains are among the oldest mountains in the world formed perhaps 200-300 million years ago. They are unique in their northeast to southwest orientation, which allowed species to migrate along their slopes during climatic changes such as the last ice age, 10,000 years ago. The glaciers of the last ice age affected the Smoky Mountains without invading them. During that time glaciers scoured much of North America but did not quite reach as far south as the Smokies. Consequently, these mountains became a refuge for many species of plants and animals that were disrupted from their northern homes. The Smokies have been relatively undisturbed by glaciers or ocean inundation for over a million years allowing species eons to diversify.
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Tour through Vermont History
Against its backdrop of wooded hills, the Vermont State House is one of the most picturesque statehouses in the country. This State House is Vermont’s third and was built in 1859 on the same site as the second. It was reconstructed with a similar plan but on a larger scale and with a distinctly different ornamental scheme reflecting the Renaissance Revival style popular at the time. The State House was rebuilt in two and a half years and cost $150,000. It remains one of the nation’s oldest and best-preserved state capitols still in use. On the front portico which is the only remaining portion of the earlier Greek Revival, State House of the 1830s stands a statue of Ethan Allen, fabled leader of the Green Mountain Boys.
Daughter of the Stars
Just 75 miles from the bustle of Washington, D.C., Shenandoah National Park is your escape to recreation and re-creation. Cascading waterfalls, spectacular vistas, quiet wooded hollows—take a hike, meander along Skyline Drive, or picnic with the family. 200,000 acres of protected lands are a haven to deer, songbirds, the night sky…and you.
The best way to experience Shenandoah is on Skyline Drive. It’s one of the most incredible drives in America. When you enter from the north, you start by descending into an old-growth forest and then climb the ridge with its sweeping curves that feature scenic vistas of rolling, forests, and mountains on either side of the road. When you reach the end of the road, you’ll want to hook up with the Blue Ridge Parkway nearby to keep the great views rolling. Plan a Shenandoah escape today!
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Refresh and Relax at Patagonia Lake
Whether it’s an ocean, river, or lake, water is the break everyone needs from the hot Arizona sun. Patagonia Lake State Park is an escape offering shade, water, boating activities, camping, picnic tables, and grills for summer barbecuing. The park has fully equipped cabin reservations available but these sell out fast. If you’re late to the reservation game, check out their boat-in campsites or pick from 105 of their developed campsites.
Worth Pondering…
October, baptize me with leaves! Swaddle me in corduroy and nurse me with split pea soup. October, tuck tiny candy bars in my pockets and carve my smile into a thousand pumpkins. O autumn! O teakettle! O grace!
―Rainbow Rowell, Attachments
