“Traveling – It leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller.”
-Ibn Battuta
Rising from the tall grasses of South Dakota, where cattle graze and wildflowers bloom, is an anomaly: a sculpture park of metal art. You may have spotted the towering horse and the bull whose horns stretch to the sky from Interstate 90. Porter Sculpture Park lies in the middle of nowhere, an oasis of metal and imagination. It is the creation of artist Wayne Porter...
The loneliest part of a solo trip can be the hour after a wonderful day. When you’re preparing to travel alone after 50, you might wonder who you’ll tell about the beautiful things you see. If loneliness on a first solo trip worries you after 50, I understand why solo travel can feel daunting. My first solo trip took me to Paris, and I’ve never...
There were five of us in Paris, some for the first time. It was early May, we were in a beautifully curated Parisian apartment on the top floor of a building in the 11th Arrondesmont, and not one of us could have afforded the place alone. Split five ways, it came to less than a mediocre hotel room each. When four friends decided go on a little girlfriend getaway and...
Some of my favorite travel memories are the quiet ones. I wake up slowly. I make coffee the way I like it. I spend the afternoon wandering with no plan at all, then eat dinner back at my apartment before the sun even sets. For years I thought a good trip meant constant motion. See everything. Eat everything. Walk until your feet ache, then get up and do it again...
I was in McHenry County, Illinois in June for the Midwest Travel Network’s annual conference, and our group made stop after stop. Postcard charming historic downtowns, local shops, coffee, and breweries. All the spots you’d expect on an action packed itinerary. But one stop completely stole the show for me. The Starline Factory. Outside, this monolith of...