Myrtle Beach earns popularity for beach adventures and seafood delights but there’s another must do experience for the South Carolina hot spot. You can not leave Myrtle Beach without a good shag. Shag dancing, or the Carolina shag to be specific, is the state dance and there’s no better place to try it than Fat Harold’s. Read More »

Farming is the foundation of American history but sadly, farms are quickly disappearing from the daily landscape of  the typical American experience. Generations of kids are growing up without a clear understanding of where their food comes from and how it’s produced. The L.W. Paul Living History Farm provides an active example of how small, one-horse family farms operated generations ago. Read More »

My husband and I are avid Jeep fans, and new Jeep owners. We’ve been eager to have a Jeep for quite some time, and were finally able to “give” ourselves a Jeep this past Christmas. We love to explore around our home state of Arizona and have been finding all kinds of new and exciting places that our Jeep can navigate.

A couple of weekends ago we headed out to Lower Sycamore Creek, which is in the Tonto National Forest in the Mesa area. This is an extremely active and busy system of trails traversed by Jeeps, dirt bikes, ATV’s, and other off-road recreational vehicles. Normally my husband and I choose more remote and private areas, but Lower Sycamore’s proximity to our home (only about a half-hour away) drew us in its direction.

Some general advice about going off-roading:

- If you’re not sure of your route, DON’T GO ALONE.
- If it looks like the trail is too hard to traverse, TURN AROUND.
- Take plenty of water, extra gas, a spare tire, a basic tool kit, a first aid kit, a change of footwear and a couple of blankets.
- Take a ration of high-protein snacks that keep well – jerky, nuts, granola bars, and trail mix are great.
- Take an actual folding map or atlas as well as a GPS, so you’re not depending on a battery.
- Tell people where you’re going and when you expect to be back. If you change your plans, let them know.
- Lots of areas lose cell phone reception, so don’t depend on your cell. Better yet, if your vehicle has OnStar, which depends on satellites and not sketchy cell reception, you’re much better off.

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So you thought the biking craze was regulated to balmy climates and hippie-focused cities? Think again. Despite bone chilling temperatures for most of the year, Chicago hosts a sizable biking community that cycles year round, wind chill and snow be damned.  That means today’s “Critical Mass Bikers Parade” through downtown is just business as usual for  fleece-covered bike fans. Read More »