A week into our Bug Trip, Harry and I found ourselves cruising through Arkansas. I was hoping to flash along Route 40 without stopping. Not that I have anything against Arkansas. Like my home state of Virginia, Arkansas was part of the Confederacy during the Civil War and relied on slavery for its economic stability. Mostly…

For reasons I cannot explain There’s some part of me wants to see Graceland. ~ Paul Simon We reached Memphis in the evening and found secure parking for the Bug at a Holiday Inn not far from Beale Street. Both of us were hungry, and we wandered through a cold drizzle looking for food. Harry…

In the eighteenth century, my German ancestors sailed across the Atlantic and settled in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. Both my parents were raised there in small towns nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Although they moved to Northern Virginia after the war, Mom and Dad always called the Blue Ridge home. They bought a cabin in…