Roadtripping

Road trip attraction: A Taste of Charleston

Today for my road-trip entertainment, I went to A Taste of Charleston, a festival where you buy a taste of this from one Charleston restaurant and a taste of that from another. In a place like Charleston, capital of Low Country cuisine, it's a great way to sample both the traditional and contemporary riffs on the traditional.

The festival was held at Boone Hall Plantation, which has been in existence more than 250 years and is still a working farm in the suburb of Mt. Pleasant. We had to park way out on the far reaches of the property, where the tomato and squash plants are still producing, and walk in, past the historic slave quarters, the Gullah Theater, the alley of oak trees that are more than 200 years old.

Booth after booth offered small servings of two or three dishes each: jambalaya, gumbo, shrimp 'n grits, grilled skewers of meat, about 18 kinds each of fish tacos and sliders (mostly pork), key lime tarts, truffled mac and cheese -- you get the idea -- for $2 to $6. Plus there was a beer garden. The Biltmore Estate apparently had the wine franchise locked up.

I bought a tiny cup of she-crab soup and a serving of grits sticks -- cooked grits mixed with that old Southern favorite, pimento cheese, shaped into sticks, deep-fried and served with a sweet-hot sauce. Then I found a place to sit on the lawn and listen to the music.  Alas, I soon discovered, the place had another Southern favorite -- gnats. Gnats in my face, my hair, my ears, under the straps of my sandals. Happily there was no charge for gnats.

Sitting there, I noticed a fashion trend: women in finely tooled cowboy boots. I'm usually oblivious to fashion, but when I was on the lawn, other people's knees were at eye level, and all the cowboy boots were impossible to miss. Apparently they go with everything (kinda like pimento cheese): Short shorts, ankle-length sundresses, mini skirts, leggings, peasant dresses, boots worn inside jeans, boots worn outside jeans. At least they would have kept the gnats off my feet.

On my next round I sampled two truly excellent dishes -- bruschetta with spicy grilled shrimp and arugula from Langdon's Restaurant & Wine Bar, and fried pimento-cheese ravioli from Cork Neighborhood Bistro. The ravioli was savory-sweet and almost could have passed for dessert. The filling was a combination of sharp cheddar and rosemary pimento cheese, but it tasted like it was part cream cheese. The ravioli had been lightly fried, then topped with peach-bacon marmalade. Yum!

(Photo: Best dish of the day -- spicy shrimp bruschetta with arugula)

I had to get moving. The gnats were driving me .... buggy. I heard they were selling tickets for A Taste of Marjie. I bought one more taste, a pumpkin cobbler dessert, and started waddling toward my car. Now, I realized, there was a purpose in making us park so far away -- to walk off all that pimento cheese.

 

 

Gambling on a hotel-room view

I was arriving late -- 10 p.m. -- at my Charleston hotel, and I wondered what kinds of rooms would be unassigned at that hour. I had booked the room for three nights through Priceline, which meant I was probably paying less than most people staying there, and the odds that I would get a waterfront room were low (I did not identify myself as a travel writer -- I rarely do).  But you never know. Sometimes if occupancy is low, a hotel will assign people to its better rooms just for the PR value. And sometimes if occupancy is high, a great room is all that's left by 10 p.m. It's happened. But that was not to be.  At the front desk, as he handed me my key, the clerk told me the hotel was full. I went back to my car to get my suitcase, looked up at wall of windows, and figured I probably had a parking lot view. Which, as it turned out, I do. But it wasn't til morning that I could see the whole picture. Fenced in directly below my window is the maintenance area -- garbage bins, spare propane units and a tool shed. But beyond, if I stand on my toes and look out at just the right angle, just over the treetops, I can see a sliver of water in the harbor. 

A GPS unit plays dead

What to do when the GPS unit dies mid-trip?

The Garmin unit that I’ve been using for almost three years suddenly stopped working Friday between Ocala and Gainesville, en route to Cordele, Georgia. It froze up, then when I tried to reboot it, refused to come on at all. Fortunately, Cordele is right on I-75, and with my iPad to back me up, I didn’t have any trouble finding it. But Friday was only the second day of a road trip that has me zigzagging across four states. So Friday night, I downloaded a Garmin program onto my iPhone, mapped out the route from Cordele to Charleston, S.C., and went to bed.

When I started my car Saturday morning, the GPS unit, which I had left plugged in, fired right up and knew exactly where we were. Ah, the wonders of a good night’s sleep. But it seems to have developed an aversion to freeway driving, because it directed me across I-75 and onto country roads. And why not? Back roads are a lot more interesting than interstates.

So I went zipping across country, past cotton and soybean fields, pecan groves (and a sloppily spray-painted sign that read “Stealing pecans may be hazardous to your health”), pastures where cattle and sheep grazed (separately), a farmers co-op, a partially collapsed mobile home with vines growing out the windows, barns with sloped floors and rusting metal roofs, and tiny block-long downtowns with no chain stores. The road rolled gently up and down, and curves were long and slow and easy to drive.

Sixty-five miles later, the GPS unit directed me onto Interstate 16. The back-roads part of my trip was over. The GPS under worked perfectly the rest of my drive into Charleston. But now I have a weapon – the threat of an already-downloaded navigation system on my iPhone. We’ll see what happens if it plays dead again.

Road trip destination: Sebring, Florida

Here’s what I did on my last road trip: I had been to Sebring, Florida, many times to watch racing in vintage automobiles, but I’d never done anything else touristy in the little Central Florida town, which is about 175 miles northwest of downtown Miami. So in August, with Sebring’s 100th anniversary celebration coming up in October, I drove up to see what else I could do. I visited the race track – the first time I had ever been there when there was no action on the course – then walked out on the city fishing pier, went to a Friday night party at the town’s historic heart, walked along a boardwalk through an old cypress swamp, and went wine-tasting with the chickens. Read my report here.

Road trip attraction: Nehrling Gardens

I’m on the highway for my autumn road trip, heading toward the Blue Ridge Parkway, where the fall color should be terrific. I’m not far along yet though, and spent the morning doing some off-the-beaten-track sightseeing in Central Florida. My destination: Nehrling Gardens in the unincorporated community of Gotha, about 10 miles northwest of downtown Orlando.

The property is the house and about six acres that once belonged to Henry Nehrling, a horticulturalist who did extensive research on tropical and sub-tropical plants at the end of the 19^th and early 20^th century. Nehrling died in 1929, and the property changed hands a couple of times, but in 2009, it was purchased by a new non-profit, the Henry Nehrling Society. With the help of volunteers, the society is gradually reclaiming the gardens from the kudzu, air potato vines and other invasives that had overrun everything else. Some of the trees that Nehrling planted have survived and are now more than 100 years old.

Ultimately, the society hopes to open the gardens to the public on a regular basis (it now only offers pre-arranged private tours), hold community events and educational programs there, and develop a line of Nehrling plants for sale. But for now, in addition to the physical work on the property, the society members are working on fund-raising. If you’re interested, check out their Web site. And if you’re in the neighborhood at lunch time, try Yellow Dog Eats. 

Miami International Airport: TV's newest star

Guess which local player stars in television’s latest reality show?

Coming to the small screen next week: Miami International Airport.

MIA is the star of a new series on the Travel Channel: Airport 24/7: Miami. The six-episode series premieres at 9 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 2. If you’re a frequent flyer out of MIA, the show may not hold any surprises for you. But the show does underscore the complications and pressures of operating one of the biggest airports in the U.S.

Some vital stats: 38 million passengers a year (that’s more than 100,000 passengers daily moving along the concourses), 36,000 employees, 800 flights a day. Among U.S. airports, MIA is considered at high risk for terrorism and drug and currency smuggling.

In the first two episodes, all that and more make an appearance. A man “forgets” he packed a handgun in his carry-on and is hauled off by police. Another man has a knife concealed in the sole of his shoe; he’s now being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney. A dog sniffs out copious amount of cash ($20,000) on a couple who flew in from Germany — large amounts of cash are often associated with drugs or terrorism, we learn — but the two are determined to be simply wealthy European surgeons on vacation. Another dog gets excited about a load of tractor parts, and after much drilling through metal, cocaine is found in the parts. And an extra-large jar of peanut butter is confiscated from a woman who objects vociferously (but is not arrested).

Which brings us to what we do learn: Some people must have been living in caves since before 9/11, judging by what they think they can get past the security checkpoint. We see a display case with some of the other souvenirs confiscated from passengers: knives, grenades, box cutters, nunchuks, what looks like a crossbow (to bring down that elusive airline meal, no doubt).

So, you may be asking, how does one survive the dangers of a major international airport? The employees of MIA have good advice for you. Click to keep reading their 20 top tips.

Fall foliage update and getaways

Fall colors are already starting to show in some parts of New England. In Maine, state forestry officials said last week that northern Maine was a third of the way to peak color. Leaves are still green in the lower two-thirds of the state. Similarly, northwestern New Hampshire is close to peak color. Leaves are turning in western Massachusetts. In upstate New York, local spots of color are visible, with the peak in the Catskills and Adirondacks starting this week into early October. In North Carolina, experts say to expect that state’s first color soon at Mount Mitchell, the highest peak east of the Rockies. If you’re planning a fall-foliage trip, click here for a story about five getaway packages. And go back a week on my blog (here) for links to foliage reports.

Photo credit: The Biltmore Estate

Florida Keys Birding and Wildlife Festival

Any South Floridian looking for an outing next week ought to consider the Florida Keys Birding and Wildlife Festival, which opens Tuesday and runs through Sept. 30. The Keys offer the last ground in the USA in the fall migration of birds headed to the Caribbean or Central or South America, and thousands of birds pass through, including some not seen any other time in the subtropics. The festival is aimed at families and has the fringe benefit of introducing people to parts of the Keys they might not have seen before. Read the full report here.

Tis the season for seafood festivals

Autumn is the season for seafood festivals in Florida, from stone crabs to mullet and more. Check out this Florida Rambler report for details.

Space shuttle Endeavor leaves Cape Canaveral for last time

Space shuttle Endeavor left the Kennedy Space Center and Florida for the last time on Wednesday, flying on the back of a modified 747 en route to Los Angeles, where it will become a museum display.

Weather delayed the flight for two days, but the mated aircraft finally departed near sunrise, swooping over Kennedy’s Rocket Garden, the beaches and Disney World in a final farewell.  Endeavor landed a few hours later in Houston. It will arrive in Los Angeles on Friday, then in mid-October will be towed to the California Science Center, its new home.

With Endeavor’s departure, the only shuttle remaining at Kennedy Space Center is Atlantis, which will go on display there next summer in an exhibition space now under construction.

For the Associated Press report and photo show of Wednesday’s flight, click here. For NASA’s report and photos, click here. For a video of Endeavor flying over Disney World, click here.

Photo credit: John Raoux/Associated Press