Room Mother, Sports Mom, Carpool Queen, School Project Manager, Tutor, Laundress, Nurse, Homekeeper, Psychologist, Cheerleader, Baker, Mover, Shaker, Chief Cook and Bottle Washer + a lot of other stuff

Thank you, Miss Bunny, from the bottom of my heart.

Last year, Nelson Mandela’s death gave me pause. Not so much music and dancing in the streets but rather a singular moment when, for once, a pundit went to a real place: “The man was not a saint. He was a man. We may not think we can live up to what he did. But what we can reach for is one light within ourselves and connect positively with others in our own way.”

Mandela spent almost 20 years in this bare cell on Robben Island. “I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons will live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal for which I hope to live for and to see realised. But, My Lord, if it needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”— Rivonia Trial Speech, 1964

In the 1964 Rivonia…

There is something holy about Appalachia.  On “the third day,” God separated the land from the seas.  I imagine his fist crashing into the ground to create the Grand Canyon. But for our southern mountains, he pressed his thumbprint into hollows to push up the peaks.

In summer, the chain rolls green, purple, and blue, misting mysteriously in the distance. As warm weather gives way to cool days, tree canopies flame crimson, copper, gold, and yellow. Witness the glory by train.

Two scenic routes typically make the top 10. Hop aboard the Blue Ridge Scenic Railway. From its historic depot in Blue Ridge, Georgia, the train winds its way to Copper Hill, Tennessee, and back. Blue Ridge is worth a linger; it’s the “antiques capital” of the Peach State.

Catch a ride on the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad, which starts in the heart of Bryson City, North Carolina…