Life on Paws and Wheels

Simba and I visited the Kindred Spirit Mailbox on Bird Island, North Carolina , one of the most unusual and surprisingly meaningful landmarks I've encountered during our travels. Hidden among the dunes beyond the developed shoreline of Sunset Beach, the mailbox contains notebooks where complete strangers have been leaving their thoughts, dreams, fears, memories, confessions, and personal stories for decades. There's nothing particularly elaborate about the landmark itself. It's essentially a mailbox standing among the dunes with a few benches nearby, overlooking a quiet stretch of the North Carolina coast. What makes it special is what's inside. Open the mailbox and you'll find notebooks filled with handwritten messages from people who made the journey here before you. Some entries celebrate love, marriages, children, and new beginnings, while others describe grief, loneliness, illness, heartbreak, uncertainty, and people who are deeply missed. Reaching the Kindred ...

I visited the Birthplace of Sports Illustrated at Pine Lakes Country Club in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina , an unexpected piece of American sports and publishing history hidden at the oldest golf course in Myrtle Beach. Long before Sports Illustrated became one of the most recognizable names in sports journalism, dozens of employees from Time Inc. gathered here in the spring of 1954 to help prepare the new magazine for its national debut. The location seems appropriate in hindsight. Pine Lakes played an important role in establishing Myrtle Beach as a golf destination decades before the Grand Strand became filled with courses. Opened in 1927 as the Ocean Forest Country Club , it was the first golf course in Myrtle Beach and eventually earned the nickname “The Granddaddy.” Its history became intertwined with Sports Illustrated when 67 Time Inc. executives, writers, and other staff members traveled south from New York for a weeklong conference in April 1954. Today, a commemorative plaqu...

Simba and I visited and hiked the Lake Waccamaw Nature Loop at Lake Waccamaw State Park in North Carolina , exploring a peaceful landscape of pine forest, wetlands, wooden boardwalks, and trails surrounding one of the most unusual lakes in the southeastern United States. At first glance, Lake Waccamaw looks like a beautiful but otherwise ordinary coastal lake. Once you learn what's happening beneath the water and throughout the surrounding ecosystem, however, it becomes clear that this is a very unusual place. Lake Waccamaw is the largest of North Carolina's Carolina bay lakes , occupying one of the mysterious oval-shaped depressions scattered across the Atlantic Coastal Plain. Its unusual water chemistry supports an extraordinary collection of plants and animals, including species found nowhere else on Earth. The surrounding region is also home to carnivorous plants, American alligators, countless birds, reptiles, and more than 50 species of fish. For Simba and me, the hike wa...