| Eight travel stories by C-VILLE writers:
Fresh shoes for the weary Praising a six-ton Jesus An overlook on paradise, Gatlinburg style One hundred pilgrims Shower at your own risk No missing out Football fields and churches |
Pop quiz: If you were going on vacation, who would you want to take with you?
A) Your sugar daddy.
B) Your friend who speaks the language.
C) Your other friend who was voted “most fun” in your senior class.
D) A writer.
Yeah, we here at C-VILLE wouldn’t pick D either, but we ourselves are writer-types—so when we go on trips, we can’t help but take a writer with us. That means simple, blissful, mindless fun-in-the-sun is not a likely scenario for our so-called vacations. We tend to be reflective, and we tend to pick destinations that provide something to reflect on. For crying out loud, Will Goldsmith’s travel story—one of eight you’ll find at right—recounts his bemused and puzzled reaction to Danville, Virginia. Not exactly a tourism hot spot. But it’s, well, interesting.
Other journeys reflected here? The big Austin music fest South by Southwest, from which John Ruscher extracts a pretty deep-sounding lesson about missing the thing you thought you wanted to see, only to stumble on something even better. The mountain getaway (or tourist trap, depending who you ask) of Gatlinburg, Tennessee, where Jayson Whitehead earned a long view. And rural Vermont, in which Brendan Fitzgerald braved the rain and a bare-assed family tradition.
It doesn’t stop there: we experience the there-ness of a special spot in steel country, a TV show’s cult following in the Pacific Northwest, Chicago in winter and Death Valley in July.
Friends, you will not need your bathing suits.
Putting C-VILLE on the map: How far will these eight writers go for a good story? Use the map below to find out!
