Natchez, Mississippi, was the western hub of early American travel. Trade goods rode the river current south, and often the trader would walk home to the Ohio River valley - following the Natchez Trace to Nashville, Tennessee. Nowadays, traveling is so much easier, and satisfying the urge to hit the highway is relatively easy. Sometimes we find ourselves traveling, though, for a reason more compelling than to “see what’s there.” If we’re lucky, it’s a pilgrimage — an effort to connect something geographic and tangible to something spiritual and intangible, to make a connection that can’t always be souvenired in a gift shop.

Sunset over a mangrove-lined waterway, Everglades National Park (NPS/Jane Gamble)

Congratulations to Bruce Barkhauer — buddy, mentor, and oh yeah, coauthor of our books — on your well-deserved retirement. May you and Laura keep adding to your "been there" list!

Human history is one of exodus, migration, and arrival: Leaving behind the familiar in search of food, water, clothing, shelter — and safety. But when you leave one place, you may be lucky to find or create a new place that becomes your home, your community, your family. Nicodemus National Historic Site celebrates a community of formerly enslaved people who migrated to Kansas, established a town, and created a new life and a new community. Nicodemus, Kansas, was one of the dozens of Black communities that prospered across the plains, and the park preserves two churches, a school, a hotel, and its city hall.

The Merced River in winter, Yosemite National Park (NPS photo)