Out of the South -- Oxford, Ohio

Even though my website is dedicated to travel in the Southeastern United States, occasionally I venture out into the wider world. When this happens, instead of creating a Sweet-Tea-Travels page, I'll put the travel information on my blog. So here's the most recent foray out of the South:

Oxford, Ohio

What? Never heard of it? Well, then you're not a college football fan, are you?

Actually, I'm not much of a college football fan either. Oxford, Ohio, is home to Miami University (Miami was a university before Florida was a state!). Founded in 1809, carved out of the frontier at a time when our nation prized education, Miami will celebrate its bicentennial next year. But I went to Oxford for another reason -- an almost 100-years-old reason.

In our family is a wonderful, crumbling scrapbook from my husband's grandmother, Lucile Dvorak Kirk. As a young woman, she spent one year away at college, at Miami University. For all of her life, she said it was her favorite year.

I've written a travel piece on searching for traces of Lucile's era in modern-day Oxford and at modern-day Miami. Surprisingly, both the university and the town have preserved much of their heritage both in buildings and traditions. Look for the story in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution this fall.

If you go to Oxford, be sure to dine at the Kona Bistro, followed by espresso at Kofenya.

Be careful who you kiss under the old lantern on campus-- if you kiss there, you're bound to marry. And don't step on the university seal on the sidewalk at the center of Miami -- legend has it you'll fail your next exam. No matter how long you've been out of school, you don't want to risk that!

Time keeps on slippin' into the future...

I can't believe more than a month has gone by since my last post. Alas, even travel writers have to do everyday things once in a while. For me this meant getting my firstborn off to college, and my lastborn started in high school.

Somehow writing always takes second place to whatever my kids need.

But now we're on a schedule again. Life is settling into its new shape, with only one teenager at home. I'll be traveling a lot in October -- to Birmingham and Nebraska for writers' conferences, and to Winder, Georgia, for a camping weekend.

Here are my upcoming stories in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

Skiing at the Cataloochee Ski Resort, Maggie Valley, North Carolina. This is the closest ski slope to Atlanta, and since they make snow, they open as early as November. And if you're wondering, no, I don't ski, although my daughter learned to ski there. My knees threatened to mutiny if I strapped on skis. I ran around and played reporter instead.

Searching for traces of Lucile Dvorak, Oxford, Ohio, 1917 - 1918. This is slotted for the AJC's heritage/history travel section. It's a story of my journey as I dove into my husband's grandmother's scrapbook of her favorite year -- the one year she went away to college at Miami University.

If you missed the story on food and wine in Southeast Tennessee, here's a link to the AJC's online version.

More on Lucile Dvorak's favorite year in my next post...