Author Archives: JB

We stayed in New Bern NC overnight.  Named after Bern, Switzerland, the town has embraced the bear motif borrowed from the Swiss habit of baiting bears in pits.  Some cities have those ubiquitous cows – here it’s bears in many permutations.  But even better than all the bears is the rightful fame New Bern hasContinue reading “Time for a Pepsi”

After driving past every chain food and retail store you ever heard of – and many you haven’t – you can’t help but feel the contrast with Roanoke Island is startling.  Sir Walter Raleigh’s dream to beat the Spanish to the plunder of the new world, it is ironically dripping with Spanish moss, and quiet as theContinue reading “The Lost Colony”

Before we got to the shrine of Kitty Hawk, we made a stop at Eastville, Virginia.  Never heard of it, you say?  Well, in case you are doing genealogical or legal history research, you should know that its courthouse guards the oldest continuous court records in America, dating from 1632. (John, you  would love this place.)  InContinue reading “Those boys from Ohio”

Maybe you didn’t grow up reading Misty of Chincoteague, but you might have heard of the wild ponies that have been on the island for centuries, perhaps stranded from a long-ago shipwreck.  Getting to see them is a real thrill, which is why you are being treated to the sight of one band we were luckyContinue reading “We saw the ponies!”

(I was actually born there, many moons ago.) Our first day out was smooth sailing down to the Eastern Shore of Maryland.  We arrived in Chestertown late afternoon.  It is home to Washington College, funded originally by George himself.  The town is beautiful – evidently one of those places that students often never bring themselvesContinue reading “Maryland, my Maryland”

In New York on Friday night, we were tucked in bed and sound asleep at 3 AM when it suddenly sounded like the end of the world. What on earth? Had our building started to collapse? Nuclear war? Car bomb? No, it turned out that a giant tree in the neighboring yard had decided itContinue reading “Omens and Portents”

So, about the title of this blog.  I have moved very quickly from thinking this was such a clever name and that everyone would immediately get its wonderfully nuanced meaning, to complete amazement that my friends have never heard the expression. Where have you all been??!!! I now still believe that “Go Know” is aContinue reading “What about Go Know?”