Travel Archives

May 21, 2014

Levy County Quilt Museum

When I told Wife Lila that the Warriorettes and I were going to stop for the night in Chiefland, Florida, she sent me a link to the Levy County Quilt Museum just outside of town. She said it looked like it was small enough that we could see it all in about 15 minutes.

As it turned out, the place was HUGE.

Open Tuesday – Saturday

It’s open 10-3 Tuesday through Saturday. Admission is free, and there are plenty of volunteers around who are more than happy to talk with you about quilting in general and the museum in particular.

Visitors from all over

The volunteers are especially proud of the maps they have showing where their visitors come from. The East Coast is well-represented, but they get international visitors, too.

I stuck a pin in for Cape Girardeau, Curator Jessica marked Athens, Ohio, and Anne tagged her past and future home of Texas.

Political quilt

One quilt contains neckties worn by Presidents Ford and Carter, plus ties worn by more than two dozen governors.

History of the museum

A brochure says, “In 1983, the Log Cabin Quilters were formed and met in various homes throughout Levy County. Two of the founders were Mary Brookins (1934 – 1988) and Winelle Horne (1924 – 2012). Over the years, interest grew in building a place to call their own. From 1988 – 1990, the members raised $18,000 and, with the aid of a 99-year lease on this site from Thomas Brookins (Mary’s husband), the construction began in 1993. Inmates from Lancaster Correctional Institution worked four days a week for four years helping in the construction of the building.”

Photo gallery of quilt museum

The place is full of interesting exhibits and relatively inexpensive hand-crafted items for sale. Click on any photo to make it larger, then use your arrow keys to move through the gallery.

May 20, 2014

Abbey Basilica of Maryhelp

The Road Warriorettes and I needed to kill some time before chowing down at a fish camp in Gastonia, N.C., so we headed over to Belmont Abbey College, which was founded in 1876. I covered stories there for The Gastonia Gazette, but didn’t know too much about the college and the most prominent building on campus, the Mary Help of Christians Abbey Basilica. That name is quite a mouthful, so most of the locals just call it “Belmont Abbey.”

Stained glass windows won prize in 1893

The church at Belmont Abbey, completed in 1893, was once the only abbey cathedral in the nation. In 1998 it was named a Minor Basilica by Rome, a rare Papal honor. Located on the 650-acre campus of Belmont Abbey College, its beautiful painted-glass windows won a gold prize at the Colombian Exposition in 1893, reports a Gaston County website.

Slaves once sold on stone baptismal font

I hadn’t read this story when we were at the church, so I didn’t know to look for the baptismal font. From the county website: The church contains a stone baptismal font which, according to local legend, was first used by American Indians in the area, and then as a block upon which slaves were sold. When the monks arrived in 1876, they named the monastery “Mariastein” (Mary stone) in recognition of the stone’s prominence. Later, after renovation of the church, Abbot Walter Coggin, O.S.B., proposed the adaptation of the stone into a baptismal font. He had it marked with a plaque reading, “Upon this rock, men once were sold into slavery. Now upon this rock, through the waters of Baptism, men become free children of God.”

Belmont Abbey photo gallery

The college website says the Abbey Basilica is open throughout the day for prayer and meditation, and visitors are welcome. The monks ask only that “decorum, quiet and reverence of the church be maintained.”

Click on any photo to make it larger, then use your arrow keys to move through the gallery.

May 17, 2014

Contrail Brings Challenger Chills

The Road Warriorettes and I had a great day touring Florida. I’ll be sharing some of those stories and some neat things we discovered in Georgia in the future. Getting along toward sunset, I said we should take a look for gators at Nubbins Slough on the northeast corner of Lake Okeechobee.

When we got to the top of the dike, we met a pickup truck parked looking east, but didn’t think anything of it. Curator Jessica got out to shoot the clouds turning orange on the north side of the lake. When I went to swing the van around to get it out of the road, I froze.

Flashback to January 28, 1986

In the rearview mirror, I saw a contrail that brought back that cold morning on January 28, 1986, when I climbed on the roof at The Palm Beach Post to see the corkscrewing smoke left over from the Challenger explosion.

I called Wife Lila in West Palm Beach to ask if she knew if there had been a rocket launch at The Cape. She said one was supposed to have gone off at 8:03, but she didn’t know if it had any problems.

My photo was taken at 8:07, assuming the time programmed into my camera was correct.

It wasn’t until I got home that I read that a United Launch Alliance Delta 4 rocket carrying a $245 million Global Positioning System satellite was launched into space Friday after a 24-hour weather delay.

Shortly after I turned my attention away from the rocket trail, the sky came alive.

Warriorettes are leaving me

Anne Rodgers, Texan, former newspaper colleague and bike riding partner, is moving back home to Texas early in June. Curator Jessica Cyders, from the Athens Historical Society and Museum, will be heading back to Athens, Ohio, next week to her husband and cat. She hopes that neither has starved to death in her absence.

I hope the pictures they shot at Nubbins Slough this afternoon will bring back fond memories of our meandering.

Y0u can click on the photos to make them larger.

May 16, 2014

Warriorettes Hit Florida

I got Road Warriorettes Anne and Curator Jessica over the Florida line without too much difficulty. I’m tired enough, though, that I told ’em the best gift would be for us to check into a joint without a WiFi connection so I’d have an excuse for not filing

Anne suggested we name this the No Bad Food Tour, because we haven’t had a single bad meal. Part of that is from stopping at places I’ve discovered over the years, and part is from our rule of thumb: stop only at locally-owned restaurants that have a bunch of cars in front of them.

Cypress Inn Restaurant

It’s been at least 20 or 25 ars since I ate at the Cypress Inn Restaurant in Cross City. I don’t remember if I was covering a flood or a hurricane or if it was on a vacation trip with the family.

I had the seafood platter that was every bit as good as the shrimp and oyster combo I had at a fish camp in Gastonia yesterday. The oysters weren’t quite as big, but everything on the plate was tasteful. Anne had a ribeye that was tender and had good flavor. Jessica was craving a big, greasy burger, and got her wish fulfilled.

It won’t be another 25 years before I go back. This moves up to a prime spot on my list.

We’re going to try to get into West Palm Beach early enough for Anne to wrap loose ends before she leaves Florida for her home state of Texas. Gonna miss her.