Tag Archives: vacation

Our 2023 Road Trip #25: Intro to Pigeon Forge and/or Gatlinburg

May 30, 2026 By in Travel Tags: , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment
Dragon-themed water park with no customers.

Here there be dragons!

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:

Every year since 1999 Anne and I have taken one road trip to a different part of the United States and seen attractions, wonders, and events we didn’t have back home. From 1999 to 2003 we did so as best friends; from 2004 to the present, as husband and wife. After years of contenting ourselves with everyday life in Indianapolis and any nearby places that also had comics and toy shops, we overcame some of our self-imposed limitations and resolved as a team to leave the comforts of home for annual chances to see creative, exciting, breathtaking, outlandish, historical, and/or bewildering new sights in states beyond our own. We’re the Goldens. This is who we are and what we do…

Wisconsin Dells! Virginia Beach! Niagara Falls! And so on! We’ve visited our share of kitschy, tacky, larger-than-life tourist traps over the years. If they happen to be in our path, that’s cool, but we don’t necessarily make them the star of any given trip. Maybe someday we’ll plan a big expedition to Branson, that gold standard east of the Rockies, which was a popular annual vacation choice among the grandmothers and near-retirees I used to work with at the office. We’re not quite that old yet.

Other coworkers used to love taking their families down to Gatlinburg and/or Pigeon Forge, often for camping in or around the Great Smoky Mountains, enjoying affordable nature-based activities, and/or romping around country-fried faux-Western attractions. While we were in the vicinity anyway, we figured why not spend a night in the area and glance at a few of their outlandish constructs. Admittedly we weren’t clear where Gatlinburg ended and Pigeon Forge began. They’re not advertised as twin cities, but any boundary between their realities was paper-thin and imperceptible.

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Our 2023 Road Trip #24: The Apex Formerly Known as Clingmans Dome

May 29, 2026 By in Travel Tags: , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment
Anne and me atop Clingmans Dome!

I posted an alternate take of this moment on the occasion of our 19th anniversary.

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:

Every year since 1999 Anne and I have taken one road trip to a different part of the United States and seen attractions, wonders, and events we didn’t have back home. From 1999 to 2003 we did so as best friends; from 2004 to the present, as husband and wife. After years of contenting ourselves with everyday life in Indianapolis and any nearby places that also had comics and toy shops, we overcame some of our self-imposed limitations and resolved as a team to leave the comforts of home for annual chances to see creative, exciting, breathtaking, outlandish, historical, and/or bewildering new sights in states beyond our own. We’re the Goldens. This is who we are and what we do…

One of the drawbacks of posting less often than I used to, while remaining stubbornly committed to long-form miniseries such as this one, is that sometimes it takes me so long to share our experiences that a status quo can change dramatically between then and now, and I have to insert updates from our past’s future.

Case in point: upon our visit to Great Smoky Mountain National Park on June 29, 2023, the highest point in the park and in all of Tennessee — and, while we’re at it, the third-highest point on the Appalachian Trail — was a mountain called Clingmans Dome, standing an impressive 6,643 feet. (Not the tallest mountain we’ve ever stood atop, but still!) It was named after Thomas L. Clingman, a North Carolina politician who explored the area quite a bit according to the geographer friend who picked the name. Clingman served as a state senator, a U.S. Congressman, and a Confederate general. Yep, you can guess where this is going.

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Our 2023 Road Trip #23: Great Smoky Mountain Bear Watch

May 22, 2026 By in Travel Tags: , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment
Me and Anne posing behind a wooden sign on a mountain road: "North Carolina - Tennessee state line, elevation 5046 feet, Great Smoky Mountains National Park

The Newfound Gap Overlook at Great Smoky Mountain National Park: no bears.

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:

Every year since 1999 Anne and I have taken one road trip to a different part of the United States and seen attractions, wonders, and events we didn’t have back home. From 1999 to 2003 we did so as best friends; from 2004 to the present, as husband and wife. After years of contenting ourselves with everyday life in Indianapolis and any nearby places that also had comics and toy shops, we overcame some of our self-imposed limitations and resolved as a team to leave the comforts of home for annual chances to see creative, exciting, breathtaking, outlandish, historical, and/or bewildering new sights in states beyond our own. We’re the Goldens. This is who we are and what we do…

In all our southern travels throughout the years, the only time we’d ever laid eyes upon the Great Smoky Mountains was at a faraway remove from Knoxville, Tennessee. We’d seen them blocking the horizon, but had never made time to add Great Smoky Mountain National Park to the list of national parks we’ve sauntered into, despite recommendations from some of my coworkers who made the Smokies and the nearby cities of Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge their families’ annual getaways. Maybe that’s why we resisted for so long: going the same place every year for vacation has never been our thing as a couple (unless you count comic-cons) and it felt weird to follow their footsteps too closely, if that makes any sense.

This year we agreed it was time. We knew they’d be beautiful, maybe we’d catch a few unusual sights, and — kind of an in-joke between the two of us — maybe we’d spot our very first bear in the wild. Longtime MCC readers may recall our 2021 visit to Yellowstone National Park, which we’d heard had bears but contained exactly zero of them throughout our day there. Plenty of other four-legged creatures frolicked and gamboled and/or stood motionlessly in the shade, but the place was bear-free. We began to wonder if bears didn’t actually exist in America or were a myth invented by zoos to sell more tickets and toys.

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Our 2023 Road Trip #22: Beans, Beans, the Musical Fruit

April 12, 2026 By in Travel Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment
Us in summer wear doing jazz hands in front of a giant prop can of Bush's Baked Beans, lying on its side in a visitor center.

Baked beans and jazz hands! Probably great together and totally not a volatile mix! What’s the worst that could happen?

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:

Every year since 1999 Anne and I have taken one road trip to a different part of the United States and seen attractions, wonders, and events we didn’t have back home. From 1999 to 2003 we did so as best friends; from 2004 to the present, as husband and wife. After years of contenting ourselves with everyday life in Indianapolis and any nearby places that also had comics and toy shops, we overcame some of our self-imposed limitations and resolved as a team to leave the comforts of home for annual chances to see creative, exciting, breathtaking, outlandish, historical, and/or bewildering new sights in states beyond our own. We’re the Goldens. This is who we are and what we do…

…though nearly every trip ends with return drives through states we’ve visited plenty of times. And yet, our neighboring states rarely run out of new misadventures, often involving foods and their manufacturing processes.

We’ve braked for beans before, including the Jelly Belly factory tour on our 2006 drive through Wisconsin and that time we saw real cacao beans in the South Bend Chocolate Company‘s delightfully fragrant backrooms in 2016. Sometimes beans are serious business and sometimes they’re comedy gold, depending on the context. Down in Tennessee we found a bit of both in the affable visitor center of another bean empire.

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Our 2023 Road Trip #21: The Andrew Johnson Fan Club

April 9, 2026 By in Travel Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment
Anne in sun hat posing neutrally next to a tall Andrew Johnson statue. Behind them are a beige brick building and a couple of thin trees.

Fun trivia: Andrew Johnson statues are nowhere near as common as Lincoln statues.

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:

Every year since 1999 Anne and I have taken one road trip to a different part of the United States and seen attractions, wonders, and events we didn’t have back home. From 1999 to 2003 we did so as best friends; from 2004 to the present, as husband and wife. After years of contenting ourselves with everyday life in Indianapolis and any nearby places that also had comics and toy shops, we overcame some of our self-imposed limitations and resolved as a team to leave the comforts of home for annual chances to see creative, exciting, breathtaking, outlandish, historical, and/or bewildering new sights in states beyond our own. We’re the Goldens. This is who we are and what we do.

For 2023 it was time at last to venture to the Carolinas, the only southern states we hadn’t yet visited…

…which we exited after breakfast on Day Six. We spent the rest of our last full day in Tennessee, where we checked off an item on another to-do list of ours. On past trips we’d visited the graves, tombs, mausoleums and virtual posthumous palaces of the Presidents of the United States of America with varying accommodations and budgets. As our sole long-distance driver and a part-time retro-gamer who’s a fan of side quests, I’ve enjoyed those little jaunts so much that we’ve been planning our recent vacations around them. We don’t know if we’ll get to every dead President, but it’s fun trying.

And that means every American President, not just your fan-favorites. We’ve seen James Buchanan’s in southern Pennsylvania, Chester A. Arthur’s in Albany, and even Warren Harding’s giant Greek temple in Ohio. They can’t all be Best Presidents Ever, and they’re all interred somewhere. Some are fancier than others, but nary a President has ended up in a potter’s field. So far, so good.

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Our 2023 Road Trip #20: Appetites for Asheville

March 22, 2026 By in Travel Tags: , , , , , , , , , , 2 Comments
Me doing jazz hands in front of Double D's Coffee and Desserts, housed in a red double-decker bus

Coffee shop jazz hands!

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:

Every year since 1999 Anne and I have taken one road trip to a different part of the United States and seen attractions, wonders, and events we didn’t have back home. From 1999 to 2003 we did so as best friends; from 2004 to the present, as husband and wife. After years of contenting ourselves with everyday life in Indianapolis and any nearby places that also had comics and toy shops, we overcame some of our self-imposed limitations and resolved as a team to leave the comforts of home for annual chances to see creative, exciting, breathtaking, outlandish, historical, and/or bewildering new sights in states beyond our own. We’re the Goldens. This is who we are and what we do.

For 2023 it was time at last to venture to the Carolinas, the only southern states we hadn’t yet visited…

…which are now crossed off our list. We enjoyed our stroll around downtown Asheville, North Carolina, though we had no idea of the dark events in its future. At the time, all we know is we had fun and found quite a few eateries to our liking — two local establishments and one eastern-U.S. chain we’d never encountered before. After Hurricane Helene hit in September 2024 their staffs scattered to the four winds as they had to seek refuge elsewhere until things got better. More than one of them had GoFundMe campaigns going for a time while they waited weeks for power and water to be reconnected. As of March 2026 I’m happy to see all three are still going strong today.

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Our 2023 Road Trip #19: Asheville Before Hurricane Helene

March 20, 2026 By in Travel Tags: , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment
Outdoor pavilion with Asheville Art Museum sign on a low, curved wall. In the middle is a sculpture of a light blue, ridged sphere atop a large, uneven rock.

The Asheville Art Museum as of June 2023.

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:

Every year since 1999 Anne and I have taken one road trip to a different part of the United States and seen attractions, wonders, and events we didn’t have back home. From 1999 to 2003 we did so as best friends; from 2004 to the present, as husband and wife. After years of contenting ourselves with everyday life in Indianapolis and any nearby places that also had comics and toy shops, we overcame some of our self-imposed limitations and resolved as a team to leave the comforts of home for annual chances to see creative, exciting, breathtaking, outlandish, historical, and/or bewildering new sights in states beyond our own. We’re the Goldens. This is who we are and what we do.

For 2023 it was time at last to venture to the Carolinas, the only southern states we hadn’t yet visited…

…and with South Carolina behind us, at long last it was North Carolina’s turn for a visit. Our Tarheel State itinerary, not nearly as long as our Charleston checklist, began with spending a cozy Wednesday night in Asheville. Little did we know the catastrophe to come fifteen months later.

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Our 2023 Road Trip #18: Columbia House

February 13, 2026 By in Travel Tags: , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment
Spacious statehouse lobby with statue in the middle, flanking staircases, and two stories of arched doorways with stained glass transoms.

Welcome to the statehouse!

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:

Every year since 1999 Anne and I have taken one road trip to a different part of the United States and seen attractions, wonders, and events we didn’t have back home. From 1999 to 2003 we did so as best friends; from 2004 to the present, as husband and wife. After years of contenting ourselves with everyday life in Indianapolis and any nearby places that also had comics and toy shops, we overcame some of our self-imposed limitations and resolved as a team to leave the comforts of home for annual chances to see creative, exciting, breathtaking, outlandish, historical, and/or bewildering new sights in states beyond our own. We’re the Goldens. This is who we are and what we do.

For 2023 it was time at last to venture to the Carolinas, the only southern states we hadn’t yet visited…

…and we wrap up the South Carolina core of this trip with our last stops in its capital of Columbia, where we ventured inside the State House. Public access was limited, but we availed ourselves of the permissible exhibits.

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Our 2023 Road Trip #17: Columbia Pictures

February 12, 2026 By in Travel Tags: , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment
George Washington statue in front of tall capitol steps. He's holding some stick-shaped object and has his coat draped on a column he's leaning on.

Mandatory George Washington statue.

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:

Every year since 1999 Anne and I have taken one road trip to a different part of the United States and seen attractions, wonders, and events we didn’t have back home. From 1999 to 2003 we did so as best friends; from 2004 to the present, as husband and wife. After years of contenting ourselves with everyday life in Indianapolis and any nearby places that also had comics and toy shops, we overcame some of our self-imposed limitations and resolved as a team to leave the comforts of home for annual chances to see creative, exciting, breathtaking, outlandish, historical, and/or bewildering new sights in states beyond our own. We’re the Goldens. This is who we are and what we do.

For 2023 it was time at last to venture to the Carolinas, the only southern states we hadn’t yet visited, with a focus on the city of Charleston, South Carolina. Considering how many battlefields we’d toured over the preceding years, the home of Fort Sumter was an inevitable addition to our experiential collection…

…but the time came to leave Charleston at long last and begin heading northwest toward home. We returned to I-26 toward Columbia, where we’d stopped on the way down for just a bit, and would stop again. There was much more to see in and around their state capital’s capitol.

[CAUTION: The following entry contains Confederate stuff. We are not fans. Viewer discretion is advised.]

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Our 2023 Road Trip #16: Farewell Beach Romp

January 13, 2026 By in Travel Tags: , , , , , , , , Leave a comment
me on a white beach by the ocean, wearing off-white shorts and an Atomic Robo T-shirt.

If I wrote books, this would be a contender for my author photo.

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:

Every year since 1999 Anne and I have taken one road trip to a different part of the United States and seen attractions, wonders, and events we didn’t have back home. From 1999 to 2003 we did so as best friends; from 2004 to the present, as husband and wife. After years of contenting ourselves with everyday life in Indianapolis and any nearby places that also had comics and toy shops, we overcame some of our self-imposed limitations and resolved as a team to leave the comforts of home for annual chances to see creative, exciting, breathtaking, outlandish, historical, and/or bewildering new sights in states beyond our own. We’re the Goldens. This is who we are and what we do.

For 2023 it was time at last to venture to the Carolinas, the only southern states we hadn’t yet visited, with a focus on the city of Charleston, South Carolina. Considering how many battlefields we’d toured over the preceding years, the home of Fort Sumter was an inevitable addition to our experiential collection…

Whenever other people travel to South Carolina — especially the hotspots of, say, Hilton Head or Myrtle Beach — they enjoy lounging in the chairs they brought along, chugging all the alcohol in sight, flirting with anyone and everyone in sight who’s doing the same, and/or frolicking willy-nilly while shouting, “BEACH! BEACH! BEACH! BEACH! BEACH!” The two of us figured out years ago we aren’t beach people.

Sure, we’ve walked around a few, just so we could say we’d tried them. In 2007, my very first time ever laying eyes upon a real live ocean, a severe thunderstorm chased us off Cocoa Beach. The following year, we approached Virginia Beach on a perfect summer day. We came, we saw, we wandered, we made feeble sculptures, and we wondered, “Is that it?” In 2015 we learned at Mississippi’s Harrison County Sand Beach that it’s pretty fun to have a beach all to yourself for goofing around at 8 in the morning, but it still wasn’t somewhere we wanted to linger, burn, and watch skin cancers manifest in real time.

By our final South Carolina morning we’d hit all the primary objectives on our vacation to-do list and figured, hey, the Atlantic Ocean was still right there. It’s famous and massive and it’s not like we’ve seen all of it yet, so maybe one walk on a beach couldn’t hurt and might not even bore us. Our tour of Fort Sumter had thrown in a few sandbars for free, but that wasn’t a certified beach-beach, with umbrellas and volleyball and concession stands and lifeguards and one-percenter hotels obscuring half the horizons around us. For our last hurrah in the Charleston vicinity, Anne picked us a beach from among the numerous options that we could check out before we had to leave town and begin the long trip back northwest toward duller, smoggier climes.

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Our 2023 Road Trip #15: Parks and Pastries

December 27, 2025 By in Travel Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment
statue of a beaver standing on a tree stump and holding a stick, in the middle of a park sidewalk

Nice beaver!

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:

Every year since 1999 Anne and I have taken one road trip to a different part of the United States and seen attractions, wonders, and events we didn’t have back home. From 1999 to 2003 we did so as best friends; from 2004 to the present, as husband and wife. After years of contenting ourselves with everyday life in Indianapolis and any nearby places that also had comics and toy shops, we overcame some of our self-imposed limitations and resolved as a team to leave the comforts of home for annual chances to see creative, exciting, breathtaking, outlandish, historical, and/or bewildering new sights in states beyond our own. We’re the Goldens. This is who we are and what we do.

For 2023 it was time at last to venture to the Carolinas, the only southern states we hadn’t yet visited, with a focus on the city of Charleston, South Carolina. Considering how many battlefields we’d toured over the preceding years, the home of Fort Sumter was an inevitable addition to our experiential collection…

We’re walking, we’re walking, we’re walking. Eventually our day in downtown Charleston came to a close. Just a few more sights to go before we’d have to move on.

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Our 2023 Road Trip #14: 82 Queen and Back to King Street

November 13, 2025 By in Travel Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , 2 Comments
Cup of she-crab soup topped with a few herbs, served in white cup on white saucer with white doily on hardwood table.

She-crab soup! That Charleston specialty was the best bite I had all week. Yes, even better than donuts.

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:

Every year since 1999 Anne and I have taken one road trip to a different part of the United States and seen attractions, wonders, and events we didn’t have back home. From 1999 to 2003 we did so as best friends; from 2004 to the present, as husband and wife. After years of contenting ourselves with everyday life in Indianapolis and any nearby places that also had comics and toy shops, we overcame some of our self-imposed limitations and resolved as a team to leave the comforts of home for annual chances to see creative, exciting, breathtaking, outlandish, historical, and/or bewildering new sights in states beyond our own. We’re the Goldens. This is who we are and what we do.

For 2023 it was time at last to venture to the Carolinas, the only southern states we hadn’t yet visited, with a focus on the city of Charleston, South Carolina. Considering how many battlefields we’d toured over the preceding years, the home of Fort Sumter was an inevitable addition to our experiential collection…

By noon our long walk through downtown Charleston had taken us over a mile south of our car and into their version of the French Quarter — a mite smaller than New Orleans’ own that we’d visited a decade earlier, and nearly as sweltering, but 100% fewer drunkards bumping into us. We tried to focus on the sights all around despite having emptied our water bottles.

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Our 2023 Road Trip #13: Calhoun and the Slave Mart

October 24, 2025 By in Travel Tags: , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment
Three pairs of 19th-century slave shackles hung in a single vitrine.

Shackles on display at Charleston’s Old Slave Mart Museum.

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:

Every year since 1999 Anne and I have taken one road trip to a different part of the United States and seen attractions, wonders, and events we didn’t have back home. From 1999 to 2003 we did so as best friends; from 2004 to the present, as husband and wife. After years of contenting ourselves with everyday life in Indianapolis and any nearby places that also had comics and toy shops, we overcame some of our self-imposed limitations and resolved as a team to leave the comforts of home for annual chances to see creative, exciting, breathtaking, outlandish, historical, and/or bewildering new sights in states beyond our own. We’re the Goldens. This is who we are and what we do.

For 2023 it was time at last to venture to the Carolinas, the only southern states we hadn’t yet visited, with a focus on the city of Charleston, South Carolina. Considering how many battlefields we’d toured over the preceding years, the home of Fort Sumter was an inevitable addition to our experiential collection…

Our day-long walk through downtown Charleston continued beyond King Street’s south end as we digressed from browsing boutique windows to observing two commemorations of American history along our path — one a cemetery, the other a museum. Those functions are common stops for us in past trips, but rarely do we find one of each within close proximity to each other and yet representing opposite ends of the moral spectrum, insofar as the unavoidable topic of slavery.

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Fan Expo Chicago 2025 Photos, Part 2 of 3: Celebrities!

August 18, 2025 By in Conventions & Events Tags: , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment
Us doing jazz hands with Ewan McGregor who has a buzzcut, beard and mustache.

It’s Ewan McGregor! You might remember him from such films as Moulin Rouge, Trainspotting, Doctor Sleep, the Star Wars prequels, his Star Wars TV show, and more, more, more!

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:

It’s that time again! This weekend my wife Anne and I attended the fourth edition of Fan Expo Chicago at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in the suburb of Rosemont, Illinois. In 2022 they arose from the ashes of the late Wizard World Chicago, which we attended eleven times, and have expended tremendous efforts to maintain the previous showrunners’ geek-marketed traditions to keep luring in longtime fans and newcomers alike…

…and for us it meant another round of photo ops with actors from movies and TV shows we’ve enjoyed. Longtime MCC readers know jazz hands are our thing, if we feel it’s worth a shot to ask, and if the stars are amenable. Sometimes they don’t, and that’s fine! They’re adults, we’re adults, and we accept it — their image, their choice. But it’s a lot cooler when they do.

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Our 2023 Road Trip #12: Morning Stroll Down King Street

August 3, 2025 By in Travel Tags: , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment
curving street with stores and palmettos on either side. At the bend is a tall clock tower.

Downtown Charleston, brought to you by the Palmetto Council!

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:

Every year since 1999 Anne and I have taken one road trip to a different part of the United States and seen attractions, wonders, and events we didn’t have back home. From 1999 to 2003 we did so as best friends; from 2004 to the present, as husband and wife. After years of contenting ourselves with everyday life in Indianapolis and any nearby places that also had comics and toy shops, we overcame some of our self-imposed limitations and resolved as a team to leave the comforts of home for annual chances to see creative, exciting, breathtaking, outlandish, historical, and/or bewildering new sights in states beyond our own. We’re the Goldens. This is who we are and what we do.

For 2023 it was time at last to venture to the Carolinas, the only southern states we hadn’t yet visited, with a focus on the city of Charleston, South Carolina. Considering how many battlefields we’d toured over the preceding years, the home of Fort Sumter was an inevitable addition to our experiential collection…

Our early road trips were all about nonstop tourist-attraction marathons, flitting from one city to the next and seeing how many Roadside America recommendations and top-ranking TripAdvisor highlights we could pushpin on our mental bulletin boards. As we’ve gotten older, we’ve found value in visiting a place and simply being there for a while. We’re not the sort of shoppers who go full-on Blair Warner in large malls or rows of stores and come away carrying so many shopping bags that their cheap twine handles leave friction burns on our wrists, but we do have our particular acquisition interests.

In that spirit we set aside one day of our seven-day vacation solely for walking through the heart of downtown Charleston in general and the pulsating artery that is King Street. In a 21st-century America where small towns and mid-sized cities count themselves blessed if their functional downtown businesses outnumber their abandoned storefronts, there was a certain surprise throughout the first mile of our walk as the stores — a mix of upscale boutiques, mom-‘n’-pop shops, and cultural nodes — just kept going and going and going.

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Our 2023 Road Trip #11: Charleston Monday Mealtimes

July 29, 2025 By in Mundane Tags: , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment
Entire flounder fried to a crisp and spiced. with the fins still attached. Square white plate also has red rice and a tiny bowl of pasta salad.

Just the seafood we were looking for: lunch at Fleet Landing — crispy whole fried Southern flounder with pasta salad and Charleston red rice.

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:

Every year since 1999 Anne and I have taken one road trip to a different part of the United States and seen attractions, wonders, and events we didn’t have back home. From 1999 to 2003 we did so as best friends; from 2004 to the present, as husband and wife. After years of contenting ourselves with everyday life in Indianapolis and any nearby places that also had comics and toy shops, we overcame some of our self-imposed limitations and resolved as a team to leave the comforts of home for annual chances to see creative, exciting, breathtaking, outlandish, historical, and/or bewildering new sights in states beyond our own. We’re the Goldens. This is who we are and what we do.

For 2023 it was time at last to venture to the Carolinas, the only southern states we hadn’t yet visited, with a focus on the city of Charleston, South Carolina. Considering how many battlefields we’d toured over the preceding years, the home of Fort Sumter was an inevitable addition to our experiential collection…

Historical sites and summertime scenery notwithstanding, one of my favorite parts of the Charleston experience was the food. We’d made sure to budget accordingly in case of impeccable restaurants. Our first full day in town was a feast of delights.

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Our 2023 Road Trip #10: That One House from “The Notebook” Has a Pretty Garden

July 25, 2025 By in Travel Tags: , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment
Anne in front of a road that's lined on either side by extremely tall oak trees.

Anne at one end of the mighty Avenue of the Oaks.

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:

Every year since 1999 Anne and I have taken one road trip to a different part of the United States and seen attractions, wonders, and events we didn’t have back home. From 1999 to 2003 we did so as best friends; from 2004 to the present, as husband and wife. After years of contenting ourselves with everyday life in Indianapolis and any nearby places that also had comics and toy shops, we overcame some of our self-imposed limitations and resolved as a team to leave the comforts of home for annual chances to see creative, exciting, breathtaking, outlandish, historical, and/or bewildering new sights in states beyond our own. We’re the Goldens. This is who we are and what we do.

For 2023 it was time at last to venture to the Carolinas, the only southern states we hadn’t yet visited, with a focus on the city of Charleston, South Carolina. Considering how many battlefields we’d toured over the preceding years, the home of Fort Sumter was an inevitable addition to our experiential collection…

It’s been a while since we had an excuse to post a basic photo gallery of pretty flowers. As it happens, our Charleston trip gives me that excuse. We came for the giant trees As Seen On TV; we stayed for the blossoms. And for some ice cream.

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Our 2023 Road Trip #9: From the Waterfront to the Rainbow

June 29, 2025 By in Travel Tags: , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment
Pineapple Fountain with water fountaining from the large pineapple sculpture on top. Harbor with palmettos on the horizon.

As I’m posting this two years later, temps have been in the 90s here all week. Right now Pineapple Fountain really looks like my kind of fruit.

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:

Every year since 1999 Anne and I have taken one road trip to a different part of the United States and seen attractions, wonders, and events we didn’t have back home. From 1999 to 2003 we did so as best friends; from 2004 to the present, as husband and wife. After years of contenting ourselves with everyday life in Indianapolis and any nearby places that also had comics and toy shops, we overcame some of our self-imposed limitations and resolved as a team to leave the comforts of home for annual chances to see creative, exciting, breathtaking, outlandish, historical, and/or bewildering new sights in states beyond our own. We’re the Goldens. This is who we are and what we do.

For 2023 it was time at last to venture to the Carolinas, the only southern states we hadn’t yet visited, with a focus on the city of Charleston, South Carolina. Considering how many battlefields we’d toured over the preceding years, the home of Fort Sumter was an inevitable addition to our experiential collection…

…and after the history tour, Charleston offered lots more to explore. With time to spare between the ferry ride and our lunch reservation, we walked the varying areas along the edge of the Cooper River as it leads into Charleston Harbor, starting with Riley Waterfront Park. Once a bustling maritime commerce area in centuries past, by the ’80s the area was all weedy overgrowth and ruins until later that decade, when a project supported by longtime Mayor Joseph Riley Jr. (amid a record-setting 40-year run) converted the mess into an extremely pretty public space. Despite a touch of wreckage brought on by Hurricane Hugo in September 1989, the all-new park opened in May 1990 and remained inviting 33 years later.

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Our 2023 Road Trip #8: The Fort Sumter Tour and Non-Confederate Flag-Raising Program

June 15, 2025 By in Travel Tags: , , , , , , , , , , 2 Comments
33-star US flag flies atop a tall, white flagpole on a stretch of grass. Background: tourists look out to sea over a wall. Foreground: tourists taking pics.

The 33-star U.S. flag flies over Fort Sumter, just as it did before the Confederates barged in.

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:

Every year since 1999 Anne and I have taken one road trip to a different part of the United States and seen attractions, wonders, and events we didn’t have back home. From 1999 to 2003 we did so as best friends; from 2004 to the present, as husband and wife. After years of contenting ourselves with everyday life in Indianapolis and any nearby places that also had comics and toy shops, we overcame some of our self-imposed limitations and resolved as a team to leave the comforts of home for annual chances to see creative, exciting, breathtaking, outlandish, historical, and/or bewildering new sights in states beyond our own. We’re the Goldens. This is who we are and what we do.

For 2023 it was time at last to venture to the Carolinas, the only southern states we hadn’t yet visited, with a focus on the city of Charleston, South Carolina. Considering how many battlefields we’d toured over the preceding years, the home of Fort Sumter was an inevitable addition to our experiential collection…

…and here we were, one half-hour ferry ride later, at the star attraction atop our to-do list — the very place where the Civil War began, in the southeastern waters of Charleston Harbor in full view of the Atlantic Ocean. The Army Corps of Engineers began construction of the island in 1829, using 50,000+ tons of granite to create a new base atop a stable sandbar — a project conceived in the wake of the War of 1812, when British invaders unhelpfully exploited our naval vulnerabilities. Little did the ACE know future attacks would be coming from inside the country.

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Our 2023 Road Trip #7: Across Charleston Harbor

June 13, 2025 By in Travel Tags: , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment
Us smiling into my phone on a sunny day, Anne in her sun hat. Guy behind us wears a Kappa Alpha Order T-shirt in homage to the iconic Welcome to Las Vegas sign.

Gratuitous vacation boat ride selfie!

Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:

Every year since 1999 Anne and I have taken one road trip to a different part of the United States and seen attractions, wonders, and events we didn’t have back home. From 1999 to 2003 we did so as best friends; from 2004 to the present, as husband and wife. After years of contenting ourselves with everyday life in Indianapolis and any nearby places that also had comics and toy shops, we overcame some of our self-imposed limitations and resolved as a team to leave the comforts of home for annual chances to see creative, exciting, breathtaking, outlandish, historical, and/or bewildering new sights in states beyond our own. We’re the Goldens. This is who we are and what we do.

For 2023 it was time at last to venture to the Carolinas, the only southern states we hadn’t yet visited, with a focus on the city of Charleston, South Carolina. Considering how many battlefields we’d toured over the preceding years, the home of Fort Sumter was an inevitable addition to our experiential collection…

Longtime MCC readers may recall our past stops at assorted forts and battlefields at the behest of Anne the American history aficionado, who’d love to be called a professional historian if only someone would pay her to give the sort of lengthy, unprompted history speeches that I routinely hear for free here at home or on long car rides. Charleston offers tourists many reasons to drop in — the food! the beaches! the weather when it isn’t hurricane season! — but of course our primary objective was a tour of Fort Sumter, where the Civil War officially began. Whether you routinely read 100+ nonfiction books a year or struggle to name more than three Civil War battles without cheating, both sides can come together and enjoy the ferry ride across Charleston Harbor to the island where the fort stands.

Anne smiling in front of a Fort Sumter National Monument sign, which has a pretty garden in front of it.

Sure, South Carolina flowers are pretty, but Anne is here to for history!

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