(photo by Kelsey Blackwell)

Though I’ve never studied architecture or usually take notice of such things, I know something cool when I see it, like this old Greyhound station on main street in Jackson, Tennessee. From what I could gather from locals, it’s one of two in the country to have retained its original art deco design and is still fully operating. A few calls around town and random Internet browsing place that other at anyone’s guess. When I strolled over to check this one out, along with the design it didn’t seem like much else had changed.

On an early morning walk this week, I glimpsed the first promise of fall.

Dew clung to the summer-brown grasses and lacy fog hugged the river bottoms, both damp reminders of a late night thunderstorm. As I marched briskly along the fence rows, something from above caught my eye. I stopped to watch as a single yellow leaf, released from its home high atop a poplar tree, floated gracefully on the morning breeze and settled in the meadow below. Excitement coursed through my veins as I instantly began to count—less than two weeks until college football begins!

Windy days in South Florida.

(Photo by Scott Suchman)

Can you imagine a better swing? Visitors to the Florida Panhandle's "Forgotten Coast" spend weekends in Apalachicola hoping the rest of the world continues to bypass this sliver of fishing village untainted by eager land developers. 

Shop, stroll, and eat 'til your buttons burst in this town that treats strangers like friends. A rock star in the constellation of Delta darlings, Oxford, Mississippi is the small town other towns hope to be. Basking under the glow of Ole Miss’s iconic reputation, this stop provides the low-key getaway I crave before summer’s end.

The feeling is urgent. Summer’s days are waning. It’s time to make the most of a quick beach getaway. I’ve never been one for lying on the sand like a chicken on a spit in the midday sun. Instead, I want to people-watch, shop, and find amusements.

Ocean City’s 3-mile long boardwalk may be the best oceanfront gawking spot in the country. Here are my top five reasons to make an end-of-the-season trip to the original OC.

(Bluff-top art, the mighty Mississippi, and the green expanse beyond. Photo by Richard Banks)

I lived 33 of my 44 years in Memphis. Now after eight years away, the city’s culture is still under my finger nails like ribs and sauce, and its music reverberates in my head. When I get back to town, it’s like I can breathe again and I hyperventilate as I can’t stop paying visits to old haunts. Back home after a long weekend, I’m usually spent after days of reconnection and no sleep.

I’m happy to report – in between naps in my office, of course – that a recent trip was no different. The city is as entertaining as ever and the local populace as hospitable as any in the South – both perfect ingredients for a quick weekend escape.

(Photo by Gary Clark)

The Outer Banks. Ah, just saying the name makes me feel pleasantly far from reach. North Carolina's 200-mile string of Atlantic beach towns - Kitty Hawk, Hatteras, Nags Head, Manteo, Duck, and several other coastal hamlets - all offer summer sunrises with your toes in the surf. Roam Carolina's east coast while the long days last.

There is only one best, right?  It is the ultimate.  Nothing better. 

(Photos courtesy Audubon of Florida)

Parting the humidity and swatting mosquitoes and other buzzing bothersomes, folks are heading to a swamp in Florida for the rare chance to see a flower so valuable it cannot be priced. The elusive ghost orchid, the bloom that launched a bestseller, box-office stunner and countless pilgrimages through gator infested waters, dangles from the trunk of a 500-year-old bald cypress in Corkskrew Swamp Sanctuary in Naples. The big deal here is not how the plant looks (kind of like an old man with close-set eyes and a long Mark Twain moustache), but how rare it is. It takes perfect weather conditions and a prayer to get this sucker to come out.

(Nick’s in the Sticks—secret to some, religion to others.)

If Seats Could Talk

Exactly how long has that stool been anchoring the entrance to Nick’s in the Sticks, the tiny Tuscaloosa landmark of steaks and sports stuff? In our 2 worth-it-all hours of waiting for a table last weekend, the subject had plenty of time to come up.

Interstate travel usually leads to generic, unmemorable, value-meal food stops. On a recent Texas drive from San Antonio to South Padre Island, I found a BBQ place called Van's that made me want to write a story about making I-travel a more local experience. Here are three interstate BBQ joints worth an exit in Texas.

(Photo by Taylor Bruce)

(Photograph via the National Archives)

Sometimes you have a celebrity sighting of a famous Southerner, and it makes for an interesting blip in the day. Other times, you see a legend, and it sticks in your mind for a long while. We had the latter experience this week, on a Southwest plane from Louisville to Chicago, when Muhammad Ali sat across the aisle from us.