Kachina Peak as seen in the distance from the intersection of the Highline and West Basin trails

My head was in the clouds and my burning lungs felt like they were in my stomach…being digested. At an altitude of some 12,000 feet, I looked up at the final approach to Kachina Peak, breathless and more airheaded than usual. More than a little humbled, too, as the words of the ski shop clerk down in Taos Ski Valley (TSV) echoed in my head with a sort of taunting lilt. When I had asked him earlier in the week if the hike to the ski resort’s highest peak would take me the 45 minutes a local had estimated, he in turn asked me, “Where you from?” Upon hearing the place I call home is the relatively low altitude Birmingham, AL, he smiled and answered my original question with a confident, perhaps overly so, estimate of, “An hour and a half.”

Back on the mountain, I looked at my watch and reveled in the fact that he was wrong. By his reckoning, I should’ve reached the top five minutes ago, yet I still had another quarter mile to go – all of it up hill.

Mark your calendars for April 19-20 and 25-26: The global music community is descending onto Houston for iFest. From Celtic to Tejano to African drum circles, the city will be jamming out both weekends. Since 1971, the iFest has been THE international event of the year in hTown, and for good reason. When you look at all the offerings, it will make your head hurt it's so packed. 

Editor's Pick: Rootz Underground, one of Jamaica's hottest reggae bands, shown above. There's plenty of good acts to catch on the 10 stages. So, if international travel is out for your family this summer, head into Houston. Tip: If you buy before March 31, one-day tickets to all the shows are only $7.50.  For a preview of Rootz Underground and other performers, continue reading...

Detoured off I-540 to hike at Devil's Den State Park in NW Arkansas.  Followed unmarked paths to crevices and blazed trails to caves.  Didn't make it too far into this one.  Next time, I'll pack a flashlight.   

Ah. It's FINALLY here. My very favorite two days of the sporting year. Thursday-Friday of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tourney, the day when giants are knocked off, when the little guy hits the game-winner to clinch immortality on his home turf. Tune in to this post to hear all about the South's best sleeper teams likely to shock the hoops world. Even President Obama is in on the fun. 

Some people think of Oxford and immediately think of The Square, The Grove, and Ole Miss. For me, Oxford is a bastion of Mississippi culture and great Southern dining. So it disheartens me to report that Yocona River Inn, one of the community's culinary landmarks, was destroyed by fire on on Thursday, March 12.

I wish Billy Reid was my roommate. Then whenever I needed to look especially cool and dapper and Gatsby-gone-South, I'd just raid his closet. Last month, the New York Times ran a killer piece giving the Alabama fashion designer major kudos. He deserves it. Now only if I can convince Billy to move from Florence to Birmingham.

There’s something strange afoot in Lake Wales, Florida. Automobiles seem to defy gravity on one notorious side street.

Just down from peninsular Florida’s highest point, the aptly named “Spook Hill” has been thrilling the willing for nigh on 100 years now by making wheeled vehicles seemingly roll up hill. Is it the result of a buried magnetic pole? Or is it the protective ghost of a Native American chief and the gator with whom he fought to the death, both of whom are supposedly buried nearby? Or maybe it’s a Bermuda Triangle-esque portal to another universe?

I can claim a few towns as my own, at least enough so to give strong local-recommended, mother-approved tips on what to do. Foodie heaven Charleston, mega-opolis Laaa-Grange GA, Grayton Beach, and everyone's favorite string music capitol Nashville. Just yesterday on a Mexican beach (Tulum, but don't tell anyone, ok?), I ran into a man on his way to Nashvegas. Going to the Whole Foods executive board meeting. Big wig, I know. Anyways, he mentioned the Music City, so I quickly mentioned The Station Inn on 12th. If you like live music and popcorn and possibly pitchers of Bud, well, JT Gray's cinderblock wonderpalace of banjos and mandos will slap you happy. Enjoy.

This moonlight photo would never have worked the old way Southern Living shot images. Want to know why?

(photo by Robbie Caponetto)

“Everybody wants to know when they will win the lottery," said Margaret "Miss Maggie" Burkley. "It’s not the winning or the losing, though. It’s the playing of the game.”

SL Photographer Robbie Caponetto and I sat down with Miss Maggie last March while researching our story The Allure of Natchez in the March '09 issue.  We found her, because when we asked locals about the unique personalities and characters, they all recommended we make an appointment to see her at her pink house on the bluff. 

Why?  She was the town psychic, and even though I called ahead, I had a feeling she knew we were coming... 

The first thing John David Montgomery ever gave me was a pair of red chopsticks.  To be fair, they were the only things he ever gave me.  To be even fairer, he tried to give me a Bud Light when last I saw him, but I politely passed.  I still had a ways to go on the bottle in my hand...