Hello, Ivan

Here it is, your moment of “Holy Crap!”

Good luck, Jamaica. My dad, who lives in Key Largo, is pulling out this afternoon.

La-la Land

If you ever drive past Pepperdine University on the Pacific Coast Highway (and I highly recommend it), see if the following question occurs to you: Who in their right mind would put a college in Malibu?
Now, Pepperdine’s nickname is the Waves, and for all I know the school has a major in surfing (or should). [...]

Delivering Hope

Ten years ago this summer, I was driving from Florida to Louisiana for the wedding of my step-brother. Ordinarily, the drive from Gainesville to Baton Rouge would have been about 10 or 12 hours of boring highway: I-75 north to Tallahassee, I-10 west forever. But Hurricane Alberto that had passed over Florida’s Panhandle and soaked [...]

Charley in Charlotte

My dad owned a home in Port Charlotte, Florida, during much of the 1990s. Like many others there, it was a decent place, relatively inexpensive and right next to a canal that provided access to the Gulf of Mexico. Most of Charlotte County is like that – near water, low-lying and inexpensive. Which makes it [...]

Red, White & Blue

Wrightsville Beach, N.C., Aug. 4, 2004.