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Detailed Information
For
students and educators:
For students and educators:
· curriculum-based regional travel
Ever want to do something different? Interested in escaping the “tourist label” and do a little more blending in with the locals? Travel like they do . . . eat where they eat . . . get beneath the surface?
Then let’s talk.
Here are some starting points:
Ø Washington, DC-area travel adventures: We could trace the construction plans and dramas that have gone into producing a national capital . . . original vision held up against what many lamented over the years (they had unreasonably high expectations, perhaps) and what we see now . . . the designers, the builders, and the creation of a functional city and a symbolic city . . .
Or maybe you want to get inside the Beltway and see how Washington works: government agencies, lobbyists, elected officials, foreign diplomats, and hired experts . . .
Or National Treasure II has left you ready to track down John Wilkes Booth and explore every angle on the Lincoln assassination (yes?)
. . . which dovetails nicely with an exploration of the great Potomac River – the East Coast’s premier river (south of the Hudson) in size, economic importance, and history: visit the homes of the “great families,” enjoy remarkable vistas, and track a fascinating westward march of American development (by bicycle if you’d like).
Ø Southeastern regional travel routes, connected by human stories and events:
the Frontier Experience: Explore the frontier milieu of organized but divided native American “super-tribes” . . . Euro-Indian traders – with their feet and loyalties in more than one world . . . and independent frontierfolk – masters of the Kentucky rifle . . .
Follow Boones, Seviers, Crocketts, and Jacksons along standard westward migration routes, that all led to one commodity: land. And trace the rise of frontier values to the forefront of American political and cultural life.
Charleston, Savannah, and the Low Country: Combine coastal ecology and / or southern literature with American history and culture in the southeastern Low Country Ø custom-created, hands-on immersion: archaeology; “literary trails;” AP U.S. History review
· international travel: language, culture, history, music, and nature
Ø Central America: Costa Rica, Guatemala, and Belize
Ø England and Scotland
Ø Germany and Switzerland
Ø France
Ø the Low Countries
Ø Canada
Ø the rest of the world, including Japan, New Zealand, and China
· professional development travel: regional history, culture, and nature studies
On demand programs for school districts or schools, focusing on regional history and culture, curricular ties, and the development of lesson plans.
· active travel: hiking, cycling, kayaking, high adventure – any time of the year
· consultation service:
Chumley Cope Up Close Travel, Inc. offers a consultation service for all aspects of planning student travel – both in-year and during vacation periods; for professional development travel / events, and for professional team building retreats / experiences. Consultations include a blend of telephone and email dialogues, resulting in a minimum of one general travel itinerary, and costing a base fee of $45 per 30 minute consult. More detailed work is available at the rate of $75 / hour. Final products can include full travel portfolios, including itineraries, featured sites / visits, “place details” including dining, lodging, (pricing options), and suggestions for driving routes and specified activities.
*Please note that Chumley Cope Up Close Travel can make and book all travel arrangements as well, working on either a fee or commission basis.
Cycling and hiking in Europe, the U.S., and Canada:
· do-it-yourself trips · maps and resources · guided trips
Exploring the Southeastern U.S.:
· regional history and culture · scenic routes and special places · culinary treasures · the best of the “natural Southeast” · vacation planner / consultation service
Chumley Cope Up Close Travel, Inc. offers a consultation service for all aspects of planning individual, family, or group travel in the Southeastern U.S. Consultations include a blend of telephone and email dialogues, resulting in a minimum of one general travel itinerary, and costing a base fee of $45 per 30 minute consult. More detailed work is available at the rate of $75 / hour. Final products can include full travel portfolios, including itineraries, featured sites / visits, “place details” including dining, lodging, (pricing options), and suggestions for driving routes and specified activities.
For Colleges:
· regional alumni travel and retreats · sports travel · interim term trips: custom planning, booking, and trip support · consultation service
Chumley Cope Up Close Travel, Inc. offers a consultation service for all aspects of planning college-constituency trips, including interim terms, alumni travel, and sports-related group travel. Consultations include a blend of telephone and email dialogues, resulting in a minimum of one general travel itinerary, and costing a base fee of $45 per 30 minute consult. More detailed work is available at the rate of $75 / hour. Final products can include full travel portfolios, including itineraries, featured sites / visits, “place details” including dining, lodging, (pricing options), and suggestions for driving routes and specified activities.
*Please note that Chumley Cope Up Close Travel can make and book all travel arrangements as well, working on either a fee or commission basis.
Vacation Planner:
This vacation planner is updated monthly. I hope you’ll find travel ideas and useful information for planning your own trip.
Note to readers: We might all agree that we could probably find someone who would tell us anything we want to hear about a particular place. In fact, most “vacation planners” that I find online are either sponsored by CVB’s (convention / visitors bureaus), chambers of commerce, or marketing organizations. The “vacation planner” tauts a particular destination, hotel, or restaurant, because someone pays them to do so. Not here.
I write about places that I’ve visited personally and that fit in with my idea of adventurous, intriguing, educational travel, that nurtures the mind and spirit. I prefer the more natural, the less commercial, and the historically authentic and well-preserved. Scenic travel routes and uncommercialized approaches to cities and towns (often difficult to find) turn me on. Original stories, interesting people, locally-owned businesses (including dining and lodging), and home-made / home-grown products “make my list.” I’m an historian, fascinated by the natural and human-made world, who values solutions to human problems and a better world for us all – and the qualities I look for in travel reflect that.
Bon voyage!
Let’s go cycling in Europe
Why not? Cycling in Europe is downright heroic. That’s right, heroic. I can still see myself gliding along a smooth-surfaced road in the Pays de la Loire, alongside fields of sunflowers . . . a car swings out wide and passes me, giving me a respectfully wide berth, and children’s faces look through the windows in awe of me. In their transfixed eyes, you can read “I’m going to do that when I grow up, like all the other heroes of French cycling.”
Besides, cycling is the best way to see the countryside, (don’t laugh) smell the countryside, and meet people on horseback, walking their dogs, or farming. And they are often the type of people who enjoy swapping stories or talking about their home region.
England
Beautiful from end to end. Thousands of good cycling routes: on-road; on marked cycling routes; on traffic-free routes . . . you have your pick.
One of my specialties is the East of England: few tourists, rich history, relatively gentle routes. Village-to-village exploration was never better.
Germany
Germany has the best, most numerous, and longest traffic-free trails in Europe. Most follow rivers, passing through villages and cities (if that’s what you’re looking for). Putting bikes on the train is almost completely hassle-free. Do it.
France
the Low Countries
Find an archaeology project for your family
all about PIT
www.passportintime.com
Colonial Dorchester
www.southcarolinaparks.com/park-finder/state-park/725.aspx
Family camping in the North Carolina mountains: rating the campgrounds
hot showers:
This is probably the critical factor for many in choosing a campground. Happily, several of the “famous old hands” of the mountain campgrounds have recently added hot showers. Savor, enjoy, and pass the loufa.
1. Standing Indian
Somewhat isolated and lovely location, off of U.S. 64, west of Franklin, NC. The campground lies down a light-traffic road, astride of the upper reaches of the legendary Nantahala River. The campground features several loops (including a group camp), almost all of them well-shaded and flat. The upper-most loops are on a slope, though marvelously stuck back in the rhododendrons, offering the best privacy. You can book through Reserve America, and the campground does indeed fill up for holiday periods.
Excellent hiking, trout fishing, and the campground area is big enough for the kids to explore (on bike, foot, or by floating down the Nantahala on an innertube).
www.forestcamping.com/dow/southern/nantcmp.htm www.reserveamerica.com/jsp/commonpage.jsp?goto=/nrrs/nc/stin/newindex.html
2. Black Mountain
The stomping ground of my reckless youth. By the way, don’t drive off the developed road or park where you’re not supposed to. I could tell you stories.
Black Mountain Campground, just 5.7 miles (and about 3,200 vertical feet) beneath the crest of Mount Mitchell, spreads its forested self along the South Toe River – another large, idyllic mountain river, suitable for fishing, swimming, and tubing (a bit farther down stream). Access is off of the Blue Ridge Parkway, just north (east, actually) of Mt. Mitchell State Park. It’s isolated enough, and in the midst of a great area for exploration in every direction.
www.cs.unca.edu/nfsnc/recreation/black_mountain.pdf
no showers:
Rough it. It’s not that bad. After all, there is running water: it’s just cold and comes out of a small faucet.
1. Linville Falls
Easy driving access from numerous directions; on top of the Appalachian plateau (so it’s cool enough); fun things to do in every direction . . . and the campground: many sites are along the Linville River (small enough to play in, though farther downstream, as in several hundred yards, it all plunges down the namesake falls – so avoid that); other sites are inside the loop, which is actually a very nice and playable meadow (bring the soccer ball or frisbee); sites are spacious and quite delightful.
www.nps.gov/blri/camp.htm
2. Cataloochee Cove
www.nps.gov/grsm/planyourvisit/cataloochee.htm
3. Sunburst
group camps (both with hot showers):
1. Appletree
2. Standing Indian
a Sampling of Rail Trails
the New River Trail
Chief Ladiga
Virginia Creeper
Pleasant Florida
two routes:
the Top Museums in the Southeast (that you may not have heard of)
Bob Jones University Museum and Gallery of Religious Art
Fort Hill, the John C. Calhoun home
the Old Executive Mansion, Milledgeville, GA
Scenic Drives: Bring your Sports Car
the assault on Cumberland Gap
Low Country meander
Greenville to Chattanooga
the Best Barrier Islands
Cumberland
Edisto
the Talbots and Fort George
Railroad Hotels in the Southeast
the General Morgan Inn
www.generalmorganinn.com
the Balsam Mountain Inn
www.balsammountaininn.com
Tracking Down History in the Southeast
the Upper Yadkin River: Moravians, Boone, and “Tom Dooley”
the Indian removals
Top Southeastern Sites: no holds barred
1. the Pleasant Hill Shaker Village, Kentucky
The fact that there are fewer annual visitors to “Shakertown” now than 15 years ago, is a sign that all is not right with humanity. You will not find a more beautiful, more peaceful, better preserved, better crafted living history village in America. Oh, and the food will be the best you will have on your trip, and the staff will be the most knowledgeable and approachable you’ll encounter.
2. the southern, southern Appalachians, Georgia / Alabama
I’ve outlined a big geographic area, taking in part of Georgia that’s sometimes known as “the Presidential Trail,” and a large, mostly very rural part of Alabama that tourism boosters call “the Longleaf Mountain Region.” Perhaps it’s the expectation that you’re way too far south for there to be mountains, that the lower reaches of the Appalachians seem more dramatic. Pine Mountain, FDR’s old stomping ground, raises eyebrows for sure. Be certain to drive along the crest road (stop at overlooks, take a hike), and also take a dip in the CCC-built, circular-styled swimming pool at the state park.
other Pine Mountain-area highlights:
Callaway Gardens (with its bicycling opportunities and great chances to relax, it’s a great family vacation destination)
Warm Springs: FDR’s Little White House; the Warm Springs Foundation; Warm Springs pools and museum; the Bullock House Restaurant
www.gastateparks.org/net/content/go.aspx?s=49.0.1.5 www.libertybellpool.com
Hills and Dales Estate, LaGrange, GA
www.hillsanddalesestate.org
Talladega and Cheaha Mountains in east central Alabama are even more dramatic. The appearance of the symmetrical ridges stretching off to the horizon (northeast or southwest) reminds one of glacier-cut valleys. Beautiful, scenic drives abound, while small court villages, and planned post-bellum industrial towns like Anniston, add to the intrigue.
Highlights:
Anniston’s churches (foremost, the Church of St. Michael’s and All Angels)
Talladega’s historic architecture (including the campus of the Alabama School for the Deaf)
the Chief Ladiga Trail (cycling / multi-use paved trail)
the Talladega Scenic Drive / Cheaha Mountain lodge / restaurant / overlook
3. the upper Potomac River, Virginia / West Virginia / Maryland
Chumley Cope
◦ 613 Poplar Street ◦
Spartanburg, SC 29302 ◦ (864) 431-7567
© 2007 Chumley Cope website design: Elizabeth B. Switzer
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