Results for "taphophile"

a bronze lifesize sculpture of a girl with two arms held like scales at her side in Telfair Museum

3 Savannah Telfair Museums Worth Visiting

Three unique Savannah Telfair museums will take you on an art, history, and architecture tour of the city from its beginnings to the present. The best part? All three are combined in one price. Many people who visit Savannah are familiar with the Telfair Academy. That’s where you’ll find the famous “Bird Girl” statue depicted on the cover of John Berendt’s Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. The book and subsequent movie caused Savannah tourism to increase dramatically...

low rock wall surrounded by trees with grave markets in the background

Discovering the Secret Cemeteries in Shenandoah National Park

After three weeks of searching for cemeteries in Shenandoah National Park, I was still stunned by how much the trails could change in mere days. When I first arrived, most of the trees and bushes were nearly bare, and it was easy to find old ruins and gravestones. Now, the foliage is denser, and the forest is overtaking everything. As I hiked alongside the babbling brook in the dying light of day, parts of the path were thick with tall...

Angel statue at Bonaventure cemetery with pink and white azalea flowers in spring

6 Sights in Savannah from Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

Before the book “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil” few people went to Savannah, Georgia. After, everybody went. In 1993, the year before John Berendt published the book, about five million people visited Savannah. In 1995, that number increased by 50%, and by 2022, they received approximately 14.8 million visitors yearly. Much of it, like me, is still from the book or the subsequent movie. Even those who have never read “Midnight in the Garden of Good and...

A white marble bust of Poe
A replica model of the Titanic in a glass box.

Visit a Rare Titanic Museum and Cemetery

The Titanic museum in Halifax is home to one of the world’s most grim and riveting stories. You’ll be surprised that you don’t know the half of it. There’s much more than James Cameron depicted in “Titanic,” including a cemetery with over 150 graves of Titanic’s victims. The Titanic exhibit is part of the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. I stopped by while on a nearly two-year-long solo road trip around the United States, Mexico...

A marshy green oasis filled with swampy waters, trees and bushes

Five Things You Didn’t Know About Sleepy Hollow

You’ve heard of Sleepy Hollow and the headless horseman, but do you know about the other Sleepy Hollow Cemetery? This one is in Concord, Massachusetts and there are so many famous authors buried there they named a section “Author’s Ridge.” As a taphophile, I had to visit. I recently visited Concord while traveling in my van on a two-year solo nomadic road trip, hiking, visiting historic sites, and staying in short-term rentals. I stopped at the homes and locations made...

Three young boys in red tshirt pose with the Rocky statue, arms raised

10 Iconic Things to See in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Finding things to see in Philadelphia isn’t hard; deciding what you’ll do will be a challenge. Philadelphia is worth visiting because it’s, in many ways, the birthplace of the United States, where the founding fathers formed a new country. It’s also a UNESCO-designated World Heritage city. I spent several days rambling around during my nearly two-year road trip as a solo nomad, and each location in Philadelphia brought a new fascinating historical fact to add to my quickly increasing bank...

sentinel at the tomb of the unknown soldier

Why You Should Visit Arlington National Cemetery

When you first enter Arlington National Cemetery, the tranquility is striking. Then, as you walk among the many perfectly uniform white headstones, you are quietly humbled and, finally, seeing the magnitude of our dead, sad but proud. There far many more graves than I could comprehend. There are 600+ acres in Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C. Though I knew it was large, nothing prepares you for the immensity of so many uniform graves. That they represent only a tiny...

Old Salem Moravian Settlement sign and fence