So my question is how do you prepare for a new international destination? Yes, I have my clothes, boots, passport, pack and reservations. I know the trails I’m going to walk, But that’s not what I mean.

How do you learn about a new country or area? I didn’t spend as much time as I wanted to on Ireland because I was so busy researching and writing my next book on national parks of the south. But a few weeks ago, I felt like I need to start cramming.

First, I got a AAA map of Ireland. OK, it goes with the UK, but that’s the best I could find for free. Then I ordered city maps – not free. I looked at the general area of the trails on a road map. I started reading the Lonely Planet Guide to Ireland. I find the series still the best go-to for history, culture and practicalities. You can find lodging information on the web, but not too many other guides are confident enough to spend pages explaining the culture.

I overdosed on current Irish movies two weeks ago. I saw The Boxer, In the Name of the Father, both with Daniel-Day Lewis  about the Irish troubles. Then I watched Evelyn, a quiet movie about families in the 1950s.

I was looking for a light book on what it’s like to live in present-day Ireland–an Irish version of Under the Tuscan Sky about Italy or A Year in Provence about France. But the book that caught my eye was McCarthy’s Bar by Pete McCarthy. McCarthy drove through the Republic of Ireland in the early 2000 and stopped in every bar called McCarthy and many others, as well. It did inform me about the Irish character and landscape. But mostly, it was funny.

That’s not much preparation, I know. What do you do?

I’ll be blogging about my trip, internet and exhaustion permitting. And for that long-standing curiosity? Stay tune, as they say.

Potluck, Message Delivered: The Great Smoky Mountains are Saved!”

Her book launch is on Sunday, August 9 at 2:00 pm at Ridgecrest Conference Center, Recreation Pavillion.

Lots of activities are planned. Here’s the background.

In 1929, NC journalists from the Asheville Times met those from TN’s Knoxville News-Sentinel on Clingmans Dome in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Hiking thru rugged backcountry in pouring rain from opposite sides of the Smokies highest mountain, they exchanged letters from each state’s governor and celebrated the first national park created by citizens raising money.

A messenger pigeon, named Potluck, was released to bring the good news home to Asheville. More pigeons were released from other Smoky mountains peaks to take the message back home detailing their discoveries. The Asheville Times printed each story delivered by pigeon-post.

Potluck’s historic flight has now been preserved in a new children’s book by Marci Spencer, author of  Clingmans Dome, Highest Mountain in the Great Smokies and Pisgah National Forest: a History.  Her son, Tim Worsham, illustrated the text.

Children, grandchildren, and never-grew-up children are invited to pay tribute to Potluck and celebrate the new book preserving that historic event.

*****Ms. Bee Tompkins (now 96 yrs. old), the 10 yr. old daughter of Potluck’s owner, will speak

******The author will speak on the military, spiritual, and symbolic history of homing pigeons and tell Potluck’s story

*****Dr. John Spencer, will sing “Wings of a Snow-white Dove” (solo) while Ms. Denise Bishop, retired after 30+ yrs. as a deaf interpreter for the NC School for the Deaf, interprets the song in sign language.

*******Jere Brittain, retired professor and local folk musician, will play the dulcimer.

Other outdoor and kid activities. Picnic foods provided.

Sounds like fun!

They write about their impressions of each park, letting their personalities come through. They didn’t do much research or background reading.  They only seemed to write about what they learned when they were at a park. Still a fun read.

This is a funny book, no doubt about it. Matt and Karen, the authors, quit their jobs for a year when they (or at least, when he) were fifty.

They planned to visit all the 59 national park protected by the National Park Service. And they did! Some of the visits were really fly-in, fly out – literally in Alaska. They spend a lot of time drinking and looking for meals, but that’s their way of travelling.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park is my “home” park, so I immediately went to that write-up. Since they visited all these parks superficially, they had the usual stereotypes of the Southern Appalachians. Matt even expected to hear Dueling Banjos. He also said that he didn’t want to talk to people in the wilderness. You want to talk to everyone in the wilderness.

Epilogue

Hey, writers. I’m now in the prestigious club of those whose reviews has been rejected by Amazon. In this case they gave me a whole bunch of reasons for rejection. The only one I could think of is that I put “personally identifiable content in the review. So read it on my blog and see if you can pick out why they rejected me.

Answer – probably because I said that the Smokies was my home park. Yeah… Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the most visited national park in the country. I’m not the only one that goes there often. In fact, I’m going there tomorrow. This rejection is done by a computer program – for sure.

What if this was a publicity stunt by Amazon? It surely got people talking.

But Andra Watkins, in Not without my Father, tells you in step by step fashion how she walked the 444-miles of the Natchez Trace Parkway – with her father as support, gadfly and super book salesman. If you want to learn about the Natchez Trace, go to the national park website. But if you want a sometimes funny, sometimes sad, always entertaining memoir about parents and their middle-age children, you’ll love Not without my Father.

The Natchez Trace which goes from Natchez MS to Nashville, TN, hasn’t been walked since steamboats became safe and cheap, about 1820.

President Jackson brought back his troops from New Orleans to Tennessee after the Battle of New Orleans in January 1815. Andra is the only living person who’s walked the whole road.

She got the idea as a way of publicizing her first novel, To live forever: An afterlife of Meriwether Lewis. Lewis, of Lewis and Clark fame, died on the Trace. Was it murder or suicide?

Andra walks fifteen miles a day for six days and rests the seventh. But the Trace isn’t the A.T. She’s walking on a road and it’s hard on her feet. It’s a flat trail, which sounds great to us mountain hikers, until you realize that the repetitive motion stiffens her muscles; she wakes up stiff and goes to bed stiff. The junk food made her sick.

But all of that, though difficult, is nothing compared to her interactions with her father, mother, and female friend of the family. They’re out there supporting her with rides, lodging and fried chicken while constantly telling her to quit. What was she thinking, taking all those people along? The real hero of the story is her loving husband who stays  back and goes to work every day, sending Andra supportive texts.

It would be tempting to compare Andra with Cheryl of Wild but they’re very different. Cheryl had big psychological problems, which she worked out while on the PCT. Her internal life made her book a best-seller, not her hike. I thought the book was more like Jennifer Pharr Davis’ Called Again about her record-setting hike on the A.T. Jennifer also had a support team that she had to deal with but with a lot less drama.

Andra understands the budget challenges facing the Natchez Trace. She encourages readers to support the Trace and donate to the park. Thank you, Andra!

She’s on her way to becoming a national writer. Right now, she’s on a national book tour, getting great publicity. I wonder if she’s already been to Asheville. I could learn a lot about marketing books from her.

It is the purpose of the Government to protect the game on the preserve in order that here it may have a refuge and breeding ground from which to replenish the adjacent mountain regions. It is expected also to establish elk and buffalo on the game preserve in fenced enclosures announced Verne Rhoades, the first Forest Supervisor in Pisgah.

This is only one of the fascinating pieces of history that I learned after reading Pisgah National Forest: A History by Marci Spencer, just published by The History Press. Spencer starts her book before George Vanderbilt came to Asheville to build Biltmore Estate. Vanderbilt bought land from several locals, including Thomas Clingman, of Clingmans Dome fame.

From this beginning, the book elaborates on first forester Gifford Pinchot and, my favorite character, Dr. Carl A. Schenck who came from Germany to manage Vanderbilt’s forests. Schenck later started America’s first school of forestry.

No discussion of Vanderbilt’s influence is complete without talking about Bucksprings Lodge, his hunting lodge just below Mt. Pisgah. Spencer enlisted Walt Weber, an expert on Bucksprings Lodge and an active member of Carolina Mountain Club, to give her an in-depth tour of the lodge site.

But enough of the Pisgah district. Spencer writes with the same authority about the Appalachian District –Max Patch and Roan Mountains — and Grandfather District — Linville Gorge and Wilson Creek. The author walks through the human, political and natural history of Pisgah National Forest. She enlisted the help of dozens of expert historians and naturalists to make sure that her story is based on solid research.

If I have one quibble about the book, it’s that it only mentions the Mountains-to-Sea Across North Carolina twice just in passing. With over 250 miles of the MST through Pisgah, the trail might have gotten a bigger billing.

The History Press puts out beautifully illustrated books. The center of the Pisgah book displays 16 pages of color inserts. Many historic black and white pictures pepper the text. The bibliography and index are impeccable, another indication of a quality piece of work.

After retiring as a nurse practitioner, Marci earned her certificate as a North Carolina environmental educator and a Blue Ridge naturalist. She is the author of Clingmans Dome: Highest Mountain in the Great Smokies, and a soon-to-be released children’s book based on a true story, called Potluck Message Delivered: The Great Smoky Mountains are Saved! Marcia Spencer is a volunteer for the Great Smoky Mountains National Park at Clingmans Dome.

PS – What happened to those buffaloes? The experiment failed and the buffalo didn’t survive.

Book Launch
Marci Spencer will launch her book on Sunday November 16 at 3 pm at the historic Buckspring Cabin at The Ramble Biltmore Forest. The Main Entrance is on US-25/Hendersonville Road, Asheville, NC 28803 139 Valley Spring Road.

A book signing will follow the author’s discussion. George Cecil, the last George Vanderbilt descendant to own Buckspring Cabin, will speak on his grandfather’s Buckspring Lodge in Pisgah Forest and his own personal memories there.