The game of horseshoes is taken very seriously here. People own their own set of horseshoes to play with and there are tournaments at local eateries. Thanks to our new neighbor in the RV Park, Dan, everyone in my family learned how to play horseshoes properly. It is not an easy game to master, but each of us seemed to get the hang of it eventually. Learning how to score the game is not complicated (like bowling). A player can earn points for pitching his/her s...

Fast forward to September 2010, I was invited to attend a State Farm certification class in Birmingham AL. Since my wife is African American, adopted by white civil rights activists in the early 60's, and since we are taking the year to travel with our children, we thought it would be an enriching experience for us. We were right. I am of hispanic/irish decent, 50/50, smack down the middle. I had spent some time in the south while playing minor league baseba...

When I was in Round Rock we went to a doughnut shop. It was the awesomest doughnut shop ever. Their orange glaze donoughts were perfection and there was a doughnut that was a foot long!!!  And Adam Richman the guy on Man v. Food went here. If you watch Man v. Food a little clip of him with the doughnut is on the intro.

Traveling to Birmingham, AL, was my first trip to the Deep South. Being born and raised on the west coast and having no relatives who live in the south, I had very little knowledge about the people, customs, or landscape of the southern states except what I had seen in films. Unfortunately, the TV & film industries have done its fair share over time to portray the most stereotypical southern folk possible so that was no help. Fleshing out and portraying sincere/...