A picture I took at the Bodie Island Lighthouse with Travel Monkey, the kids’ stuffed animal that comes with me on road trips.

Summer’s halfway gone, folks, and if you’re gonna go out and carpe diem, you’d better do it quick. To help, let’s work together and help people you don’t even know have a good time. So here’s your task: In the comments, write a few sentences about a place you’ve been over the last few years. Basically, note the reason you went, roughly how much it cost (was it cheap? Did it set you back a thousand bucks?), how long one should reasonably stay there (a week, or an hour while you’re passing through), the circumstances (fun for children, best booze cruise outside of Myrtle Beach), and something great or unusual that happened to you there. I’m okay with hearing about your quintessential North Carolina experiences (done looked at a lighthouse), but extra credit if it’s something novel or weird or off the beaten path (spent a voluntary week in Murphy). Now, I know some of you subscribers are travel writers, visitors’ bureau folks, or influencers, but try to keep your work impulses down and tell me where you’ve gone to genuinely get away. You and I can award points here by liking comments, and hopefully we’ll all learn something new.