Women’s Comedy Film Festival in Atlanta

 

I’m so excited: My comedy short, Such A Deal, that I co-wrote with Dionna McMillian will be screening on Sunday, March 27 at the Women’s Comedy Film Festival in Atlanta. 

Here’s what the festival posted on their social media platforms:

Congratulations to Jeanine Barone and Dionna McMillian and their project “Such A Deal” for being an Official Film Selection to the Women’s Comedy Film Festival in Atlantas. 

“On the first day of her life in New York City, Grace finds out that not only is her new apartment not yet livable but her temporary, supposedly charming digs are, well, not exactly what she expected.”

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The Best Urban Rails-to-Trails in the U.S.

As transit networks for human-powered activities, rails to trails are bringing together communities, linked by a shared interest in a safe way to commute and commune with nature, and, in the process, protecting natural resources while also revitalizing local businesses.

1. Illinois Prairie Path, Illinois

Nicknamed the Roarin' Elgin, the now retired Chicago, Aurora & Elgin Railroad once carried commuters and freight between Chicago and its suburbs. Its legacy, the 62-mile Illinois Prairie Path (IPP), one of the country's oldest rails to trails, is perfect not only for the botanically inclined but also the committed commuter.

2. Ojai Valley and Venture River trails - California

Urban grittiness is evident along the six-mile Ventura River trail where rotating and decommissioned oil derricks are in plain sight. But art installations also dot this trail, such as a bronze of oranges, reflecting the produce the railroad once transported, and other Ventura themes.

3. Burke Gilman Trail - Washington

 Traced by a sandy beach, Golden Gardens as well as other parts of the trail offer views of the mighty Olympic Mountains, even snow-capped Mount Rainier, in the distance.

4. Fred Marquis Pinellas Trail, Florida

The path -- it's dotted with aluminum sculptures as a nod to its railroad history -- allows bladers, walkers and cyclists to safely and scenically traverse the Gulf coast, tidal waterways, myriad leafy parks and quaint neighborhoods in a state that's hardly noted for its pedestrian-friendly clime.

5. Minuteman Bikeway - Massachusetts

Short but oh-so-sweet, the 10-mile-long Minuteman Bikeway wanders through the landscape touched by the Revolutionary War, paralleling the Battle Road, aka Massachusetts Avenue, the route taken by British soldiers that marched to Concord. Following the path of the Lexington & West Cambridge Railroad from Cambridge to Bedford, this rail-to-trail is heralded as a year-round commuter way, even in the dead of winter.

6. Washington & Old Dominion Trail - Virginia

Many cyclists, joggers and bladers escape D.C. or commute on this trail that compliments the capital's retinue of memorials and monuments with lessons in history that are blended with a sense of peace rarely found in the chaotic Beltway.

7. Silver Comet Trail - Georgia

For 22 years since 1947, passengers could board a luxury train that cruised over towering trestles and through tunnels bored into mountains as it made the trip from New York to Birmingham, Alabama. That storied corridor has been transformed into the 62-mile Silver Comet Trail that spans Smyrna, Georgia (on the outskirts of Atlanta) to the Georgia/Alabama border near Cedartown in a rural North Georgia corner that's a mix of hardwood forests and rolling fields.

Find out more about this these seven urban rails to trails in the article I wrote for NationalGeographic Traveler - Intelligent Travel.

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Wild & Wonderful Cumberland Island

It may seem unusual to see a wild horse scamping across the sand dunes, but not on Georgia's Cumberland Island National Seashore. Though there are a scattering of dwellings left from before it was designated a National Seashore, I find Georgia's largest barrier island -- it's about 18 miles long -- to be pretty pristine in my book.

It's accessible only by ferry (you better make a reservation months in advance) or private charter. And don't think about bringing your car: it's not allowed. Here I found everything I love about a seaside wilderness: miles of walking trails dripping with Spanish moss and lush with palmetto and pines, and beaches as unspoiled as they come. On the expanses of white sand. my feet were pretty much the only human footprints around. But walking barefoot on the sugar white surface when the summer sun is blazing tested my pain threshold.

Whenever I visit, I opt for staying at one of the primitive campgrounds -- you need reservations here, too -- where I've seen armadillo crawling through. Instead of an alarm clock, it's the roar of the ocean that awakens me. But if you're interested in luxury, you can spend a weekend at the turn-of-the-century Greyfield Inn that was built by Andrew Carnegie's brother.

This is a land loaded with natural pleasures: I rented a bike and pedaled beside tall live oaks on shaded paths where I cautiously veered around a thick snake that I luckily wasn't close enough to identify. But I knew it could've been one of several vipers, among the more than a dozen snake species that live here. That's what makes Cumberland Island so amazing; you never know what to expect. Wild hogs and turkey, and endangered loggerhead sea turtles call Cumberland Island home. And binoculars are a must because there are birds galore. Sure, tiny sandpipers flit about the miles of beachland. But I also found different gulls, plovers and storks.

Once you leave the ferry and venture on the trails, you'll really feel like you have the place to yourself. But you can also have plenty of guided activities to choose from by following a ranger to explore Dungeness, the ruins of Thomas Carnegie's house as well as the Plum Orchard Mansion, another former Carnegie family estate. What's especially lovely about this island is how it combines a love of nature with historical artifacts, including the First African Baptist Church that served former slaves from the late 1800s.

Getting to Cumberland Island is difficult, but deliberately so. That way, only the most committed will step on her shores to enjoy her natural delights.

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