Minnesota Winter
December 22, 2009
It’s the Sunday after Thanksgiving, not even December yet, and it’s snowing like it’s the nadir of winter. It started coming down before the sun came up. The sky is icy white, a crown of snowflakes. With no wind to move it, the snow collects where it lands, even on thin fencing wire.... Read more »
West Bend, Iowa
October 6, 2009
Back on the straight and narrow – the roads of Iowa. This state has 113,000 miles of these field-to-market roads. Conceived a hundred years ago, the idea was that every square mile of farmland would have a road on every side. Driving across Iowa today is like touring a checkerboard, skirting the... Read more »
Pine Mountain, Georgia
September 1, 2009
I am in the Purple Cow Café eating ice cream and studying my map of Georgia. At the next table, a girl, wearing a University of Georgia sweatshirt, is engrossed in reading e-mail. I can’t see her computer screen, but she has the obvious signs – eyes fixed, rhythmic mouse-hand motion, expression... Read more »
Central Florida
August 6, 2009
People in Northern Minnesota – and I used to be one – can identify with Central Florida, particularly Polk County. A little bigger than Rhode Island, it’s got 554 lakes and the Minnesota-size mosquitoes to go with them. Here, too, fishing is a passion. They even call this the “Bass... Read more »
Rusty
July 1, 2009
This month is Rusty’s birthday; at least I think it is. I’m not sure when she was born. The early months of her life are a mystery. Rusty and I teamed up in 1995. I was home in Southern California for a short stay when I crossed paths with a veterinarian friend of mine. He, too, had an RV... Read more »
Third Time’s a Charm?
July 1, 2009
Twice I’d been thwarted, my efforts rendered moot, my hopes dashed. Twice I’d traveled to Alaska to pursue creatures that proved to be more elusive than advertised. On two previous trips I had spent upwards of 30 hours plying the water in and around Prince William Sound, trying to catch a... Read more »
Shades of Green: Segway Personal Transporters
June 1, 2009
They were supposed to influence the way we got around town, to inspire us to think differently about ourselves and our surroundings and, therefore, to change the world. Existing cities would be reconfigured to accommodate these innovative vehicles, or perhaps towns would be built from the ground up that... Read more »
Into the Woods: Missouri’s Lake of the Ozarks
May 1, 2009
During my first visit to Missouri’s Lake of the Ozarks, the attacks of 9/11 occurred, indelibly coloring my experiences in the region with sadness, confusion and outrage. I found it difficult to objectively assess Lake of the Ozarks’ attractions – of which there are many – with... Read more »
Lake Charles, Louisiana
April 1, 2009
Given that Lake Charles averages a major hurricane at least every decade, it is amazing that an oak tree in this Southern Louisiana town has survived for more than 350 years. They claim here that hurricanes are even good for them – they blow away dead branches. Named the Sallier Oak, it’s... Read more »
Papa’s Waters: Sun Valley, Idaho
April 1, 2009
My 10th-grade journalism teacher taught me that words can deliver salvation. Until I began to write sports for my high-school newspaper, writing had only served utilitarian purposes – essays written solely because they had been assigned and “thank you” notes scrawled because they were... Read more »
