Cheryl wasn’t too keen on my motel choice. But water pressure was good. Route 66.
It was a close call on Route 66, one that made us shudder. We had escaped Texas and crossed into the Land of Enchantment at the spot where New Mexico’s vista opens up like a Georgia O’Keefe flower. As we … Read More
More Cowgirl
We heard about the cowgirl who stands beside her headless cowboy. Did she decapitate him? Or does she stand beside her man in his time of need? We set out to solve the mystery. Along the way we discovered more … Read More
Carny Road
Two icons along Route 66 point to a third. Sticking up like a wart on the flat windy Texas Panhandle, where dust is a commodity spread liberally along the armpit of Oklahoma, a leaning tower teeters, posing for shutterbugs intent … Read More
A Secret D-Day Rehearsal Became The Tigers’ Most Devastating Loss
On the road between Kingdom City and Auxvasse, thousands of travelers pass a sign designating a stretch of Highway 54 as Exercise Tiger Memorial Highway. Most of them don’t know what Exercise Tiger means. It’s the story about the ambush … Read More
He was older than me
Morning rush hour murders your nerves. Worse for turtles. I saw one the other day, stranded on the center line of a busy expressway. He was upside down, legs fully extended, grasping at the sky. His chances for survival were … Read More
The Woman Who Toppled Madmen
I left grad school to take a job with Gardner Advertising, Saint Louis’ second-largest ad agency. Clients ranged from Busch Beer and the St. Louis Baseball Cardinals to Puppy Chow and Chuck Wagon dog food, to Jack Daniels whiskey. Even … Read More
The Marshfield Tornado
One catastrophic event affected 16-year-old John Boone so deeply he recounted the vivid story in nearly every concert until he died. Around suppertime on Sunday, April 18, 1880, a tornado with winds topping 200 miles per hour leveled much of … Read More
Sunrise with Coast Guard Cutter
Our sloop sailed all night across the Bermuda Triangle. At dawn we crossed the Gulf Stream. We had maneuvered into position to enter the Lake Worth cut into West Palm when a voice crackled over our ship-to-shore radio: “Westbound sloop … Read More