Should’ve planned it better. Some exotic background like Mt. Rushmore or the Golden Gate Bridge. It sneaked up on us as we left the city limits, so we pulled off I-70 and into a parking lot, where I made Erifnus … Read More
12,000 Poles Down
The storm spread a path of destruction through northern Arkansas and southern Missouri. In two Bootheel counties alone, the ice toppled 12,000 telephone poles.
SOS
See this and you know you’re headed into hell. From a dozen states a bucket truck convoy as far as the eye could see.
Nature Rocks the Bootheel
Seven years ago this weekend the Ice Storm of 2009 rolled across northern Arkansas and southern Missouri, thick as Dusty’s beard.
Looney Creek
It’s now a sanctuary for animals, this old church at Looney Creek Cemetery. Erifnus doesn’t mind. Buried here, my great great grandfather was shot by a Union firing squad, along with nine other young men, in a terrifying event that … Read More
Foggy Memory
It was a giant, to a kid. The old hotel towered over Route 66 at Highway 63. Atop a glass penthouse that crowned the roof, a green neon pennant glowed through the fog, framed perfectly by my bedroom window as … Read More
All in a Name
Last time I bought a Powerball ticket, the Rams hadn’t left LA yet. This time I bought one, like almost everybody. I knew my chances were infantesimal, but if you don’t buy a ticket… Turns out I was the victim … Read More
Rock On
Sunday evening. Pedaling my Schwinn Continental through downtown Columbia, I noticed something unusual, so I stopped to watch. Hundreds of tuxedos and gowns bedecking a bizarre bunch of freakers, wild daglo hairdos and stunning face jewelry. Twentysomethings and thirtysomethings, most … Read More
Rafting the Mississippi
The days were getting warmer when I got a call from a good friend alerting me that an adventurous soul was about to experience the dream of every American river rat. He’d built a raft, and was looking for crew … Read More
Kingdom Come
It was 10 p.m. when I reached Kingdom City. Fresh water filled a labyrinth of potholes in the parking lot of the Iron Skillet Truck Stop. The depositor, a monstrous thunderstorm, fled the scene, churning east down the highway, framing … Read More