We’re not traveling. So we peeked in the rearview mirror at some of our favorite signs along the road trip into America’s hidden heart.
Constable Wyatt Earp, Lamar, Missouri
Prescott, Arizona likes cowboys. And whiskey. Always has. In the Palace saloon, where the piano player sits on a beer keg, they talk about Doc Holliday and the Earp brothers. Never knew much about the Earp brothers beyond the Hollywood … Read More
The Bronze Bard
The one-two punch of Santa Fe’s rarified air (7200 ft elevation) and Canyon Road shopping kicked my ass. I spied a bench, only partially occupied by an old friend from back home. Tipped my cap to this bronzed bard. He … Read More
Roger Miller Is Alive and Well
“Hello KCI, your temperature is 78.” Never mind that there may not be a dozen people at KCI listening to KMZU Radio. That just proves it’s Missouri’s best radio station. Or at least it’s best for me, as I drive … Read More
Skunks, Laws and Hardware
“That there’s not a skunk,” the guide pointed to one animal pelt on a table, “That’s genuine Alaskan sable.” It was a skunk, the guide admitted, but to the European fur market in the early 1800s, the term Alaskan sable … Read More
Well-traveled children…
“Got a ham bone?” I asked the undertaker. I pulled a two-pound bag of great northern beans out of my overcoat pocket and plopped it on his desk. He looked puzzled. “Last request,” I said, and told him about my … Read More
Watery Grave
Looking upriver from the Hermann bluff, I could almost see Sonora Chute. It was a cold February day in 1856 when Captain Bill Terrill ran his sidewheeler Sonora through ice floes near Portland, Missouri. At 363 tons, the Sonora was … Read More
Local flavor. Local stories. Missouri’s back yard.
In the aftermath of the tragic events of 9/11, folks wanted to stay closer to home, closer to loved ones. They didn’t trust travel, especially airline travel, until airlines started offering round-trip fares for fifty bucks. Then, magically, people felt … Read More
Old names along a meandering drive
“Next morning we caromed across Lyon Township, named for the first Union general killed in the Civil War, at Wilson’s Creek. We passed Neeper, and the hill where the old Cracker-Neck School stood, and the site of an old place … Read More