It looks the same coming from any direction. The water tower sits atop a hill off the center of town, shouting “Ava Bears” from its steel sides. This garden spot in the middle of the Mark Twain Forest missed a … Read More
Welcome Home
Doesn’t matter how long you’ve been gone. Maybe you circled the globe. Or you just stepped out the door to grab the newspaper. The committee assembles. With laser focus, they position themselves according to their own rules. You can return … Read More
Road Story
Erifnus waited patiently beside old hotels and farmhouses, chapels and prisons, diners and greasy spoons, graveyards, museums, creeks and canyons and unsavory encounters. She always escaped with a story. She won an Emmy. I just went along for the ride.
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
Erifnus Caitnop
So I set out to feel every crack in Missouri’s pavement. As with all stories – and symphonies and carnal acts – it was an uneven ride. Although a dozen friends and a handful of reporters rode with me on … Read More
I drove all the roads
The map called out the names; I traced the stories. Every fold in the Ozarks, every bend in the rivers, every drive down the main drag in 700 towns reminded me that even as my map sets the stage, it … Read More
Sharp Young Minds
Just spoke to Grant Elementary geography classes, and was reminded that, even on my best day, I’ll never be as sharp as a roomful of fourth graders. We had a blast talking parklands, prairie chickens and preservation.
Bringing the Backroads to the Classroom
Just spoke to 70 fourth graders. Captured their attention with my prairie chicken dance. We talked about finding wild Missouri. Their eyes got even wider when I told them about joining a producer from Saturday Night Live to raft the … Read More