The air was cold, a few degrees above freezing. A north wind tried to aggravate us, but Cora blocked its best gusts. Cora is the island on our port side. We’d survived the toughest part of the trip: launching a … Read More
Chapel in the Snow
Just off the highway, inspiration awaits. Fay Jones did the chapel. Mother Nature threw in the snow.
Empty Faces, Hollow Eyes
Damn depressing. But they deserve a shout. Thousands of these old family farmhouses sit empty and decaying. Each house was a setting for love, laughter, life. But during the 1980s and thereafter, thousands of families were driven from their homesteads. … Read More
What Would Jesse Do?
Along the road we saw a sign, a real jolt to libertarians, especially those who liberated cash from banks and trains.
Now Showing
Of the thousands of drive-in theater screens that dotted the countryside, few remain. Many are ghost screens, forever blank. But now and then…
Winter Camping Alone
If you wanted to hide from creditors or a hit man, Lake Wappapello would do nicely. Isolated in rugged hills, wholly surrounded by the thick woods of Mark Twain National Forest, the lake stands apart from the crowd. Driving to … Read More
Wilderness
Downriver, I found a suitable gravel bar where I beached my canoe and set up camp deep in the Irish Wilderness. I sat alone by the campfire and thought about the strange evolution of this area: wilderness, then settled and … Read More