Always wanted to drive through a Van Gogh painting. South Dakota may be as close as I get. Endless acres of sunflowers, blooms big as your head. Along a roadside papered with Wall Drug signs, two museum billboards stood close … Read More
Fighting, healing and music.
We passed Cedar Springs and stopped in El Dorado Springs, where the Osage Tribe used to bring their sick to heal in the mineral springs. When Europeans settled the area, the Osage left for their own safety, and the springs … Read More
Road to Nowhere
Dare I drive the old road? Dismissed by a superhighway, this stretch of pavement beckons for diesel vibrations and the familiar feel of rubber. Brittle and crumbling, its most persistent passengers move up through the cracks, wave at the sun, … Read More
They were an odd committee
The skull called the meeting. But the committee members, they’re all gone now. Gone is the Elvis Is Alive Museum on I-70. The campfire is consumed. And Stubby the squirrel bit the pavement, I suspect, many years ago. These images … Read More
Did Billy the Kid really light his farts?
After a day of snake charming, we returned to a favorite watering hole, La Posta in Las Cruces, New Mexico, a relic from the Butterfield Trail. Pancho Villa, Billy the Kid & Kit Carson passed through here. Good salsa. Hot … Read More
Outlaws need pants.
Just south of Lawson, in the pastoral countryside, a huge factory, built more than 150 years ago, made pants and sweaters. The factory may have sold pants and sweaters to Harry Truman, who sold pants and sweaters when he was … Read More
The Church in the Wildwood where “Good Father Gus” Tolton Was Born
St. Peter’s Church casts its short shadow beside the cemetery, awaiting parishioners from Monroe City and Perry, Spalding and Rensselaer, as it has ever since the church was built back at the beginning of the Civil War. Nowadays, the faithful … Read More
When the Circus Came to Town
In 1933, the circus came to town. And stayed. For a dozen years, the Russell Brothers Circus made its winter home in Rolla. And each spring, the major three-ring extravaganza rehearsed in the fields around the old Civil War Fort … Read More
My Favorite Road
“What’s your favorite road?” That question comes up a lot from people who find out I’ve driven every mile on the map.They’re curious. What’s my favorite restaurant? Favorite bed and breakfast? Favorite state park? The question came up in Trenton. … Read More