The name Van Meter State Park in northwestern Missouri predicts nothing about the park’s remarkable gifts. I approached it on state road 122, rolling La Tortue through undulating farm fields that were broken only by occasional brush and trees gathered in wet draws. Mostly, this was engineered habitat for soybeans and corn. We had our […]
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The Accidental Rooster
Tuesday March 1 was a four-state day. I ate breakfast at dawn in a campground in eastern New Mexico. Lunch found me sitting cross-legged on the ground at the weedy edges of a rest area outside of Dalhart Texas. In the mid-afternoon, Dellie and I shared a soft ice cream in Hooker, Oklahoma. By dinner, […]
Petrified on Interstate 40
It has been a busy week on the road. Just before I left the Navajo/Hopi Indian Reservation, I met a Navajo man named Gilbert, who pulled his pick up over to talk when he saw me wandering in a field with Dellie, about three miles from his home. Gilbert welcomed me to take a photo […]
Dry Canyon, Wet Rock
The walk up Grapevine Canyon in Lake Mead Reservoir recreation area begins on a dry river-bed pocked with drought-toughened shrubs. “Lake” Mead is one of several reservoirs on the Colorado River, formed by dams that redirect its water to agriculture and urban use. Every drop of water in the Colorado basin is allocated, so much […]
Pavement and A-maze-ment
Leaving the L.A. Basin, I drove across a maze of people and pavement that boggled my mind. After four days in a California idyll with my son in Venice Beach a block from the ocean, I was encountering the famed L.A. freeway system – the flip-side of the postcard. With no slow lane for my […]
Strawberries, Broccoli and Wine
La Tortue and I spent several days along the central coast of California, where we visited family and friends. This reconnection with the oak savannah of my childhood has been splendid and serene. After Pismo Beach, I discovered Guadalupe, a broad valley along the coast that is ringed all around by mountain ranges that hold […]