Notes from the American Road…

Hi! Back for a short posting. I sure hope this finds you well after all these months. Well, finished my “Snowbird” stint in Myrtle Beach three weeks ago and immediately set out to visit my daughters, Amy and Charlotte. It was especially nice being able to spend time with my grandson, Hunter. The 19-year-old was finally back home [...]

When I was much younger and more naive, when I actually believed in the tooth fairy and nobility of mankind, I’d start off the first day of a new year compiling a long list of resolutions I convinced myself would be the ticket to mending my ways. The reality, however, was I always managed to get sidetracked [...]

I’ve ordered a stack of large 2012 calendar kitchen magnets. If you’d like one, just drop me a line — and be sure to include your snail mail home address — and I’ll get it out to you by the new year. Given the limited number available, it’ll have to be first-come, first-served. The magnet, a small [...]

Well, the holidays are here…again. Let’s hope y’all survived “Black Friday” without being pepper-sprayed or gunned down in a Walmart parking lot. This year, I’m doing all my Christmas shopping online. Much safer, plus I can drink beer and eat popcorn at the same time. Thank God for Amazon.com! Speaking of online shopping, my road [...]

Snowbird – (snbûrd)  n.  One who moves from a cold to a warm place in the winter. That’ll be me next week, one of several million emerging seniors drawn south by the promise of palm trees and warm sand. Meantime, I’m hanging out this week in Northern Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley, savouring the stubborn remnants of a beautiful autumn…    

Wrapping up my visit to Vermont. The autumn foliage has been spectacular this year, but I can’t leave without saying a few words about Hurricane Irene and the vicious hammering she unloaded on this little state. Mile after mile of road was washed away and many homes with the misfortune to be situated close to flowing water took it on [...]

  Whose woods these are I think I know. His house is in the village though; He will not see me stopping here To watch his woods fill up with ‘leaves.’ My little horse must think it queer To stop without a farmhouse near Between the woods and frozen lake The darkest evening of the [...]

My little (mis)adventures are starting to crop up in books written by former colleagues from my many years in far-flung places. The latest is “Reporter,” written by an old Kiwi friend from my Bangkok years, John McBeth. The book, by the way, is now available on Amazon.com. John’s terrific memoir is yet another reminder I’d better get [...]

12 months. 40 states. 41,000 miles. Time now to rest. Reflect. Write. Eat healthy. Wash my socks. While this posting officially closes out my year-long road trip, the blog will remain online indefinitely, and I’ll return from time to time with postscripts. There’s no way I could have completed this journey without your support and [...]

Cedar Covered Bridge (1883) Roseman Covered Bridge (1883), featured in both the film and book. Cutler-Donahoe Covered Bridge (1871) Hogback Covered Bridge (1884) Holliwell Covered Bridge (1880), featured in the film.                     Meryl Streep on the making of “The Bridges of Madison County”                               http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pul3Cp6aTEQ&NR=1

Winterset is a pretty as the sunny side of a peach town of 5,000 deep in the American Heartland. This place absolutely exudes Americana, from it’s quaint town square and homespun shops to the many covered bridges you may have read about here in Madison County. And what could possibly be more American than that enduring American [...]

Now that my year-long road trip is nearing it’s end, many of you have been asking which place I enjoyed most. Never an easy question to answer given all the ground I covered, but it started me thinking I really need to focus on determining that, information which could prove useful when I zero in on writing the book. Anyway, I’ve sorted through [...]

This afternoon did what I seem to enjoy most these days … surrender to The Fates to see where they guide me. Ended up in the small Wind Cave National Park, one of the oldest in the park system, which harbors a fragment of native grasslands which once stretched from Indiana to the Rocky Mountains, from [...]

It’s rare you’ll find me mingling with the tourist hordes, but today I made an exception. I figured since I was already in the Black Hills neighbohood, it would be foolish not to visit one of the most inspiring symbols of our democracy, standing right there alongside the Statue of Liberty. Mount Rushmore is indeed [...]

Covered a lot of ground today — from Laramie, Wyoming to Hot Springs, South Dakota — but the time passed quickly thanks to the stunning vast grasslands and no end of sky… The route was sprinkled with small rural towns, one of which really caught my eye. Lost Springs, around since the 1880′s, has a population of FOUR…yes, FOUR! [...]

I’m hoping to get out of Jackson Hole in the morning and reach the Little Big Horn by sundown, but more snow’s forecast overnight and these narrow, winding mountain roads are not for the faint-hearted, even in the best of times. Despite the potential disruption of my travel schedule, my day was made this morning when [...]

One of my goals is to snap an upclose photo of a moose. Easier said than done, however. The animals, I’ve discovered, are shy and ghostly. I spy one from time to time, like the one this morning silhouetted against the Grand Tetons in Wyoming, but she melted back into the landscape before I could [...]

It was 22 degrees at daybreak when I pulled out of the parking lot of the Pony Express Motel in Jackson, Wyoming. Destination: Yellowstone. I wasn’t at all certain I’d be able to visit the crown jewel of the U.S. park system on this final leg of the road trip. The nearby South Entrance was closed because [...]

I pretty much had Wyoming’s Grand Teton National Park all to myself this morning. The reason could have been sub-freezing temps and a single digit wind chill factor…This, on May 3rd, no less. The Grand Teton range features peaks soaring up to 14,000 feet. The snow remains deep and stubborn at altitude. Below, Jenny Lake, frozen solid and snow-covered. Skies [...]

Idaho looking towards the Tetons, a mountain range of the Rockies. Later in the week, weather-permitting, I’ll try to get into those mountains with my camera.    

About the last thing I expected today was to wander into a dramatic snowscape in central Oregon, and on the first day of May, no less. There was a fresh coating of snow on top of deep, hard-packed drifts, and the roar of snowmobiles cut through the frosty air. Sping is slow to come to [...]

The Pacific Ocean is to my back as I start drifting inland, across the northern tier of states, with Yellowstone on my mind. I’ll miss this remote, serene far, far northwestern corner of California. It’s not only beautiful, but the people are the nicest I’ve met in my 11-months on the road. I’d live here if [...]

I was up at dawn today, standing on a rocky cliff, scanning the churning Pacific through sheets of rain, hoping to catch a glimpse of a migrating gray whale. But I saw nary a splash, vapor puff, or tail fluke. Just me alone out there in all that vastness, my sole company the distant, venerable Battery [...]

The prospect of a second straight day of bright sunshine was dealt a blow at dusk when heavy clouds began moving in off the Pacific.

The locals are flying high today in this extreme northwestern corner of California right on the Pacific Ocean.   It’s the weather which has everyone smiling and talking. 55 and sunny may not be too impressive to most of us, but the reaction to a day around here filled with light speaks volumes about the weather on [...]

  This morning crossed a driftwood-decorated beach and climbed the steep hill to the Battery Point Lighthouse, which has been guiding ships through the rock-strewn waters of the northern Pacific coast since 1856. The 45-foot tall California lighthouse, which has weathered countless storms and several tidal waves, is accessible only during low tide. Misjudge the [...]

I picked a nice, and appropriate, spot to spend “Earth Day 2011,” a picturesque town in Northern California, sandwiched between the Pacific Ocean and the magnificant redwood forests, a place where nature lives in harmony with the late arrivals. Difficult to believe it’s been 41 years since the first Earth Day which, as it turned out, [...]

Spent the day exploring the spectacular Redwood tree groves in California’s far northern reaches…    

The giant redwood tree below approaches 300 feet in height, measures some 15 feet in diameter, and could very well date back 2,000 years. Trees don’t come any taller than redwoods and they only grow on the U.S. West Coast, and no place else on earth. I reached far Northern California this afternoon, just a few miles [...]

                                           //includes updated travel information and new photos; writethru// The only reason I drove all the way to the Pacific was to take in the spectacular scenery in the Big Sur region, which runs for some 100 miles along the legendary Highway One coastal roadway, where the Santa Lucia Mountains rise abruply from the Pacific [...]

It took 10-months and 34,000 miles behind the wheel, but I finally reached the Pacific, and just in time this evening to catch the sun setting over the ocean and Monterey Peninsula.

Current Location: Lake Tahoe Next Destination: Big Sur Road Trip Day 319 Days Remaining: 47  

  Moved today from the hardscrabble Death Valley to the doorstep of the Pacific Northwest and a very laid back Lake Tahoe. On paper, it’s a six-hour drive. Took me 11 because I’ve yet to meet a dirt road that doesn’t merit exploring. I mapped out a backroads route which took me through areas that tourists, [...]

The theme song on my road trip (yes, I have a theme song!) is Bob Seger’s classic “Roll Me Away.” I wouldn’t for a moment consider a day behind the wheel without the Silver Bullet Band sitting beside me. The lyrics keep me pumped, focused, and involved as I roll on down the road… For [...]

Narrow paved road feeding off a slightly larger paved road. Old, faded handpainted wood sign points to a place called “Darwin.” I don’t have a clue what’s there, or how far it is down that road leading off into a vast, hilly, desert wilderness. It’s now starting to sleet. I’m temped to turn-tail, but decide [...]

Awoke this morning, looked out the window at the Las Vegas skyline, and decided on the spot it was time to hit the road. Nothing wrong with Vegas – I’d planned to be there until the 24th – but it does roar down on you with wall to wall noise, and I was missing the open road – [...]

Sign outside a Las Vegas business.   From the ridiculous to the sublime … Thursday I head out for an ultra-long weekend at the Sequoia National Forest high in the southern Sierra Nevada, home to groves of those magnificant giant, ancient trees, many of which reach 300-feet in height and live as long as 3,000 [...]

Decided to take a fresh air break today from Vegas so pointed the car north and headed in the direction of the Shoshone Tribe valley of Pah-Rimpi because, well, I liked the way the name rolled off my tongue. I find I do that a lot on my trip in determining the road to travel. [...]

“The Fremont Street Experience” is a five-block long pedestrian mall and attraction in downtown Las Vegas, which sits under a barrel vault canopy 90 feet off the ground. The idea of sound and light presentations after dark, live stage performances, street entertainers, combined with scores of beckoning casinos, hotels, bars, strip joints, restaurants, souvenir shops, and [...]

  Before there was a sprawling “Vegas Strip,” before the staggering megaboom of the 70′s, there existed another Vegas, a small town Las Vegas, where life centered around a few hotels like the Flamingo and a handfull of gambling establishments, a town where Sinatra and his “Rat Pack” redefined the word “cool.” The old Vegas [...]

Once again shelved the imperative to write and succumbed to the stirring of ancient instincts which compel us to flee urban centers for the forest, mountain, and plain. At this rate, I’ll finish the book along about 2025.    Today I hiked an escarpment at 4,500 feet, give or take. Here’s another of those mercifully short, off-the-cuff [...]

Where else but Las Vegas could you find such a 70′s retro hotel room?! In the advertising, it’s described as a “modern, cool, hip, non-gaming, smoke-free boutique property” each room coming with a 42″ plasma flatscreen TV. I plan on staying here for the next 11 days to get in some writing and to try [...]

Dateline: Virgin, Utah I stopped off for a late lunch Friday out in the middle of nowhere at the Buffalo Trails Trading Company, where you can get a hearty meal and shop for authentic Indian collectibles, all under one roof. I had the place all to myself in mid-afternoon. Italian opera was blaring out over [...]

Had nothing special planned for the day so took a leisurely motor tour of a few of the millions of acres of open range, mountains, and canyons here in southwestern Utah, with no particular destination in mind…  

Finally, spend a relaxing moment on the bank of the North Fork Virgin River –

I’m over in Utah now, staying near the south entrance to the magnificant Zion National Park. I was there before sunrise today to try to catch the good light. Below you’ll find a few samples of this days photography. I’ll head back again this evening before lousy weather moving in from California socks in this [...]

I wish this town had a better name, one befitting its Wild West desert location and rawhide demeanour. Black Rock has a nice ring to it. The “Bad Day at Black Rock” title of this blog is a reference to the 1955 film noir classic starring Spencer Tracy, which was filmed just on the other [...]

Was out and about today in Death Valley.    Thanks to a stubborn haze, the light was lousy so I pretty much kissed off the photography and played at being a tourist.My poor lungs were most appreciative of finally returning to sea level — actually 280 feet below — after weeks of riding the high country above [...]

I rolled out of Vegas this morning heading for Death Valley and quickly found myself in a barren, raw, unsettling landscape, easily the roughest terrain I’ve run across on my road trip. Great stretches of open road, practically no signs of ‘civilization.’ This place hadn’t changed a bit in millions of years. In modern day [...]

Trigger and I are moseying up the trail to the hottest, driest and lowest place in North America, and I’m going there voluntarily. Yep, it’s time to take on Death Valley, which is billed as “a superlative desert of streaming sand dunes, snow-capped mountains, multicolored rock layers, water-fluted canyons, and 3,000,000 acres of wilderness.” Some [...]

Drifted out into the Mojave Desert this morning to greet the break of day…  

A short video of an oxygen-challenged hiker in Nevada’s Red Rock Canyon… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwQhqnus5ws

Took my first wildlife photographs today (although I did once snap a few photos of shoppers at Walmart).    I was hiking up through Nevada’s Ice Box Canyon this morning when I spotted some movement off in the distance…   I slowly moved in closer and saw it was a Big Horn Sheep, the first I’ve [...]

Something’s always going on in Blue Diamond. When I was there last summer, the village was getting ready to host an Hawaiian Luau out in the high Nevada desert. Yes, a luau! Now, a talent show is being organized and promoted on hand-made signs sprinkled around town. The village sits at the base of the [...]

“Treat the earth well: it was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children. We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors, we borrow it from our Children.” (Ancient Native American Proverb) “The American Indian is of the soil, whether it be the region of forests, plains, pueblos, [...]

In Las Vegas now. Arrived Sunday evening. Woke up at three this morning. I’m clearly suffering ‘car lag’ out here in the Pacific Time Zone.   While waiting around for the $5.99 lunch buffets at the casinos to open their doors today, I took a quick run out to Red Rock Canyon National Park, only [...]

Well, I’m a standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona and such a fine sight to see It’s a girl, my Lord, in a flatbed Ford slowin’ down to take a look at me   Remember that classic Eagles song from 1972? Well, I was in Winslow the other day and didn’t see a single [...]

A “Pow Wow” is serious business to the Native American tribes of the Great Southwest It’s a way of renewing old friendships, making new ones and, most critically, to remember the old ways with pride, and resolve to preserve that rich cultural heritage. I ran across this man (sorry, I lost his name) and his two [...]

I stopped off for lunch today at the Falcon Family Restaurant in Winslow, Arizona. Nothing fancy. Old schoool vinyl booths, linoleum floor. Big portions of hearty Mexican-American food at a resaonable price. Friendly staff, too. Mostly Native American and Hispanic clientele. People knew one another. The restaurant is situated right alongside a dreary, surviving section [...]

Another “me day” here in the high plains desert. Took a ‘picnic’ lunch out to Newspaper Rock in the Petrified Forest, hiked in a half mile or so from the small parking area, and staked out a scenic spot on the edge of the rocky bluff overlooking the natural grasslands 300 feet below. It was [...]

I’d planned to stay in the motel room today and write …. but a blue sky and temperature flirting with 70 were too much to resist. So, slipped on my hiking boots and ‘snake gaiters’ and headed out into the desert. This wasn’t designed as a pure photography day, but a leisurely walkabout in the jaw-dropping space [...]

That’s my faithful, tireless little Mazda way over there, barely visible in the vastness of the Painted Desert. In the foreground are small chunks of the petrified remains of 200-million year-old coniferous trees, tree ferns, and gingkoes, which litter the desert floor at seemingly every turn.

Was up well before the crack of dawn, and by 6:30 I was parked outside the closed north gate to the Petrified Forest National Park, all bundled up against the frosty 22 degree morning. I was hoping to persuade Park Rangers to allow me to enter the park 30 minutes ahead of the official 7 a.m. [...]

1,109 miles. That’s what my GPS informed me was the distance from my daughter Amy’s driveway in Little Rock to the little town of Holbrook out in Arizona’s Painted Desert. I left Little Rock behind Sunday morning determined to knock down at least 700 miles during the day. I aimed my little hatchback towards the [...]

The signs are sometimes subtle, maybe even possible to miss if you’re not paying close attention, but it’s clear the green is returning to the meadow, the bud to the tree…at least way down south in Dixie. Hooray! Hooray! I’m rolling through Mississippi now, and lingered for a while today at the Vicksburg National Park, which commemorates [...]

Well, the time has finally come to get back out there now that the intoxicating fragrance of spring is in the air and the ripeness of summer is just around the next bend in the road.   Following a short visit with my youngest daughter, Amy, in Little Rock next weekend, I’ll make a beeline [...]

  Congratulations to my niece Caty who’s landed a job editing a helpful newsletter (http://www.triumphdining.com) for sufferers of Celiac Disease, which is fortuitous and ironic since it’s only been six weeks since I was officially diagnosed with the ailment, joining my eldest daughter and granddaughter in doing daily battle with the autoimmune beast, which will [...]

    I’m back “home” in Pinehurst, NC, making plans for the next leg of my road trip.   Just booked accommodations near Yellowstone, in addition to Mount Rushmore, and the Badlands. Have decided to “wing it” in the Desert Southwest, which has supplanted Tonga as my new favorite place on earth. Heading there first. [...]