Backroads Journal
Denali Dreaming
This year of 2020 has brought about many changes to our lives and plans! We have been challenged in many ways by the global pandemic, financially, socially and mentally and we have been home-bound, leery of physical contact and glued to the depressing news. Many of us have had to curtail travel plans. Our year […]
Reliving Old Memories
Over the years, one of my favorite memories was a road trip taken as newly married college students. We had only been married one year, still had stars in our eyes and the world was ours. The year was 1970 and the Carpenters had a hit song, “We’ve Only Just Begun”. That song was our […]
Introducing Wallie, the Little Airstream
Being the consummate daydreamer, in my younger years I would embark on great adventures in my mind that would take me to places I had never been. My mental wanderings would be in the persona of a guy named Wallie. Now, I have no idea where that name came from, but Wallie was an adventurous […]
Gravel-grinding the Kansas Flint Hills
This spring my old grade school buddies from the Pacific Northwest asked me to set up a bike ride in the Flint Hills when they came to Wichita for our 50th High School reunion at the end of September. A fairly simple sounding request from two bike club regulars used to riding 100 mile jaunts […]
The 2014 Smoky Hill River Festival Print
Late last year I was honored to be selected as the Featured Artist for the upcoming 2014 Smoky Hill River Festival in Salina, Kansas. The honor includes being commissioned to create the 250 print edition Festival Print, which is given to each of the major donors to the festival. I, of course, jumped at the […]
Songline of the Blue Highway
In his book, “The Songlines”, British novelist and travel writer, Bruce Chatwin, describes songlines as “Footprints of the Ancestors”. When the Australian Aborigines go on a “walkabout” they follow those ancestral paths and sing their ancestors back into existence. When we reflect on the direction we have taken in our lives, we are, in our […]
Wandering the Kentucky Bourbon Trail
That marvelous, heady aroma of yeast and grain fills our senses as we stroll past stacks and stacks of wonderful, hand-crafted, white oak barrels imparting their charred and caramelized richness to the distiller’s craft. The stacks of barrels fade into the quiet darkness of the massive rackhouse. Just the thought of standing in the midst […]
Searching for Fall Color in the Midwest
Crossing over the Mississippi River, on October 14th, at Cape Girardeau, it was apparent the extent of the drought in the Midwest. Miles and miles of sandbars lined the usually busy shipping corridor. There was little or no barge traffic moving. Our hope of finding the brilliant reds and yellows we search for on our […]
Kansas Spirit in Greensburg
It seems like every week brings more news about some small town somewhere being devastated by a tornado. The words flow about heartbreak, neighbors helping neighbors, strength, faith and vows to rebuild. We hear Mike Seidel or Jim Cantore, from The Weather Channel, reporting the stories behind the scene about personal tragedy and hope. Those […]
Wandering into 2012
One more year is past and we are well into 2012. Looking back on last year I am overwhelmed by the incredible experiences I was able to enjoy. I set out in January of 2011 with a goal of publishing a book that put into words and images my life-long love of wandering the Flint […]