Author Archives: Janet

She was the best possible canine companion: patient, playful and protective. She drew people to us and pushed loneliness away. She never complained (even at all those “whoops” U-turns) and was always up for a new adventure. It seems fitting to let her have the last word on this road trip blog. Fortunately, Bella is a […]

Aleen was the only artist working in Studio 107 on a quiet Sunday afternoon in Martinsville, Virginia. She’s a retired high-school chemistry who firmly believes the world needs more whimsy. That’s part of the reason she’s a member of the Five Glassy Chix. And why she always wears a whimsical hat. While some of the […]

It was a bit odd to drive into Sewanee, Tennessee – a place I’d never been – to have lunch with someone I’d never met. But I knew I would like Annwn.  We’d been exchanging emails since I’d met her son, Pierce, back in Lander, Wyoming. And I did like her.  Annwn is an Episcopalian […]

To photograph anything on the Zuni reservation – including the stunning scenery – you need a photography permit. No problem, usually. But when I arrived on Saturday, no permits were being issued. It was the day of a sacred ceremony. Unlike many of the pueblos in New Mexico, the Zuni allow outsiders to observe their […]

My (second? first-once removed?) cousin, Easton, is 20-years-old. He works 12 hours a day, hunts when he gets the chance, and knows how to “bugle” (a certain call out to moose that they will answer.) He’s also, I believe, is a natural photographer. When I told him he had a good eye for composition, he […]

The KOA campground outside of Abilene, Texas, has very little to recommend it. It’s scruffy and not particularly well-managed. The afternoon I arrived there, I was feeling scruffy and not particularly well-managed myself. For days, I had been traveling west on I-20. I planned to connect with I-10 near San Antonio for a straight shot […]

Russ in Vancouver with the Pasics, Andy & Jas in New Zealand, Ryan in Boulder and me near New Orleans…  As Thanksgiving approached, I was absolutely, positively determined not to feel sorry for myself. I chose to do this trip, after all, and I chose to do it in the fall.  I never thought I’d […]

If you ever get the chance, visit the Rosa Parks Museum in Montgomery, Alabama. I would have named it the “Montgomery Bus Boycott Museum,” but that’s me. It’s one of those things you remember – vaguely, maybe – from your U.S. history class.  It started Dec. 1, 1955 with Rosa Parks refusing to get up […]

Before I left Seattle, everyone asked how long I would be gone.  Needing a stock answer, I made one up: Between 3 weeks and 3 months. (Not thinking, really, that I would actually be gone three months, though that’s what it’s turning out to be.) As I headed East, everyone I met wanted to know […]

Tobacco is no longer a major crop in Kentucky.  You still see lots of the old black drying barns standing empty.  I was lucky to find a few still in use.