There's one restaurant here. Aside from a Jack in the Box and a sandwich shop that looks closed, but no one can be entirely certain. No one remembers eating there, and although the sign at the door says open, there are no cars in the lot, or any signs of life, for that matter. It …
Continue reading Ladybug, Ladybug, Fly Away Home: The Salton Sea Chronicles, Part 2
Puke on a hot sidewalk. This is the smell of the Salton Sea. Rotten eggs, perhaps, is a more familiar notion. In 1906, attempts to bring water into the Imperial Valley from the Colorado River failed, and a strange little ocean was born in the desert. Contractors didn't account for the massive buildup of silt, …
Continue reading Puke on a Hot Sidewalk: The Salton Sea Chronicles, Part 1
There are dinosaurs. Out in the desert. A rare and extinct breed the size of Godzilla himself. In the city of Cabazon, which sounds a lot more exotic than it actually is. If you're driving down the freeway, on Interstate 10, you can't miss them. They roar at every passing car. Dinny the dinosaur and …
Continue reading Jurassic Adventures: Don’t Drink the Kool Aid
Her eyes are tired. Her face is like the desert landscape, like the canyons carved away by eroding wind and sand, the wrinkles make fine grooves upon her skin. She stands beneath the roadside stand, fanning herself with a bronzed hand, the ensuing breeze she creates playing at her stark, black hair that reflects the …
Continue reading Road Side Reflections
Killarney, Ireland. Home of Daniel, a man you'll never meet. Although I suppose you could, if you ever found yourself in the bar of the International Hotel, in County Kerry, where Daniel spends his nights. I highly recommend staying there. They have fabulous views, and spacious bathtubs, perfect for an afternoon nap after you've indulged …
Continue reading Where Guinness Flows like Water
The GPS read a 15 mile distance. 45 minutes. In Alaska, there's no such thing as a quick trip anywhere unless you're talking the quick trip I took over my unlaced boots. We'd driven this road eight or nine times in the last two days and my brother was growing tired of me pulling onto …
Continue reading Exit Glacier is making her exit
The toe of my boot nudged against an errant piece of slate. It slid, tumbling down the mountain's face, down to the waters below, the ones that would grind it down to the texture of the fine pebbles that line the seashore. It's one of those weird moments in which you are suddenly made aware …
Continue reading One Life. One Love.
I'm sitting on the mountaintop, my chest heaving with the exertion, my dog half dead beside me, poor thing, I forgot she had such tiny little legs compared to mine. She doesn't seem to mind, though. She crawls up onto my lap and licks at the tender skin that lines my wrist, her tongue crossing …
Continue reading Must Love Dogs
The Wild Heart of Life 