Some things feel serendipitous. While our house is being renovated, we had to find a place to stay that would allow us to write comfortably because we have deadlines. We decided that a Airbnb would be the right choice. We drew a little radius on the map to choose a place about halfway between Albuquerque…
Category: Travel
Virtual Hikes
I ache to hike somewhere new and interesting. Or, even more ambitious, to spend several days backpacking on a mountain trail. Somewhere without too many snakes or mosquitoes. (Which means far from Memphis.) I get to hike near home a few days each week and while I love seeing nature change around me in the…
The Zen of Western Kansas
A friend of mine says that driving across Western Kansas is meditative and restorative. I thought about that yesterday as the prairie spread on with barely a ripple in the landscape, the highway straight on forever. I’d always thought of driving it as a torture, something that Dante would have created for the souls of…
View from a Moving Train
Today’s blog comes to you from a train. I’ll be traveling 36 hours from Denver to Memphis with a 5 hour stop in Chicago that I am looking forward to. The train is taking us through some amazingly remote areas with virtually no cell service. Looking at the landscape unfolding out of our windows, it…
Dealing with Altitude
Last night was my first good sleep at altitude. Usually the day after the second good night’s sleep, my altitude issues are fully gone and I can exercise at my normal level. So I’m doing great! Without any drugs this normally takes more than three weeks. With Acetylzolamide (Diamox) taken judiciously (a half tablet the…
30 Stories in 30 Weeks
I finished “Deep Compassion,” my thirtieth story in thirty consecutive weeks and mailed it to Dean early this morning. At its simplest level, the story is about Yrsa, who wakes up and must bring her children to school. But Yrsa is a Karhu, a race of intelligent polar bears living in Thule. Morning is the…