Being a writer draws you into a wider and stranger world than the one you normally take for granted.  You might find yourself dancing with the Yellow Clowns on a Hopi mesa or interviewing a governor in the marble chambers of a state capitol.  A story might give you the chance to eat raw caribou with an Inuit hunter or hors d’oeuvres at a cocktail party in Aspen.  Astronauts and avalanche survivors, revolutionaries and ranchers.  You go where the story takes you.

And then you bring the rough notes back, decipher the scrawls, and find a line through the chaos.  A story takes shape.  Some notes get translated into print, while others disappear into the files.  Over time the pile of words grows until you realize you're living on a midden.  That's when the instincts of an archeologist kick in. 

Most items posted on these pages have been excavated from my fieldnotes.  These narrative notes cover various treks, investigative travels, and more extended expeditions.  New material also appears, along with observations ranging from flying cows to Noah's raven.  While most stories come from the American West, others reach as far as a lost oasis beyond the Great Sand Sea and a mysterious island in the Caribbean.  Journey on...