We're all geared up, the boxes are stacked chest high, and the home looks like it never has before in anyone's memory. As we prepare for departure tomorrow, Savta Grace has been busy making sure every item is accounted for, that all our clothing is clean, and giving mementos to friends and family. Stan, Judy, and Savta will be taking to the skies for the ride home, leaving me with this opportunity to explore the lands between the wet Southeastern swamps and the vast fields of the Midwest, by car. What can I expect of this trip? Unusual stops, warm homes, [View Full Entry]

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I wasn't ready for the change of scenery as we glided out from Steamboat Springs. Lush green mountains faded behind us to rolling hills of sage, windswept rocks, and dry grass to every horizon. Whyoming?! is what I wanted to yell out as I sat in our A/C-free car, going in and out dazedly from sleep to moon-land scapes for hours. Out of battery! [View Full Entry]

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Deep in the mountains I sit inside a hut made of stone and mortar, held up by a lodge-pole pine roof with whole trees beams. It's quiet except for the constant sound of the little waterfall behind me flowing through an opening into the slope the structure is built into. The water flows quickly into a crevice behind my rock chair and finally into a vented tunnel under my feet. Even in the early morning darkness, I can see the steam drifting upwards and out into the forest above the empty hot springs below me. I dip another towel into [View Full Entry]

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The sun crept slowly across the Arkansas River Valley. To the west, the tallest range of mountains in the Rockies, The Collegiate Peaks, were illuminated by the morning sun rising over the eastern hills that we were bivouacked on. A blue sky greeted me this morning on a hike up the hill. I took in views from afar of barren-topped mountains, fog, and two hot air balloons rising in the calm air, which was quite the opposite of the night that had just passed: a classic monsoon. Storms rolling in slowly over Yale, Harvard, or Oxford Mountain, with lightning, and [View Full Entry]

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Ya'at'eeh abini T'iists'ozi'doo! Mesas and canyons before me, creating deep rifts where civilization thrived millenniums ago. I see clouds white above rock buildings, steeped in time, then on walls next to them carvings and petroglyphs I can barely make out. Chaco Canyon has a mystical feel, and I don't think it's just the patch of cold air in the area that makes me shiver slightly. Imagining the Anasazi people lived here is bizarre when you look into the wide expanse of nature and wonder how they could live off the land for so long. It wasn't easy, that's [View Full Entry]

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We were an odd bunch. 10 or 15 Jews standing next to a beautiful little creek below the Warren Wilson campus. Some of us were carrying little sambas, some PVC shofars, others with more serious items: real shofars, guitars, and challah! With song and dance, we looked into the ceremony we were about to complete: Tashlikh. Contemplation of our sins, or possibly looking at our regrets and finally casting them away in the river. It may of just been the quaint setting, by a babbling brook surrounded by Appalachian hills, sun streaming in, and the odd assortment of bamboo and other [View Full Entry]

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John, a local silversmith I met, told me of an upcoming dance happening at the Zuni Pueblo (town). I have been the region for a month and had hardly glimpsed the native cultures that abound here, and my curiosity was sparked, partly by ignorance and partly by John who has an intimate connection with the Zunis, as he has lived there years ago. I arrived on a pretty nice day, considering my climate, to Zuni Pueblo. The largest solely Native American town in the country. There were clouds which is a great relief, from the irascible sun, and even some wind [View Full Entry]

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Fecal Engineer. That's my new job title. I say it without resentment, more with a laugh, as I plan in the next week to begin entering some of the wolves' enclosures to collect their excretions, and furthermore be able to analyze how their diet is treating them. Other chores including wolves will be morning rounds (fecal finds, water hauling, health check, and to even socialize with the wolves). Today, I begin my first venture into the Wolf Kitchen where all the food is prepared. Weekly we receive donations from local stores and butchers of scrap or rotten meat. Our job is [View Full Entry]

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"Watch out for those Mohave Greens; there's no antidote in the region for them. They'll have to fly you out if you get bitten. But those rare Mohave Reds are even worse. You won't miss their bite." I was walking slowly and cautiously through the landscape of Lucerne Valley. I could distinguish between 4 or 5 different plants in the area outside of the Sage and the angular Joshua Trees. One little bush was blooming white and each flower had it's own little beetle in it engorging itself nectar. This land is filled with harshness and fear where people avoid looking [View Full Entry]

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I jumped out of the truck, thanking the local with the friendly hills accent for the ride to Brascomb. Grabbing my stuff from the back I wave goodbye as he prepares to pull away. Before he hits the road he glances at me strangely then says, "3 favors," his 3 longest fingers waving at me, "you must do 3 favors." I was weird out for a moment, but the guy sitting behind me with his dog pronounced amicably, "3 random acts of kindness!". Then it made sense. I sat outside the Brascomb gas station and market for a while listening to [View Full Entry]

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