I hear the low rumble of trucks on the freeway from my porch, back home from my 8,600 mile odyssey. What just last night felt like a predator, the rattle and whirr of tractor trailer rigs, crowding me closer, closer and closer with each mile nearer home, now seems a seductress calling from a distance. It’s like a pack of cigarettes in the dresser drawer, a bottle of booze in the cupboard, it is simply, there. Get in the car and just drive away, drive to the next town, … [Read more...]
To Honor My Brother Don
August 30, 2011 By
Last night Libby and I reached mile 8,000 on our journey across America. It was just about sundown, near Grainfield, Kansas. Could there be a more appropriate name for a prairie town? Grainfield? I pulled over and snapped a photo. It was a momentous day for a number of reasons - it would be our last night on the road, it was exactly one year ago yesterday that Libby inspired this little road trip, mocking me for not challenging the choke hold on my life. Reminding me … [Read more...]
U-turn in Utah
August 30, 2011 By
I used to work with a great new shooter in St. Louis who said, "you know it's not really a story until you've had to make three U-turns." That was back in the day before GPS, when TV reporters, riding shotgun, were expected to read the map at the speed of spot news. This was typically about 80 mph, while the "shooter" (aka "videographer") at the wheel, was hollering "which way am I supposed to fucking turn?" They hated missing the flames. I was clippin' along at about … [Read more...]
My Brother Mike
August 29, 2011 By
There just wasn't putting it off any longer. Hell, I'd had the phone number for two weeks. My niece Amy had tracked it down through tax records. Take that, Google and Facebook. But I had waited. Waited until I was in a quiet place, with nobody else around, so I could focus on what to say. What do you say to somebody you don't know but with whom you share the same father? "Hi, I'm your long lost sister, the one your daddy got in trouble with his wife over...." At the … [Read more...]
Tommy and Beverly Were Lovers
August 27, 2011 By
I hate saying goodbye. I left my son Nate and his wife, Melissa, in Los Angeles and drove up the coast a few days ago, my melancholy usurped by nerves. I hadn't really felt this way yet. One would think a gal with a dog, who's not too adept at changing tires or reading GPS, facing a daunting journey of more than 8,000 miles would be a little jumpy from time to time. Well, sure, when the sun goes down and I've still got 162 miles to go until my next stop and my eyes … [Read more...]
The Best Day of My Life, So Far (by Libby)
August 26, 2011 By
Hello humans, I figure it's about time you heard it from the horse's mouth, well really the dog's mouth. And by the way, horses are huge and scare the crap out of me and sometimes they wear these scary masks! Cows are worse. And elevators! OMG! So far no snakes, but we've got four more states to go, I heard Jean talking on the phone. But, what the hell? If Sean got a crack at a "guest post" then it's high time it was my turn. Nobody asked me if I … [Read more...]
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