Iowa

Road Report: Inca Gold

baby alpaca

Not very old and freshly shorn

Nebraska should be so lucky. Everywhere we’ve been around Dubuque, the world is green and lush. It’s like a joke, almost. A cosmic face-slap. Today we sat out in the “garden room” and had our drinks while rain fell constantly but hardly made a sound as the great green sea of grass absorbed it like [...]

Road Trip: Iowa Mystery Photo

mystery grimaces in downtown Dubuque

Iowa, Iowa

The downtown art show in Dubuque did give me a somewhat unwelcome sense of deja vu—memories of when I used to sit for hours in a booth trying to look cheerful while no one bought anything—and it was hot and humid, but I don’t think either of those are what my wife and sister-in-law are [...]

view from Balltown, Iowa scenic overlook

The last time I stood here, here were pelicans gliding in the breeze

I could almost live in Balltown. Well, for a couple of weeks, anyway. This is the view from the scenic overlook just past Breitbach’s restaurant, and the photo doesn’t do justice to the sense of being up in the air you get along this ridge a short way from the Mississippi. (That’s the river in [...]

house in Wall Lake, Iowa

Just look and read below

This is the little house in Wall Lake, Iowa where my wife the classical pianist lived until she was three years old. We visited it on the way to Dubuque. Next door on the right is the house where an older woman lived whom she used to visit as a child. According to her, she’d [...]

Axis

Sangre de Cristos Mountains near Taos, NM

Moving north (from R to L): Taos Mountain, Kachina Peak, and El Salto from Taos Valley Overlook

Home again for barely a week, then off again. I still haven’t unpacked my gear bag from the last adventure. But at least some things are clear now. The biggest change precipitated by my Maine trip is probably acceptance of where I am (which has to do with something else entirely). Not that there aren’t [...]

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