Escher’s Observatory      For the first time in India, I question the guidebook. It has been a trusty companion, never leading me astray, except, of course, for the occasional gone-out-of-business hotel. But now it says there is an observatory in the center of Jaipur.      Town centers is not the place for an observatory: obscure […]

After munching a few of my lunch crackers I stood up and continued my journey to Innisfree. Once past the river and bridge the path cut through a forest. The trees had thin trunks, like they were young, and the ground was smooth hard packed earth. As the forest ended there was a stonewall, with […]

     In Ireland the busses don’t run on Sunday. It seemed obvious to both Patrick and I once we heard this piece of news, but it meant we were stuck. It was Saturday afternoon and we were stuck in the town of Sligo. This town was supposed to be just a transfer point to environs […]

Southern Drawl      It seems that warm water is the defining characteristic of New Orleans. Water in the swamps, water in the Mississippi river, water flooding houses, water falling from the sky in bucket loads, and water thickening the air in the form of humidity.      Coming from a childhood in the deserts I was […]

     One afternoon while sitting in a bar in the French Quarter -nursing an Abita Amber- I over-heard a snippet of a conversation that went like this: “…and you can walk through the swamps with the alligators.”      Which was exactly what I had been looking for.      Who says you can’t find everything in […]

Epilogue: Northern Lights       It was Monday night, Kieara’s birthday. A group of us went out, listened to a poetry reading, drank heavily at a few bars and spent some time dancing. I arrived home in the darkness of two thirty in the morning, and still being wide awake, drank some red wine and played […]

Down to Size       It didn’t take very long to settle down in Alaska, through my bartending job at the Captain Cook Hotel, I instantly made some wonderful friends. There was Matt, who had worked as a bartender, but who now ran a used bookstore down the street. There was Paula, who also became a […]

The Motorcycle       When my motorcycle coughed, sputtered, coughed again, juddered, coughed a few more times, and finally rolled to a stop by the side of the road –half way up the AlCan- I thought it was because my motorcycle was jealous. Jealous of the cute little Yamaha 100 I had rented in Nepal the […]

A Week Early       One afternoon I stopped at a gas station that was definitely in the middle of nowhere. My bike was at 75 miles from the last fill-up, 75 miles from the last gas station and I was beginning to wonder if another gas station would ever arrive.       The gas station sat […]

The AlCan: Middle of Nowhere       The phrase –The Middle of Nowhere- is thrown about with consummate ease. To some people New Jersey is the middle of nowhere, while to others it is the middle of the Gobi desert. To me, it’s where there are no people around, or on a straight open road.       […]

Alaskan Humor and Wildlife      Classic Alaskan joke:       What is the state bird of Alaska?       The Mosquito.       When the people in the bar found out I was new, they almost fell over each other to tell me this joke. I didn’t get it at first, so they had to explain. “You know, ‘cause […]

Romance      Alaska is the last place in the United States I wanted to live.      No, wait, read that the other way around.       I had lived in the four corners of this country; I grew up in Southern California, summered in Manhattan and Portland and spent over a year in New Orleans. I felt that […]