In early November, I spent two serendipitous days in the tiny resort town of Eureka Springs, located in the Ozarks, at the edge of Arkansas. I had accepted an invitation from a friend in the American Midwest to join her on her ranch in Kansas, and she was taking me on a road trip. Since we would be riding through Missouri, I asked if I might see something connected with Mark Twain. “Hannibal is on the other side of the state.” I was mildly … [Read more...]
Civil War History Comes to Life at Central Missouri’s Lake of the Ozarks
Lake of the Ozarks, Mo. - Commemorate the Civil War's 150th anniversary with two thrilling reenactments of the Battle of Monday's Hollow at a Living History and Civil War Reenactment Weekend, Sept. 15-16, at the Missouri Trapshooters Association Grounds, 51 Trapshooters Road off of State Road A in Linn Creek. This event, sponsored by the Camden County Historical Society & Museum and the Fourth Missouri Cavalry Reenactors, will feature a … [Read more...]
A Bicycle Built for Two
While I was house-sitting a 15th-century farmhouse in historical Gascony, with a backyard view of the snow-capped Pyrennees, I decided one bracing morning over a cafe du lait to hire a bike and make a pilgrimage to one of France's oddest pilgrimage sites: "NOTRE DAME DES CYCLISTES." Looking decidedly uncool in my fuzzy Patagonia jacket, Tintin T-shirt, Gap shorts, white athletic socks, and Rockport walking shoes, I pedaled like a madman, … [Read more...]
A Storm on the River Missouri
I was a hundred or so miles into a 2,341-mile canoe trip on the Missouri River when I stumbled on my first big storm. The first indication came when my hat lifted from my head and flew forward into the water. High winds came up well ahead of an advancing cold front a mile or so upriver from Fort Benton, Montana. What had been blowing before had been a breeze, but soon rose to twenty or thirty miles per hour. The filled with dust and sand, which … [Read more...]
Rattler
You plan on some things, and others just happen. Usually you don't plan on getting bitten by a rattlesnake for example. It's just one of those things when you're out in desolate country; alone, weather beaten and emotionally off guard. Of course you could argue that inserting yourself into desolate and dangerous country is, in a way, inviting an encounter with an ill-tempered reptile. True I didn't know when setting out on my two-month canoe trip … [Read more...]
53 Days
What could 53 days buy you? Think of it. What if you had 53 days? What could you do in that time? That length of time could buy you half a summer vacation. Or maybe you would look at it as two months salary minus the interfering weekends. Not long ago I exchanged 53 days for 2,341 miles. I then took those miles and exchanged them for an experience that I think changed my life forever. I was between jobs, you see, and so I took a Canoe and … [Read more...]
Harry Truman’s Excellent Adventure
Harry Truman's Excellent Adventure by Matthew Algeo This is a delightful fast paced read about a 19-day road trip Harry Truman and his wife Bess took from their house in Missouri to Washington DC and back again in 1953 soon after leaving the presidency. Times were simpler back then for ex Presidents as they were able to make this trip as private citizens (President Truman drove) without the accompaniment of secret service. They were actually … [Read more...]
The Wizard of Christchurch
EVERYONE knows J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings trilogy was filmed entirely on location downunder by Kiwi director Peter Jackson. But did you know that a real sorcerer, a magi of magic realism straight out of the Oscar-winning series, only rather recently left New Zealand after the nasty Christchurch Earthquake of 2011. Born Ian Brackenbury Channell in London (4 December 1932), "The Wizard of Christchurch" is an inspired soap-box … [Read more...]
Curse of the Sea Gypsy
Looking for Love on Lovina, Bali Well, er, the problem was, I thought I saw a real live mermaid. Get that? Loping on Bali's Lovina beach one day, I came across a troglodytic Indonesian man crouching over a campfire, cooking a stunted animal on a skewer. Was he eating a cat?! "Very nice bitch," the local sarong hawker spat in the sand. Lo and behold! I saw a bikinied blond, like the statuesque prow of a Viking vessel, … [Read more...]
Philippine Samal Island: A Hidden Paradise in the South
(From the August-September 2009 issue of "Bayang Magiliw" Magazine, Kingdom of Bahrain. Copyright 2009. Used by Permission) The alluring beauty of the Far East is seen not only through its contrasts of culture, lifestyle, and climate. But also through the way nature has brought it into being. It is where the sun rises. It is where oriental charm lives where many travelers have found the most interesting journey experience. Despite the … [Read more...]