Curiosity, Travel and Change
The thirty-minute traffic jam in Sedona Arizona made me think about tourist destinations that have become victims of their own success. Sedona probably has the most picturesque setting of any town in America. Nestled against the majestic vermillion and ochre sandstone carved and jutted cliffs, with each building painted in some version of adobe, sage …
It's good to be reminded that people have always inhabited places we now call "wilderness". The Gila Wilderness, home to the Gila Cliff Dwellings, was the first wilderness area designated by Congress in 1924. I note that the Gila Wilderness claims to be the "first wilderness in the world", ignoring the fact that New York …
Continue reading "There were people here: The Gila Cliff Dwellings, New Mexico"
The edge of the Rio Grande at Grassy Banks Campground, Big Bend Ranch State Park No geographic feature signifies “BORDER” more than the Rio Grande River. Pete and I spent three days camping at the edge of the Rio Grande in Big Bend Ranch State Park, where the river is a murky green creek slowly …
Continue reading "“$5000 Fine for Crossing the Border”: Following the Rio Grande in Texas"
When the lady at the Havana Hotel says “you can turn left on the Riverwalk and walk to the touristy area” or “you can turn right and walk to the Pearl, where the locals go”, go to the right. This was my second time in San Antonio, and touristy or not, the Riverwalk is one …
Continue reading "“Where the Locals Go”: The Pearl Brewery, San Antonio"
For me as a white person, part of learning to be anti-racist is understanding better the origins and structures of White supremacy. Part of that is the retelling of history. For example, I knew very little about the resistance of enslaved people against their oppressors—from the 1811 German Coast Uprising, to the daily small acts …
Continue reading "The Resistance of Enslaved People: Whitney Plantation, Wallace Louisiana"
Say their names, the 4400 documented victims of lynching, the millions more of undocumented victims of racial terror. The National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery draws the unambiguous and direct line from enslavement to Jim Crow to lynching to mass incarceration to police violence to voter suppression. The Memorial, along with the Legacy …
Continue reading "Say Their Names: The legacy of racial terror: Montgomery Alabama"
I lived for four years in a gracious apartment at 6500 Wissahickon Avenue, in Philadelphia, in an elegant but understated stone building designed for his children by the prominent Philadelphia architect of the early 20th century- Horace Trumbauer. Living with the Trumbauer ghosts made me want to visit the Duke University campus, which I finally …
I've always associated the Eastern Shore of Maryland with the brilliant magenta of crape myrtles which line the roads and the river banks. They aren't quite ready to show us their stuff yet, but the sailboats are. A warm Maryland send-off from Katie and Jim in Cambridge complete with fresh-off-the-boat crabs. If you come to …
Old and On the Way 