The guy told me I’d soon be crossing the train tracks where three kids were killed six years ago, and I’d see a memorial there. It was one of those stupid, tragic things that kids sometimes do, trying to beat a train across the tracks. The train hit their vehicle and dragged the car 1,440 feet before being able to stop completely.

Later that day, I meet a truck driver waiting to load his rig at a Pilot station. He’s Cuban, from Miami, and when he sees my shirt he says, “Yes we have to save America, save it from the communists. Trump is doing a great job.”

I told him I didn’t see it that way. I asked how he felt about all the people being deported. He insisted they were all criminals. I did a search on my phone and showed him objective data showing that 63% of the deportees had no criminal record, and only 7% had committed any kind of a violent crime. He said it was fake news. Continue Reading →

After accomplishing a hefty load of footsteps in hot weather, I inevitably crave a tall infusion of electrolytes. Arriving in Creston, I pop into a convenience store, buy orange juice and a piece of sugary junk food, and amble outside in search of a seat in the shade.

There’s one table, and there’s already a woman in her thirties sitting at it. I ask if I can join her. She says sure. I plop down as gracefully as one who’s just walked thirteen dusty miles can plop, and notice a pile of blocks in front of her.

“What’s that?,” I ask.

“It’s a game of Jenga that some kids left behind,” she says as she carefully stacks the blocks, three across, until there’s an 18-row tower in front of her.

She carefully removes one block and says, “Your turn.” Continue Reading →

I’m always in awe at what one finds on the side of a road. Our highways, byways, and even gravel roads are littered with an astounding clutter of things. Junk you’d never notice while driving brings you to a halt when you’re walking and see them up close.

Take this tube of toothpaste lying next to a tooth brush on a gravel road. How the heck does that happen? By accident? By design? What’s the story here? Continue Reading →