The Fort Union Ranch has been in the same family’s hands for a century and a half. The Mountain Branch of the Santa Fe Trail – whose ruts can be easily seen from State Rt 161 – crosses the ranch. At the ranch’s center can be found the Fort Union […]
The return trip after burying the last of my mother’s ashes at the Fort Union Ranch in New Mexico last year was a hoot. My old college roommate and friend John Arbab hitched a ride with me, as we drove the entirety of the Santa Fe Trail, from Santa Fe […]
My last southern border trip was with Zeno, his swan song adventure out west while he was dying of mast cell cancer. Here, a year and a half later, I take the southern route once again, returning to the same New Mexican ranch (the destination of Zeno’s first and last […]
Love or hate him, Trump is a cultural and political phenom. While Republican midgets debated nearby, Trump swept into Hialeah, FL to whip up his supporters. The man’s energy, gravitas, wit and acumen are amazing. The last time I saw him in a rally was in Miami just before the […]
Are you in the Boston area? You’re invited to an interactive photo intervention next Saturday, June 10th. The show comprises 83 11 x 14 B&W images of boarding school life in the mid-70s. It is interactive as all participants are encouraged to leave comments on post-its next to the images: […]
In the last border patrol of his life (six months into mast cell cancer), Zeno performed with flying colors and fulfilled his duty, less than two months before his death. We have patrolled much of the southern border a number of times, especially along the New Mexican and Texan lines. […]
Zeno’s mission in life (2005-2022) was to bring comfort, a smile, and joy to the lives of all he met. The reason he survived so long – as most Labradors live only 10-12 years – was, I suspect, to give encouragement to the crazy human race during the greatly mishandled […]
Zeno led a remarkable life (2005-2022). For over 16 years he traveled to many ends of the New World. A quick calculation of his longer roadtrips totals 96,000 miles, or nearly 4x around the Earth’s circumference. This first post provides some highlights of his early roadtrips in the U.S., which […]
With an ill dog at home, I’ve been renting a car now several weeks in a row. With the mobility of wheels I decided to take a number of afternoon excursions, treating Miami as if a city visited on a roadtrip. Not surprisingly, Miami reveals herself to be a borderlands […]
America has descended into some of the darkest days of its history. It is not due to the bug, but rather the purposes to which the bug was used. Long drives into the unknown clearly evidence two Americas: one we all know and love, and another characterized by unrecognizable states […]
Zeno, the fearless border patrol dog, has been on a mission of encouragement and support to all those we encounter for a year and a half. Meeting many traumatized humans – especially in the tragically mismanaged Northeast – he always brings a smile despite his own infirmities. (Zeno is fast […]
An old prep school friend asked if I’d volunteer to help receive rescue dogs arrive from Puerto Rico in Miami. Of course. She’s a Navy pilot veteran and sometimes flies the big bird 767 herself. She didn’t mention when or for how long I could help, no matter. I got […]
Deserts are a landscape of hardship. Yet as has always been my case, “Lucky for me, I love the Desert Southwest.” [Borderlands USA, p.175] As lovely and pampered and touristed as the coast highways are, I felt relieved to be back on empty border tracks, the narrow two-laners connecting remoteness […]
America is torn. I recently drove the East Coast to get a pulse of the nation recently ravaged by governmental diktats, media distortions, and rioters coddled by a major party. The further north I drove, the darker the journey became, into a northeast traumatized by the virus and disastrous state […]
Happy 250th anniversary (yesterday) to the U.S. Marines, and happy Veterans Day today to so many heroes among us! Here is a peak at the National Museum of the Marine Corps, which opened in 2006 in Quantico, VA, just south of Washington, D.C. and immediately off I-95. It has understandably […]
Since March, Zeno the fearless border patrol doggie, has been on a mission of encouragement and support to all those we meet. The roadrip that was slated for mid-March, to patrol the entire East Coast with dog happiness, finally took place at the end of September. Zeno turned 15 in […]
Here the journey continues through the foreign country of California, which still looms large in our dreams. “Yes, California is a natural, if well-ordered, paradise. The benign foresight of its people, through individual initiative and their elected representatives, has led to a remarkable preservation of so much natural bounty. Just […]
They say that if California were a separate country it would boast the world’s fifth largest economy, more out-of-work actors per capita than any other, and the highest insurance rates on earth, but as far as I can tell it already is another country. [Borderlands USA, p. 141] So begins […]
The third largest national park in the continental U.S., the Everglades get little respect. In the 17 years I have been visiting, most tourists are foreign. True, it is flat. There are bugs. But it is the largest tropical wilderness in the U.S. and endlessly fascinating. There are three land […]
Take III, also from last December’s Art Basel extravaganza in Metro Miami, returns us to Miami Beach, the bacchanal’s birthplace, for Art Aqua, a more intimate and disturbing exhibition.
