DISPATCHES FROM THE ROAD

As a kickoff for his 2025 Lewis and Clark trek, Clay visited and toured Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's primary home and plantation in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Clay checks out The Peaks of Otter in the Blue Ridge Mountains, which Thomas Jefferson speculated were the country's tallest mountains.
Clay stopped by Natural Bridge State Park in the Shenandoah Valley. The site so captivated Thomas Jefferson that he purchased it from King of England in 1774.
Clay at Poplar Forest
Kicking off his 2025 transcontinental Lewis and Clark trek, Clay spends the day at Poplar Forest, the beloved personal retreat of Thomas Jefferson, the mastermind behind the famous Corps of Discovery.
airstream

Leaving Home

Spring is here. It’s time to pack the bags, load the truck, and get on the trail of Lewis and Clark.
Protesters in Belle Fourche S.D., April 19, 2025.
This will sound like a parable, and it may be. But I’m going to describe it exactly as it happened.
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Thomas Jefferson's majestic second home, Poplar Forrest, in Lynchburg, Va. Clay Jenkinson will lecture there at 2:00 pm, May 6, 2025. (Photo Poplar Forest)
Clay will lecture at 2:00 p.m., May 6, 2025 on Thomas Jefferson’s vision for Lewis and Clark’s “Corps of Discovery.”
Isaac, the day before his Naturalization ceremony in Fargo, North Dakota. (Photo Clay Jenkinson)
On a recent Uber drive to the Bismarck airport, Clay met Isaac, a North Dakota emigre from Ghana and a proud, brand-new U.S. citizen.
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Clay at Point Lobos Ca.
An exciting new addition to Clay’s slate of LTA Cultural Tours for 2025! We’re headed to Steinbeck Country — California's Central Coast. On this tour we’ll visit Monterey, Pacific Grove, Carmel, and just across the Santa Lucia mountains, the author’s hometown of Salinas. These California landscapes stayed close to Steinbeck’s heart throughout his life and shaped the Nobel Prize-winning author’s indelible literary legacy.