FEATURES
21,000 Miles Around America — Why I Did It and What I Learned
Saturday, January 18 2025
Clay sat down with editors at LTA to answer questions and discuss his recent 41 State, 21,000 mile journey around America.
- Published in Features
Reading Walden and Wrestling With Thoreau
Tuesday, December 31 2024
As I look to the start of the new year, Thoreau’s 1854 classic, Walden, still deeply challenges and inspires me.
- Published in Features
Traveling With Charley: 1960 in the American South
Monday, December 23 2024
Road-weary and keen to return home to New York, the final leg of Steinbeck’s cross-country journey took him through the troubled South of 1960.
- Published in Features
My John Steinbeck Tour: A Preliminary Report — What a Long, Strange Trip It’s Been
Tuesday, December 10 2024
Beginning in April 2024 and concluding just before Thanksgiving, Clay traveled over 21,000 miles and visited 41 states, roughly following John Steinbeck’s route as chronicled in Travels with Charley. Clay notes he undertook the cross-country journey partly to gain his own appraisal of America as it approaches its 250th birthday.
- Published in Features
My Quest for the Ultimate Gumbo and Other Culinary Misadventures South of the Mason-Dixon Line
Tuesday, December 03 2024
A lighter report on heavier cuisine as Clay takes a gastronomic excursion through the American South.
- Published in Features
The Great but Forgotten Conservationist John F. Lacey
Monday, November 25 2024
While John Steinbeck was not much interested in National Parks, he traveled through a nation whose conservation footprint was indelibly shaped by visionary Iowa Congressman John Lacey.
- Published in Features
The Majestic Confluence of the Green and Colorado Rivers
Thursday, November 14 2024
John Wesley Powell, Edward Abbey and hiking Canyonlands National Park.
- Published in Features
Recollections in Dallas: A Pivot of American History
Saturday, November 02 2024
While in Dallas, Texas, on his Steinbeck Travels with Charley Tour, Clay revisits places and memories connected with President John Kennedy’s tragic assassination on November 22, 1963.
- Published in Features
Autumn and Joy on the Open Road
Monday, October 28 2024
There is nothing quite like the magic of traveling America in the fall.
- Published in Features
Reports of the Book’s Demise are Greatly Exaggerated
Tuesday, October 22 2024
A stop at a West Texas Barnes & Noble persuades Clay that books remain alive and kicking.
- Published in Features