From the Eastern Heart of Montana — Video Dispatch
Saturday, July 06 2024
This morning I crossed the great Yellowstone River 27 miles west of Glendive on old Highway 10. There are not many places on the John Steinbeck Travels with Charley tour where you know you are PRECISELY where Steinbeck was, because so much has changed.
- Published in Dispatches from the Road
Encounters in Yellowstone National Park
Tuesday, June 25 2024
On my way back to North Dakota I visited my modest cabin 2 miles from Yellowstone National Park I wanted to make a pilgrimage to Old Faithful.
- Published in Features
My Romance With the Little Missouri River
Monday, June 17 2024
I have a special claim on the Little Missouri — or rather it has had a special claim on me. If I had to spend eternity in a single landscape, it would be about 10 miles north of Marmarth, North Dakota, where the Little Missouri just begins to carve up the viewshed.
- Published in Dispatches from the Road
Visiting John Steinbeck’s Home in Sag Harbor, New York — Video Dispatch
Thursday, May 09 2024
Clay visits John Steinbeck’s Sag Harbor home where the noted author began his 1960 cross-country journey, immortalized in Travels With Charley.
- Published in Dispatches from the Road
Underway! Sag Harbor, New York or Bust
Tuesday, April 30 2024
Clay leaves his home in Bismarck, North Dakota, and heads east on a circuitous route to Sag Harbor, New York, where John Steinbeck began his famous 1960 cross-country journey.
- Published in Dispatches from the Road
Shakedown Cruise: The Great Adventure Begins
Tuesday, April 23 2024
April is the cruelest month, says T.S. Eliot, perhaps because it brings you some false spring that often enough is put in its place by late blasts of winter. This is certainly true on the Great Plains. But I am leaving on my big John Steinbeck Travels with Charley Tour on April 27 …
- Published in Dispatches from the Road
Witnessing the Astounding Diversity of America in 24 Hours
Monday, April 08 2024
A whirlwind journey takes Clay from Bismarck, N.D., to Brooklyn, N.Y., to Farmington, N.M. and a view of America’s extraordinary multiplicity.
- Published in Dispatches from the Road
Wild Horses in the Badlands: Wildlife or Livestock?
Monday, March 18 2024
There’s horse trouble in Theodore Roosevelt National Park which is home to a feral herd of about 200 equines.
- Published in Features
My Life as a Space Junkie
Sunday, February 18 2024
I’ve been captivated by humanity’s exploration of the heavens since I was a boy growing up on the plains of western North Dakota.
- Published in Dispatches from the Road
Fort Dilts, North Dakota — Video Dispatch
Friday, February 09 2024
Clay takes us to Fort Dilts, North Dakota, a hastily-made sod fort built in 1864 by a party of would-be gold miners to fend off attacks by the Lakota. However more perspectives to the story should be considered.
- Published in Dispatches from the Road