My Quest for the Ultimate Gumbo and Other Culinary Misadventures South of the Mason-Dixon Line

A lighter report on heavier cuisine as Clay takes a gastronomic excursion through the American South.
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Medgar Evers' house

A Visit to Medgar Evers’ Home — Video Dispatch

Clay visits Medgar Evers’ home, now a national monument. Medgar Evers was killed by a white supremacist here, in front of his house, on June 12, 1963.
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Route 66 road sign

Route 66 and The Grapes of Wrath

I’ve been at both ends of U.S. Route 66 this year, the highway we associate with John Steinbeck and the Joad family of The Grapes of Wrath.
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Open Roads, Like Rivers, Invite Us to Muse About the Trajectory of Life

Just as rivers serve as an automatic and compelling metaphor for our life journeys, so roads invite us to muse about the trajectory of our lives.
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Last stoplight on the interstate highway

The Last Stoplight on the Interstate Highway System — Video Dispatch

The last stoplight on the entire interstate highway system was located in Wallace, Idaho. When the elegant latticework of the I-90 viaduct was completed in 1991, Wallace held a funeral for the last stoplight, now safely protected in the Wallace Mining Museum.
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My Romance With the Little Missouri River

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.
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Two Views of the Nightmare Road to Athens, Ohio

Was it Google Maps that led me astray? Last week, on the way to Athens, Ohio, I took a wrong turn.
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A Distant View of the Falls of Niagara by American artist, John Vanderlyn, 1804.

Pondering Thomas Jefferson at Niagara Falls

Thomas Jefferson said it is worth a trip across the Atlantic to see Niagara Falls. Although he never got there.
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Reading The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich While Traveling With Charley

Clay visits Cedar Rapids, Iowa, boyhood home of pioneering journalist and author William Shirer, who later became friends with John Steinbeck.
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May 9 / John Steinbeck, his dog Charley and his camper rig.

Visiting John Steinbeck’s Home in Sag Harbor, New York — Video Dispatch

Clay visits John Steinbeck’s Sag Harbor home where the noted author began his 1960 cross-country journey, immortalized in Travels With Charley.
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