Note: my memoir is for sale at the link above Portions of the southern Appalachian Mountain chain consist of Precambrian crystalline, gneiss, and other ancient rocks that are 1.2 billion years old, whereas the Rocky and Sierra Nevada Mountains ranges, in comparison, are less than a million years old.
On this 2nd day of October, I'm reliving happy memories of hiking the Appalachian Trail in the fall. My inaugural hike, which I wrote about in a previous blog, was a section in Georgia with my son, Alec in August 2004, that had been inspired by reading Bill
I was intrigued by the giant baobab trees in Senegal earlier this year when Michele and I toured a game preserve an hour or so outside of Dakar. Our guide told us how oral historians of indigenous people were venerated and buried inside the massive trunks of baobab trees. After
My brother, Alvin, and I spent four nights recently at Sacha Lodge deep in the Ecuadorian jungle with no road access, arriving by a short flight from Quito to Coca, followed by a two-hour ride on a speed-boat down the Napo River, an immense tributary of the Amazon
Order Farm to Table here! In the first half of my book I write about growing up in an Amish family on a farm in northern Arkansas. My parents lived in a traditional Old Order Amish community in Daviess County, Indiana, but they did not approve of some customs of
In January 2010, I gave a talk to the Caducean Society of Greater Ft Lauderdale (made up of physicians who give a 3-minute presentation about something of interest in their specialty) about a patient I had treated who had shot himself in his head with an industrial nail gun,
In 1983, two years after we had moved to Ft Lauderdale from Portland, Oregon, Michele and I were enamored by seeing the Surrounded Islands, an unique artistic exhibition that could be found about 30 miles south of us in Biscayne Bay. Miami was still in the throes of the partisan
When Michele and I recently visited our friend, Wayne, who lives near Diamond Head, we took early morning walks along Diamond Head road next to the extinct volcano. Tropical Storm Fausto had just passed by northern island chain and we observed a large number of surfers riding the waves toward
My first cousin, Ira Wagler, published a New York Times best-selling memoir titled, Growing up Amish (2010) that tells the story of leaving his Old Order Amish family and church at age twenty-six. Ira was torn by family ties and the attachment to his church so that in
While writing my memoir I was often asked when my book would be completed and become available. I now have good news--an actual copy of my book is in my hand and is called a proof. (It was formerly called a galley proof that referred to a long tray
My first condor The Passenger Pigeon was our largest and most colorful wild pigeon but became extinct when the last pigeon died in the Cincinnati Zoo in 1914. It was once the most abundant bird in North America. After the Civil War, these pigeons were observed migrating in gigantic flocks,
While growing up during the Cold War in the 1950s and 1960s my brothers and I often saw B-52 bombers flying over the Ozark skies. The plane had a distinctive appearance but we usually identified the airplane before we saw it because of its unique sound. I have some