Going home to a foreign country
(San Jose, Costa Rica)–The Obama victory celebration in San Jose, Costa Rica was small but dedicated. It started with my partners Dave and Joe convincing the bartender to turn the televisions to CNN. It...
Author: Brad Willis
Man without an Election Day
(San Jose, Costa Rica)–It’s late in Costa Rica. I’m here to work. I am among a ragtag group of local Ticos, traveling poker players, and lost gringos who gave up on America a long...
Timeless in Costa Rica
(San Jose, Costa Rica)–The great myth about the business traveler is that he spends a romantic life on the road, sucking the marrow from mythical streets of exotic cities, and running amok in cities...
Passport to Oddville
(G-Vegas airport, 8am)–Leaving is never easy. I needed small bills and raided the boy’s piggy bank for two five spots. I left a Hamilton in their place and then felt guilty enough I gave...
The spot in my yard
This story is true. There is a place in my yard where the grass won’t grow. We moved to this foothill of a foothill eight years ago. We live on the downward slope of...
Dos redux
A popping pile of fried pork, beef, steak, a shrimp sat on a sizzle plate in front of me. The bowl of half-eaten guacamole had filled me up before dinner arrived. The boy squirmed...
Coming home
I’ve been on the road for ten days or so. I just got home and unpacked the car when I realized I’m leaving again in five days for what is essentially two weeks on...
Fugitive
I play this game sometimes. It’s a product of every bad suspense thriller I’ve ever seen. I’m on the run, shoving clothes in a bag, and jumping into my car with a two-day scruff...
Good thing I don’t hunt
On my drives back and forth from Springfield, MO to Columbia, MO this weekend, I realized that the deer population here is a bit out of control. I’m no hunter, but the number of...
Friday Mental Massage: Missouri edition
This is going to be a quick one today, as we’re loading up and moving out to a different part of the state in a few hours. I am a whale–The past two weeks...
Quality is job one
I’ve spent the past week in the valleys of two small mountain ranges. The oaks and maples were just beginning to turn when I saw my camping friends in the Blue Ridge mountains. I’ve...
When the tracers are real
I was going 85 miles per hour on I-40 West when I saw it. I was tired. It had been a four-day weekend that saw me up until nearly 4am on every night. I’d...
Real estate
In 1889, they stood on the Texas and Arkansas borders and looked across into Oklahoma. Some men had horses. Some men had guns. All of them had their eyes on land. Well nowadays this...