8 seconds
So, here’s a story. On January 8, 2003, my phone rang just as I was getting up for work. A plane had tried to take off from Charlotte, NC bound for my home airport,...
Category: Travel
Promises
There is nothing uplifting about a downmarket Las Vegas hotel. It’s simple living, hours in a stiff bed comforted by a flickering laptop screen, whatever junk food I could liberate from the giftshop downstairs,...
Disaster interrupted
In a parallel universe, one in which I’d chosen to listen to the right soundtrack–something John Williams scored during a dark moment, maybe–we probably all would’ve died. A crowded airport terminal in Nassau. Nothing...
Four fathers
It’s a two-hour flight from Atlanta to Springfield, Missouri, one that leaves un-argued that Atlanta is a Cher-Madonna-Bono-city, while Springfield requires a state designation to determine whether it is Brad Pitt or a Brad...
Running man
The man’s eyes were bloodshoot and wild, like he was looking past everything his drivers could see and through a window that wasn’t there. When he spoke, the words came out of his mouth,...
And so…LA
Howard and I were walking down 8th street when I saw the rat. It was as big as my shoe and scurrying under a parked car. “My wife wouldn’t live here because of that,”...
Dogs at large
The dogs were determined, six in a haphazard row, straight from Disney, a mix of colors, sizes, and uncertain breeds. They looked as though they owned the streets but had a higher power to...
Seasonal exchange
It’s somewhere near 90 degrees outside. A June haze hangs over the mountains, a reminder that a great part of the American south is still part of the American south. I’m in Greenville, South...
What happened?
I long ago gave up the idea of chronicling everything that happens to me when I’m in Las Vegas during the World Series of Poker. I burn every candle at both ends and from...
The owl I never see
Three of the four corners of my house have giant Sweetgum trees within 20 feet or so. If you don’t live in the Deep South or southeast, you may never have seen the monster...
How I spend my summer vacation
I was out and about this week enduring some last-minute errands. I had a quick photo-shoot thingy downtown. The photographer asked what I did for a living. The short answer I give is, “I’m...
St. John: Wrong way, right time
“You’re driving on the left side of the road,” my wife said. We were headed toward Cinnamon Bay in a rented white Jeep Wrangler with no windows. We had planned to purchase a Jeep...
The St. John ache
We sat at the corner of a beachside bar in St. John. We were spent from a day of hiking, swimming in Solomon Bay, and traveling for several days in the most beautiful place...
The big disconnect
I bought my first laptop sometime in 2004. I have been constantly-connected ever since. In June 2005, my wife and I went on a trip for our fifth wedding anniversary. We went to Vegas,...