My semi-regular blog documenting the fun and excitement of traveling along the Mississippi River.
Last fall, Will Ferrell snuck into Davenport and taped a few ads for Old Milwaukee beer, including one in which he emerges from the Mississippi River after “hand fishing”. Ferrell apparently came up with the idea for the ads and volunteered his time. He filmed other ads in Terre Haute (Indiana) and Milwaukee. While they
I’m working on a new book for 2012. Unlike my other Mississippi River books, this one will not be a travel guide but a collection of stories about the people and places of the Mississippi River. I’m big on putting the river in its broader context, so the chapters in this new book will often
Life on the road can be entertaining and immensely rewarding, but there are times I feel isolated and disconnected from home, friends, family, and the world around me. Thanks to these folks and the kindness of many others whose names I never learned, people I’m unlikely to cross paths with again, those times are easier to weather.
When I get to my car this morning, I find a flyer on my windshield, placed by an anonymous Scientologist, suggesting I take the church’s personality test (the “Oxford Capacity Analysis”), a queer mix of questions that run from vague to confusing to silly. Do you have a tendency to tidy up a disorder
Welcome to the Fair! I haven’t been to many festivals this summer; timing just hasn’t worked in my favor. Lucky for me, though, I get to make up for it all by going to the granddaddy of festivals: the Minnesota State Fair, the place that made food-on-a-stick famous. This is my first
When I finished my week in Brainerd last Friday, I needed time to regroup and catch up on some work. I wanted to find a place that at the very least approximated a city, someplace where the lettuce is green, fries are not the only side dish, and that breathes life instead of sucking
