Traveling Through America With Mules Brick and Cracker on “Horses in the Morning”
Good Saturday morning. I hope you had a great week. I ended my week with an interview on the Horses in the Morning podcast, America’s largest equine podcast and one of the longest daily podcasts in the world.
Host Glenn the Geek and I discussed the adventures my mules and I encountered riding from North Carolina to Idaho. We cover everything from hoof boots to having your head inside your helmet when it hits the ground and cracks into three… Continue reading
Download a FREE Copy of my New Photo Book “19 Million Mule Steps”
I’m excited to announce that I’ve published a new photo book called 19 Million Mule Steps. Read on to see how you can score a free copy.
About 19 Million Mule… Continue reading
Dogged: How Adeline Hallot Crossed the Pyrenees With Two Dogs, a Cart and a Cat: Part 1/2
Adeline Hallot lives in France. She owned two dogs, a cat, an old van and had always wanted to go to Spain. Then her van broke down. “I could have fixed my van but it was going to be too expensive,” she said. “So I sold everything I had, loaded my cart and started walking. I only got two kilometers the first day and couldn’t walk any farther.”
Ezer Way Wants to Pull Her Wagon by Hand 800 Miles to Missouri
My buddy Brad Saunders called me this week and said there were some “traveling homesteaders” camping in nearby Hickory (North Carolina). He said they needed a better place to stay, so I hooked up the horse trailer and drove to Hickory to see how I could help. That’s how I met Ezer Way (who also goes by Ezer Vavala) and her husband Brian.
How I Broke my Vow to Never Feed Bees Sugar Water
This June, I caught a swarm of wild bees in a swarm box, put them into a horizontal hive that I built in my shed, and they settled into their new lives behind our cabin. I never imagined they might not get enough honey stored away before winter. Click on the video below to hear them buzz (more on what they’re drinking shortly).
Dreaming of Wild Bees in Trees
My last thought before I fall asleep is of how I’d catch a swarm of wild bees, install them in the crook of an old tree and let them live up there, just like they were living in a hollow old tree. I wouldn’t medicate them, bother them or even take their honey. I just want to watch them come and go with tiny balls of orange pollen on their feet.
Crankin’: Long Distance Bicyclists Talk About Their Bike Journeys
Though I take most of my trips on the back of a mule, I always enjoy meeting long-distance bikers in my rambles. Here are the stories of three people taking long bicycle trips I thought you’d enjoy. They are Johannes “Hans” Myors, Sven Eckhard, and Ji Liong.
Johannes “Hans” Myors
Reverend Hans’ story is one of stick-to-it-ness. As of the day I met him on the side of the road, he’d pedaled 168,000… Continue reading
Listen to “The Creston Dinosaur” on Atlas Obscura
In 2008, my mule Polly and I traveled from Canada to the Mexican border in a homemade mule wagon. I interviewed folks along the way, and one of the favorite characters I met wasn’t a person. It was a giant green cement dinosaur outside Creston, South Dakota.
Flash forward to now. Recently Atlas Obscura, the website dedicated to obscure Americana, contacted me about doing a story about the Creston dinosaur. I… Continue reading
The Long Ride: Melissa Priblo Chapman Discusses Her Book “Distant Skies” (Part 2 of 2)
In the early 1980s, twenty-three-year-old Melissa Priblo Chapman rode her horse Rainy 2,600 miles alone across America. She encountered rattlesnakes, thunderstorms and Great Plains busters, but she also encountered kind ranchers like the one who hooked her up with a pack mule. Almost forty years after her trip, Melissa wrote a book about her voyage called “Distant Skies”. I recently interviewed Melissa about her book and trip.
“Distant Skies”: Melissa Priblo Chapman Discusses Her New Book (Part 1 of 2)
Melissa Priblo Chapman dreamt of “riding through some distant town on a trustworthy horse” in elementary school. It was the late 1970s. When she was 23, she saddled her horse Rainy, hauled her puppy Gypsy into the saddle with her and headed west to live her dream. This week, I interviewed Melissa about her new book “Distant Skies: An American Journey on Horseback”. Here is Part 1 of a two-part series of our conversation.