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What Do You Want to Know?

Published August 27, 2019

I, Bernie Harberts, did not use generative AI to write or illustrate this article. Spell check and grammar check, yes. AI, no.

Question: what do you want to read or see more about on my current mule voyage across America? I ask this because today it dawned on me that my journey from North Carolina to Hailey, Idaho is about 3/4 complete.

Map showing Bernie Harberts cross-country mule ride route from Lenoir, North Carolina to Douglas, Wyoming with 550 miles remaining to Hailey, Idaho. — We started in Lenoir, North Carolina. We’ve traveled 1,600 miles to Douglas, Wyoming. Only 550 miles to go to Hailey, Idaho.

Yikes.

I Write for Me

I’ve always written the RiverEarth.com blog for my readers and me. I don’t get paid to write this blog. I don’t have advertisers or sponsors leaning on me to write about certain things. And that’s the way I like it.

You know hard it is to write about something you’re not excited about. Then it just becomes a high school essay on the The Role of Red in the Canterbury Tales. Okay, I just made that up.

But you get my drift.

There is one exception. I get emails from folks asking for advice on horse travel. Or the “Lost Sea Expedition” TV series about my 14 month wagon voyage from Canada to Mexico. I’m happy to reply to those because then I’m writing something that someone’s interested in.

Familiarity Breeds Omission

I live day in, day out, with mules Brick and Cracker. I live under the stars and drink out of wind mills and type up blog posts in empty fair ground stalls (as in right now).

Bernie Harberts writing his blog from an empty stall at the Wyoming State Fairgrounds in Douglas, Wyoming during cross-country mule ride. — Where I’m writing you now – an empty stall at the Wyoming State Fairgrounds. I know. Camping on a plastic sheet in a cinder block barn is not living under the open stars.

Sometimes, I’m too close to all this. Get too familiar with the things around me. Take things for granted about Brick and Cracker’s care. Or assume you wouldn’t be interested in

More on the North Carolina to Idaho ride.

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2 Responses to What Do You Want to Know?

Pete on August 27, 2019 at 1:11 pm

Howdy B,
Knowing that you’re up and moving before dawn and usually camped before dusk you are immersed in that “Golden Hour” of light. What has been your impressions on how the various landscapes affected the intensity, or lack of, lighting. Have you noticed various landscapes carry sound differently than others? Being a detail oriented person, any descriptions of the visceral experiences you’ve experienced would be great.

Safe travels,
P

Reply
- Bernie on August 28, 2019 at 2:00 pm
  
  P. Wonderful comment. This’ll give me something to focus on next time I’m in the desert (at the moment I’m resting the mules in Douglas, Wyoming where the dawn sound is the F350 heading to the oil patch…). I do know that after a night of rest, my ears are super tuned in to the sound of the desert waking. By day’s end, the tiny hairs in my ear are ragged as the end of a September butterfly’s wings. Just so much grasshopper, wind and hoof beat sounds.
  I look forward to working up a post for you.
  Bernie
  
  Reply