The Vagabond Library
Reach up, reach in, reach beyond, reach out.
Articles Guaranteed to Stretch Your Mind
Sit by the fireplace, have a drink and a good read
with curious people like you.
Cathedrals and Motorcycle Heaven
Dispatch XVII
Who would have ever thought excitement and adventure would come to Sturgis, South Dakota? But today, is a beloved place in the American west, the motorcycle capital of the world where every summer the town of 7,000 morphs into a metropolis of more than 600,000 fun-loving, hard-drinking, hog-roaring bikers.
The Wild West rides again.
George Armstrong Custer
In 1874, Colonel George Custer announced that gold had been discovered in the South Dakota's Black Hills, inspiring another one of the west's famous gold rushes. Nearly overnight the nearby city of Deadwood had been established and grown to more than 5000 inhabitants. The only problem? An earlier treaty gave those lands to the Lakota. Surely this wouldn't lead to conflict…
A Prisoner of Sand
They crashed in the Sahara desert without food, water, a radio or anything but their wit and stamina to save them. The last night they began to freeze in the night wind, unable to move enough blood through their coagulating blood streams to summon up warmth. In the cold their throats closed, their saliva retreated, their tongues turned to cloth and they waited for death. But it did not come … This is rates as one of the great adventures ever.
(Photos by Chip Walter)
Memories of Disasters Past and…Thoughts About the Present
Disaster often walks with adventure whether we want it or not. Recent floods in Kentucky evoked old memories of previous disasters in the minds of one journalist. Old lessons revisited and new ones learned. (Supercell thunderstorm image by Laura Rowe)
Bullet Train Movie Review
Want some excitement on steroids? Read Drew Moniot’s review of Bullet Train, and get a dose! Because sometimes we just like to be entertained, even if it means shutting down our brain’s higher functions for a couple of hours.
Killers, Gunfighters and Calamity
Dispatch XVI
You could write volumes about Deadwood and its checkered past; maybe even create a TV series about its wild days as a gold rush boomtown where vice seemed more at ease than virtue. Cyndy and I wandered along Main Street. It had the look of a classic Hollywood movie set, except for the cement sidewalks and parking meters. The wood facades and big glass windows were still there waiting to be shot out by Steve McQueen or John Wayne or maybe Chris Pratt.
The Legend of Crazy Horse
Dispatch XV
In the summer of 1857 a light skinned, 17-year-old Oglala Sioux brave whose mother nicknamed Curly, decided to go on a vision quest so that he could understand the future path his life should take. His father, sometimes known as Worm, was a respected shaman in the tribe. He made arrangements and accompanied his son on his quest so that he did it the proper Sioux way. They rode away, fasted and set up a sweat lodge where they spent time and discussed his future…
The World’s Most Remarkable Journey
Sometimes adventure exacts a steep price.
Is is difficult to imagine a tougher, or luckier, man than British adventurer Apsley Cherry-Garrard. At the tender age of 23 he finagled his way onto Robert Falcon Scott’s Terra Nova expedition hoping to become among the first humans to reach the South Pole. Scott and several members of the team died. But this story is about an even more harrowing expedition — what Cherry-Garrard called the Winter Journey to retrieve the eggs of Emperor Penguins in the dead of the Antarctic Winter. It is one of the most astounding adventure stories I have ever read. I think you’ll agree.
Mount Rushmore and the Black Hills of Dakota
Dispatch XIV
The story behind Mount Rushmore isn’t what you think it is.
In 1924, historian Doane Robinson asked famed sculptor John Gutzon de la Mothe Borgum to create a series of monumental sculptures depicting great heroes of the American West. The project was to represent “not only the wild grandeur of its local geography but also the triumph of western civilization over that geography through its anthropomorphic representation.” The Lakota Sioux held a very different point of view…
Oddballs & Badlands
Dispatch XIII
If you never heard of Wall Drug, a uniquely American place in the middle of nowhere that 2 million people a year visit, read on. And then learn about South Dakota’s Badlands, which look more like the moon than planet earth.
The eerie, terrible beauty of South Dakota’s Badlands. Last stop before we worked our way west to Mt. Rushmore and the Crazy Horse Memorial in South Dakota.
Corn Stalks, Wind Gusts & Country Music
Dispatch XII
The curious Corn Palace of South Dakota. We found it as we headed across the American Midwest into the Badlands of South Dakota and Mt. Rushmore.
Traveling Small (Part 1) - The Best Bags and Suitcases in the World
You might not be planning to travel all seven continents, never by jet, like me and Cyndy are, but if you have any kind of travel in your future, you need the right luggage, clothing, gear and occasional gadgets to make life easier. After all, it’s the journey that counts, right, and you can’t enjoy the trip if your gear fails you.
Trekking One Corner of the Flat Earth
Dispatch X
Cyndy Mosites and I journey to one of the four corners of The Flat Earth, the wilds of Bonavista Newfoundland.
Vikings!
Dispatch IX
Most of us think that Christopher Columbus and his crew were the first to stumble across North America in 1492. That turns out to be quite wrong. Long before Columbus, a forgotten encounter reshaped the fate of two worlds. We learned where they met, and the story behind how.
New FOUND Land, At Last
Dispatch VIII
The ferry from Nova Scotia to the wilds of Newfoundland. We were not disappointed. (Photo by Chip Walter)
New Scotland
Dispatch VII
The tiny fishing village of Peggy’s Cove, Nova Scotia, and it’s still operating lighthouse. (Photo by Chip Walter)
Mainers
Dispatch VI
One reason Maine is so calming is because not many people live there. All 39,000 square miles of Maine are home to only 1.3 million souls. The proof is written on Mainers’ license plates. Their numbers and letters are truncated compared to license plates you’d see in New York, Pennsylvania or Massachusetts — 499 XM, for example, or P 99 h, or one we saw that simply read BABE.
Into Maine
Dispatch V
Becky’s Diner, Portland, Maine. Known for its delicious lobster rolls. Is there ever any fresh lobster that does taste good? (Photo-Chip Walter)
New York & Beyond
Dispatch IV
Vermont, in the fall. Enough said. We explored the Green Mountains and it was breathtaking. (Photo by Chip Walter)