Archive

Sometimes, even if you have to drive to get to it, and even if you’re grumpy, and even if you’re not entirely sure you really like the Midwest… Even if there aren’t [...]

A few weeks ago I wrote about mapping place, including this photo of the homemade map I’m using to navigate my way through writing new essays based on my recent travels. Any good map should [...]

Continuing this series of posts where Midwesterners speak to what is “quintessentially Midwestern,” I’ve gathered a few more quotes sent to me via email, Facebook, and Blogger. [...]

All week, I’ve been writing about home. Not North Carolina. But not not North Carolina, either. I’m working on the first piece in what I hope ten years from now (har) will be a [...]

It’s just so stunning, I thought to myself as I drove along Illinois Highway 16. I’ve never really seen the sky look like that before. This was mid-afternoon on Sunday–a warm [...]

We took a group field trip to Peoria’s historic, public cemetery that’s built on the rolling hills of a terminal moraine just inside the city limits. Springdale Cemetery is “the [...]

This is Part 3 of my exploration of what is “quintessentially Midwestern” and a theme of flatness and lakes seems to be emerging. It’s interesting to follow. I don’t know [...]

There’s no other way to explain it other than to say that sometimes you just have to pick up and go, no matter what else you’re in the middle of…and so it was that I found [...]

I’ve been trying to cipher a map that represents my 2 1/2 years on the road and for months I’ve been coming up short. Would I map routes of travel by car? Plane? Foot? Would side [...]

If you’re curious about the first installment in this exploration, click here. I continued polling folks from the Midwest via this blog and Facebook, and the variety of their responses [...]