State park trail entry point.

Journey Home

Tales from the pilgrimage.

  • Nuclear Power and the ALARA Principle

    There is a lot of media buzz about nuclear reactors these days. Something essential is at stake and you may not be hearing about it in media. Read more

  • Week 16 — Transition Through Summer

    The heat wave broke on Thursday, and it rained all day Friday. We need the rain. I was so confident of the forecast, I did not water the garden on Thursday. It turned out I was right. I wasn’t ready for peppers, yet here they are. I picked a good number of jalapenos, as well… Read more

  • Bohannan will Address Social Security Shortfall

    I plan to vote for Christina Bohannan for Iowa’s First District congressional seat because of her position on Social Security. In an Oct. 10, 2025, email, she wrote: “It’s the job of our leaders to ensure every American gets the benefits they worked for.” The challenge is clear. In its June 9 report, the Social… Read more

  • Will Republicans Vote for a Democrat?

    It is a commonplace of 2026 Iowa Democratic campaigns that candidates must appeal beyond party lines. Set aside the registration numbers (only 527,675, or 29%, of Iowa’s 1,807,752 active registered voters are Democrats), and winning non-Democratic votes is essential. My question is whether Republicans will vote for a Democrat. It is one thing to attend… Read more

  • July 2026 Wildflowers

    Here is a collection of flower photos taken near my home in Big Grove Township during July. I often forget the diversity of plant life. Read more

  • Journaling in 2026

    I began a personal journal in 1974, although that first one was stolen from me shortly after I arrived in France. The first entry in the next journal is dated Aug. 27, 1974 in Salisbury, England. After University, it seemed part of being an educated person was to keep a journal the way Samuel Pepys… Read more

  • Extracting Value

    Much has changed since Iowa opened to settlement in 1833 after the Black Hawk War. Some things seem unchanged. The brief period between 1836, when Iowa became part of the Wisconsin Territory, and the platting of the City of Solon in 1840 was a time when people saw a grove of trees and decided to… Read more

  • Writing Projects

    Except for the daily posts here, some journal entries, and some letters to the editor, I don’t have any substantial writing projects going on. I heard back from one of the early readers of my autobiography, A Working Life, and won’t hear from the other until Labor Day. There is nothing to do there for… Read more

  • Week 16 — Time for Soup

    Midsummer is a time to make garden soup. I cleared the kitchen counter and searched the refrigerator for ingredients, then lined everything up in a neat pile to the right of cutting board. I already made vegetable broth from turnip greens, so I got the large pitcher from the door of the refrigerator, along with… Read more

  • A Day in Big Grove

    I wrote about the role Pablo Picasso played in my creative life after seeing the retrospective the New York Museum of Modern Art on June 4, 1980. My creative work takes place in a context of mundane blocks of time into which I divide each day. There have been different iterations of this since reaching… Read more