By Kevin Dimetres He was seeking a new level of travel. The reflection in the mirror was virtually unrecognizable; the spelling of my name remained obscure; what might happen next had become a perpetual mystery.  Before I could make sense of it all, Burgundy-robed monks whisked me away, up a dusty spiral staircase, to their […]

By Steve Gardiner A drowning in Yosemite National Park A park ranger on a horse rode up behind Terry Rypkema and me and pleaded for our help. “You have a climbing rope,” she said. “Bring it up to the bridge, please. We have a possible drowning.” Terry and I had driven from our homes in […]

By Bill Zarchy Stuck on a hot day. “I’ve gotta get out of here!” shrieked the voice from the corner. “You don’t understand. I’m claustrophobic!” It was a warm summer day. Susan and I had boarded an elevator in a poorly air-conditioned archaeological museum in Rome, along with a dozen people from our tour group, […]

By Sarah Enelow An American woman makes a pilgrimage to Mississippi, where her black family lived during slavery and segregation, then retraces their 1941 exodus to Detroit by train. I stared up at a concrete obelisk streaked with black dirt. It bore an etching of a confederate flag and read, “The men were right who […]