Infectious passion at the intersection of redemption, hope, pride, and great food radiates off of Brandon Chrostowski like heat from the embers of a well-banked camp fire. In 2007 Brandon founded a culinary institute, and in 2013 added Edwins, a high end French restaurant in a downtrodden section of Cleveland with the unlikely business plan [...]
Living in a natural world, you have to be honest. There's no place for contrived illusions. In June of a normal year, the Merced River flows out of Yosemite Valley in an impressive, but well-behaved tumble of white water, over and through the jumble of granite boulders left behind when the glaciers receded after carving [...]
A key takeaway from Wisdom Road is not a surprise: America has seen a dramatic loss of civil discourse in the last decade. The skills and practice of civility itself have become endangered by a toxic stew of political, social, and opinion-masquerading-as-news media. I believe that the very foundations of our democratic society are rooted [...]
I hit the trifecta to end Leg 2 of Wisdom Road. First, incredible blues at Red's Blues Club in Clarksdale, MS. The band starts in slowly, but by the third number they are hitting pile driver blues with a beat that thumps your chest and makes your foot rock heel to toe like no other [...]
So many great people and interviews; too much to synthesize and post thoughtully, so just a few great quotes from the last two days in southern Louisiana: From Darrell Bourque, former Poet Laureate of Louisiana, and current poet/writer: "I was at Northside High School in Lafayette when they first integrated in 1967. Their idea of [...]
Miss Gina Zachery is why I am on Wisdom Road; a surprise "interview" with my morning Lyft driver: "Wisdom is the beginning of getting everything you want in life. Basically, wisdom is the beginning of understanding. If you have wisdom, you're gonna know that if you treat a person a certain kind of way, it [...]
Wisdom Road is not fueled by diesel alone. Much more, it is fueled by generosity, hospitality, patience, and a willingness to both invite in, and share deeply, with a total stranger. The vast majority of people I meet along the way, I have never met before. They don't know who I voted for in the [...]
I would write a lengthy blog quoting Brother Henry Mooney who I interviewed today in his tiny church next door to where he serves food and provides clothing to the homeless three days a week. He grew up on these tough streets of San Antonio, graduated high school, went into the Army, and when he [...]
The Rio Grande in Brownsville, TX The Rio Grande Valley is not a valley at all. For millennia it was one of the continents great alluvial deltas, where flood waters fed by spring snow melts in the Rockies and torrential monsoon rains in the summer flowed down through the deep canyons of the [...]
As I noted in my previous blog, I had wide-ranging discussions with J.P. Bryan over more than four hours in Marathon, Texas. These are just a few highlights; I will reserve more for the book. J.P.'s personal history, knowledge of the history of this part of America, and ability to place those into the context [...]
