Uprooted, an eco/travel blog

I’d never seen a Great Lake before. “They’re huge,” people had told me. “You can’t see across them.” But that still didn’t prepare me for visiting one in person.
We drove up to the Indiana Dunes State Park, an expanse of protected shore along Lake Michigan. We were hoping to find a spot to camp, but [...]

Way back in May, I told you a little about the gorgeous gardens at Zephyros Farm, gave you a bit of the background behind Daphne Yannakakis’ gardening skills, and showed you some photos by Karina Salinas Heredia, a farm intern from Ecuador.
For new readers: Zephyros is an organic, family-run farm in Paonia, Colorado, where I [...]

Turkey Run State Park. Yep, that’s what it’s called. There aren’t really any turkeys here: they were hunted to near-extinction in this area, and now you’d have to be pretty lucky to find one. But local history tells of a time when wild turkeys would flock in the deep canyons. Hunters would then chase the [...]

Indiana is full of two things: cornfields and soybean fields. They line the roadsides, flashing past as you drive: cornfield, soybean field. Cornfield, soybean field. Cornfields with rusty tin-roofed barns; soybean fields with power poles marching diagonally across. Soybean fields with tree-shaded farmhouses; cornfields with peak-roofed silo towers like shiny agricultural castles. And then more [...]

SAD NEWS: This campground is no longer free. But it’s still lovely, and I still recommend you visit.

So I met up with Quiet Earp in Columbia, Missouri. I’d been staying in Louisville, and he was driving from Nevada to New York. Going to Missouri was a bit of a backtrack, but it turned out to [...]

Guerrilla gardening: it’s like vandalism for hippies. Watch us attack Louisville with petals.

When we last saw her, Jessica was stranded in Hot Springs, Arkansas. Read on for the inspiring next installment…
(3) …In which Things Get Better.
Till now, I’ve left out an important part of the story: Pete. He’s a Hot Springs resident, and a couchsurfing.org member. My main goal in Arkansas was to camp and hike alone, [...]

(1) …Our narrator arrives.
I’ve always wanted to visit Arkansas. Maybe it’s just the name. Maybe it’s the backcountry, down-home Americana imagery associated with that part of the world. Probably it has a lot to do with the Ozarks, that oddly-named bed of mountains promising lush greenery, clapboard shacks, crawdads and moonshine. Whatever the reason, once [...]