Vacancy

On the eve of my recent backpacking trip to the Smoky Mountains, I made an ill-advised stop in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. This motel sign seemed somehow to capture the ineffable awfulness of the place.

When you’ve had it with the aggravation

I just got home from a backpacking trip in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The ride home, while pretty, got pretty tedious after the first couple of hours. This song was a nice pick-me-up. Fortunately, I didn’t totally overdo it on the accelerator, because there were plenty of North Carolina state troopers on the [...]

Wrong side of the tracks - Flagstaff, AZ

Railway debris - Winslow, AZ

Building debris - Winslow, AZ

It was a dark and stormy night

Hail storm, northeastern New Mexico, June 2007
(Photo credit: Mrs. Debris)

Well there she sits buddy just a-gleamin’ in the sun

We got some good photos at the Cadillac Ranch, where young Alfie amused himself getting covered in the mud.

Trailer trash

I’ve started to sort through the photos from our San Francisco-Greensboro trip. This is among my favorites, from a parking lot in Joshua Tree. Click on the image to get a better view of the graffiti.

Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me

Our route today took us past Johnson Bible College, just outside of Knoxville. As we passed, I idly wondered whether the school has taken its motto from Psalms 23:4.

The Gift of the Magi

The O. Henry is, by a wide margin, far more luxurious a place than the Debris family are accustomed to staying, and rather more expensive than we can really afford. But, after 15 days on the road before makin’ it home tonight (9 more than Dave Dudley!), we decided we were entitled to splurge.
On the [...]