Author
As The Ogallala Road begins, I have returned to Kansas to research the watershed where I was born and raised. I begin in what we called “the canyon pasture.” A canyon in that part of the country is not quite as dramatic as a canyon in say Utah. On a trip to Kansas this summer, I took this picture of a place that reminded me of what it looked like.
From the book,
From Part 1, “A Rare Find”
“As we approached the Kansas border, alll I could tune in on the radio was a moralizing talk-show hostess. ‘What did you think would happen when you married an alcoholic? Alcoholism is a disease, Emily, a disease. Do you remember your vows? In sickness and in—.’ I cut her power off midsentence.
‘Amen,’ Jake said. Noise from the Subaru’s leaking windows filled the silence.”
***
Fortunately Jake was sixteen when we heard that radio broadcast,
