About the Coyote…

In much of Native American lore, the Coyote is the great Trickster, the Traveler, the Creator. He often appears as an intelligent and crafty problem-solver, possessing strong medicine, a helper of humans and even a midwife to the creation of the world. In other traditions he assumes a more mischievous role, even malevolent, delighting as a spoiler and showcasing greedy appetites and arrogance. Sometimes he is just Mother Nature’s class clown, frivolous, inviting you to laugh with him or at him.

I have traveled with a coyote of my own for well over a decade now. His name is Archibald. To me, he combines elements of all these narrative legacies, and qualities I find variously present, and sometimes absent, in myself. Like me, he is an inveterate gypsy, a pansexual image devourer, a flaneur, sometimes true faineant, and a lover of the open road. Though he doesn’t say much, he has infiltrated, and in some cases even conjured, my social life at times. I recently realized that Archibald and I (mostly just him) have compiled a massive collection of photographs over the years that rivals that of the notorious Roaming Gnome. Look out creepy Gnome! Breathing down your neck. So it seemed only appropriate, as someone who is a prolific writer of postcards (if you remember that lost art) and accounts of my travels, that I should start a blog to indulge my love of recording colorful, and often quite mundane, experiences on this big blue planet. Disclaimer: my skill with modern technology and social media has been aptly described as the acumen of an alpaca studying Algebra. So, if you find yourself mightily bored and reading anything here, thank you for your indulgence. It will be a crude and awkward crusade to make some sense out of the chaos. Much of it will be history and photo albums at first. Please feel free to share if anything resonates or if you care to share your own adventures and photographs. There is no material too silly for my friend Archie, if it is born of an honest adherence to the principle that we all need a little adventure, at least occasionally. Great wishes for your own journeys. As a benediction/directive that a relative stranger recently wrote in one of my travel journals directs: “Live dangerously, but with integrity.” Seems apropos. As an old paramour wrote describing my home page photograph. "A man and his coyote. Because why not?" Though Bistro 31 in Dallas is practically his lair away from home, Archibald has been equally at ease in Austin at the legendary Ginny's Little Longhorn. It is only a small exaggeration to disclaim that he danced with almost as many lasses there as I have. Though, with a few Lone Stars lapped up on Chicken Shit Bingo Sunday, he occasionally had to be carried out with some chicken feathers sticking out of his mouth. Those poor, fat bingo chickens just couldn't run fast enough.

Join me and my peripatetic partner as we explore the world with Whimsy and Wonder as our twin tutelary spirits.

Our motto: “Live dangerously, but with integrity.”