January 23, 2008 

I have loved the Desert Southwest ever since I discovered it well over half a century ago, in 1950, back when I was a 14-year-old country kid from a small ranching and farming community in the Rolling Plains of Texas. On a trip with several footloose boys, we crossed northeastern New Mexico, where we explored the Capulin Volcano - I couldn't believe it, me, just a Texas country kid at the rim of a real volcano! - and then we went to southwestern Colorado and the Mesa Verde National Park. I had never been so far away from home, maybe 500 miles away.
With the passage of the years since I was a 14-year old, I returned many times, traveling through all the Southwestern states and getting to experience the mountains, the canyonlands, the three deserts, the borderlands, the Puebloan ruins, the wildlife, the plant life and the richly varied cultures.

Also with the passage of years, I spent considerable time traveling throughout the U. S. and Canada and in France, Spain, Portugal, the United Kingdom, Norway, Belgium, Holland, Algeria, Colombia, Trinidad and, of course, Mexico. Still, I've never gotten past the awe I felt for the Desert Southwest when I first saw a genuine volcano and Mesa Verde. In the other places I've been, I've just never seen such a diversity of landscape, plant and animal life, human history and cultures.

After living for several years in Florida and for a good many years in the Houston area (working in various capacities for city government, heavy industry, the defense industry, the manned space flight program, the maritime industry, the natural gas industry and a regional magazine-I could never hold a steady job), my wife (who worked in Southwest archaeology for several years), youngest son, and I moved to the Southwest in 1981. Lucky enough to meet kindred spirits, who knew, not only the famous places, but many the out-of-the-way sites, we got to explore isolated archaeological sites in remote regions in the Southwest and northern Mexico. We discovered the best small hotels, hole-in-the-wall Mexican food restaurants, small museums, decent wineries, annual events, specialty retail store, quaint villages, back roads and some extraordinary people.
After I retired in 1996, I could pursue my first love, which was to tell stories about the Desert Southwest. I wrote articles for various regional and national print publications, produced a book for Texas Parks & Wildlife, produced and edited copy for a regional magazine, and edited journals for historical and archaeological societies. About 2000, I began writing articles and editing copy for DesertUSA, which has given me an treasured opportunity to dig into the desert Southwest's prehistory, history, folklore, natural history, travel locations, arts and crafts, and human profiles-the soul of the Southwest.

Along the way, I've had opportunities to communicate, usually via e-mail, with readers across the U. S. as well as people in Canada, the U. K., Germany and Greece. I would like to think that, through the stories I've told, I've been able to share a sense of this glorious part of the world in which we're lucky enough to live. We are very fortunate.

I would love to hear from others who've had a love affair with the Southwest.