Once again, I had it all wrong. A friend of a friend had informed me that Tucson, Arizona was still very much part of the Wild West, where people wore no masks, did not participate in social distancing and everything was wide open. I found the opposite to be true, despite my chagrin of all indoor museums closed. The Tucson …
Heels down. Toes out. Squeeze with calves, not knees. Lighten up on the reins. Sink your butt into the saddle. So began my first riding lesson at the Arizona Cowboy College in Scottsdale which was followed by instructions in grooming, shoeing, advanced riding techniques and roping. And this was just a one-day primer to what other “city slickers” channeling Billy Crystal experience in their five-day cattle drive at the College...
Though it was just a segment along the way, Arizona loomed long and strong in my memory. Its striking, forbidding landscapes, so different from the lush agricultural land of eastern Kansas, were imprinted on my young mind. The Grand Canyon, the Painted Desert, the Petrified Forest, each rolled into memory as we rolled through them.
Would you marry your partner all over again? If the answer is yes, start thinking about a vow renewal. There's no better way to celebrate an anniversary than with a trip capped with a joyful celebration. Unlike a destination wedding, no legal rigmarole attends a destination vow renewal.
If you’re the Yes Men, you meet NRA lunacy head on with the ludicrous. If you don’t know the Yes Men, Jacques Servin and Igor Vamos, from their prior projects beginning in 1996, don’t take no for an answer. They’ve just released a twenty minute film on YouTube that underscores how the NRA’s steam is generated by fear rooted in racism.
In the heart of Red-Rock country, Sedona lies in a canyon where rushing Oak Creek and the red-rock monoliths meet. It is spellbinding. No wonder U.S.A. Weekend voted Sedona the #1 Most Beautiful Place in America. Just a two hour drive from Phoenix and on the way to the Grand Canyon, Sedona is easily accessible. Jeep tours through the back …
Adam Sholder (a.k.a. The Counselor) has no discernable talents and glides through life on luck and good fortune. With a “What’s the worst that could happen?” attitude, he prefers to ask for forgiveness instead of permission. When he’s not traversing the Arctic tundra, canoeing through the jungles of Panama, or wandering the streets of Havana, he can be found in Los Angeles, where he lives with his Emmy Award-winning wife, Vanessa Lapato. Together, they wrote, produced, and directed the television pilot, “Starland P.C.” Adam is also a co-host on the popular “Cutting Room Movie Review” Podcast, and is currently adapting a movie version of the Tony Award-winning play, “Fortune’s Fool” with co-writer Benedick Bates, producer Richard Reid, and director Gary Oldman.
Anne Z. Cooke, a travel and adventure writer, covers the world from digs in Los Angeles and a log cabin in the Rocky Mountains. A regular writer for the Tribune News Service, a wire service, her stories appear in travel and lifestyle publications in the U.S. and internationally. A some-time blogger and columnist, she covers a range of topics, ranging from luxury lodging to Arctic exploration and wildlife conservation, always with an eye out for the back story.
These range from city touring, museum-loitering, temple-climbing, horseback riding, spa-lingering and volcano-watching to mountain climbing, glacier-skiing, river rafting, backpacking and float-plane fishing. Her byline has appeared in National Geographic Traveler, Westways, Backpacker, MotorHome, Travel 50 & Beyond, the Miami Herald, Chicago Sun-Times, Dallas Morning News, Houston Chronicle, Boston Globe, Minneapolis Star Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer, Los Angeles Times and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.