At Home on the Road

The Walmart parking lot in Butte, Montana resembled a campground. More than twenty RVs, campers and travel trailers were parked on the outskirts when we arrived in the late afternoon. The vehicles varied from top-of-the-line, bus-shaped motor homes to old, creaking models that had seen far better days.

Our 1986 Toyota Escaper fell toward the less attractive end of that spectrum and, for the first time on our trip, we shared the Walmart parking lot with a vehicle just like it. That’s how we met Mike and Jane. Read more…

“In an Instant:” From Affluence to Bankruptcy in Denver’s Housing Meltdown

Bob and Callae didn’t know it, but in 2007 their family was on the precipice of a devastating slide from affluence to bankruptcy. They lived in an upscale Denver neighborhood, were members of a country club and employed a nanny for their two young boys. Read more…

Growing Difficulties: Kansas farmers caught between good times and bad

Dan Daniels says there are few things he loves more than a challenge, and this year he’s getting just that. He stands to lose more than $100,000 on his farm near Topeka, Kansas. It’s a story that began a year ago, strangely, in one of the most profitable growing seasons farmers there had ever seen. Read more…

Maisie’s Pool

We arrived in Eskridge, Kansas on the Maisie DeVore Highway. It said so right on the big green road sign outside of town.

We were on a tour of rural Kansas with friends from Topeka and were prepared to roll right through Eskridge without stopping. It wouldn’t have taken long; the town’s population is about 500. But the decision was made that we should see “Maisie’s Pool,” a few blocks off the main drag.

It would be easy to miss the amazing story here. The facility looks like any other community pool, but the forty year effort behind it is unique and inspiring. Read more…

Signs of Change: How a new font called “Clearview” is changing America’s highways

From time to time we take a break from economic stories to show you some of the other interesting things we see along the way. We call them “Detours,” and this is one of them.

Something was definitely up with the L’s.

In the first weeks of our trip, we began noticing something subtly but decidedly different on the interstate road signs we passed. Something about them was changing and it had to do with the lowercase L’s. On closer inspection, we realized there was a whole new typeface being used on some signs. Read more…

The Long Walk: Cross-Country with Her Horse

As the economic turmoil has played out in the lives of ordinary Americans, many face a long, difficult road ahead.

Few, though, face a journey quite like Ann Byrns of Pelham, Massachusetts. She’s walking across the country with her horse. Read more…

Waking Up at Wal-Mart

“We have a reservation,” I said as I hung up the phone.

Julie laughed. Kinda hard.

It was funny because I’d just been on the line with the manager of a Wal-Mart Supercenter outside of St. Louis, asking if they would allow us to park overnight in their parking lot. We’d be sleeping outside “Wallyworld.” Read more…

Saving Berea

After graduating from high school in rural Kentucky, Natasha Smith applied to and was accepted by the University of Kentucky. She would be one of the first in her family ever to attend college. There was only one problem: her parents had to provide for nine children and couldn’t afford even Kentucky’s in-state tuition. Read more…

Free Cookies and WiFi

The last time I wrote here I was at home in Jonesville, Virginia and was thinking about the ease and comfort of being in a place you know. That’s changed.

We hit the road less than a week ago but we’ve already been deep into unfamiliar territory. I’ve been to these parts of eastern Kentucky before, but never like this. We’re seeing the places and the people I would usually zoom by at 70 miles per hour. And we’ve become again the faceless, forgettable people who “aren’t from here.” Everybody’s a stranger and every turn is undiscovered country. As much as I enjoyed being home and rooted, life on the road ain’t bad either. Read more…

Blazing Trails: From Coal Mines to ATV Tourism in Kentucky

In rural southeastern Kentucky, the hills have always provided. Timber harvesting employed thousands when it began in earnest after the Civil War. Not long after, massive mines began to define this area as “coal country.”

Until late in the twentieth century, those industries gave this part of Kentucky much of its identity and livelihood. Today, both are in decline and employ a fraction of the workforce they saw at their peak. Read more…

Next Page »