FAVORITE PLACES
The Wagon Wheel Bridge, crossing the Des Moines River just west of Boone, Iowa, is one of my favorite places.
In addition to the fact that Iowa will always be considered home, this is where, over 20 years ago,
I began a love affair with the guy in this picture.
After Iowa, my favorite place is under water, off the coast of the island of Cozumel, Mexico. No experience can
match swimming along a brilliantly colored coral reef in the midst of literally hundreds of fish.
Discovering that a five foot barracuda is trailing me always adds a litle adventure.
Under water, all senses are sharpened and all is in constant motion. At some point, the rhythms of the underwater
currents, of the waving fan coral and fish, and of your own breathing become one synchronized organism,
slowly rocking in the amniotic fluid of the sea.
Finally, though it's not Iowa or a coral reef, Wyoming has its share of beauty.
"Full many a gem of purest ray serence,
The dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear;
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen
And waste its sweetness on the desert air."
Thomas Gray
