The Mississippi River carries the mud of thirty states and two provinces 2,000 miles south to the delta and deposits 500 million tons of it there every year. The business of the Mississippi, which it will accomplish in time, is methodically to transport all of Illinois to the Gulf of Mexico.

Look for joy in your life; it's not always easy to find.

Often I have been exhausted on trout streams, uncomfortable, wet, cold, briar scarred, sunburned, mosquito bitten, but never, with a fly rod in my hand have I been less than in a place that was less than beautiful.

Thanks to the Interstate Highway System, it is now possible to travel across the country from coast to coast without seeing anything.

The everyday kindness of the back roads more than makes up for the acts of greed in the headlines.

I used to think that driving, sleepless, ambitious labor was what you needed to succeed.

I was on the high school track team, believe it or not, and played baseball, poorly but passionately.