Hello, everyone, and welcome to this introduction to this week's podcast.

I'm home. I'm home alone. I'm about to get back on the road, although not in my airstream.

I'm heading to eastern Montana to do a second canoe trip on a part of the Missouri River I've never been on.

So that's this week, and I hope you find it interesting.

It's really interesting to me to try to begin to summarize all of what I've learned.

And I think the main thing I've learned is, well, I mean, there are many,

but the main thing I've learned about RV campgrounds is that they're not representative of America.

Well, duh, you know. These things cost money.

Most Americans don't have the leisure or the funds to do this sort of thing.

And believe me, my rig is a very, very modest one compared to what's out there.

So please join the Friends Group and join the Book Club.

We're having a great time.

The next book is coming up.

It is Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher about Edward S. Curtis, the photographer.

It's very accessible, short book by the great Timothy Egan and New York Times writer and columnists.

So he writes in a language that reads like a novel, The Life of Curtis is fascinating.

He took some of the greatest photographs ever taken of Native Americans.

He took 40,000 dry glass plate photographs in the course of his life,

and then he produced the 20-volume North American Indian,

which is considered one of the greatest publication projects in American history.

Absolutely gorgeous. Great ethnographic work. Really just a showcase of his

enormous talent. And so that's coming up. I talked a little bit about next year's travels

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