There is a wildly popular restaurant near me that offers only two entrees on its evening menu: big steak and little steak! In this day of proliferating options in every category from soup to nuts (pun intended), it’s kind of reassuring that sometimes the simplest choice is the best.

Downsizing is a natural reaction to a complex world with stress levels sometimes off the charts. There is a growing nostalgia for a simpler time with fewer choices – not more. Read the rest of this entry »

When I was growing up I couldn’t wait for summer vacation so that I could escape my parents’ contentious and migratory household to spend three glorious months on my grandparents’ ranch in the Black Hills of South Dakota.  I was only seven years old when I made my first solo trip on Jack Rabbit Bus Lines with a tag around my neck and a five dollar bill tucked in my little plastic purse.  I remember sitting right up front bending the driver’s ear mile after mile, and managing not only to eat well without dipping into my funds, but somehow arriving with more money than I left with!  (I seem to have lost that particular talent, but then I’m not as cute as I was at seven.)

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For many people, myself included, the most joyous words in the English language are “Pitchers and catchers report!”  I have been fortunate for many years to spend two weeks in the normally dreary month of March, basking under the Florida sun in as many Major League Spring Training ballparks as I can squeeze in.

But at Shebby Lee Tours, we have another springtime phrase: “Wagons roll at the first greening of grass”.  Read the rest of this entry »

When we were first developing the Lewis & Clark Trail as a Vanishing Trails Expedition I kept track of all the books I read in my research, and in fact I’m still reading Lewis & Clark books, sixteen years after my first scouting trip of the trail.   I don’t necessarily recommend every book on the list but I have read them all, and I share it with our participants on the trail if they are interested.  I’ve lost track of how many I’ve now read, but it is only a fraction of all the Lewis & Clark books that are out there.

There are several titles on Sacagawea, about whom we know almost nothing. Read the rest of this entry »

One could argue – I would – that some of the most enjoyable days I’ve spent on tour were those covering many miles of what early settlers mistakenly took for the “Great American Desert”.  It’s ironic that these settlers – nearly all of them farmers – didn’t recognize fertile agricultural land when they saw it.  But because they didn’t, much of this land has remained unbroken and undeveloped, for us to enjoy today.  Read the rest of this entry »

I recently ran a Facebook promotion featuring Teddy Roosevelt as a “Legendary North Dakotan”.  I knew that few Americans are aware of TR’s residence in northern Dakota back in the 1880′s, but I was surprised at the pushback I received from people refusing to accept the legitimacy of North Dakota’s claim.

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When I started my travel blog a couple of years ago, it seemed only natural to call it “Trail Talk”. After all, Shebby Lee Tours specializes in “journeys of exploration and discovery” in the western United States. Yet I’ve wrestled with the title ever since, and although it’s unlikely you’d ever find out, it’s probably time I ‘fessed up about the true meaning of this title. Read the rest of this entry »

Antiques Road Show was here this summer. I don’t know what took them so long. They’d already been to Bismarck – a town half the size of Rapid City – and there are many families here whose ancestors homesteaded in the area or came to strike it rich in what we call “the gulch” (Deadwood). Nobody ever throws anything away out here, so I knew they’d get enough material for two or three shows, and they did. Read the rest of this entry »

The conventional wisdom is that a successful blogger produces some words of wisdom every single day, but if you are a regular reader, you know that I’m lucky to post once a month. There is a pretty good reason for this: I am a tour operator, not a professional blogger.

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Gary Lentz as Sgt. Gass

There is a category of my business known as “adventure travel”. It evokes images of llama trekking in the Andes, zip-lining across the Amazon, hang-gliding or similar vigorous pursuits which would have made Teddy Roosevelt proud.

By this definition, we don’t do adventure travel at Shebby Lee Tours. But – in my opinion – adventure travel doesn’t have to be dangerous to be appealing. I think that the tours we offer are adventurous because they encourage participants to step outside their comfort zone, to learn something or go somewhere they never expected to go, meet interesting people and expand their horizons. Read the rest of this entry »