Traveling with Twain

In Search of America's Identity

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In the middle of white Nebraska, Lexington is almost two-thirds Hispanic

“The writing was on the wall,” says Rev. Paul J. Colling, the 54-year-old pastor of St. Ann’s Catholic Church, Lexington, Nebraska, who also serves as vicar for Hispanic issues for the Grand Island diocese, 50,000 square … Read more >>

Family history abounds in Kansas

After our visit to St. Joseph’s Pony Express Museum, we head west on the Pony Express Highway (Rte. 36) for northeastern Kansas to learn about my mother’s Methodist, farm-family parents, Loren Haskin (I was named for … Read more >>

Visiting the Matthew Shepard murder site, 13 years later

After Matthew Shepard’s bloodied and frozen body was found tied to a buck fence on October 7, 1998, the city of Laramie, Wyo., changed the names of the streets. On a wintry day, at the intersection … Read more >>

The Pyros of Seattle’s Gas Works Park

Our last night on this amazing Twain adventure. I encountered some fire spinners at the top of the hill at Gas Works Park in Seattle. It’s hard to derive symbolism from these images, so I didn’t … Read more >>

A First Birthday Party for a Great, Great, Great-Granddaughter

Mark Twain, celebrator of his siblings and children, many of whom died too young, would have joined me in appreciating what I experienced with the Ghiglione family in Seattle. I am an effete, East Coast Ghiglione, … Read more >>