In August of 1999 in Salt Lake City, Utah, a beat up old pick up truck was sold for more than 50 times its blue book value."We intend to leave with that truck tonight. We want to all sit up in the front seat and drink a beer just like he did."I drove Abbey's truck
No Road Is The Right Road
"Of course I litter the public highway. Every chance I get. After all, it's not the beer cans that are ugly; it's the highway that is ugly." - Ed Abbey, The Journey Home, 1977MP3: Christine Perfect (McVie) - No Road Is The Right Road
Surround Yourself With Predators
If you want to surround yourself by the densest population of major predators in the Lower 48, go to the Black Canyon in Yellowstone National Park. Doug Smith, a park biologist, says that the canyon hides as many as one griz, wolf, cougar, or black bear every two square miles. Here."Wilderness can be defined as a place where humans enjoy the opportunity of being attacked by a wild animal" - Ed AbbeyMP3: Viking Moses - Still My Home
Peter Parnall
Peter Parnall has illustrated a lot of children's book over the years, most notably for the stories of Byrd Baylor. His style is real easy to spot. Bright colors, lots of empty space, and usually some type of cactus, bird, or desert cliff. Although his work might be a little "Southwest Trading Post" at times, his illustrations have always stuck with us since reading Everybody Needs A Rock when we were younger. Parnall also illustrated the first edition of Edward Abbey's Desert Solitaire.Look: More books.MP3: Vetiver - ArbouretumMP3: Emitt Rhodes - She's Such A Beauty
When I Die (If I Live That Long) I'd Like To Be Buried Under This Gravel
Edward Abbey, author and critic of everything, is one of CS's absolute favorite things in the cosmic empire and we were happy to see that a little scene from Voice In The Wilderness made its way onto the Internets. VITW is an Abbey documentary that was made a few years back that includes a lot of bad PBS-style moments and a few great ones. This segment has one of the latter where Abbey takes us back to his Desert Solitaire days and carelessly expresses where he wants to be buried.In reality, Outside Magazine tells us:
The last time Ed smiled was when I told him where he was going to be buried," says Doug Peacock, an environmental crusader in Edward Abbey's inner circle. On March 14th, 1989, the day Abbey died from esophageal bleeding at 62, Peacock, along with his friend Jack Loeffler, his father-in-law Tom Cartwright, and his brother-in-law Steve Prescott, wrapped Abbey's body in his blue sleeping bag, packed it with dry ice, and loaded Cactus Ed into Loeffler's Chevy pickup. After stopping at a liquor store in Tucson for five cases of beer, and some whiskey to pour on the grave, they drove off into the desert. The men searched for the right spot the entire next day and finally turned down a long rutted road, drove to the end, and began digging.
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