Baby gorilla, Alvila, San Diego Zoo - published in My Seven Years in Captivity

A peaceful afternoon African game drive was shattered by a rhino whirling to lumber toward our Land Rover!

Seeing an angry rhino thundering your way, with seemingly increasing momentum, ranks right up there as one of the perspiration-producing moments in my years with the San Diego Zoo.

I admit, I may have been damp in more places than one.

We had riled a mother black rhino (calf trotting along beside her) who thought our photo safari had come a bit too close. But instead of just a warning with a short charge before veering off, she seemed bent on ramming us with that ominous-looking horn. (more…)

I just returned from air travel after a week wandering around amazing Yellowstone National Park. During the usual three-hour flight delay in Salt Lake City my wife and I waited on a hard bench in Terminal 402Z with other dozing citizens.

I stayed alert. None of that giving in to the usual “flight fatigue” for me. I think it was the good night’s sleep in the mountains, the high-energy breakfast, and the way my wife jabbed what I believe was a hat pin into my buttocks every ten minutes. (more…)

We’re back, broke, but content.

It was a memorable seven days in Jackson Hole, Wyo. and Yellowstone National Park.

Halfway through, I thought we’d slipped back in time. Not just because the famous park’s pace and landscape has a calming, almost hypnotic effect, changing your perceptions.

My wife, Lovae and I were momentarily stunned upon arriving mid-week at the Lake Yellowstone Hotel. No elevator. No phone. (And almost no cell phone reception!) No closets. No TV. No radio.

Jeez, can we survive three nights? we asked. (more…)