Head for The Open Road

Here are Teresa Jordan and folklorist Hal Cannon. They're correspondents for a new, regular feature we're introducing on The Savvy Traveler, called "The Open Road." It's all about that vast region of our country we call "the West." Since you'll be hearing from them regularly in the coming year, we thought we should give them a proper introduction.

Listen with RealAudio: The Open Road

Husband and wife team of Hal Cannon (host and director) and Teresa Jordan (writer).

Dear Rudy,

I just got back from a moonlit walk in this crack in the earth called the Grand Canyon. We are in Supai, the village home of the Havasupai tribe -- "the people of the bluegreen water." As we walked up a narrow trail, tribal spokesman, Roland Monakaja, sang me a song for the red walls as his young boy and I soaked it all in.

I yearn to be in places where reality is formed from landscape and history rather than schedules and television. I don't think I'm alone in seeking authenticity in my travel, open to recapturing ways of being, that many of us have lost in the dervish whirl of modern life.

Rudy, this night is beautiful. Earlier, I sat on a rock and watched the circle of sky above me fill with stars. At home, on our little ranch in Nevada, the night sky stretches forever: here it hovers directly above, a glittering dome outlined by the steep canyon walls. I found myself thinking about Mr. Monakaja's world and of my own, different in so many ways, but lit by the very same stars.

More information about The Open Road:

The Western Folklife Center's The Open Road is sponsored through major grants form the Lila Wallace Reader's Digest Fund and the R. Harold Burton Foundation.

Please visit their Web site at: theopenroad.org

Read on for more from Hal Cannon and Teresa Jordan on The Open Road.

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