W. Scott Olsen

W. Scott Olsen lives in Moorhead, Minnesota, where he teaches writing at Concordia College and edits the literary magazine Ascent.  The author of eleven nonfiction travel/adventure books and co-editor of three anthologies, his most recent book is A Moment with Strangers: Photographs and Essays at Home and Abroad (North Dakota State University Press, 2016).  His work appears widely in literary magazines as well as commercial magazines focused on either flying or photography.

The Road to Nowhere

by W. Scott Olsen

1.

Today, I am not in a hurry.

There is no race.  No deadline.  No urgent press that compels me forward.  No one is waiting.  No one depends upon news I might bring.

There is just this road in front of me.  Two lanes, one leading north and one leading south.  They head down a prairie hill and then over a rise.  Fields on both sides.  There are clouds on the horizon, but here, at the intersection of I-94 and US Highway 83 in eastern North Dakota, at the Cenex gas station where I’ve stopped to buy gas and coffee, the morning is bright and warm. (More …)