The Explorers

A couple of years ago I set out in a small motorhome to see the country. I spent several months driving over 12,000 miles from my home in Oregon, through the South, up the East coast, and returning across the Rocky Mountains back to my home in the West. THE EXPLORERS weaves the story of this trip with a look into the heart and character of an Explorer, including reflections about their attitudes on money, love, slack, courage, boredom and more.

Not everyone I know settled down to a long life of well-paid ease with all the essential modern comforts. Many of my friends never married, never had jobs that paid well, never bought homes, never settled really, and never regretted a minute of it. From the beginning, we all sought something else from life, we never knew what.

THE EXPLORERS is a look at the character of the lives of my friends and myself not only as a quest but as an existence worthwhile on its own terms. These people I know are not the lawyers and the accountants and the shopkeepers and the experts. They are the actors and the playwrights and the comedians and the dreamers. We are not successes but we are not failures either.

E. T. Smith
Los Angeles, California
June 2009