I spent one full year in Jeff Davis County.
I lived simply and intentionally — working remotely, reporting locally, and walking the dusty streets of Fort Davis with a camera and a mission. Slaid Cleaves’ song “One Good Year” played on repeat during that season of my life. It became my anthem — a quiet promise to hold on and make it count.
And in the end, that’s exactly what I got: one good year.
I wasn’t running from anything when I moved there. I was trying to stay. I had a job I could do from anywhere — the same job I still do today, whether I’m in Texas, Spain, Greece, or Iceland. It’s the work that pays my bills and funds my freedom. That flexibility is what allowed me to build Big Bend Times from scratch — and later use it as the blueprint for the now highly profitable Texas Reporter.
But while I was working to build something honest and useful for the public, Jeff Davis County officials were actively trying to destroy me.
They launched over ten criminal investigations, compiled nearly 500 pages of internal documents, and spent $14,000 of taxpayer money trying to keep those records from the public. I got them anyway — because when they falsely charged me with terroristic threat and harassment, it opened the door to legal discovery.
Inside those files was proof of a sustained campaign of retaliation — one driven in part by County Attorney Glen Eisen, who wasn’t just going along with it. He was pushing for a law to be written specifically to target me. His staff took cues from the top: one of them screamed at me in public in a neighboring county, acting as though being under investigation justified open hostility.
And then — just about a week after I returned from Iceland, my first international trip in years — they arrested me.
That was the line. The moment I realized they weren’t going to stop. No amount of truth-telling or transparency would protect me. They had made it impossible to stay.
So I left.
But I didn’t retreat. I expanded.
I returned to my home base in the Austin area and kept working. I picked up that same passport I’d used just days before the arrest and started using it a whole lot more.
That first trip, to Iceland, was inspired by a lecture I’d attended in Marfa — about Donald Judd’s creative relationship with Iceland, and how the stark beauty of that landscape mirrored the quiet power of the Big Bend. I hadn’t expected it to become a turning point. But it was.
Since then, I’ve traveled to six continents and 65 countries and territories. I’ve watched how governments function, how people adapt, how justice succeeds — or fails. What Jeff Davis County meant as punishment became my transformation.
Because here’s what I learned:
When they try to shrink your world, widen it.
When they try to silence you, speak louder — and from farther away.
When they try to tear you down, go build something better somewhere else.
You have to manage your own psychology. Give yourself something to look forward to. That’s what saved me.
It started with one good year.
And it’s turned into something much bigger.
Countries & Territories Visited (So Far):
Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czechia, Denmark, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Honduras, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Korea, Kuwait, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mexico, Monaco, Morocco, Norway, Netherlands, Panama, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Vietnam
