Whether he's engaging in mock aerial combat or riding an Iditarod sled, Randy Wayne White is one of America's most adventurous travelers. In this collection he studies anti-terrorist driving techniques, dives for golf balls in an alligator-infested pond, hunts his fellow man with a paint gun, ice-fishes for walleye with X-ray-stunned night-crawlers, and goes pig-shooting with Dr. Pavlov. With self-effacing optimism, White captures joys and fears of wandering the earth's surface with an eclectic cast of fellow travelers: a frog that won't jump, a group of expatriate Brits who developed an interesting cure for "road jaundice," and even a mad Australian scientist.

Though he rarely finds what he's looking for--like the legendary landlocked bull sharks of Lake Nicaragua--he develops a Zen-like "passion for the means," and a rare ability to revel in the rib-aching humor of each exotic trip.