Jim and April's Roadtrips

I love road trips. Whether it’s 50 miles or 500, I am usually ready to go. So far this year, I’ve made my first visit to the Outer Banks (note the photo in the header) for a wedding, gone to my oldest grandson’s graduation at Ft. Jackson, SC, with a stop on the way back through Charlotte, NC to pick my youngest grandson up for a visit. While he was here, we went to a Renaissance Fair in Eastern Kentucky, and the zoo in St. Louis. In October, I will be traveling to Baltimore to pick another grandson up from the airport. He’s stationed in Germany, at the moment, but will be moving to Montana this fall.

However, the really exciting trip comes in September. My baby brother (he’s 61 this year) and I are following, as closely as possible, the old Route 66 HWY to California by way of Albuquerque. His Air Force Combat Camera unit is having a reunion there. Afterwards we are going to LA to visit with friends.

On the way out we intend to drop down south and spend a night in Memphis and cut through Arkansas before picking up I-40 at Oklahoma City. On the way back, we plan to come through Utah, Colorado, Kansas, and Missouri. The whole thing is expected to take about 3 weeks.

It’ll be the longest vacation I’ve ever taken and we’ll be passing through places I haven’t seen since the late sixties, plus visiting 3 states where I’ve never been at all. As we plan a tentative route, collect brochures, and make reservations, I feel as excited as a little kid. I’m ready to start packing today.

We’ve got several photo shoots in the planning stages. Since he loves trains, we’ll be hitting a lot of old depots and train museums, plus places where the tracks follow the highway or vice-versa.  I, on the other hand, love mountains and sweeping landscapes, so I know I’ll find things to shoot while he’s playing with his locomotives.

We’re brainstorming ideas for some kind of article involving the photography and the travel, so we can write off some of the travel expenses come tax time. It’s so great when your work is also your pleasure.

Whatever happens with the article, I’ll for sure be putting updates here. So, check back around September 20th to see how we’re doing.