Jim and April's Roadtrips

Awhile back, a good friend who lives in Hawaii asked me about doing a guest post for her blog.  She suggested something about the “Nowhere” status updates I did on Facebook when my daughter and I were driving across country last July and August.

So, I’ve been looking back over my pictures and thinking about other places I’ve been that would qualify as “the middle of nowhere.”  I haven’t completely worked out the direction the post will take, but I’m looking forward to the experience.  Most of my writing is just for our own sites.  It will be interesting to put something together to fit someone else’s expectations.  I’ll put a link here when it’s finished so you can go there to read it.  It will probably be some time during the week of January 20th.

As you may have gathered from the countdown widget, we are also getting ready for another Road Trip. It’s a photography workshop in Eastern Kentucky at Pine Mountain State Park.  That’s near Cumberland Gap.  It’s the first time we’ve done a winter trip.

I’m not really much for outdoor activities in winter time.  My tendency is to hibernate.  I do love the mountains though, as you may have noticed.  So I’m going along and trying it out.  Hopefully the weather will cooperate with snow or sunshine instead of rain and ice.  In any case, there will be photos.

November is a roadtrip month.  Many people travel long distances to spend Thanksgiving with family or friends.  We won’t be traveling (physically) ourselves this year, but other people will be coming to us.

One of my sons lives in Atlanta and he plans to bring his two daughters up for that weekend.  His older son, Colt, is coming with his wife from St. Louis.  The rest of us live here, but we seldom eat together.  Having a big family dinner for  holidays used to be one of our holiday traditions.  Lately, we are so wide spread and busy that it just doesn’t happen as often.

Sometimes there are only the four of us: my oldest daughter who lives with me and two of my brothers.  At times, it’s been a temptation to just make a pot of spaghetti and forget what day it is.  This year though, it looks like we’ll have a crowd again.  Not everyone, my youngest daughter and her kids are in Charlotte and they won’t be able to make such a long trip just for one day.  My oldest granddaughter lives 4 hours away and she will have to work on Friday, so eating dinner at 6pm here won’t be practical for her either.

Our schedule has traditionally been to serve at supper time.  That way people with in-law obligations at the traditional time can still come to our house late in the day.  That was started by my mother and we’ve stuck to it.  It usually works pretty well.

The thing is,Thanksgiving is a roadtrip whether you go somewhere or have people come to you.  Even if you are far from home and wind up eating in a restaurant alone, something my youngest daughter and I did several times, it’s a trip down memory lane.

Holiday meals are times of nostalgia.  A time to remember our childhood and/or our children’s childhood.  The memories may be sweet or bitter but, either way, they will begin the journey as Thanksgiving Day approaches and carries us away to visit yesteryear.  The journey continues on through December until that most emotion fraught day of all, Christmas.  May your trip be a pleasant one and, if it seems more on the bitter side, may you make find ways to make better memories for next year’s journey.

OMG….I just spent an hour typing a post and adding a photo.  I hit publish and the @#!$%^& computer said “You don’t have permission to do that.”  Now the whole thing is gone!

We are about to leave for Pennyrile Forest State Park to participate in the Fall Photography Weekend.  For more information on the event, check out the post on our local Photography Club website.  We have been doing this, along with several other members of our club, for several years now and it is always a funt weekend.

Sorry, I don’t have time to write more at the moment, I still need to pack.  This past couple of months have been really hectic.  I’m going to be editing all the photos clear up to Christmas.  I can’t believe how fast time is flying by.  I am ready to stay home for a while.

It’s been nearly another month and still no posts.  Well, there is one, but it never got finished or posted, so that can’t really count.  The excuse?  We were traveling…a lot.  We are now back home and I promise to try and make, at least, one post for every destination along our route.

Today is an overview.  We left on Saturday, September 22.  We crossed Kentucky lengthwise, a pretty but uneventful drive.  After turning south at Lexington on !-75, we stopped for lunch in Richmond, KY to visit with my granddaughter, Tracy.  From there we went to Pigeon Forge, TN and checked into our hotel.  We stayed in the Smokey Mountains until Monday afternoon, then went on to Charlotte, NC.  We spent Tuesday and Wednesday in Charlotte, visiting with my youngest daughter, Jamie and her family.  On Thursday morning we moved on down to Charleston SC for the Combat Camera Reunion.

We were in Charleston until Sunday, at which time, we headed north with a stop for lunch at Fayetteville, NC where we found a Subway restaurant in a train station.  Those of you who know Jim won’t be surprised that we spent some time there.  We finally checked into our Virgina Beach/Norfolk hotel in time to crash for the night.

The next morning we visited Richmond, VA where we took in the Tredegar Museum and walked along the riverfront, from there we meandered through Fredericksburg to visit the battlefield there before moving along to our DC area hotel in Waldorf, MD.

We stayed in Washington for four days.  Each morning, we drove to the nearest Metro station, left the car and took the Green Line into Washington.  We’d then spend the day wandering the Mall, exploring the museums and shooting photos of the city.  We joined the rush hour crowds in the subway to head back to the hotel in the evening.  We drove back into the city for some night shots on Wednesday and again on Friday morning to visit Arlington and the Zoo.  It was a fascinating week, but we didn’t even see half of what we had planned.

We left Washington on Friday afternoon and went to Roanoke, VA so that Jim could visit the train museum there.  On Saturday morning, I stayed in the hotel, did laundry and worked on pictures. I wanted to spend longer and update some websites, including this blog, but we had to check out by noon.  They had two conventions in the area and couldn’t give us another night, so I went with Jim to finish up his “Train Day” before moving along to Bristol, VA/TN Saturday evening.  Sunday morning we got an early start so we could indulge a stop ‘n’ shoot leg on the way to Cumberland Gap.  From the Gap, we hit the interstates again and finally got home Sunday evening.

I spent Monday unpacking and babysitting.  Tuesday was more babysitting and grocery shopping.  This morning, after clearing the email backlog, I got back to work.  Oh, I nearly forgot, I still need to do laundry.  Guess I’d better wind this up and get the first load started before someone else appropriates the washer.  More to come, I swear I’ll get to it, as soon as I figure out what’s wrong with my Photoshop.