Happy Thanksgiving y’all. For all of my American friends and followers, I hope you are somewhere warm and welcoming with friends and family around you, or at the very least somewhere where you are comfortable and can find some joy in the day. For my international friends and followers, I wish you a happy Thursday, but hope wherever you are you can find some time today to count your blessings and realize how much you have to be thankful for. This is something I am trying to start incorporating into my everyday routine, not something I reserve for one day in November.
For those of you who have to work today, believe me - I’ve been there. I’ve spent many years working in restaurants on the holidays. It was never a bad thing, but I was always a little surprised that people didn’t tip more on the holidays. If you find a restaurant open, remember that someone has had to give up their holiday to take care of you and you should be sure you take care of them. In my career as a guide, I also spent many years on the road during the holidays. I’ve celebrated Thanksgiving on the beach in Key Largo, in the snow in Stowe, Vermont, at Grand Canyon, in San Diego and probably plenty of other places I’ve now forgotten about. I enjoyed having groups to share the day with and sometimes cooked a traditional American Thanksgiving Day feast if the facilities were available. Cooking that kind of a meal for 14 people is quite the challenge - and if you only have a camp stove and an open fire even more-so. It’ s nice to be able to share your culture with people from abroad though, and Thanksgiving is one of the best days to do that in America.
This year, I’m very thankful to be home with my friends and family and to be able to celebrate the holiday with the people I care most about. I’m also thankful to have some time and internet access to get some work done while I’m here. I’ve been enjoying playing a lot of catch-up these last few weeks, trying to get this site in order, complete some projects that are long overdue and start to plan for the future. One of the things I’ve really been working on is my Gallery pages. I’ve been able to clean up, organize and add to three of my photo galleries over the last week or so, and I’d love it if you wanted to pop over and have a look. Here are the links where you can find them:
Long time, no see. Today marks the 2nd anniversary of me setting off in my van towards Harpers Ferry, West Virginia and the beginning of my life’s greatest adventure. The next 18 months brought me to 10 states which I explored in great depth, trying to gain a better understanding of the people, culture and history that make each special and unique. I was able to travel thousands of miles, take tens of thousands of photos, record 20 episodes of my podcast American Anthology and generally get a better understanding of my country and myself. It was by no means a vacation, nor was it an easy ride. I found myself working long days trying to publish on this blog as frequently as I could while constantly researching my next podcast episode, trying to eat well and get enough exercise and have a little bit of fun along the way. I battled deadlines, weather, loneliness and serious bouts with depression and self-doubt. But I came out the other side a better person with a better understanding of myself and the country I call home. Looking back, it was a hell of a ride.
After 18 months alone on the road, it was time to take a break. While not gone, my savings were seriously depleted as I hadn’t been able to make as much money as I had hoped while on the road. In addition, I desperately needed some conversation and companionship - something more than the fleeting conversation of a roadside tavern could provide. I found during my 18 month stretch that it was often harder to stop and see friends than it should have been - that while it was always wonderful and joyful to catch up with them, it sometimes brought me back lower than I had been when I arrived at the thought of being on my own again. It was almost as if sharing time with my friends reminded me of just how lonely the open road is. I think anyone who has done some any long-term solo travel would agree with that. It’s not the external world that gets you, but the one that revolves solely within your own head.
Hello Everyone!
I’ve had a wonderful week to myself here in Salt Lake City. It has been a week mainly of catch-up, on my work, on my sleep, on my photos, on my correspondences. I would like to think I’ve caught up to some degree, but I know I still have a podcast painfully half-complete and other projects I just didn’t get to. But, I feel rested and ready to set out on a new tour starting tomorrow.
Tomorrow I will set out with 7 people: 2 Americans, 4 Brits and 1 German and head back into the Rocky Mountains. We will be out for 12 days, spending 2 in Jackson and the Grand Tetons, 4 in Yellowstone, 3 in Glacier and then one in Ceour d’Alene before making our way on to Seattle. It’s a great trip full of mountain splendor, fascinating thermal features in Yellowstone, wonderful hikes and hopefully some great animal encounters. I met the group tonight, and they are very excited for the trip. I always take my energy from the group, and this one has gotten me excited to be heading back to the mountains.
It’s been a crazy busy few weeks out here on the road. It’s the peak of the summer season, and I’ve been working hard trying to show people some amazing and beautiful parts of the United States. Time and internet have been scarce, but I promise I haven’t forgotten you all and I’ve been taking plenty of beautiful photos out here.
I returned from an amazing month in Hawaii about two weeks ago and then headed north to Seattle where I picked up a two week tour into the Rocky Mountains. We got to spend a good amount of time in the amazing national parks of Glacier, Yellowstone and Grand Teton, three of my favorite places on earth. We did some great hikes and spotted a ton of wildlife including at least a dozen bears and a pack of wolves hunting a fully grown bison. It was a pretty awesome trip.
Whew, it has been an unbelievably crazy and busy month here in Hawaii, but a wonderful one. I had every intention of posting regularly on this blog while I was here, but I’ve been so busy with work that there just haven’t been enough hours in the day. My apologies. I am back guiding tours for the summer, and after three busy days of preparation in California, I flew to the Aloha State with two days to get things ready here before my first trip began. My first trip was a 10 day, 4 island blitz, and then with just one day in between to prepare I launched into an 8 day camping trip on the Big Island. Another one day turnaround and I am on another 3 island run. Hawaii is so different than what I’m used to as a guide because there aren’t a lot of long journeys as there isn’t a lot of distance to cover here. Our days are full of activities and beautiful sights and sounds and tastes, but it’s a lot to keep organized and moving forward. All three of my tours have been wonderful though, and I’ve really enjoyed them, and never fear - my camera has been snapping away furiously the whole time I’ve been here.
Hi everyone! I want to wish everyone a Happy Memorial Day here in the United States, the holiday which unofficially kicks off our summer season. I spent the weekend here in Washington D.C. barbecuing with friends and family and celebrating close to home. Friday I stayed home with my folks and we grilled some steaks in their back yard and enjoyed a few beers and some good conversation. Saturday I went north to Frederick with some friends to pick strawberries and grill out by the lake, and Sunday I went over to visit some friends who recently bought a house with a pool. It was a wonderful and relaxing weekend and it’s very good to be home.
I did make a wonderful visit to the Library of Congress this week to check out the original photos of Edward Curtis, one of my very favorite photographers. While his work is famous and if you’ve seen a lot of old sepia photos of Native Americans you’re probably familiar with his work, they were originally published as part of a very expensive 20 volume set which is very rare and hard to find. I can’t believe it’s taken me so long to go and see his work at the Library of Congress, but I finally made it and had a great time. I just sat there for hours and looked at the wonderful prints in Volume 2 (Volume 1 is out for restoration). It was cool…
I’m home, y’all! I pulled up in front of the house my great-grandparents built here in Northwest Washington D.C. late last Friday night. Shadow Catcher did well on the 9 hour drive, as it has throughout this journey, and now she can take a nice, long, well deserved rest. My van will be staying here for a few months and enjoying the summer, although I myself will not be. I will keep traveling. That’s who I am and what I do. I don’t really know anything but anymore, and I don’t necessarily care to. My life is on the road and to the road I will return in a few weeks, albeit a different road on a different trajectory. This is the end of this leg of this particular journey, not the end of my travels, my adventures, my photography or this blog. Think of it as a season finale, not a series finale. I do want to take some time in this post to reflect back on the last year and a half and to look forward at what comes next. Before I do, though, I want to say an enormous thank you to those of you who have come along for the ride. Whether you’ve been with me from the start or you’ve only just joined me I appreciate every single one of you and your support over the course of this journey. I hope along the way I’ve been able to inspire you and show you places you’ve never been or perhaps those you have in a different light. I hope I’ve been able to bring a little joy into your lives, a little beauty, a little color, a little light. If I have, then I will call this whole thing a success. Thank you for being a part of this trip.
After leaving you last week, I had a few more adventures before I packed it up and headed north though, and it would be tragic to leave them out of this post. That afternoon I went out to High Falls Park near Geraldine, Alabama, and what a wonderful place that was to visit. It was a beautiful county park with a magnificent waterfall, a pleasant beach, a bridge over the river, hiking trails and a picnic area. It was a magnificent spring day and when I got there I fell in love with the place and stayed until the park closed. I swam and got some sun and read and enjoyed the sound of the falls and the warmth on my face. I returned to Fort Payne in the evening and took a few photos around town in the fading daylight before calling it a day…
Hello everyone! It’s starting to get warm here in Alabama which means it’s about time for me to start heading north. And I guess I have! It’s been a great week here in Northern Alabama which started with music and history in The Shoals and is ending in the beauty of nature in Little River Canyon. I’ve jammed out in FAME Studios, been moved by the actions of the Freedom Riders and swam in a clear mountain river. This has been my last full week here in Alabama, and it’s about time to turn my headlights towards home for a while. I must say that Alabama has been one pleasant surprise after another. It’s clean, friendly and I’ve had a great time here. Whatever preconceived ideas I had or stereotypes I bought into have, as they have everywhere else, been shattered by the time I’ve spent here. And that’s really been the point of this whole trip - to see things with my own eyes and interpret them with my own mind and heart and come away with my own understanding. And it’s been amazing.
After I posted last week’s This Week, I worked until the library closed at 7, trying to get some photos edited and published and a few other things done. Afterwards, I went to downtown Florence and had a nice walk around the city and took some photos. Then, in the mood for some live music, I went and saw Katlyn Barnes sing at The Boiler Room in the basement of The Stricklin Hotel. The show was good and Katlyn really has a soulful voice and personality. When she was done, I headed out to Swampers Bar and Grille at the Florence Marriott to see Hank Erwin play. They’ve done a really great job with this bar which is full of old guitars, photos and memorabilia from the glory days of Muscle Shoals. Hank was great and this was a good place to round out my evening…
It’s been busy, busy, busy out here on the road this week. This week has taken me from Selma to Demopolis in Western Alabama, back through Tuscaloosa to Birmingham and then north and west through Bankhead National Forest and on to Muscle Shoals where I am writing to you from today. I celebrated Orthodox Easter, hiked to some waterfalls, shouted “Roll Tide”, ate quail, and of course took lots of photos along the way. I’m into the home stretch of this leg of the journey as I need to be home in a week and a half, so I’ve been hustling out here. I have made plenty of time to stop and smell the beautiful wildflowers though, and enjoy some hills after 4 months of flatness in every direction. HERE is the link to this week’s map if you like to follow along.
After publishing last week’s This Week, I headed directly for Old Cahawba, the first capital city of the state of Alabama. It served as the capital from 1820-1825, but regular flooding caused the legislature to move out to higher ground. The city declined over the next century and by the time of its centennial, Cahawba was all but abandoned. Today there is nothing left but a few brick columns, an old cemetery and a few foundations. There really wasn’t much to see, but I enjoyed wandering around and imagining myself back to its heyday when its citizens probably thought it was a pretty cool place. Cahawba is managed today as a State Archaeological Site. It’s only about 20 minutes from Selma and for me it was worth seeing, but I wouldn’t necessarily go too far out of my way to visit…
It’s been a busy and fascinating week out here on the road. Wildflowers are blooming everywhere here in Alabama and it is truly magical to see all the beautiful colors along the side of the road. We’ve had some pretty serious April showers here as well, but when the sun is out the temperatures have climbed into the 80’s. I’ve made a big loop this week from southeast Alabama to west-central Alabama, and gotten a lot of history to think about along the way. From the Civil War to Civil Rights, this part of Alabama is both fascinating and tragic. I spent a few days in the state capital of Montgomery and am winding the week up here in beautiful Selma. I’ve had my hustle on this week, but with the longer days I’ve been able to cover a lot of ground.
When I finished writing last week’s This Week post, I did, in fact, head on to Dothan, a small city which I really enjoyed. Dothan is in a region called The Wiregrass which extends into southwest Georgia and the Florida panhandle. The downtown area was compact and walkable and absolutely packed with beautiful murals and statues. I really enjoyed just wandering around and having a look and, of course, taking lots of photos. I love when I can explore somewhere that’s totally new to me and somewhere where I go in with no idea of what I’ll find there. Sometimes it’s a real treat, as was the case here. I strolled around until well after the sun was down, and then went for a wonderful dinner at the local and family run Hunts Seafood Restaurant south of town. I got a half-order of oysters there which was enough to feed me twice. It’s always a good sign when you pull into a small-town restaurant on a Wednesday night and the parking lot is completely packed…
Hello everyone, another week has past and it’s time for another edition of This Week on the Road. It’s been a pretty great week out here in Southern Alabama, beginning with a much needed and well enjoyed visit to the Gulf Coast and a few minutes on the beach. I also spent some wonderful time in beautiful Mobile, a city which I really enjoyed. The week ended with a long drive across the south of the state heading east, through rural farmland and quaint little towns. It’s been a great first week here in The Heart of Dixie, and I’m looking forward to everything the state has to offer in the coming few weeks. HERE is this week’s map if you want to follow along as we go!
When I finished posting my This Week article last week, I did, in fact, get out of town. I love New Orleans, and it’s always hard to go, and it was particularly hard with French Quarter Fest starting the following day, but it was way past time for me to get out of Louisiana. I scooted down to the interstate, and took Route 10 all the way to Alabama. I hate the interstate and its never-ending monotony, but it’s great when you have places you have to be and a limited time to get there.
When I got to Alabama, I headed southwest on 188 to beautiful Bayou La Batre. You may remember the name from Forrest Gump, as it is where Bubba was from and where Forrest went to start his shrimping company. It really is a shrimping town, and if you’ve been following along with me on this journey, you know I’m a sucker for old shrimping boats. The fleet there was really beautiful, and I stopped off to have a look and take some photos. While I was stopped, a young man of maybe 9 or 10 named Matthew pulled up…
