Scene on the Road

Thanks for checking in. I'm The Inquirer's newest blogger, celebrating the serendipity of the classic Road Trip. I hope to share scenes from the road that remind us to enjoy the journey, rather than focusing on the destination.

From Steinbeck & Charley to Kerouac's Sal & Dean, and even Crosby & Hope, hitting the road has been a time-honored excuse to seek out life's mysteries -- and a great motivation for capturing those revelations on film (and memory card!).

I grew up in the "See the USA in a Chevrolet" days, and my family made annual drives from the Mississippi Gulf Coast to see my relatives in Minnesota (where, although my schoolmates never quite believed me, you can actually straddle the great river that gave our state its name).

Even as a young adult, I continued to hit the road, accomplishing a goal I'm proud of to this day -- visiting each of the 50 United States before my 30th birthday (okay, I couldn't drive to Hawaii and Alaska, and maybe I didn't see more than the airport terminal and tarmac, but I did get to actually stand on the ground and breathe in both the tropical and Arctic air).

But what really hooked me on the photographic serendipity of the road trip occurred a few years ago when I set out to commemorate the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial (2004-2006) for the newspaper (see photo with the bison at right). My own cross-country journey of discovery started beneath the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, and I eventually made four trips over 35 days - in different seasons - that would ultimately generate 6,388 rental car miles and nearly as many images. The result -- what a kind editor called "an unvarnished representation of contemporary lives and landscapes linked with the travels of those first explorers" - was shared with readers in a six-part photo-essay series in the newspaper in 2003.

In subsequent years, I've been fortunate to carry my cameras out on other road trips as well: taking Route 6, all the way across the top of Pennsylvania; along the "Hallowed Ground" from Gettysburg to Charlottesville, and last summer, exploring three of the Commonwealth's most heavily visited tourist regions -- the Poconos, Pennsylvania Dutch Country and Coal Region.

I'll start my latest trip later today, heading from The Inquirer and Daily News Building north on Broad Street / Route 611 toward Easton and the Delaware Water Gap. I'll talk about what I see and will post photos along the way. In the meantime, please check out the links at right for slide shows from my previous road trips. Plus, since most of those roads out there go both ways, I hope to hear from you as well, and as I get rolling, even share some of YOUR road trip photos. Cheers, TomG