Walkabout Chronicles is a collection of experiences told through photographs. This is your starting point for every back road explored, hidden place discovered, and memorable moment captured along the way. Each entry offers a different glimpse into the spirit of unplanned travel, driven by curiosity and a love for the journey itself.
What happens between destinations is often the most meaningful part of travel. The images gathered here are more than photographs — they’re moments of beauty, humor, stillness, and surprise that caught my attention along the way. Each collection reflects where curiosity led me and what I found when I slowed down long enough to really see it. I hope something here makes you pause, smile, or look at the world a little differently.
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My overwhelming amazement with a full frame camera sensor continues. Getting straight-out-of-camera images is remarkably simple by combining the Lumix S9 with film simulations created by RossAndHisJpegs.com.
“It’s no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then.”
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
Those were the words Alice used when replying to the Gryphon and the Mock Turtle as they asked her to tell of her history and adventures.
Those can also be interpreted as words to live by. What a wonderful way to approach life—to continually embrace change, to keep moving and growing, and to greet each new day with a perspective shaped and informed by everything learned along the way!
After 200+ miles on the Gold Wing yesterday, I was ready to trade speed for something slower and more deliberate. That meant riding the Can-Am Spyder F3 with the Panasonic Lumix S9 readily available from the storage area above the handlebars. I was now ready to pull over quickly, make rapid U-turns, and navigate dirt roads without hesitation. All images are straight out of the camera without edits.
I don’t know exactly what this spot is called or what purpose it actually serves. But along route 104 as you approach the Happy Valley Wildlife Management Area, this quick pullover always provides something different as it goes from lake to swamp to field across the course of the Summer.
Happy Valley Wildlife Management Area
There are plenty of roads to travel within this area, but many are a bit too rough for the Spyder. I stayed only long enough to enjoy one of the main roads while also ensuring that I didn’t bleed out from all of the mosquitoes.
The Finger Lakes region has a way of hiding its best moments just off the main road—you simply have to be willing to wander a bit to find them.
Autumn was settling in when we visited here in early October of 2022. The trees were beginning their quiet annual negotiation: each leaf slowly sealing itself off at the stem, an invisible abscission layer cutting it free from the branch that fed it all Summer. The result is the show we wait for all year—chlorophyll fading to reveal the golds, ambers, and rust-reds that were hiding underneath all along. It’s less an ending than an unveiling, and it’s reason enough to slow the car down and just look.
The cliché is that Kansas is flat and you can see for miles. The truth is that the cliché is correct.
A long, considerably straight drive eventually delivered us to the Pleasant Hill Cemetery to offer our respects to relatives.
Before leaving, I spent several minutes standing in the middle of the intersection, photographing the scene in every direction—two intersecting roads, one small seemingly abandoned building, and about 50 headstones. It felt strangely unnatural. From childhood, we’re taught that the middle of an intersection is precisely where we should never linger. Cross quickly, stay alert, and don’t become part of the traffic report. But in Green, Kansas, where the Pleasant Hill Cemetery is located, the rules seem a little different. You can see approaching traffic from so far away that you have ample time to finish your photograph, check your camera settings, reconsider your composition, and perhaps even contemplate a few of life’s bigger questions before a vehicle arrives. The intersection may not have been designed as a scenic overlook, but on that day, it served the purpose remarkably well.
And for the 90 (or so) minutes we were there, there was no traffic.
Stepping out of the hot street in downtown Nashville and into a small diner, the clock on the wall quietly proclaimed, “Eat at Joe’s”.
That phrase has become as much a part of American roadside culture as chrome stools, bottomless coffee cups, and handwritten specials on a chalkboard. To generations of travelers, myself included, it evokes memories of small-town diners, family road trips, and the simple pleasure of finding a welcoming place to pause along the way. Even those who have never stopped at a diner named Joe’s have likely encountered the slogan somewhere before. It feels instantly recognizable as it belongs to a shared memory of America’s highways and back roads.
Like many other memorable pieces of Americana, “Eat at Joe’s” has a story of its own.
The phrase is believed to have originated in the 1930s when a small restaurant owner named Joe in California was struggling to attract customers. According to popular accounts, a pilot friend began flying overhead with a banner encouraging people to “Eat at Joe’s.” Whether every detail of that story is perfectly accurate has been debated over the years, but what is certain is that the slogan quickly captured the public imagination.
By the middle of the twentieth century, “Eat at Joe’s” had become a cultural icon. The phrase appeared on signs, menus, advertisements, clocks, postcards, cartoons, and movie sets. It was no longer advertising a particular restaurant—it had become a symbol for every diner, café, and roadside eatery that welcomed hungry travelers. Its meaning expanded beyond a place to eat and became shorthand for hospitality, comfort, and the uniquely American tradition of discovering memorable places between destinations.
Today, seeing those three simple words still conjures images of open roads, neon lights, and small-town diners where the coffee is always hot and the stories are often as rich as the homemade pie. For travelers, photographers, and wanderers alike, “Eat at Joe’s” serves as a reminder that some of the most memorable moments are found not at the end of the journey, but somewhere along the way.
Walkabout Chronicles is a collection of experiences told through photographs. This is your starting point for every back road explored, hidden place discovered, and memorable moment captured along the way. Each entry offers a different glimpse into the spirit of unplanned travel, driven by curiosity and a love for the journey itself.
What happens between destinations is often the most meaningful part of travel. The images gathered here are more than photographs — they’re moments of beauty, humor, stillness, and surprise that caught my attention along the way. Each collection reflects where curiosity led me and what I found when I slowed down long enough to really see it. I hope something here makes you pause, smile, or look at the world a little differently.
