Coming Soon: Back on the Road

Many of our followers have been with us long enough to know Ms. Wonder and I didn’t land here by accident. Don’t roll your eyes; I’m getting to the point. Before I started documenting the film and television industry in our fair city, and shortly after Wonder became a certified documentary photographer, we worked as freelance travel journalists, published in magazines and newspapers along the eastern seaboard from New York to South Carolina.

For nearly two decades, we worked the Atlantic coast and beyond—she with her camera, I with my notebooks, and together we published nearly one hundred travel articles showcasing more than six hundred of her photographs. 

We wrote about Charleston and Savannah, the Outer Banks, and the small towns and back roads that never make the guidebooks but stay with you long after the trip ends. It was the best kind of work, the kind you can’t quite believe you’re getting paid to do.

Eventually, as it reliably does, life moved us in other directions. Travel journalism gave way to other adventures. Carolina Roads Magazine, our travel blog and the original home of our companion documentary pieces, settled into a quieter pace.

That brings me to why I'm writing this post; all that's about to change.

A Road Trip, Properly Considered

In the coming weeks, Ms. Wonder and I will head south, down along the Atlantic coast through Georgia and Florida, all the way to Miami, then back up the Gulf coast. It’s a route we’ve traveled before, and that’s exactly the point. We’re going back to familiar ground on purpose: to places that hold thirty years of shared memories, to coasts we photographed and wrote about when we were younger and, frankly, better rested.

When I say “better rested,” I really mean we’ll slow our pace, just enough to move more deliberately and give each place the time it deserves. As Wonder often reminds me, Georgia O’Keeffe believed that to truly “see” requires slowing down and taking one’s time. That’s exactly what we plan to do.

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This trip takes us back to our roots as travel journalists and signals the reinvigoration of our blog, Carolina Roads Magazine. We plan to bring the same attention and affection to the road as always: Ms. Wonder with her camera, finding beauty in the places I’d otherwise walk past, and me with my notebooks, capturing what the journey feels like from the inside.

I’ll also be scouting film and television production locations along the way, because the Southeast has provide a backdrop for more TV and movies than I can count, and that thread runs through everything I write. If there’s a film location anywhere within a reasonable distance of our route, I intend to find it—or at least have a very interesting time trying.

The Usual Suspects

Regular readers of The Circular Journey will not be surprised to hear that Princess Amy has already inserted herself into the planning. She has opinions about the route, strong feelings about certain destinations, and a shortlist of non-negotiable stops she describes as culturally essential. I'm sure she has plenty of surprises in store for us in whatever she has in mind.

Ms. Wonder will, as always, be the steady hand keeping the whole enterprise from drifting into absurdity, and she will mostly succeed; she always does.

I will be doing my best, but we all know about best laid plans.

Watch This Space

The series will launch a few weeks before we leave for Savannah and continue with two to three posts each week for the length of the trip. If you’ve followed us for a while, consider this the journey we’ve all been heading toward. If you’re new here, welcome—you’ve joined us at a good moment.

Carolina Roads Magazine started as a record of what the southeast coast looks like. This series will be a record of what it means to us, after all these years and everything that has happened in between.

We’ll see you on the road.