6.05.2009

road trips + go



as many of you know, i took a road trip to nashville last weekend. chicago to nashville––about nine hours with a few stops thrown in.

i love love love road trips!

don't know what it is. most people i know either love them or hate them. i have always loved them! perhaps it is because that is the only kind of trip i took as a child. {i did not fly in a plane until i was a sophomore in college.}

perhaps it is because i went on so many bus road trips in college with my choir––touring all over the united states. those are some of the very best memories of my life!

whatever it is, i love the open road, some good music, fair weather, windows open and time to take in the scenery. driving to nashville and back was just that! although we had a little rain in kentucky, it was for the most part a wonderful ride!

i got to be the passenger the whole time, as the hubby drove the entire way. lucky me! not that i mind driving. i would have. but this time, i thought i would like to have my hands free in case i wanted to take pictures.

well, having only had three hours of sleep before we left, i found myself too tired to even do that. i know––shocking! but i am one of those people that can not sleep while in any form of transportation. don't know why.

so this was a no-sleeping, no-picture-taking ride for me {except for a few shots like the one above}. as we entered the more rolling, hilly, lush green territory of kentucky, i kept thinking, "oh, i should be getting some of these views on camera!"

there were so many picture-perfect scenes of the most wonderful barns on grand open farms. and so many colors of barns like i've never seen before––blue with white doors, silver, brown, grey, white—not just the typical red barns. and they were set back perfectly from the road with the most beautiful surroundings!

you would think after the first couple, i would have taken out the camera and been ready. but then i realized that sometimes i am so busy trying to get a shot of something i see, that i never really take it in with my eyes and my memory. sure, it's nice to have a record of things that i can always go back and look at. but sometimes i think it's better to just live in the moment and take pictures with my mind's eye.

so that is what i did. we could have flown and missed it all. people often travel this way now days for convenience. i'm glad we did not. i'm glad we took "the road less traveled".

i can't tell you how wonderful the trip down was. i put in a cd of one of my favorite all-time groups, the innocence mission: glow {which i am eternally grateful to my twin sister for introducing me to}, and reclined in my seat to take in the sweetest views with the sweetest sounds. it was pure heaven! i'll never forget it. those images are burned onto the hard drive in my head.

probably my favorite song on the cd is called go. {and it's not just because my name is in it.} here are the lyrics. but you should try to listen to it if you can––the whole cd, actually. in fact, ALL of their music.

~go~

georgia,
it grew in the night when you thought it was

tired, and how can it always recover and come
and want to whirl you around with your eyes closed,
no matter how you say: i won't go,
go.

georgia, we follow along. it goes pretty far.
you go ahead, i am going to wait in the car.
instead of run with my feet when they won't go.
okay i will , but i dont' know. go.
go.

and you would think now hope would be tired
but it's alright.
you would think now hope would be tired
but it's alright.
you would think tired, ragged and oil-brown
but it's alright.

and i know it seems useless,
i know how it always turns out.

georgia, since everything's possible we will still go,
go.

and you would think now hope would be tired
but it's alright, it's alright.

i love their lyrics––that's why you'll often find me posting them. hardly a song makes sense to me, but it's like poetry, even if i don't know what it is about. it's individual lines of their songs that resonate with me. and the music is just so peaceful and mellow and relaxing. perfect for the open road.

have a happy weekend, friends!

16 comments:

Chris said...

Wow, I just happened to stop back to reread the quote in the post below, and saw this new post. What luck!

I understand about not wanting to always pick up the camera. I often feel that way on vacations, especially if filming them (we used to do that in my family). You miss a whole lot of what's going on. I tend to squeeze off snapshots when visiting cool things, then take time to do the more artistic pix when I have time to kill. I'm trying to change that though, as you never know what you can find when you're traveling and should always be ready.

Great photo!

BonBon Rose Girls Kristin said...

I'm so bad about picture taking. Gotten better with the addition of our little man but the hubs and I still have way less pictures together than I would like. Have a fabulous weekend!

Peter Tschirhart said...

I love a road trip! Like you I can't fall asleep while in motion. The road trip is also my favourite plot line for a movie or a novel. Cool post Gee, way cool.

ELK said...

i am right there with you for road trips~and lyrics always have something in my head

less traveled is good ....healthier

Hi Kooky said...

I did cross-country college choir bus tours too! Loved it! Road trips - I'm all for them, and we just got back from one to northern Minnesota/Lake Superior. On the drive back today, I kept asking myself how I can build road trips into my everyday life. No clear answers on that one yet... :) I'm glad you had a fabulous time in Nashville - the photo is gorgeous! Love the open road & sky shots.

Anonymous said...

It sounds so fun and idyllic. I don't always take photos either and feel, like you, that sometimes you aren't "living in the moment" if you're busy fiddling around with your camera. You can miss the actual experience even though you have a photo to prove you were there. It's kind of a dichotomy being into photography and all, isn't it?

georgia b. said...

perfect word for it, candace—dichotomy. i used to pride myself on not having a camera before i got mine, thinking that i was taking more in than the people who go around taking pictures of everything. :)

then i got a camera, and that all changed. but every once in a while, i have to keep myself in check and make sure i am not taking too many pictures—especially if i am forgetting to be social in the process.

Toni said...

Road trips were the way we usually traveled - couldn't afford plane tickets for four people. I don't mind the road trip, when there is time to stop and take in the different scenery, but when you have to get to point a to point b as quickly as possible, it isn't much fun. We've done that, too. Such a valid point you make about being so busy getting the shot, that we don't really see what we are seeing. One needs to put down the camera every now and then.

I went to a graduation ceremony yesterday and purposely left my camera back in my pickup. I was thinking afterwards that I probably missed some good shots, but I was able to really take in the ceremony, which was why I was there.

Sara said...

I wish I could go on a road trip...oh that would be amazing

Heather said...

Ah, well said. I also used to think that I was better off NOT having a camera along with me on vacations, etc. so that I could really appreciate the experience of being/doing whatever it was that was going on . . . but now I love being able to see things that otherwise may have gone unnoticed by me before. It is a dichotomy -- a struggle between two wonderful desires. The desire to capture memory in a tangible form and the desire to experience right out front, rather than from behind the view finder.

Well, then there's the drawback of being the "official" photographer of your family's life. You get left out of the photos! I want my children to remember that I was there, too. Hmm. Going to work on hubby using the camera more often:)

beth said...

that part of the country is so beautiful...we used to live on the indiana/kentucky border for 8 years and I wish I could have appreciated it then, like I do now when I look back...

we lived in newburgh/evansville which is just over the border to henderson kentucky....

so green and hilly...I do remember so much of it and miss it terribly !

Unknown said...

i too am a road tripping girl. it is often the best part of the entire getaway for me.

a cd i often put in is collective soul and they too have a song with "georgia girl" phrases in the lyrics. i think of you every time.

Sandy K. said...

I love road trips, though my husband only sees the miles to cross before we get to our destination. Presently we're planning a trip to see our son in Idaho, and it's a very lenghty journey. I say, "what fun!" My husband says, "HOW many miles?!" But he's generally perkier once we start the trip. There's just so much to see! And when I remember to have the little camera out and ready, I often find interesting photos to take while we drive...like the one you chose here. The song is a great one, too. I'll need to hear the music. Thanks for sharing.

Angie said...

Georgia, I just really love the words you connect with your photos. I love road trips also. Isn't it incredible to be able to travel so far, in few hours, on land? Sometimes I imagine living many years ago and having to stick to just one place because of he difficulty of traveling. Wierd. Anyway, I travel with your images.
By the way, loved your feet series.

Lisa said...

i love that photo! very pretty, captures the essence of what's fun about a road trip. i too love road trips! soo fun.

spread your wings said...

i love road trips too. made many growing up - driving all the way across country from GA to CA, and another time from GA to ME right along the coast. anyway your trip sounds heavenly - great music and scenery, fresh air - can't be beat. looking forward to one in July up to Shaker Country in KY