I’m on my way to the 2019 Jefferson Highway Association Conference and I’m taking a much shorter route than I did last year. Instead of driving from Cincinnati to Winnipeg to Saint Joseph, I’m following an almost perfectly aligned southwest diagonal directly to Natchitoches, Louisiana. I was on the road for ten days before reaching the conference last year. This year it will be just three and one of them is already over and posted.
This entry is to let blog only subscribers know about the trip and to provide a place for comments. The journal is here.
The Outer Banks and the Wright Brothers’ first flight are firmly joined in my mind. Although I’ve no problem remembering the year (1903), the month and date weren’t as easily recalled. I quickly looked it up the instant I first started thinking of the Outer Banks as a target for this year’s Christmas Escape and was very happy to learn it was December 17; Barely a week before Christmas Day, four days before the Winter Soltice, and five days before a full moon.
On Monday, the temperature in Cincinnati plummeted into the 30s and there were snowflakes in the air. I took that as a sign to leave town so I did. And headed north. I don’t mean just a few-miles-to-Dayton north but a few-miles-into-Canada north. On the surface, that must appear even more logic defying than my most recent trip to chilly Pittsburgh but it’s really not as dumb as it sounds. My target in Canada is Winnipeg, Manitoba. Almost as soon as I reach there, I’ll start south on my first full length drive of the Jefferson Highway and that will take me to New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico. “Pine to Palm” as the highway’s nickname promises. Near the midpoint, I’ll pause for a few days to attend the 
I’m off to Georgia and I’m driving an entire US highway to get there. I’ve had the idea of driving all of US-25, which now ends/begins at the Ohio River, for several years. As I was weighing ideas for this year’s Christmas Escape Run, I finally took a look at what was at its other end and I liked what I saw. Brunswick, where the highway actually ends, has some history and so does nearby Jekyll Island.
I’m spending a couple of days, including Thanksgiving, at Natchez Trace State Park west of Nashville, Tennessee. This entry is to let folks who subscribe only to the blog know about it as well as provide a place for comments. The journal is 