This is a big reason why drives involved in the preceding trip were not very leisurely. In the early phases of planning, it seemed like a conference in early June and another in late June would leave plenty of room in between. The devil appeared and the leisure time vanished in the details. The early June conference filled the 5th through 8th. This, the late June conference, filled the 18th through 21st. That left what initially seemed like an ample nine days between the end of one and the start of the other. A two-day drive home from Wisconsin and a five-day drive to Wyoming trimmed all the ampleness from the schedule in a flash. I had time to do laundry and repack and am now on the way to Rock Springs, Wyoming, for the June 18-21 Lincoln Highway Association conference. The first day of the trip is in the books and on the web.
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.