Yesterday we hit the road. And while we left at 6:30 pm from Buffalo, NY and only drove three and a half hours to Grove City, PA (the drive takes a little longer in our 1977 camper), we oddly feel proud of ourselves. We actually left. There was a period of time we weren’t sure it was going to happen… In the last month a lot has happened. We photographed 7 weddings and 6 portrait sessions, we closed on a house, we found renters for our old house, we moved, we finished all of our edits on our weddings and portraits, we made a lot of albums, we dog-sat a neighbors dog, & said a lot of goodbyes. We were overwhelmed. We were stressed. We were are way underprepared. We were lacking sleep. We were running out of time. We were are scared.
But yesterday, as planned, (just a few hours later), we drove off in our camper with ourselves and our two dogs, and when we finally pulled into the glamorous Grove City Walmart at 10:30 pm we couldn’t help but imagine little confetti bombs going off all over the place, surrounding us. We had made it to our first stop.
This morning we woke up and continued on to Leesburg, VA where we parked our camper at a local park and we’re spending the night at Brian’s parents, (celebrating a birthday!) and tonight we get the luxury of sleeping in. a. real. queen. size. bed. with. the. comfort. of. running. water. and. a. working. toilet. and. high. speed. internet. And while our road trip has officially started, the first two weeks are actually a little less road-trippy, and more based on convenience of getting us from wedding-to-wedding safe and sound. So tonight, we’ll sleep in a comfy bed, and tomorrow we’ll return to Trudy, (our camper) and prepare to leave for Richmond, VA where Christina, Finnegan & Fiona will be photographing Brandi & Matt’s wedding. Brian will be flying from Richmond to Austin solo, where he’ll be documenting Jessica & Scooter’s wedding.
Things are off to a fast start. From Richmond, we’ll start heading to Kentucky where another wedding will be photographed and from Kentucky we orientate ourselves to Denver, CO, and so it goes.
So where does this family session post fit in? Well, these lovely people below are part of the reason we actually are able to take this road trip. See, earlier this year, they invited us to come out and photograph their family session in the beautiful fall weather of September. And while we were hesitant to book a session 6 hours away from Buffalo, (again, longer with our camper), two weeks before we were leaving for our trip, we accepted. And we are so thankful we did. This generous, loving family, took us in like old friends would do, let us park in their driveway and go on a final test run with Trudy before we set off for the road. They welcomed us in, fed us, laughed with us, and comforted us when our camper broke down on the trip out of their town. Without this small trip, we would have never realized the trouble Trudy was in and we were luckily able to send her to the shop and fix her up before we left, (you know, leaky gas tank, the starter going, shocks needing replacing, etc, etc). So a quick thank you to the amazing people behind PJN Photography and their warm hearts and their invitation into their home to document the beautiful and genuine family they are.
