Another few years of life, another personal website overhaul.

So I started CodyCutter.net a few years back with the intention to make it a personal website about all things me. Then work kept happening, and I would never get around to updating it. Life happens, and I’m still paying to have a domain name of my own.

I’ve had a few baseball card updates here and there, but that has slowed in recent months. Plus, I’m posting stuff on Facebook more than I do this, thereby making my Facebook page a better place to know more about me and what I’m doing. Here I am paying $26/year to have this, but not using it in a way that makes the money worth it.

I thought about what I enjoy doing most. Road trips are fun. Why not make this website a Cody’s road trips hub?

Coming soon … “Travels With Cody” will be the new name of the website some time this year, and CodyCutter.net will continue to be the URL to get here. Also, Facebook will continue to be the photograph destination to view the many photos I take along the way – and they are viewable to everyone regardless if they have Facebook or not.

Travels With Cody will combine interests in writing, travel, history and sports into a website that I believe can attract people who are interested in each of those three things. I will continue to do what I do at Sauk Valley Media, but Travels With Cody will be something extra.

[View past Road Trips here]

This will be more of a regional travel website, as opposed to something more national or worldwide. Northern Illinois will be the primary focus, with entries about other places in the Midwest on occasion. I don’t have a horde of money on me (I’m a “take only what you need” person), so I tend to stick closer to the Mississippi River than either of the two oceans. Destinations may not be household names, but they are interesting enough to me – and I hope they are to you, too.

In addition, there are many places that get attention in local travel magazines and websites. Much of the places highlighted here you may have never heard of, or not often get featured.

Growing up, my family would go on the occasional trip throughout the Midwest – the Mall of America, the St. Louis Arch, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Lambeau Field, the Motown Studios, etc. – and a little more common was just the simple getting away from the house and spending the weekend in a suburban Chicago hotel room to see more local stuff. I enjoyed all of these trips.

My grandparents (Dad’s mom and dad) traveled throughout the nation and world after their children became adults. We went down Route 66 together in Illinois, made a couple of trips to Milwaukee, and we spent a week together in Tucson when they wintered there – to date my only trip west of Omaha and south of Sikeston, Missouri. Both grandparents passed away in the last 3 years (my Mom’s mom is my only grandparent left), and I’m hoping to add to our family’s travel stories to tell down the road.

On Twitter, I use the hashtag #RoadTrip on my Tweets whenever I go somewhere. Between Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, I believe I have a pretty good following when it comes to the places I visit. In addition, I am a website author for Illinois High School Glory Days, which is dedicated to former high schools in Illinois; and work with a team of fellow authors to help document the school tales of years past. I not only brake for historical markers, but also brake at the sight of old school buildings.

I also like to employ a sense of humor during my road trips. I’ve been to Brussels, Hamburg, Havana, Norway, Peru, Cairo, Geneva, Rio, Canton and Athens, to name a few places. No, I haven’t been all over the globe – those are communities in Illinois. I’ve even been to Key West … the small town south of Dubuque. I’ll find funny signs. I’ll find funny puns to make out of non-funny signs. I not only find ways to make trips enjoyable for me, but enjoyable for you, too, even if you aren’t a history lover.

In the coming months, I also will get a email sign-up system going for future posts here.

Everyone always gets a glimpse of the mainstream tourist destinations these days between the oceans, especially on internet and social media. However, there are so many interesting places closer to home than you think. That’s my mission here.

And, you know what, if this journalism thing implodes all of a sudden, this is something to fall back on.

(Pictured above: Potosi, Wisconsin and the site of the Potosi Brewery)