Hi, road trip fans!

I want to personally thank you for your support and interest in this year’s journeys documented here on my website. The year 2025 has been a great year with many unique adventures and even more unique places traveled – all culminating in my Illinois Route 1 trip from Chicago to Cave-in-Rock. 

As you can see elsewhere on this website, I have yet to unpack all of my pictures and memories from my Route 1 trip. Work and personal life stuff kind of took over, and there just hasn’t been time to put it all out there. I’ve done a little of it piecemeal, but can’t dedicate a day or two to getting it all out there at once. 

While 2025 has been a year of neat and exciting things, I want to take a moment to write about 2026.

Simply put, I will be experiencing a rise in some insurance costs, changes in some things at home, a change in work publication schedules, and plan to focus more on my health – and with all of that being said, it will make for a sharp decrease in my road trip budget and road trip time in 2026. The year will be spent hunkering down and saving money. 

Believe me when I say it pains me to try to NOT travel when I want to. I already try to keep my travels “on the cheap” with not spending a whole lot; and this includes lodging (don’t get me started on motel horror stories). 

I don’t want this website to collect dust and cobwebs, however. I’m hoping that, when I have time to dedicate to posting more content here, that I can write about road trips that I have taken in the past (that aren’t already documented on here), and rewrite some of my professional work into road trip features. The destinations will be unique, but they just won’t be as current. 

I’m sure that there will be a time or two when I just can’t be contained, and when that does happen, I likely won’t be roaming very far from my hometown of Sterling, Illinois. I do know that I have a couple of road trips planned with family members, and I’m hoping to make those a reality this year. 

At this time next year, I’ll evaluate it all to see how 2027 will shape up. I think it will be better than 2026. 

I want to be as transparent as I can with you, largely to make you not believe that I have “disappeared,” or “waned interest in traveling.” The thrill is still there, I just need to dedicate 2026 to balancing that with the other things going on in my life. 

Stay tuned for more content. The best way to read what’s new is to subscribe to this website – if you haven’t done so already. Subscription, which is free, allows you to receive email updates on my newest content, whenever (intermittent) it’s posted. 

Let’s see how this year shapes up. 

Cody