Rollin’, Rollin’, Rollin’….

Welcome to the (nearly) inaugural post of Trail Dust: The Official Blog of Gritty Press. We’re Jennifer and Matthew Mayo, photographer and writer, respectively. In addition to many other things, we run Gritty Press and write and photograph—books, calendars, documentaries, films, gum wrappers, you name it, we’ll give it a go. (For more about who we are and what we do, please visit the “About Us” page on GrittyPress.com, and our own sites, too: JenniferSmithMayo.com; MatthewMayo.com.)

Over the past several months, we sold our home, almost everything we own, and bought a pickup truck and an Airstream travel trailer. Then on October 16, 2013, we took to the open road—some highways, lots of byways. Our reasons for doing this are simple: We wanted new experiences in locations unknown to us. We’d also begun to lose sight of the reason we became freelancers a decade ago—to be more in control of the hours in our days. We were burned out working eight days a week just to afford to live where we lived.

Don’t get us wrong, it was a wonderful place—a home on the ocean in Maine. But it was the latest in a long string of fixer-upper homes we’d worked on and resurrected, concurrent with building up our careers, and that routine had worn us down to a nub. So much so that we were in danger of losing our passion for writing and photography. We had also been hit in the previous couple of years with a series of family hardships and losses that left us frazzled. But what to do? More of the same would give us . . . more of the same.

Surely there had to be a way to pursue our passions without burning out. One we found intriguing—full-time travel—has long appealed to us, but for various reasons over the years we hadn’t pursued a life on the road. However, we began making decisions to change all that.

Beginning in late winter of 2013, we readied our home to sell. Throughout summer, we worked to reduce the amount of “stuff” we owned (furniture, books, pots and pans, DVDs, shoes, tools, and martini glasses, oh my!). We divested ourselves of everything but what we could fit in a five-by-five storage space and in the back of a pickup truck. We kept items we would need on the road and stored things that meant much to us—photos, letters, special mementos from family and friends.

We were amazed by how much “stuff” we owned that we did not need. The process of weeding out also reaffirmed the one thing we all seem to know—the most valuable things in life, as the bumper sticker says, aren’t things at all. They are experiences that become memories of time spent with family and friends. We hope to accumulate many such “things” in the months and years to come.

Once the house sold, we hit the road with our adventure-seeking sidekick, Guy, in our new Ford F250 SuperDuty Pickup Truck (“Big T”), picked up our stunnin’ 2010 Airstream Flying Cloud Special Edition (“Ducky”), and set a meandering path Southwestward.

First, though, we traveled from Maine through New Hampshire to visit family in Vermont. Then we headed south to Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Tennessee, Kentucky, Arkansas, Texas, and now we’re on our way to visit friends in New Mexico (and soon . . . we’ll celebrate Thanksgiving in Arizona with family and friends).

We’ve visited a number of memorable places so far in our young journey: Burnt Cabins, Pennsylvania, where a campground shares space with a historic grist mill; the Jim Beam Distillery in Clermont, Kentucky, where we enjoyed sampling the fruits of that fine outfit’s labors; San Angelo, Texas, hometown of the wonderful writer, Elmer Kelton, and also home to one of the prettiest municipal park systems we’ve ever seen. The park also includes the world’s largest collection of water lilies—even in November they were stunning. At Fort Davis, Texas, we toured the historic fort for which the town is named. We also visited the Chihuahuan Desert Nature Center and Botanical Gardens, an open-air venue that offers stunning plantings at every turn.

These spots and many more have peppered our days as we travel, working from the road and learning the ins and outs of this new way of living. We’re doing our best to fill each day with exploration and hands-on research for current and future projects. We also plan to launch a number of snazzy new offerings from Gritty Press over the coming weeks and months—stay tuned!

We’re playing catch-up via this blog and eager to give family, friends, and chums we’ve yet to meet a peek at where we’ve been, what we’ve been up to, and what hijinks and hoopla we hope to get up to as we travel the vast greatness that is North America (and occasional forays beyond the rim—There Be Monsters!).

In the meantime, if you have any questions or comments, feel free to send a smoke signal to Team Gritty.

And, as always … Keep It Gritty!

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