Christmas Country Church Tour 2018

The start of the second day of the church tour arrives along with the realization that I am behind where I want to be in photographing the number of churches, I needed to yesterday to complete the tour today. I also made arrangements to get my tire fixed and have breakfast in Perryville rather than at the bed and breakfast. This also means that my second goa for the trip which was to photograph more of the Perry County Barn Quilt Tour has to be tabled.
One thing I’ve learned as a photographer, there are times that you must let go of the plans you made and give it over to God. There are many times that I’ve gone out to shoot a specific wildlife and found them not to be on the same schedule I’d planned. But if I give the time up to God, He has never disappointed my heart nor my lens.
But there are other times with no set agenda, I travel these backroads, I make frequent stops, I back up, I turn around to capture the shimmer, the shadow, the nuance, that undefined quality that I saw in the landscape that I want to capture. I’ve often felt that I saw the world differently and the backroads offers more time to actually see the world.
Lunch at Eggers and Company with my friend, Ginger who came down to do the second day of the shoot with me. Butternut squash soup with chicken sausage and wild rice and a pulled pork sandwich. Lunch was flavorful and filling.
We shot 17 churches that evening, one short from completing the entire tour. However, driving the backroads can be a challenge during the day. When you add in a pouring rain and locations with no specific address and locations a GPS unit does not recognize, there may be issues. In this case, it was not a may be or even a maybe, there were definitely some navigational issues.
However, we ended the evening on a photographic high note. Our last stop of the evening was St. Mary’s of the Barrens Catholic Church in Perryville. We arrived at approximately 8:50pm; 10 minutes before the official end of the tour. The last visitors were leaving as we entered. We asked if we might have a few minutes and were granted that request. St. Mary’s is a beautiful church with high vaulted arches, a spiral staircase, lovely stained glass and a substantial pipe organ. It is quite the contrast to most of the country churches I’d visited the last two evenings which are much more understated yet lovely in their own ways.
I am happy that I chose to stay locally this year and Eggers and Company B&B was a perfect choice. Gracious antiques and great hosts. There was no fog, no eerie shadows this evening, nonetheless I was more than happy to find myself safely within Eggers.

About the blogger: Jackie Johnson is a retired special education teacher, a published writer, pastor’s wife, mother of three, entrepreneur and ultimately, a photographer. Her ridiculously wide breadth of interest include volunteerism, family, wildlife, faith, music, life, conservation, reading, natural healthcare, traveling backroads and capturing memories via photography. Jackie resides in St. Louis, Missouri.