December 06 25 Newsletter | Take the Back Roads

 This newsletter was originally sent on December 06, 2025

Each month, I share new essays, books, and stories from the road.

📬 Want these updates in your inbox? Subscribe here.

Welcome, Friends, 

to News from the Back Roads!

Dear friends,

This week felt like a good reminder that our journeys come in many forms — on long roads under rainy skies, across continents by rail, through the quiet discipline of faithful service, and inside the pages of books that slow our thinking and sharpen our wonder.

Some weeks want to be rushed; this was not one of them. This week asked to be noticed.

Below are the new stories from the Back Roads, the latest Bucket List Book Adventure, an Everyday Patriot we honor, a classic travel read that made me long for train compartments and wide windows, and a peaceful mountain photograph from the shop that captured the same stillness threading through it all.

With gratitude for your company on this road,

a.d. elliott

Art and Other Odd Adventures

Stories Found Along the Way

Don’t Waste the Moments That Matter: A Rainy Road Trip to Tulsa

A reflective drive to Tulsa became a meditation on time, grief, and the way we move through days when memory rides along in the passenger seat. Under gray skies and open highway, the trip offered quiet space to sit with loss — and with the reminder that “someday” is a fragile promise. This was a journey less about arriving anywhere and more about learning to notice the moments we so often rush past — especially the ones that ask us to slow down and simply be present.

→ Read the full reflection on TakeTheBackRoads.com

Another Book in the Bucket


The Records of a Weather-Exposed Skeleton - Bashō - Book #504 of the Bucket List Book Adventure

Bucket List Book #504 explores Bashō’s poetic travel journal through Japan, a pilgrimage shaped not by grand destinations but by simple encounters: a mountain path, a roadside inn, the sight of a single flower along the road. His reflections invite us into a way of traveling that values attention over ambition, wandering slowly enough that both the outer landscape and inner quiet can meet. Reading Bashō always feels like walking beside a companion who teaches us how to see.

→ Read the full review on RiteOfFancy.com

A Story of Service

Mess Attendant Philip Livingston Wilkinson 

Gulf War Sailor

Born in Nevis and drawn by the sea to the United States Navy, Philip Wilkinson served aboard multiple ships before deploying to the Persian Gulf aboard the USS Saratoga. He was tragically lost in 1990 while returning from shore leave in Haifa, Israel. This week, we pause to honor a sailor whose daily service mattered deeply.

A Fun Read For the Road

All Aboard the Slow Train: The Great Railway Bazaar by Paul Theroux

Theroux’s classic rail journey across continents is a joyful reminder that travel isn’t always about arrival; often, it’s about the movement itself. 

His sharp observations and vivid descriptions had me wanting to make the trip right alongside him.

From the Studio Wall

Pike's Peak 

Cog Train

  a.d. elliott, Take the Back Roads

Available in the shop! 

This week’s featured photograph was taken atop Pike's Peak, as a storm moved across the Colorado mountains and the red cog train waited quietly at the summit. Light, shadow, stillness, and motion all met in a single pause — the kind of moment I love preserving through photography.



Photograph by 

a.d. elliott 

available at shop.takethebackroads.com

If any of these stories offered you a moment of reflection or a gentle breath this week, I hope you’ll share them with a fellow traveler — of roads, books, or life.

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