This plucky couple got laid off, then hit the road Email not displaying correctly?
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Jim Weber paddles the Antelope canyon slot at Lake Powell in Arizona. (Photo by Holly Weber)
Jim and Holly Weber ate a lot of Egg McMuffins last year, and not because they love Egg McMuffins. The couple got laid off from the same newsroom on the same day last May and, after a combined 60 years in journalism, they decided they’d cut loose for a bit and look for work while on the road.
“I’d literally been working for newspapers since I was 13 years old,” said Jim, a photojournalist.
The Webers, who were both laid off from The Daily Memphian, traveled for 72 days, staying in donated cabins and condos and making use of their daughter’s hotel discount (she works for a chain). They applied for jobs along the way. For about six months, no one was hiring.
“We really were just untethered,” Holly said. “We had places to go and things to see but we were still trying.”
You can see the places they went and the things they saw ([link removed]) in a piece today that’s part of our Some Personal News series ([link removed]) , documenting how the pandemic changed the course of people’s careers. After nearly a year, Jim and Holly both are back in newsrooms, though not the same one anymore.
Their story reminded me of some of the best traits most journalists share — curiosity, adaptability and a high tolerance for cheap junk food. Here are a few more photos from the couple’s epic pandemic unemployment road trip.
A display in one of the wacky museum exhibits at House on the Rock in Spring Green, Wisconsin. (Photo by Jim Weber)
A woman tiptoes into a pond at Yellowstone, which was hazy with smoke from the fires burning on the West Coast and in Colorado. (Photo by Jim Weber)
Bobby the cat is tempted by the lobster Holly’s dad prepared for dinner at his house in Lubec, Maine. (Photo by Jim Weber)
Wildlife poses for a photo at Yellowstone. (Photo by Jim Weber)
For much of their stay at the cabin in Idaho, the nights were not the usual starry display because of the smoke and haze from the wildfires. The day the couple left it rained, the skies cleared and that night the stars put on a show. (Photo by Jim Weber)
Holly’s dad, Don, took the couple out on his boat, The Sazerak, through the Somes Sound on Mount Desert Island along the Maine coastline. (Photo by Jim Weber)
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That’s it for me. My kids went back to school this week and I’m back to regularly hand washing face masks so everyone here is just thrilled. 😃
Kristen Hare
Editor, Locally
The Poynter Institute
@kristenhare ([link removed])
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