I have been planning for months the best way to travel the United States in search of long lost and forgotten history from the Kennedy assassination. I have scratched out several flight logs and even started a spreadsheet with times slated for arrival, airport, flight, rental car, driving, hunting, photographing, documenting and returning again.

The biggest problem, other than money, is the travel itself. Most of my destinations are short hops around the country, which requires a round trip flight and a rental car. Unfortunately, all of the stops on my tour are too far to drive in a week. America is really a big place when considering the driving distances between major cities.

Time is not on my side. I need to photograph my subjects by this summer to produce a book for the 50th anniversary of the Kennedy assassination. And I still need to work my day job.

Where to Begin

Next week I am pulling a double. My family was already planning a vacation to Washington, D.C. for spring break. There I will be visiting Arlington National Cemetery, the White House, the National Archives, the Capitol Building and many more locations (see Washington, D.C. Trip Planning).

In addition to visiting Washington, D.C., I am going to Kansas City for the day. I have booked the red-eye flight out of Dallas Love Field to Kansas City International Airport. I hope to find the grave of legendary CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite. Cronkite, the most trusted man in America, removed his glasses, glanced at the clock and told the nation that President Kennedy had died.

Like I said, time is not on my side and I don’t know how much time it will take to fly to Kansas City, rent a car, find the grave of Cronkite and return home. I have a very liberal schedule that will give me about eight hours in Kansas City. I just hope I am not stuck in an airport reading my Kindle waiting on a return flight.

Other Short Trips

After Kansas City, my next day trip will be St. Louis. I won’t say who I’m hunting at that location until I have found my target. It’s best to keep that information in my photography vest pocket. Let’s just say the Pope will be happy.

There is one short car trip I can take to Camden, Arkansas. There I will find the grave of Dallas Police Officer Maurice N. McDonald. Officer McDonald arrested Lee Harvey Oswald in the Texas Theater. It is about a 8 hour round trip by car, which makes for a really long day, but well worth it. Who knows, I might just stop in Hope to visit President Clinton’s childhood home again.

My last short trip will be to Tampa, Florida. There I will find Secret Service Agent Roy Kellerman. Agent Kellerman was in the front seat of the presidential limo with Kennedy.

The Long Haul

I want to get my short trips out of the way to clear my path for the really long trip that I will take this summer. My stops are as follows:

• Chicago, IL for Jack Ruby, Klein’s Sporting Goods and Lee Harvey Oswald’s original grave marker
• Dearborn, MI for President Kennedy’s limo at The Ford Museum
• Dayton, OH for Kennedy’s Air Force One at the National Museum of the USAF
• Waynesville, TN for Secret Service Agent William Greer, presidential limo driver

These four stops will probably take me the better part of a week. I’ll probably have to take in some unnecessary sight-seeing as I kill time between flights. I plan on linking each destination to the next so that I don’t waste time returning home after each trip. This will save me flight expense, but also cost me a hotel stay.

If I can fit it into my schedule and budget, I would love to add any of the following:

• Grand Rapids, MI for President Ford, member of the Warren Commission
• New Orleans, LA for Jim Garrison, Clay Shaw and other Oswald related haunts

Symbolism is Everything

In my own special way, I am trying to be symbolic whenever possible. For example, I have an Imperial Reflex camera that I bought off eBay. This is the same model camera Marina Oswald used to photograph Lee Harvey Oswald with the rifle and revolver at their Neely home. I plan on using it to photograph the house again.

With the same sentiment, I have decided all my flights should be out of Dallas Love Field, the place where Kennedy landed, the motorcade started and President Johnson was sworn-in by Judge Sarah Hughes. Flying out of Dallas Love Field means I will be taking Southwest Airlines all over the country.

I have also decided to use Hertz Rent-a-Car for each of my stops. I even signed up for a free year of Hertz Gold Rewards Plus, so that I can minimize time waiting in line. I’m using Hertz because at the time of Kennedy’s assassination there was a Hertz sign on top of the Texas School Book Depository. The billboard was also a clock and most historic photographs will show the time at 12:30 p.m. on the button.

I’m not quite sure who I’ll be using for hotel stays. I am considering Hilton Hotels & Resorts, because the Hotel Texas in Fort Worth, the last place Kennedy stayed before the assassination, is now the Fort Worth Hilton.

I would love for Southwest, Hertz and Hilton to all pitch-in and help with my project. Or maybe Amazon.com can foot the whole bill, since I hope they will sell my book. If you know anyone who could help, please let me know.

That’s all my travel plans in a nutshell. I have never travel so much in all my life. I hope my quest is a success. I’ll keep you informed. Cheers.

This is a short list of the items that ring a bell with me. There are a lot of events, births and deaths that happened in 1963 not included in my list. Visit Wikipedia for more information about 1963.

Events

• Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci is exhibited at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. – January 8
• George C. Wallace becomes governor of Alabama – January 14
• Travel to Cuba by U.S. citizens is made illegal by President Kennedy – February 8
• Iron Man debuts in Marvel Comics – March
• Mount Agung erupts on Bali and kills 11,000 people – March 16
• The federal penitentiary on Alcatraz Island closes – March 21
• The Beatles release their first album, Please Please Me – March 22
• General Hospital debuts on ABC – April 1
• Martin Luther King, Jr. arrested in Birmingham, Alabama – April 12
• Dr. No debuts in U.S. – May 8
• Mercury astronaut Gordon Cooper launches into space – May 15
• Alabama Governor George C. Wallas tries prevent integration at the University of Alabama – June 11
• Pope Paul VI succeeds Pope John XXIII – June 21
• President Kennedy gives speech in West Berlin – June 26
• Zip codes are introduced in U.S. – July 1
• Martin Luther King, Jr. delivers I Have a Dream speech in Washington, D.C. – August 25
• Marvel Comics release first X-Men comic book – September
• Sports car company Lamborghini is founded – October 30
• President Johnson establishes the Warren Commission – November 19
• The Sword in the Stone debuts – December 25
• I Want to Hold Your Hand and I Saw Her Standing There by The Beatles are released in U.S. – December 26

Births

• David Cone, baseball player – January 2
• Hakeem Olajuwon, Nigerian basketball player – January 21
• Seal Henry Olusegun Olumide Adeola Samuel, British singer – February 19
• Charles Barkley, basketball player – February 20
• Joel Osteen, televangelist – March 5
• Bret Michael, rock singer for Poison – March 15
• Vanessa Williams, American beauty queen and actress – March 18
• Kathy Ireland, supermodel – March 20
• Elle Macpherson, Australian supermodel – March 29
• Julian Lennon, British musician and son of John Lennon – April 8
• Conan O’Brien, talk show host – April 18
• Natasha Richardson, actress – May 11
• Mike Myers, Canadian actor – May 25
• Johnny Depp, actor – June 9
• Helen Hunt, actress – June 15
• George Michael, British singer – June 25
• Christopher George Kennedy, son of Robert Kennedy – July 4
• Phoebe Cates, actress – July 16
• Lisa Kudrow, actress – July 30
• Patrick Bouvier Kennedy, son of John F. Kennedy – August 7
• Whitney Houston, singer – August 9
• John Stamos, actor – August 19
• Tori Amos, singer – August 22
• Michael Chiklis, actor – August 30
• Randy Johnson, baseball player – September 10
• Mark McGwire, baseball player – October 1
• Elisabeth Shue, actress – October 6
• Norm MacDonald, Canadian comedian – October 17
• Lauren Holly, actress – October 28
• Sarah Brown, wife of British Prime Minister – October 31
• Rob Schneider, actor – October 31
• Rick Allen, drummer for Def Leppard – November 1
• Terri Schiavo, right-to-die cause – December 3
• Benjamin Bratt, actor – December 16
• Brad Pitt, actor – December 18
• Jennifer Beals, actress – December 19
• Jim Harbaugh, football player and coach – December 23
• Patrick Sean Payton, football coach – December 29

Deaths

• Jean Piccard, Swiss-American chemist, engineer, and balloonist – January 28
• Robert Frost, poet – January 29
• Sylvia Plath, poet and writer – February 11
• Patsy Cline, country singer – March 5
• Elmore James, Blues guitarist, singer and band leader – May 24
• Pope John XXIII, Roman Catholic Pope – June 3
• Jacques Villon, French Cubist painter – June 9
• Medgar Evers, civil rights victim – June 12
• Patrick Bouvier Kennedy, son of John F. Kennedy – August 9
• Georges Braque, Cubist painter – August 31
• Jean Cocteau, French writer and artist – October 11
• Edith Piaf, French singer – October 11
• Robert Franklin Stroud, “Birdman of Alcatraz” – November 21
• Aldous Huxley, British writer – November 22
• John F. Kennedy, President of the United States of America – November 22
• J. D. Tippit, Dallas Patrolman – November 22
• Lee Harvey Oswald, alleged assassin – November 24
• Dinah Washington, jazz and blues singer – December 14
• Gorgeous George Wagner, wrestler – December 26

Over spring break, my family took a trip down to south Texas. We planned a road trip that would stop in Fredricksburg, Stonewall and Austin for a few days. My darling spouse wanted to see some sights and I needed to photograph where President and Mrs. Johnson were buried.

President and Mrs. Johnson

President and Mrs. Johnson are buried in the Johnson Family Cemetery located on the Lyndon B. Johnson Ranch in Stonewall, Texas. The ranch became part of the National Parks Service after the passing of Mrs. Johnson.

At the visitors center, the park ranger on duty told us the Johnson Family Cemetery is only visible from outside the stone perimeter. Access in the cemetery requires permission from the Johnson family.

The cemetery is part of the driving tour around the LBJ Ranch. There are stops at a working farm, one room school house, a private runway with Johnson’s Air Force One jet and the Texas White House.

The Johnson Family Cemetery is a well groomed and tree covered couple of acres surrounded by a stone wall and iron gate. The President and Mrs. Johnson are buried under a very old live oak tree. The markers are pink Texas granite. The President and First Lady’s tombstones are larger than others in the cemetery.

I took photos from the perimeter at the gate, directly in front and at the side. The tombstones are too far for my Holga, but anyone with a good DSLR and zoom lens should be able to take an awesome photo.

The cemetery has several interesting tombstones that look much older than all the pink Texas granite stones. I really liked the tombstone for Mrs. R. H. Burton (died April 28, 1905). Mrs. Burton’s tombstone looks like white granite with a calf or sheep sculpted on the top. This tombstone is beautifully weathered and pitted from years of abuse in the south Texas.

As usual, I took photos with my Holga, Nikon and iPhone. I also got GPS coordinates.

I might have to see about getting permission from the Johnson family to gain access to the cemetery grounds.