Traveler shares her journey through art

Textbook Center Coordinator documents road trips through photo bookmarks
By Kimberly Shannon
Staff Writer

Students may simply know her as the kind textbook lady, who smiles and hands them a new pile of books at the beginning of each school year. Or perhaps some know her as the bookmark lady, whose glossy bookmarks of nature photographs have found their way into the hands of curious students. Her name is Dianne Hunt, and she has traveled to more places than most people do in their lifetime.
An avid hiker, Hunt is a docent for Edgewood Park and Preserve in Redwood City, where she leads wildflower hikes. She photographs much of what she sees and turns it into photo stationary to give to her friends. The free bookmarks that she makes from her photos can be found in the textbook center.
“Whenever I take my photos, I save the best ones for the photo stationary, and anything that’s left over, those are kind of my rejects, but they’re still pretty good,” Hunt said. “I started doing that about five years ago. They were so popular I just cut them up and put them in here, and everybody seems to like them.”
For many years, Hunt has been taking road trips across the United States, visiting many historic roads such as Route 66, Yellowstone Trail and Lincoln Highway. Traveling by herself, Hunt goes on trips that often last for as long as a month. Hunt said that her interest in traveling the highways was sparked by events in her childhood.
“When I was growing up, my parents didn’t have much money so the only vacations we ever took were road trips and camping,” Hunt said. “We always went to Yosemite and Diamond Lake. I loved seeing the country.”
Hunt’s interest in road trips and the many places she visits is by no means casual. She keeps files on every town and city in California and one on every state, detailing places she has seen or would like to see. Most of her research comes from magazines on the subject.
Hunt is especially interested in Airstreams, which are travel trailers hitched to cars. She said that her dream is to someday buy one and travel all over the country with it.
However, Hunt said that she will not be able to travel this summer. She has been undergoing chemotherapy to treat her breast cancer, which she has been fighting for about a year.
Thankfully, Hunt said that her cancer prognosis is good and that the treatment should be over in the fall, allowing Hunt to get back on the road next summer.
Hunt found a bright side to her chemotherapy early in her treatment, when she found that one of her nurses had gone to school with Michael Wallis, a well-known author of books about Route 66.
“[The nurse] called him up and said, ‘Would you send her an autographed copy of one of your books?’” Hunt said. “So he not only did that, but he called me from Oklahoma where he lives. … When I get back on the road, I hope to go meet him in person.”
Although most of her travels have taken her through the western and central states, Hunt said she would love to travel to other places as well.
“I haven’t been to the East Coast yet, so I do want to go to the East Coast and see Niagara Falls,” Hunt said. “There’s just so much to see in the U.S. There’s probably 40 years of places that I still want to go.”