Chances are John Holod has your dream job.

For the better part of three seasons, Holod travels around the world shooting videos and taking photos of beautiful places. Then in winter, he hunkers down to edit and produce 90-minute travelogue videos.

"You know what they say; it's hard work, but someone's got to do it," said Holod, 59, who for the last several years has spent those working winters in Tucson, Ariz.

Holod will be at Washington University on Jan. 6 to give a presentation, at 6 p.m. and 8:30 p.m., about his latest video, Glacier National Park and the Canadian Rockies. The campus location is Lab Room 300 in the Arts and Sciences Building.

He also plans to talk to the local audience about his Route 66 trip. That video should be available by April, he said.

The iconic highway begins just west of Chicago, travels for about 2,500 miles through eight states and ends at Santa Monica Pier in California, Holod said.

"Actually, it officially ends three blocks to the east (of the pier), at a dental clinic. But that's not a very romantic ending, so they say it ends at the pier."

In St. Louis, Holod was most impressed with the Gateway Arch, the Chain of Rocks Bridge and Ted Drewes.

Holod said the highway is full of tourists all year long, especially travelers from Europe and Asia. "They all know about Route 66, the history and the sights along the way. For them, this is what America is like," he said.

His journey, in a 24-foot Winnebago, took about two months.

"I'm trying to let people know specific driving directions, the best sights to see and the best places to park the RV, so there is time taken up figuring out those arrangements," he said of his trip.

"But for me, it's not really a vacation. There were some days I only made 50 miles. You spend a lot of time setting up the photo shots and waiting for the right light," said Holod, who became interested in photography as a teen.

"No matter how well I plan things," he said, "I always end up chasing that last hour of light."

Holod said RV travel combines what he loves about camping with some comforts, "indoor toilets, a bed off the ground, a kitchen."

"But I like the communal spirit that develops. When you stay in a hotel, you probably don't talk to anyone except those you came with," he said. "With RVing, you pull into a park and people just come up and introduce themselves."

Holod, who is single, said he has been touring mainly by RV for the last 10 years. But his wandering ways began earlier, and on motorcycles.

He said he caught both the travel and the photography bugs from his father, a World War II vet and a motorcycle enthusiast.

"I trace it all back to 1964, when I was 11. He took me to the New York World's Fair on the back of his motorcycle," Holod said. "We had this old Bell & Howell Super 8 movie camera, and I started filming as we rode on the Pennsylvania Turnpike."

After finishing high school, Holod attended Wayne State University in Detroit "and majored in Foosball. Photojournalism classes were the only ones I was any good at."

Like his father, Holod could have started working at the Ford Motor plant in Detroit. "That's what I was supposed to do. But I just couldn't see myself sitting on the same stool 30 years later," he said.

So he bought a motorcycle and decided to ride, but not just a little.

"I left Detroit, went out to California, then up to Alaska. All in all, it was about 17,000 miles by the time I got back to Detroit," said Holod, who would take jobs at photo studios to pay for gas and food along the way.

A few years of traveling later, Holod ended up in Aspen, Colo. He earned a living by taking photos of skiers but knew it was time to leave "when I wouldn't take a job unless it was above 50 degrees outside," he said with a laugh.

"One thing I've realized: Why live where it isn't warm all the time?" he said, with a bigger laugh.

So he ended up in Hawaii, playing guitar in a country-rock band and, of course, putting together travel videos. Holod said it was here that he came closest to settling down.

Well, it takes an awful long time to get tired of Hawaii, he said. "And you'd be surprised at the number of women I knew who were more than willing to live with me in Hawaii."

But move on he did, to his Tucson headquarters.

"I never think about what would've happened if I had stayed in one place longer," he said.

"I always wonder where else I would have gone if I hadn't stayed so long."

For more information about Holod and his work, go to rvadventurevideos.com.