Clint and Lynne Karnes create family-friendly travel, wine vlog

Take a journey into the lives of Clint and Lynne Karnes as they share their love for travel, wine and family in their YouTube channel “Mrs. Karnes and Me.”

Clint Karnes, community bank president for Wood & Huston Bank, and his wife, Lynne, a retired first grade teacher, grew up near each other in small-town Southern Illinois, became high school sweethearts and have since been married for 36 years.

The two moved five times before landing in Cape Girardeau, where they raised children and became grandparents, while both building successful careers and becoming prominent leaders in the community.

They also managed to find time to travel to 40 states and 28 countries, and found there’s almost always time for a good glass of wine.

As the couple became empty nesters and began to think about what the next chapter of their lives would look like, Lynne said, she retired from 25 years of teaching at St. Vincent de Paul School in 2020 so the two could travel more and enjoy “the good life” together.

However, the coronavirus pandemic put a halt on those plans and the two were stuck at home, living vicariously through other people’s travel videos on YouTube. That is, until Clint realized they could start their own channel and make similar videos.

The duo put their heads together and decided to combine their love for travel and wine to come-up with the theme of their channel, “Mrs. Karnes and me”, where they pull from years of various adventures to provide travel tips and tricks, wine tastings and reviews and more.

They often joke that ‘Clint is the talent and Lynne is the production,’ because he spends more time in front of the camera and she prefers to be behind-the-scenes.

The Karnes’ utilize footage from past adventures and family trips, Lynne said, so their children and grandchildren are frequent faces on the show, as well.

Clint and Lynne Karnes share photos from their travel and wine vlog on YouTube channel "Mrs. Karnes and Me." The couple has traveled to 40 states and 28 countries. Submitted

She added this helps to make the videos more visually appealing for viewers as the coronavirus pandemic has limited travel options.

“We said when we first started the videos that we’re just going to be who we are, so, what you see on there — that’s just us,” Lynne said. “What you see is kind of what you get with us, and I hope people like it and subscribe, but that’s not really the main reason we do it.”

Clint said the idea for the videos originally came from the need to “scratch that travel itch” due to the coronavirus pandemic, and for the two of them to find a creative outlet and learn something new while in lockdown, but it has become much more than that.

“As we have recently become grandparents, we started thinking about our own grandparents — what their lives were like and how it would have been interesting to know them when they were younger,” Clint said. “So, we started making these so that in 25, 30, 40 years from now, our grandkids and maybe even their kids can go back and watch them and they’ll know that back in the day, G.G. and P.P. were kind of cool and did cool stuff.”

Lynne shared the sentiment and said the videos have almost become a series of home movies because they incorporate footage of travels with their children and grandchildren as they are growing up. But these videos will be much more accessible to future generations on a digital platform than home movies from when she was a kid.

The two said their travels have impacted them so deeply that they have incorporated them into their lives and their children’s lives, as well, and wanted to pass that along to future generations.

“Sharing these experiences with friends and family helps to keep those trips alive,” Lynne said. “I think everywhere we go changes us a little bit and helps broaden our mindset and just makes us overall better people. I truly believe if you traveled all around the world, you’d love the whole world and everyone in it, and that’s what I want for me and my family and just everyone.”

Clint and Lynne Karnes share photos from their travel and wine vlog on YouTube channel "Mrs. Karnes and Me." The couple has traveled to 40 states and 28 countries. Submitted