Today I woke to this glorious view of the Atlantic ocean — right out the back of my van!  I am in heaven!!!!!  (Have I said yet just how perfect this van is! I can’t thank Cascade Campers enough). Last night I finally arrived at Folley Beach and spent the evening at  Chico Fey  a rustic, shady, backyard ‘hang-out joint’ in a little bohemian beach town in South Carolina. After three days of intensive driving I can finally chill out…

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Throughout this trip, I continue to be moved by the support I have received. It’s what has made this trip so easy and painless. Even when things go a bit awry, it has never been a big issue. I know I have ‘angels’ (that’s what I call you all) looking after me. The only time they seemed to disappear was when I was in Florida.  It was quite strange actually. As soon as I entered Florida, there seemed to be…

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I am so excited, and honored, to be asked back to Greenville, Mississippi to photograph the women in the Delta!  (…with my ‘real’ camera rather than quick cell phone pics.) As many of you might have read a week ago, I had a profound, life-changing experience meeting women in the Mississippi Delta. I was struck by the contrast between what I had read about this community before going and who I actually met while I was there. They are some of…

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I’m gonna be honest. This post is going to be tough to write. It seems to take me a week or so to distill all that I experience in each town, but this trip was different than all the rest. I’m not sure why. Perhaps it was because the women broke every myth I had heard to be true. Perhaps because they welcomed me with an open heart in ways a ‘stranger’ is rarely treated. Perhaps because I witnessed the…

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As I will write in this and other posts, this first trip through Mississippi was intense, inspiring, confounding, and touching. Plus, in Mississippi, I had a gazillion technical issues. It’s the one state where Verizon’s sketchy coverage can cause issues — which many of you noticed. As I was navigating backroads from Tennessee to Mississippi my coverage quit. I got lost and wandered for almost an hour as dusk rapidly turned to dark with no gas stations or convenience stores…

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Schaeffer Oil offered me the best tour of their factory.  And then, one of their guys helped me line up my van …. just right.  Hopefully, Zack and I will be able to make a sweet RAM van slide show when I’m done.

I heard about Cannon County from a man at a music jam in Nashville. He told me “If I really want to see the possibility of how small towns can accept differences and live together, I must go.” I remembered him telling me about the community BUT,  I was so tired from my long drives and lulled by the great music, that quite honestly, I didn’t fully track his reasoning for why I should go. I just heard the phrases:…

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One might think that traveling across the country would be a leisurely event.  In some ways it’s the most relaxing thing I’ve ever done!  But, it’s also time intensive and mentally demanding.  I typically wake around 5:30 am and then go to bed around midnight. This post gives you a wee taste of my daily ‘happenings’ and what it takes to orchestrate this journey.  ___________________________ As the weeks go by, I’ve segmented my ‘duties’ and assigned a name to the…

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After touring through family-owned factories, visiting nonprofits working with young men in need of mentorship, and just wandering around St. Louis, there was still a piece missing.  The racial tension in St. Louis is palpable to an outsider, but it goes — for the most part — unspoken. I knew I couldn’t leave until I had a conversation with someone who would have a frank and open conversation. I had already stayed in St. Louis longer than I planned, but…

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Oh, Glory Be!!!  I am in Mississippi.  After a very long day of navigating the backroads of Tennessee, Alabama and Mississipi, I have arrived in the birthplace of Elvis. I will stop here tonight then head to the Delta tomorrow. As the journey of Looking for America unfolds, I am touched by all the messages and emails I receive about how the travels have affected people. Please keep them coming. And please, let me know what else I can do…

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