Rock 'n' Roll High School...

Our future leaders: were they listening?
Yes, they were!

Yesterday I took BABS over to Etowah High School in Woodstock, GA to give a presentation to some of the classes. My appearance was set up by Kristy Szpindor through my brother, Drew, and is the first of many such presentations that will be given along my journey.

We began with a brief in-class PowerPoint presentation on my travels, talked about why things are vanishing, discussed alternative fuels, and then took everyone out to tour BABS (that was the part they really liked). Justin Bacile, the teacher who hosted the presentations, was tremendously helpful, and his talent as a teacher and mentor truly shows in his students. I've yet to meet a better group of kids. Everyone was well-spoken, intelligent, polite, and some even let their humorous sides show through. It was such a pleasure to talk with them that I even stayed for two extra classes.

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Now, for those of you waiting for new images...
I still haven't been out to shoot yet, but that will all change on Thursday when I go to Dahlonega, GA to visit my friend, and web developer, Jim Evans. He is an excellent photographer and we always have a blast when we go out shooting together. He was with me when I got the image of the Okefenokee and almost got carried away by mosquitoes; and he was with me when I got the image of the shrimpboat in the fog at Fernandina Beach, FL. We grew up together exploring the woods around our neighborhoods, losing fishing lures (which is what usually happened when we went fishing), and generally being country boys. He's a great inspiration to my work, and I'm excited about getting out to shoot with him again.

We're going to try to make our way up to the northernmost reaches of Georgia's Lake Lanier to see if the water level is low enough to show remnants of the towns and structures that were flooded when the lake was formed by the damming of the Chattahoochee River. Regardless of what we see, I know we'll bring back some fantastic images.

Pardon me boy... is that the Chattanooga Choo Choo?

Oil, oil, Oil!

This past weekend took me to Chattanooga to visit my best friend, Marc, his wife Nancy, their three lovely rascals -- Hayden (my goddaughter), Kali, and Wil, and Marc's folks, George and Patti. Hayden is fast becoming a fabulous performer, Kali -- a budding sculptor, and Wil -- well, ladies, watch out for Wil!

In between playing with the kids on Saturday and watching the Superbowl on Sunday, Marc took time to introduce me to several folks who may be able to help move the Vanishing America project forward. We also met up with our friend Dan, and his wife Scottie, a local news anchor who wants to do a story on me when I come back through in the Spring.

On Sunday, before the game, Marc took me to the Chattanooga Golf & Country Club to collect some oil. We had spoken to Alvin, the Club's Director of Services, two nights before about getting some of the used oil from the Club's restaurant. They currently have to pay for it to be removed, and he was more than happy to have me haul some away.

I didn't realize how fortunate I was to connect up with Alvin. Not only was I able to fill my tanks with over 50 gallons of oil, but the oil was incredibly clean and hardly needed filtering at all! It made oil collection an almost pleasant experience -- except for when the hose on the pump popped off and sprayed oil all over Marc!

On Monday, I headed back down to Atlanta to prepare for a meeting with the Atlanta Preservation Center, the Southeast Tourism Society, and to give a presentation to Etowah High School in Woodstock, GA.

It's been a very busy couple of weeks -- so busy, in fact, that I've gotten behind on my blog, and have yet to take a single photograph!

Looks like it's time to get an assistant.

Oh, and we're still looking for sponsors...