Spring Fever and Pink Bandanas

Dateline: Chattanooga, Tennessee
Sunday, April 4, 2008

I drove the Defender up to Tennessee this weekend to visit my friend Marc Cromie, his wife, Nancy, and their kids Hayden, Kali, and Wil.

Marc is a pediatric allergist who runs three Chattanooga Allergy Clinics throughout the Chattanooga area. Since Spring hit, and pollen season is in full force, Marc has been all over the local news providing advice for families on how to treat allergies in children.

Nancy is co-chair of the Pink Bandana Ball, raising money for the fight against Neuroblastoma. Last year, I donated one of my Salton Sea images to their auction, which, combined with sponsorships, other donations, and ticket sales helped raise over $100,000 for the cause.

This year's Pink Bandana Ball is May 3rd.

The event is in honor of Emily Ransom who was diagnosed with Stage IV Neuroblastoma in October 2005. This beautiful, strong-willed little girl known as the Pink Power Ranger Princess fought with everything she had for four months to beat her cancer. On February 20, 2006 while undergoing surgery to remove her tumor, Emily won her battle and went to dance in heaven.

Her family wishes to continue her fight and find a cure for this disease. Emily’s Power for a Cure is her fight against cancer carrying on! While the goal of the foundation is to raise awareness and funds to find a cure for Neuroblastoma, there are more immediate needs for families and children fighting this disease. The foundation, Emily's namesake, was founded in 2006 by Emily's parents Jonathon and Wendy Ransom.

Anyone can Pink it Forward simply by doing a random act of kindness for someone and telling them about Emily and asking them to Pink it Forward. You can also visit the websites of children who are still fighting this terrible disease. The websites for children in the Chattanooga area are listed in the Pink it Forward section of the Emily's Power for a Cure website. Make a difference in someone's life, just as Emily made a difference in ours. Don't forget to share your stories with us.

Pink it Forward!!!

If you're in the Chattanooga area, and can attend, visit their website for ticket information. If you are unable to attend, you can...

• Purchase Princess Emily magnets ($5)
  

• Purchase pink crystal Emily earrings ($20)
  

• Purchase Power for A Cure necklaces ($15)
  

• Purchase POWER FOR A CURE logo merchandise at Zazzle. 17% of every purchase goes to the foundation. Click http://zazzle.com/ranahill*
  

• Sponsor one of the foundation's special events
  

• Participate (and solicit donations) to walk or run in the Country Music Half or Full Marathon in April 2008 in Nashville, TN.
  

• Participate (and solicit donations) for Cartwheels for A Cure, which will be held in June 2008
  

• Purchase a ticket, sponsor, or donate an auction item to the Pink Bandana Ball
  

• Donate blood in Emily's honor ($10 from every donation goes to Power For A Cure)
  

• SPREAD THE WORD ABOUT EMILY'S STORY AND NEUROBLASTOMA!
  

• Gifts of cash or stocks can be sent to the following:
  
  
  

(Please make checks payable to Community Foundation of Greater Chattanooga and add Emily's Power for a Cure in the memo line).

Emily’s Power for a Cure

C/o Community Foundation of Greater Chattanooga

1270 Market Street
Chattanooga, TN 37402

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Holt's Green Tip of the Day!

If at all possible, buy produce from local farmers. Local produce at stores and Farmers' Markets are not only a great way to get top quality produce and support the local community, but they're a great way to help the environment.

When you buy local, you are actually helping save energy and conserve fuel. The simple act of shipping fruits and vegetables across the United States, and from other countries, requires numerous trucks, planes and ships, each one requiring a significant amount of fuel to get from the farm to the store. If you buy local, you help reduce the need for all these vehicles, saving fuel and reducing carbon emissions.

So, if you can, support your local farmer. There is a great search engine put together by the USDA that can help you find a farmer's market in your area (click here). If you can't find locally grown produce in your area, try to make sure that the produce you buy comes from as close to home as possible.

Rednecks on their day off...

Playin' in the dirt again...

I had a rare opportunity to get away from my work for a day and join my friend Jim on a little redneck adventure. We hopped in his off-road go-cart and raced up and down a gnarly fire road on his property in Dawsonville, Georgia. It had just rained and everything was muddy... including us!

I have to give fair warning, though. This isn't exactly environmentally friendly driving. And, on the surface, may seem to contradict what I'm doing with my Vanishing America project. However, it was a closed course specifically designed for this kind of fun, and we didn't destroy anything in the process (except for one of Jim's daffodils). It was a blast, and an invigorating experience. We got to be kids again for a couple of hours.

I'm still scraping mud off my teeth.

I'm posting the video from my YouTube page. I hope it works here.

Time Out

It's been a tough day...

Although I was treated to a little 5 minute flurry of Atlanta's famous March snow, I had to watch it from the warmth of the RV while I recuperate from a bit of a bug. No coughing, sneezing, or aches and pains normally associated with a cold or the flu, but I'm dead tired, and weak. It hit me late last night with some dizziness and some spasms in my legs, and today I feel like I just ran a marathon. Very strange.

Aside from that, I've been spending my time submitting articles to magazines, working on the new website, and talking with potential sponsors. Haven't had time to do much shooting since I've been working on finding ways to keep the Vanishing America project moving forward, but I promise, I'll have some images of my hometown of Alpharetta very soon.

Media notes:
The newest article about the project will be in a signage trade magazine called Sign of the Times. They called me after one of their editors (a University of Georgia alum) saw the blurb about Vanishing America in UGA's alumni magazine Georgia. I just completed a phone interview with them this morning and am sending over some images of the vinyl wrap on BABS. I'll post up the link to the online issue when it comes out.

Team Vanishing America

Hey everyone. I'm sorry, I've been slack on updating the blog once again. Woe is me. Really, though, I've been busy contacting potential sponsors, giving presentations, submitting articles, and generally trying to find ways to keep Vanishing America moving forward. I gave a presentation to the Peachtree-Atlanta Kiwanis Club on Tuesday, and I just got articles accepted in Land Rover Monthly magazine (a UK mag with huge US distribution), Overland Journal (a high-end expedition magazine), and RV Life. I'll let you know when they go to press.

As some of you are aware, the Vanishing America Team (BABS, Reggie, Missy and I) just got back from a two-week trip to Washington D.C. where I was meeting with scientists and Department heads at the Smithsonian Institution. And, let me tell you, that was an exciting, and educational experience. I've even been invited to join some of them in their field work. Should prove to be a huge boost for the project!

Okay, updates are out of the way. Are you ready for a shocker?

While I was in DC, an accident almost ended my photography career. I almost lost the use of my shooting hand because I was trying to make my tow bar do something that it isn't really designed to do.

I was at a campground unhooking my Land Rover from the RV on what I thought was level ground. Well, apparently it wasn’t level enough. I’d released the parking brake on the Rover in order to give the vehicle enough freedom of movement so that I could release the coupler from the ball hitch. (Often, if there is too much pressure on the ball, the coupler won’t release.) That was my first mistake.

My second mistake was in thinking that I could stop a 6000lb truck from rolling downhill. I was able to release the coupling easily enough, but when I did, the Rover began to creep forward – with my right hand still on the tongue. Instinct told me to push back (silly instinct), but that was just too much weight. The tow bar pressed my right hand (my shooting hand) up against the rear engine panel of my motorhome and stopped, sandwiching my hand between the two.

After several seconds, I was able to wrench my hand free, and as I did so, the Rover continued forward, embedding the tow bar in the engine compartment. Were the compartment’s panels made of anything but fiberglass, the tow bar would have crushed my hand, severed three of my fingers, and rendered that hand all but useless. Fortunately, I walked away with a few lacerations, some bruising, swelling, and intense pain. Ice, pressure, and some ibuprofen reduced the swelling enough to allow me to gain about 80% of my movement back within a few hours, but I’ll never forget the lesson learned: Get a better tow bar!

Really, though, generic tow bars are a bear to use (especially alone). There are some really good ones on the market, but they cost upwards of $1000. Too much money (I thought). But what good is an extra $500 in your pocket when you prematurely end your career by using an inferior product? Bottom line: Buy the best product for the job. It may cost more in the beginning, but it will more than pay for itself over time.

On to other news...

• San Diego Magazine is doing a story about the Vanishing America project in their May issue (so, those of you in San Diego, keep an eye out for it!)
• 
• Vanishing America recently added Adams Avenue Bicycles to sponsor list.
• Since I've been back in Alpharetta, I've gotten my hair cut twice at the lovely Borrelli Salon on Main Street. Christine and, the shop owner, Kelli, both did a fantastic job on my noggin'. If you're in the Alpharetta area, and are in need of a great style or cut, drop in. Tell them I sent you. You'll love the place!
• Galerie Boutique, also on Main Street, just had their VIP Celebration last night, with exquisite wines from Vino 100 and a great selection of cheeses, imported olives, and hors d'Oeuvres from Slice Cafe.

And, finally, Holt's Green Tip of the Day!

Let there Be Light...

Most of you know that Compact Fluorescent Lights (CFL) are more energy efficient than standard incandescent bulbs. But, did you know how much more efficient they are?

According to Popular Mechanics Magazine, all CFLs use approximately 70% less energy than incandescents. Based on an average household of 45 light bulbs, if you were to replace all the incandescent bulbs with CFLs, you would save over $180 per year!

That's great, but, arent' CFLs more expensive? Well, they used to be. But, that's changing fast. Now, you can find CFLs running only a few cents more than a standard incandescent. And, many cities have bulb exchange programs where you can bring in your standard bulbs and swap them out for CFLs. So, with the average CFL lasting about 6 times as long as an incandescent bulb, costing about the same, and using less electricity, you're looking at tremendous energy savings and a fatter wallet!

How's THAT for a green tip?

Green Tip of the Day

Oh, I almost forgot!

This marks the beginning of Vanishing America's "Green Tip of the Day."

In every blog entry, I will provide an eco-friendly tip to help you participate in the "Green" movement.

Since I forgot to put it in the previous entry, I'll put it in this one:

Green Tip #1:

Saving Water.
Oh, relax. It's easier than you think, and you don't have to give up that nice hot shower you love so much.

Simply put out a few small buckets (or one large one) under your gutters' downspouts to catch rain and use that collected water to water plants. Don't have gutters? Just put them somewhere in the open.

Don't like plants? Well, use the water to wash your car. It's clean, it's free, and every little bit helps. (Unless, of course, your part of the country is getting Acid Rain. Then you're out of luck. Sorry, you'll just have to move.)

Visit www.hrwc.org/rainbarrels/ for more information.

University of Georgia

For those of you who are University of Georgia Alumni, check out the latest issue of Georgia (the Alumni magazine). Don't just toss it out!

I haven't seen it yet, but there is a short piece on the Vanishing America project in this month's issue.

Maybe this will pique the interest of some alumni who are looking for a new project to fund... :-)

We could sure use it!


For sponsorship ideas or donations to the Vanishing America project, contact Holt at holt@vanishingamerica.net

Smithsonian Institution

Where in the world is Holt!?

I've been out of touch for the past couple of weeks. I apologize. I'm at a campground in Virginia and take the Metro into town to visit with scientists at the Smithsonian Institution in DC. The reason I've been out of touch isn't because I've been so busy (though that is certainly the case), but because the trees surrounding BABS block my satellite signal. The lesson here: have a backup. In this case, I have a wireless USB card for my laptop. It uses my cel phone account to provide "broadband" service. So far, so good.

So, why am I in DC with Smithsonian scientists? Well, that's a good question. I wondered that myself at first.

I have a great contact there who has been helping me set up interviews with some of the biggest names in the scientific community. These are the people who do the research that provides the theories and statistics that paint the pictures of our world and our universe, from the tiniest microbe to the largest galaxy. And, somewhere in there, somebody has to have something valuable to tell me about what is vanishing in America.

And, they do! So far, I've met with Marine Biologists, Anthropologists, Iceberg divers, grant writers, and department directors. I've heard wonderful stories of adventure, success, and disappointment, and have seen specimens and artifacts that the general public will never know existed. Each meeting has opened doors to other meetings, and each person has opened my eyes to new ideas for my project.

This summer, I may be traveling to New Mexico to photograph a herd of bison. Not because they are vanishing, but because they were vanishing, and are being brought back. In the Spring, I may be allowed to join a respected paleoanthropologist on a dig in the Chesapeake Bay to see how archaeological sites are being washed away by storms, development, and changing shorelines.

And, that's just scratching the surface. I still have over 40 scientists to talk with!

It's been a tremendous experience, and promises great things for the future of Vanishing America.

Song of the South

Southern Hospitality

We've had some great weather here in the Swamp this past week, and I've been lucky enough to have a local resident (and new friend) take me to see everything I could possibly want to photograph. Travis and Dana Crews live in Nahunta, GA and are friends of my co-pilot and videographer, John Almering. John gave them a call once we figured out we'd be getting to the swamp too late to find an open RV park.

And... this is another one of those serendipitous moments... Travis is descended from the Lee family who was one of several families who settled Billy's Island in the Okefenokee swamp over two hundred years ago. In Travis, we have found an authentic connection to the local history of the Okefenokee and the small towns that surround it.

Travis has been showing us around all week, taking us out into the woods and around the edges of the swamp in search of unspoiled backcountry. And both he and Dana have made us feel at home... taking photos of me driving in the mud, letting us park on their property and making sure we had plenty to eat -- with pancakes, eggs, bacon and homemade biscuits for breakfast and everything from fish and hushpuppies to chicken and dumplings for dinner. They've truly spoiled us. (And, we've loved every minute!)

It's been a long time since I've been shown such hospitality. That's yet another thing that's vanishing in America. With everyone in a hurry to get to work, go to the gym, get the kids off to school, fight traffic, rush to the store, and zip through their lives at a hundred miles an hour, it's refreshing to see a family take in visitors and treat them like their own kin. We've even been invited back in the Spring for a more in-depth tour so Travis can show us the things we missed this time around.

Since we arrived last Wednesday, we've seen old homesteads, burned out plantations, and cemeteries and churches dating from the 1800s. We've been introduced to other descendants of the Lee family, including Timmy Lee (who gave us the grand tour of the old farmhouses and pine forests on his property), and Uncle Clayton Lee, the last of the Lee family to be born on Billy's Island before the Federal government forced everyone out.

I'm simply amazed at our fortune. We've had a wonderful opportunity to see the Old South through the eyes of the people who lived it. No guide or book could give you the stories, the details, and the emotions we've experienced this past week. No map could take you to the incredible places we've seen. And, to these families, it's all just a part of their history.

The sad part is that they all know it can't last forever. With the suburban sprawl coming down from Atlanta, Macon, and nearby Brunswick, a lot of these places will be torn down to make room for McMansions, new subdivisions and shopping centers. And as the folks who remember "how it used to be" grow older and die off, the history of this area will die off with them. Just like the old headstone I saw at Bethlehem cemetery. This beautiful, hand-lettered marker had fallen over a long time ago, and with no kin left in the area to prop it back up and take care of it, it has slowly sunken into the ground, allowing grass and weeds find a foothold, obscuring it from casual view. Another 20 years or so, and it will be just another patch of grass... no-one to remember it, and nobody to care. Just like the tangible history of the Deep South.

Headlines... as promised.

I promised you some headlines to keep things interesting while I'm in the Okefenokee, so here they are...

1. Photographer on mission gets cursed out and threatened by 80-year old man

The Legend of GrouchyOldMan

Two weeks ago, while traveling through Dahlonega, Georgia with my friend, Jim Evans, I was cursed out by an 80-year old man. True!

It all began innocently enough, as Jim and I were taking photos around an old, crumbling wooden house that was being set upon by an encroaching new neighborhood development. As we continued to explore, we discovered the remains of several vintage cars spanning several decades. The more we explored, the more we discovered. It turned out to be some sort of a service station that was abandoned years ago and just left for Nature to take over. And take over she did! Many of the cars were hard to even see, due to their being covered by vines, leaves, and assorted debris. And, this is in the middle of Winter. Think of how difficult they'd be to see when the trees filled out with their Spring leaves.

While we were shooting, Jim noticed a house nearby that looked occupied, and also looked like it could be part of this property.

I walked up to the street and over to the house, where an older gentleman (we'll call him a gentleman for now) was just opening his front door. I kept my distance on the street (so as not to alarm him) and asked him about the property next door. He seemed nice enough, but couldn't hear me, so I stepped onto his driveway and he walked closer to me. As we got within handshake distance, I told him about the Vanishing America project and how I'm aiming to show people some history before it's all gone.

Well, something about the way I said that, or the camera I was holding, or something else, triggered a reaction in this man that went off the charts. He immediately began yelling at me, cursing at me in the foulest language, called me an asshole photographer trying to ruin him, and berated me at length. I figured I'd let him vent, and then when he calmed down, I could tell him why I was there. He never calmed down. He continued for a full five minutes (I looked at my watch). Eventually, I told him I was sorry he misunderstood my intentions and I began walking away. He followed me for over 100 yards, yelling, screaming, and threatening me.

Well, enough was enough. I don't know what exactly set me off, but I began firing back at him for insulting me without provocation. By this time, Jim walked up (expecting a pleasant dialogue) and was shocked into another world by this war going on between generations.

After a few more insults were traded, Jim and I got in the car and drove away in disgust, dismay, and disappointment. So much for Southern Hospitality.

But all was not lost. The battle for good was won after all. Before we left, I managed to get some very nice images of that discarded piece of Americana that was once a service station.



2. First sponsor comes on board Vanishing America

I think my last post announced the arrival of The Shop as Vanishing America's first sponsor. If you have a Land Rover or Range Rover, and live in North Georgia, call Luke at The Shop in Norcross. He is an expert on these British coaches and is a genuinely nice guy. Tell him you I sent you!

3. Best ab workout ever!

Step one: Hang out with people who have the flu. Preferably children -- their germs are easier to catch.
Step two: Catch the flu.
Step three: Cough until you feel like your head is going to explode.
Step four: Repeat ad infinitum... every hour, every day until you're so sore you can't sit up straight.
Step five: Show off that new six-pack!

Sponsors, Swamps, and Serendipity

Yesteray I left Atlanta for Folkston to spend a week in the Okefenokee Swamp. But before I get into that, I'd like to introduce a new member to the Vanishing America family: Our first Sponsor, The Shop!

Last week, the Land Rover was taken to a specialty mechanic in Norcross, GA to have some rattles and vibrations tightened up. Luke Miles, owner of The Shop, rebuilt the driveshafts, did my brakes, and fixed a few of the other annoyances that come with a 13 year-old Rover. And he did it all for free! In exchange for all the hard work, I told Luke I would let people know if he did a good job. Well...

He did a GREAT job! The Defender rides like a dream. Even my mom enjoyed the ride, and that's saying a lot! I'm keeping Luke on my favorites list, and highly recommend him as your North Georgia Land Rover contact for everything from mods and suspensions to custom work and general maintenance. (And, he's a great guy. He's young, very experienced, loves Rovers, and off-roads in his juiced-up Discovery every chance he gets.)

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On to the SWAMP!

John Almering (a friend of mine, who is a freelance videographer) and I hopped into BABS yesterday afternoon and drove down to the Okefenokee Swamp in South Georgia. We'd originally intended to go to the west side of the Swamp, to Fargo, and explore around Stephen C. Foster State Park. However, due to a late start and the possibility of arriving too late to find a campground, John called ahead to a little town near Waycross to see if we could stay at his friend's place. Well, here's where the serendipity that I keep talking about comes into play...

John's friend, Travis, is a direct descendant of the Lee family, one of the last families to live in the Okefenokee Swamp before the National Park Service moved everyone out in the 1930s. The Lee family actually lived on the infamous Billy's Island, and Travis' deceased relatives make up a significant portion of the population in the historic cemetery.

We're planning on heading out this morning (Thursday) to go talk with Travis' uncle, the last person born on Billy's Island.

I love it when a plan comes together!