Well tomorrow October 28th is D-Day for the very first MOR road trip.
Preparing for the road trip has been to say the least a little more stressful than I would have liked. But I put that stress on myself…
The first step of preparing for this trip was to get my garage cleaned up/ out and that was no easy feat. I have only myself to blame as I let it get pretty disorganized and just had stuff all over the place. So I spent most of the day Saturday and Sunday going through all sorts of stuff, putting tools away and finding things that I had been looking for.
While cleaning up my work bench, I began to re-organize all of my photography equipment and making decisions on what to take and what not to take. It’s not easy to make decisions about what equipment to take. Sometimes you have to say to yourself “if I don’t take it, I might want to use it and of course I you do take, it takes up space for something else or I just don’t use it. I think I got it hammered out, but I guess we shall see.
After taking the time to get the garage re-organized and beginning to decide what photography equipment to take with me, I realized that “HEY, I need to figure out my route to get down to Houston”. So I sat down and came up with the route that will take from Brandon, SD to Houston, TX.
So I sat down on the floor, pulled out my trust map, Land NAV Protractor with some clear plastic and grease pencil to map out each of my way points utilizing a 8 digit gird coordinate. (If anyone really thinks I remember how to do that, your right I DON’T)..
Seriously I have mapped out three legs for this trip down south to Houston.
Leg 1:
Brandon, SD, Sheldon, IA, Ida Grove, IA, Harlan, IA, Hiawatha, KS, Ottawa, KS, Chanute, KS
Muskogee, OK, McAlester, OK
Leg 2:
McAlester, OK, Tishomingo, OK, Bonham, TX, Kaufman, TX, Marlin, TX, Belton, TX
Leg 3:
Belton, TX, College Station, TX, Waller, TX, Houston, TX
My plan, is to stop at these locations and places in between to photograph the local Veterans Memorials and of course anything else that may just catch my eye on the drive. This trip will also be a test of how well things go and what adjustments I need to make.
“The Boss” (my wife) suggested that I send out a questionnaire to Veterans in the towns that I drive thru and to the local governments to get some historical information about the towns memorial. I will unfortunately forgo the questionnaire’s on this trip and reach out once I get back home, but try to make sure I send them out in advance next time.
The questionnaire that “The Boss” recommended I do, will be used eventually and provide a story about the memorials or a specific meaning to a local Veteran(s) or we could tell a story of a local Veteran. There are so many opportunities.
Special thanks to my wife for her valuable input and suggestions for this project, it means a lot to me that I have her support and that of my family.
Please understand that this project is a continuous work in progress, and I will be doing everything that I can to get out there and take pictures, publish them on my website and to push the telling the stories of our local heroes and the towns they came from.
Keep an eye out on the Sellin Photography Website and on Social Media for updates and coming soon will be some swag that you can purchase to help us with this journey.
Each step moves Sellin Photography – Miles of Remembrance forward in documenting Veteran memorials and preserving the stories behind them.
Thank you for following the journey and sharing the memorials and stories from your communities.
Remember ★ Honor ★ Preserve
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