Random gas stops turns into trespassing in “South of the Border”

Random gas stops turns into trespassing in “South of the Border” and a picnic not in Mexico but in South Carolina. After heading up to NYC and back down to Miami so many times, up and down the East coast I can barely remember anything more. Like so many other times when driving and seeing endless nothing for hours you finally get a glance at something! Well this is one of those times when I noticed something cool or odd about an abandoned hotel/motel while driving 80 mph on I-95 North. Seeing out of the corner of my eye was an abandoned playground’s old see-saw and a stubby rusted slide alongside a set of chain-linked swings secluded and with no seats. A long stare later and I return my eyes to the empty road off into the distance; I see an exit.



With or without a map, any road will get you there, to this place where I am now with Erin and the dog, Preeta. We are driving over a curb and up a road where someone had driven before us through the locked gate and left only pieces of its remains. Posted next to where it used to stand is a hand written sign: No Trespassing, No Stopping, No Idling, No Camping, No Parking…

Once again we are on the other side of the No To Entry, No To Trespassing, No To Parking. We are in the middle of this small village with a few lost stores, a hotel, a restaurant, and an old liquor store. Slowly we are entering a road between the gas station and a motel.




Tall grass lines a dirt road that leads us to a grass driveway and takes us straight to the base of an “erector set” type of a playground. Surrounding it is this deserted, semi-grand 100 room, two story family hotel /motel. It was called “The Family Inn of America” which now lies dormant, broken and shattered leaving behind only this huge playground and an oversized pool now green and half filled. Nearby, almost every single guest room window has been blown out. We start to take it all in and walk around. Our foot steps echo against the walls and in the distance I can hear the familiar sound of semi-trucks rumble past. We are alone, we are hungry, and we are going to run around like to two kids… climbing, swinging and yelling as we slide down the slide, we are kids again and our picnic can wait.

Part of the experience or traveling on assignment! Time to and from..

My many assignments have taken me:::::

While sightseeing and getting lost in America I have seen many things, thought very strongly one way and ended up believing in a totally different way after leaving. After traveling around the world and through out the USA I was taught many of life’s lessons and I am now a firm believer that we are doing something very wrong…



The wonders are not so new but friends in the sky:

Camera’s on almost ever street corner and cameras in almost every business. While these cameras are busy watching us, the corporations, the government, the senators in congress continue to pollute the waters, power plants continue to pollute the air and the senators are polluting the soil that we are planting our seeds in. In an attempt to bring some awareness to words like "organic", "pure" or "all-natural" I will ask you does a field worker in a field picking strawberries under a backdrop of a nuclear power plant sound "Pure, All-Natural or Organic" when 24 hours a day one, if not both towers are running and feeding clean chemicals into the air? Or, farmers growing organic veggies next to a water and sewage processing plant and shipping half dead or almost dead animals to slaughter? Most genetically altereded and processed seeds end up as either grain for dairy cows (yummy milk), or flavor-injected, colored beef (delicious), and lastly the fattier yet somehow healthier turkey's. The list is endless….




What is not endless is the pain of trying to pronounce the new forms of cancers, those new forms of "yet to be named" diseases that seem to hit someone we know. The "it" is a very rare form of cancer and after your so-called diagnosis you get a statistic of 1 in every blah blah.

What is important is that there is a new drug out on the market that treats, cures, or numbs every known or not yet known medical condition. The only problem is that you get 10 different conditions or ailments as a side effect of that medication.



So I am asking this question. If the government is watching us, who is Mother Nature watching? Are we going to only be left with photographs and painting of what once was...

Carl's Patio Shoot for Hearth and Home Magazine

A few months ago prior to my second road trip out west I had the pleasure of working with the team at 'Hearth and Home Magazine' again. I was called upon to shoot a story about Carl's Patio Furniture. The 12-part series titled "Shops That POP" focused on visual merchandising and store design and Carl's Patio Furniture Store was selected to be showcased in this series.

The cover of Skin Inc Magazine September 2009

The cover of Skin Inc. Magazine September 2009: Continuing my relationship with Allured Business Media and Skin Inc.