From the Banks of the Mississippi in Memphis

This is edited from a post I sent to one of the mailing lists I'm on, so hopefully it makes sense here!
I'm writing this while parked along the Mississippi River, they have a river side park, and there seems to be a wireless hotspot somewhere near here, so that's an added bonus! I just happened to be driving past, realized it was nearly sunset, and I thought I'd stop and get some cool video. Beats working for a living!
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A short summary of the trip so far... I am making a video documentary from stories told to me by survivors of Hurricane Katrina, and now also Rita. I left Wenatchee, WA early Monday morning, 26 September 2005, and arrived in Memphis, TN, Friday afternoon that same week, after driving around about 2350 miles in 5 days. I'll figure out exact details later on, but I averaged about 3 states per day, which is I believe more states than many people have ever visited in their lives!
I'd really recommend any of you get out sometime and just go for a road trip, especially if you can do one with a purpose you feel is worthwhile. I've been largely overwhelmed with the experience so far, but have enjoyed it enormously.
I arrived at Memphis Red Cross headquarters on Friday (30 September 2005), just as they were closing up shop for the weekend. I wasn't able to really contact anyone who could help me talk to survivors, but they did say I could camp in their parking lot, and they let me have some left over fried chicken, which really hit the spot! Having some time to explore, I noticed that there was an Airshow out at Millington, which is / was a big Navy base I had been trained at 20 years ago. As its only 20 miles from where I was, I drove out, saw both the Blue Angels and the Canadian Snow Birds, as well as all the normal wing walkers, military aircraft displays, and vendors.
After the Airshow I happened to meet some really nice people, one lady who basically adopted me for the rest of the weekend. She showed me around Memphis, saw Graceland (Elvis Presley mansion), and Beale street, etc. She fed me, we watched some DVDs, let me take a shower and slept on the couch, and even did a couple loads of laundry. Definitely above and beyond. So far, everyone has been very outgoing, friendly, and helpful.
Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday I've been camping in the back lot at the Red Cross, talking to people about their experiences. Many would not talk on camera, but I feel like I've been able to give back support by being a good listener, helping them pass the time while they wait for a caseworker to become available. With that said, how ever, while I have not had many interviews, I have had some incredible interviews with the few people I have talked to. If you've ever seen the news footage of a person stranded in a tree in a flood, I got a guy who spent the day in a tree to talk to me. He was very easy to talk to, and told a very powerful story.
Then, for icing on my cake, I was interviewed by the local Fox News station, Fox13 Memphis. They sent the nicest crew ever, I imagine they are hired because they make people comfortable talking to the camera, and I tried to learn as much as possible from them! Anytime we weren't actually talking on camera, I was talking to the camera guy, and in the end he let me try out his big news camera. Yeah, I want one for next year! Then, for icing on the icing on the cake (!) several of the survivors this morning who I talked to recognized me as having been on TV the night before, or that morning. From what I've heard, they gave me around 4 or 5 minutes of coverage, which is huge on a evening news broadcast. Of course, much of the time while they were talking to me, the van was in the shot, and they showed the website URL several times (I am told), so hopefully some local people will be clicking on that, with credit card in hand to help me with the gas money. I had a lot of fun with the whole experience. For all of you who have been on TV, you can probably relate to the "buzz" that still hasn't worn off! Oh, and of course I had them sign the van :)
I'll be leaving the Red Cross this afternoon, and check out some of the other shelters. I'm told that the Red Cross has now closed all or almost all of their own shelters, mostly because the survivors have either moved into apartments or hotels. There are a lot of survivors who worked at the casinos that were destroyed, who are now living at no cost at other franchise casinos here and other states. That is a great story on its own, for an employer to take care of its workers that well. I'm told by several of them, that they will be pulling wages for at least the next 8 weeks, while they are away from work and home.
Thanks for reading! Thank you also for your continued support. I'm feeling like a PBS marathon, "With support from viewers like you" :)
Carlin