It started in 2021 as I was rebuilding my life after a divorce. I met a wonderful woman, Leana, through an online dating site. Leana had grown up in a rural town in northern Missouri, and was now living in another small town off highway I-44. It was a 280 mile commute to see the woman who would become my future wife; along the way, I began to look around at the communities along that route. At first, it was because a single building or landscape caught my eye. But the more I shot, the more I began to dive more deeply into the people and the culture of these places.