Three days on the road - I-40 across America

bmattock

bmattock

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Folks,

I made the long trip (1800+ miles) from Albuquerque, NM to Wilson, NC this last weekend. Just got the slides back and scanned them in tonight. Thought I'd post a few for you.

The drive was pretty much uneventful - I made 600 miles the first day, 850 or so the second, and final trip on day three. My car had a little problem on day three - my car would not shift out of park when I went out to it after spending the night in a cheap motel. I had to call AAA to tow me to a Chevy dealership - but they were able to put things right in a couple of hours. Interesting day wasted in the waiting room of a car dealership in Sevierville, TN. Turned out the local bank had been robbed the day before by a woman who drove off in a stolen Krispy Kreme truck - everyone was going nuts over it. It turns out that my choice of overnight accomodations was the highway exit for "Dollywood." Tons of tourists!

I am now semi-settled into new digs in the small town of Wilson. My new employer is providing me with 30 days in a temporary furnished apartment - my wife is home in Albuquerque, packing up our stuff. The employer is moving us on April 5, and she'll be driving out to meet me. We hope to be buying a home soon after that!

So thanks for all the good wishes you guys gave me, and here's some pictures!

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks

PS - This one is from Cuervo, New Mexico. Cuervo means 'crow'.
 
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Dead Edsel, New Mexico. Seems like someone tried to make it into a pickup truck before it gave up the ghost...
 
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A family relaxing at the first rest stop in North Carolina, near Asheville, NC.
 
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An isolated home in the North Carolina mountains, near the town of Hot Springs, NC.
 
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Last one - you guys know I love trains! This is a train coming through the Wilson, NC Amtrak station.

Thanks again, folks! G'night!

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks
 
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hey bill,

welcome back, we missed 'ya!
sounds like you made good time considering your car and all - plus stopping to shoot those great pics - some nice light on those hay bales.

your energy never ceases to amaze me - i'm still trying to process the negs from the first photo project!

hope the job is what you expect and try not to get too lonely without your wife. she sounds like a trooper, staying behind and doing the packing. i hate packing!

joe
 
Good to have you back on the site.
Great photo - really like the Motel one.
Keep 'em coming and good luck with the new work and place.
 
Bill... looks to me you took the scanner home... and your computer too!

Yes, lots of energy still in you! Congratulations on the new digs! Good job while on the road too! I like the hay bales a lot, and then the SC home-landscape, which is stunning. Good eye, Bill!
 
Great set of pictures - Congratulations!
Hope you enjoy your new job, home, environment ...
John
 
Great shots, Bill, and nice to see you posting again after your trip. Did you take all the pics with the same cam, or did you use multiple cams on this trip?
 
Gene said:
Great shots, Bill, and nice to see you posting again after your trip. Did you take all the pics with the same cam, or did you use multiple cams on this trip?
Click to expand...

I took a lot of cameras with me - ones which I didn't want the movers to pack and store...but I ended up just using one camera, my CV Bessa R and one lens, my vintage Canon 50mm f1.8. I shot one roll of 36-exposure Kodak 100 ISO slide film. Oops, I mispoke, I did use a 35mm lens for the train shot.

To answer some other questions - I did bring my Minolta Scan Dual III film scanner with me, along with my laptop. My wife and I will be in temporary corporate housing for a month, until we are able to (hopefully) buy a house. The movers will have our stuff in storage during that time, so it was a good idea for me to bring everything with me that I thought I'd want for the next month.

Thanks for the kind words, everyone! I am slow to respond at the moment - I only have dial up access here for the moment - hope to have cable hi-speed access when/if we're able to buy a house here.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks
 
Glad to have you back and again welcome to the East coast.
With regard to a house, keep an eye on interest rates as there are predictions of a very quick rise.
Best wishes and looking forward to your posts and photos.
Kurt M.
 
Kurt,

Thanks! With regard to interest rates - I sure hope they don't go up in the next few weeks! My new employer is a large bank in the South, and they seem to have fantastic policies - they treat their employees very well.

We've never owned a home before, and it's well past time for us to do so. I have no experience with this, but I have a honorable discharge from the US Marines, and a V.A. certificate for a home loan (the one benefit I took away from the service). I believe that this keeps us from having to put up a down payment, which is good because we haven't got any money to put down. The bank gives a discount on closing costs to employees, and they have an in-house lending officer for employees and they hooked us up with their preferred realtor. My wife will be looking at houses as quickly as she can, once she arrives next week. I hope we can find a home, make an offer, get the loan, close and get moved in by April 25, which is when we have to vacate our temporary housing that the bank provided for us.

Am I nuts?

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks
 
Bill

Glad to hear from you again. Great pics too. Hope the wife likes the new apartment. Looks to have some fixer-up potential......

Kiron Kid
 
Welcome back Bill, some great shots out there ! Good luck with all the moving and your new job.

Good luck also finding a new home, maybe you could set up a camera collection room ;)

Oscar
 
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