This year's trip (No. 23) spanned 15 days, 12 hrs, and 42 min covering 2,702.5 summer-baked miles stoop-to-stoop. The truck burned 172 gallons of regular gas, costing an average $3.15 per gallon or 20.1 cents per mile, achieving 15.7 miles per gallon (not bad for slow rough backroads with dozens of stops each day). Total out of pocket expenses averaged $74.92 per day including $33.83 for gas - or 45% of total costs. In the old days gas never exceeded $10 per day. In the process I melted 14 seven-pound bags of ice (they used to be 8-pounds), drank 17 diet mountain dews, and ate 14 chocolate crème-filled marshmallow-covered sprinkled with pink shredded coconut Hostess 'Snoballs'.
I heard the uplifting mood-altering songs of the wood thrush (hylocichla mustelina) every day but one and spotted 25 chipmunks, 18 deer, 8 groundhogs, 6 wild turkeys, 8 box turtles, 4 gold finches, 2 red-headed woodpeckers, 1 bear, 1 black snake, 1 inhabited beaver lodge, a momma Canada goose with three chicks, a pigeon on a plank, 2 ticks, 7 shoulder dogs, 5 fighting cock breeders (no pictures taken), and 29 dead possums. Reckless ATV's now flood the backroads like lemmings.
Found one new wildflower called sanicle (sanicula marilandica) or black snakeroot or butterwort. It's evidently quite common, but new for me. The most prolific and dominant flower this year was, by far, Poison Hemlock (Conium maculatum) crowding ditches, lining fences, and filling fields and open spaces. None seemed interested in chasing after me, tho'.
This year's photography was for the first time all digital with the new Nikon D200, a magnificent instrument, helping me return with 990 individual shots taken during 254 individual photo stops an average of 15-16 per day. Included in the harvest are: 45 country churches, 11 old stores, 8 fire trucks, 4 barber shops, a race car, 8 triple-crosses, 1 swinging foot bridge, 1 rusty truss bridge, 1 covered bridge, 4 coal handling operations, 1 lime kiln, 2 railroad depots, 5 post offices, 2 old schools, (only) 1 gas pump, 4 cemeteries, 1 court house, 1 bank, and gobs of creeks and rivers, farms and barns, mountain scenics, small towns, windows and doors, numerous wildflowers and a 'special' daisy study (to be posted later). Below is an example of a 'two-fer' including a store and a church in the same frame with moving van sandwiched between.
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© d070521-036 Store and Church with Van
Micaville, North Carolina
Yancey County
Monday 21 May 2007
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A saying that I have been using for a while now is PARADISE AIN'T CHEAP. Sounds like, from your trip stats and the quality of the experience, you have proven me wrong. Welcome back, Doc.
Slim
Posted by: harold | 11 June 2007 at 10:36 AM
Hey, you made it. Look forward to the new work/new camera. Good times. (From the former "Outfoxed" diary guy)
Posted by: backwaterblog | 12 June 2007 at 08:19 PM
Wow! The first two pictures sent an electric charge through me! I can envision either/ both of them transformed into my medium- art quilts. That new Nikon is super and you continue to take inspiring photos. Thank you.
Posted by: Diane Knoblauch | 15 June 2007 at 12:03 PM
Opps- I meant to put this comment on the next photos.
Posted by: Diane Knoblauch | 15 June 2007 at 12:07 PM