New Camera + New Year = New Video

New Year's Week, 2008-2009 from Rob Strong on Vimeo.

One Thousand Hundred

Anyone who knows me well enough to frequent this blog (all six of you), will know that I have a great fondness for driving, towns with interesting names, round numbers, representative democracy, and the Mountain State. Therefore you can imagine how pleased I was to arrive in the town of Barrackville, WV, just two days after our recent election, with my odometer ticking over to 100,000 miles. Dig:

(You might have to click and enlarge in order to see the mileage.)

Of course, West Virginia was a red state this cycle, but Barrackville's Marion County went blue by 117 votes out of a total 23,119 cast.

Next goal: catch up with Mark Mulligan, who recently hit 150,000. Might be a challenge, since he says he's put 75,000 on it in just 3 years. 

As a little anniversary present for "Rose Marie", I've compiled some shots of good times along the road (special thanks to guest photographers Annie Snodgrass and Hannah Chodos). 

With her toes in the pacific:
Coming down Lombard St., America's crookedest road:
Vegas! 
Driving through a redwood:
Golden Gate Bridge:
Sloan in Big Bend:
Tommy and Andrew, hijinks at a rest stop:
Here's to the next 528 million feet.

Eight is Enough

Lately I had the pleasure of taking a drive out to Chicago and back, via such places as Bliss, New York and Delightful, Ohio. Digital pics from the trip are on Facebook, so go see 'em there.

Herewith I present the newest litter from my 4x5, eight shots in all (very pleased with myself for not screwing the process up -- no light leaks). Click to enlarge; please tell me if/what you like.


Hanover, NH:

Framingham, MA:

Skaneateles, NY:

Western New York State (I think):

Also Western NY:

Fredonia, NY:

Living Waters Church, somewhere in Michigan:

Cazenovia, NY:

Wedding, pt. 2

So, as you may have gathered, I was at a wedding last weekend and I ruined my kit. Good thing the pictures on the card survived, and good thing that Best Buy in Bangor opened at 9 AM the next morning!

There were fireworks...

There was dancing...

And then these twin brothers from Cleveland just beat each other unmercifully in the shrubs.