What I Did On My Summer Vacation

[SteveDallas]

What I Did On My Summer Vacation
By kbarger
27th Grade
Mr. Toad's Class


Well, things started out OK. We made great time from
Philadelphia down toward NC where my parents live. As usual,
we got off I-81 at Winchester, VA to eat lunch at the mall there
and let the kids run around. (They have a store next to the food
court converted into a play area with climbers & stuff. It's a great
stop on a 550 mile trip.)

After lunch we hit a deer about 10 miles further down the
Interstate! What a bummer! This was the new minivan. We had
bought it one month and 2 days earlier--I just mailed the first
payment about 3 days before we left!! We hit right on the corner
at the driver's side headlight, so the deer then bounced off and
back over to the guard rail. The airbag light came on, but the
airbags didn't come out. The radiator was badly warped, and
something I couldn't identify was leaking.

We first called the auto club we've had for years, and asked for a
tow. Then we remembered we had roadside coverage from
Chrysler, so maybe we might be better off using them to get back
to a Chrysler or Dodge dealer. Well, their computer couldn't find
where we were.. we put every nearby town we could find on the
map in and they couldn't find it in their computer. The last straw
was when I said, "try Winchester," and the woman said, "it says
Winchester isn't on I-81." By this time the tow truck from the
auto club showed up so we just hung up & he took us to the
nearest Dodge dealership.

This was on Saturday the 15th and we were lucky they had a
rental car available. So we moved all our luggage into the car
(much smaller, of course--a Dodge Stratus) and continued on our
way. Lost time, about 2.5 hours, most of that on the phone with
the insurance company and moving luggage.

The insurance adjuster visited on the 19th, and they ordered
parts right after. They were supposed to have the parts on the
21st and be finished by the 25th or 26th. Yay.

Meanwhile the rest of the vacation was OK. We stayed with my
parents for a couple days, then went out to Pigeon Forge, TN,
and enjoyed the mountain scenery, Dollywood, outlet malls, and
the swimming pool at the resort we stayed at (the kids' favorite
part.)

We salvaged some plastic bits from under the hood that were
lying on the shoulder after the impact and that had deer fur
embedded in them. We'll have to mount them on the wall or
something.

Oh, yeah, this is the image forum. Here you go:



This is taken from a scenic overlook on the Foothills Parkway in
Tennessee, about 10 miles west of the Tennessee/North Carolina
border on I-40. It is a combination of 6 different photos.
Unfortunately the automatic exposure settings were slightly
different for a couple of them, so you can tell where they were
stitched together. I still don't know if that's something I have to
live with with the camera, or if I just don't know how to lock down
the controls. The combining of the images was done with the
Photomerge feature of Photoshop Elements, which I am still
becoming familiar with. My Olympus D-460 camera supports a
panorama feature, but it's limited, so I choose not to use it. (The
main limits are you have to use an Olympus smartmedia card, and
they cost about twice as much as generic-brand, and you have to
use 640x480 resolution. The Photoshop Elements system is
much more flexible.)

[blessthismess]

Well I am glad you arrived safe and sound, considering the fate of the deer and all. I to just bought a Olympus D-460 and didnt realize its panorama feature. Hmmm maybe I need to start reading manuals. Oh I am in North Carolina and enjoy views like this when I take a day trip to the mountains. Nice picture

[SteveDallas]

Thanks! I'd like another crack at the photo, but given the situation I'm not eager to drive down again soon!