Real shingles!
Day 145
Awesome mailbox #43
August 18th, 2010
I'm walking across America.
That's the idea, at least. I'm walking westward from New York City for nine months or so. If everything goes according to plan, I'll be in Oregon when the clock runs out. If nothing goes according to plan, maybe I'll end up in Peru or Mongolia or Pennsylvania. You can read all about the details of my trip if you're so inclined.
Email me at matt@imjustwalkin.com
Subscribe to my email list
Here's my progress so far:
The roofer’s internship
I’m more excited by the fact that it seems you will be passing through Idiotville in next few days…
I emailed Matt and ask him to post pictures of this town’s city limit sign or something depicting IDIOTVILLE.
Jon I emailed Matt about this TOWN he emailed me back and said he thinks that really just a ghost town now. ask him to take pictures and post he said they proably had all been stolen for collectors, as he has been informed about this.
Looks like they may be in the market for a new roof and a paint job! Maybe that intern was still working on his skill level (-;
Look at the cute door, it says Approved by the Postmaster General. Cool!
When I was growing up, every mailbox door looked exactly like that one. No house, but the box was identical…as were everyone else’s in the neighborhood.
That mailbox “house” needs a new roof… it is kind of sweet looking though… and I’m glad to know you’re walking by mailboxes so hopefully there’s families around to welcome you!!
Oh my gosh I thought it was a birdhouse at first by looking at the thumbnail on the right side.. How quaint. A nice little home in the country just for your mail. And the pole is embedded (right word choice?) into the cement sidewalk. I find that a little peculiar. But I like how they’ve taken to protect their mailbox.
open the door and leave it empty for a few weeks and I bet you will get a birdhouse….!
Well, this post box is embedded in the sidewalk, which is placed very close to the curb so the postman can easily lean out his window and therefore reach the box from his truck without having to get out. I do hope it isn’t the postman who is throwing cigerette butts out his window. Naughty! What I noticed is no tubular recepticle for the Oregonian Newspaper! Don’t they read the Oregonian?
I had lost all intrest in travel,accepting that the time had since passed that i would get on my harley and go somewhere.
but the pics and especialy the last twenty,have me wanting to see what the road has to offer,again!
Real shingles and Siding
as soon as i saw this, i smiled. these photos are such fun!
awwwwww….they made a house/garage for the mailbox, complete with roof and siding!
What! No more pics? I guess I’ll have to go see how CLOSE Matt is to Rockaway Beach!
Hooray for bringing back the Awesome Mailbox Series!
This is a very cute mailbox, but from the looks of the ground it has been the BUTT of a few jokes.
This mailbox gives new meaning to the motto “neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds”.
Since we now have 43 awesome mailboxes, I thought a little history on U. S. mail and boxes would be interesting. The current tunneled shaped mailbox most of us use was invented by postal worker Roy J. Joroleman in 1915 or 95 years ago. It has stood the test of time. Originally the flag was used by the postal carrier to signal mail delivery and to indicate mail was in the box to be picked up. I do not remember the first part and I am 60 years old.
http://www.postalmuseum.si.edu/exhibits/2b2c_ruralmailbox.html
Oh, this one does not have the little red flag! We lived rural in Beaverton Oregon for years. We had a flag, but it was not red. And it eventually broke, and the post office asked us to get a new one. I think they had to be a certain height from the ground? Some little kids started fires in some in our neighborhood boxes…..WOW! That was somethng they wished they never done! The Poliice and the Fire Department came out and gave a pretty scary lecture……
Don I hope you survived the floods. Remember to Say “” Yahooooooo” if matt gets t here Monday or Tuesday. Or will Matt perhaps beat us all……time will tell. Good Call though.
The ones we had in the rural area where I lived had two flags — one on each side. The one on the left was yellow and it was used by the carier to signal delivery, the one on the right was red and used by the patron to signal mail to be sent. If the red flag was down and the carrier had no mail to deliver, he could just drive on by. If the yellow flag was down, the patron didn’t waste time walking to the box because it would be empty.
Gayle
I have never seen a mailbox with 2 flags. That is cool. Thank you for sharing and have a great day!
Thanks for the great link to the postal museum, Don in Tennessee, I enjoyed that.
It’s 4:32 PM on Thursday here and so that means it is 6:32 AM (Thursday). Pretty soon Matt will be up and walkin’. I wonder how far he will get today? I am wondering how he will cross the Willamette. I am betting it will be over the St John’s Bridge and then he will continue up the coast to Astoria. I wonder….
My husband has given me a job to do on the computer. He asked me when I was going to do it. I told him when Matt gets to Rockaway! He laughed. My days seem to be mostly checking on Matt! He has a lot of people looking after him, if not in person, certainly in thought.
Karin
Tell your husband this is possibly a once in a lifetime event to share with the HOBO PLANET and his other computer work can wait a few days! Just kidding-I think from your comments he is cool with you tagging along with the HOBO PLANET and enjoying Matt’s trek-almost done and he has met some very wonderful heart warming people across the U S and shared some wonderful photography with us!.
Yah, he is pretty laid back! (my husband). I am so impressed with the speed Matt is walking. Maybe he should slow down, he is a month or two too early. It is my bet that when he gets to Portland, the street lights will slow him down and maybe all the people he will meet……and talk to. Plus I hope he gets lots of invites to meals, showers, blackberry cobblers, etc!
So it looks like the end is going to happen today or Friday based on the mileage left. How sad for all of us, but at the same time so rewarding to see the human spirit prevail thru such a long journey. I am saddened for the thousands of people that could have met Matt, but maybe just missed him by a stoplight.
I feel lucky for watching the local news months ago when his Uncle mentioned his journey and peaked my interest. I am normally watching SC in the morning, but I had just happened to leave the news channel on when I was watching tv the night before and this was the first story I heard when I turned the tv on. What great fortune!
Anthony…I bet it is saturday….could be tomorrow too…I suppose…Just over 50 miles 25 a day…by break your butt the last day. Anyway we slice it ….next week we all need new hobbies.
In reflection – thanks to Matt for always getting back to me. Thanks to everyone in the pool. Many thanks to those who threw in thier hats for me on “chucky bashes jeff day”. And to Karen Too, Dorinda and the other lady or two from Ohio…It has been a pleasure sharing Matt’s trip with you and the communication elsewhere. Peace and blessings to all. It was fun and may everyone have splendid lives and adventures……
Now…Matt….one foot in front of the other. The Pacific and you have a destiny calling. Hop on the cart when no one is looking…why not…..What are you gonna do with that thing when it is over…???
Hey Jeff! From one of the other Ohioans (Me!) – Thanks for your comments and humor! It has been so much fun to share this journey with Matt and everyone else on here. I certainly don’t want to see it end. Any ideas on how we could all keep in touch – blog, email, etc?? We can’t let our little Hobo Planet end!
Stop with the goodbyes! I can’t work if my mascara is running.
LOL !!!!!
Laughing out loud!
Me too Anthony. I always watch WRAL, but I missed the announcement on the news. I will catch up on the website and I was reading Bill Leslie’s blog for the day and he mentioned Matt and had his link on there. I started keeping up with Matt around the time he was in New Jersey. First pic I remember seeing was the one with all the stairs. Just like the recent one that everyone commented on. Yep, was my lucky day to have stumbled upon that!
Can’t believe he’s almost there. After planning for 9 months he did it in under 5! That’s impressive.
Being I am one who believes “If there is time, there is hope.”…I just think we may be surprised a bit at the end…if we all live…that is the time element…and if there is “something else” after or at the end of this journey…that is the hope part…so I am always open for a miracle…and maybe Matt has one for us…he has quite the quick mind…I will leave it there…
“If there is time, there is hope.”…it works for everything and will this time…
Matt was already to Montana when 3 different friends saw something about him on television and let me know. One sent the link. I’ve always been convinced that not only does walking cure most everything that can be cured, but brings life’s greatest pleasures, especially the joy of discovery. Not to mention all the strangers who come to strike up a conversation (and then there are the ones who steer clear of the apparently homeless bum).
I’ve retraced his journey and have never enjoyed anything so much since John Steinbeck’s ‘Travels With Charley’ hit the book shops. Thank you, Matt, and many thanks to all who shared the journey through comments.
“A sad soul can kill you quicker, far quicker, than a germ.” (John Steinbeck, Travels With Charley) Thanks for making so many souls happy, Matt.
I really hope that this site continues after Matt’s cross-country journey ends. Matt, your humor and insight are unmatched. I, for one, would love to see more pics and captions from your hometown. We’ve got a great group here with a great leader (that would be you) and it would be a shame to let it go. Maybe you’ve got a surprise in store for us…….. Take care and be safe today.
Hmmmm. I wonder who will get the prestigious “first post” on the “I made it” picture. That, no doubt, will be a coveted prize.
Matt you more or less promised nine months…..so lets keep on clicking! Loved being a part of this fantastic journey, I feel like I have never been judged or put down for anything I may have typed (good feeling). This blog reminds me of a class I took about 30 years ago. It was a Dale Carnige class. One of the books we read was How to Win Friends and Influence People. Matt has shown us the basics of that class! I’m starting to ramble so I will end with a great big THANK YOU EVERYONE.
PS it occurred to me the pic of the awesome mailbox was the appropriate place to post this comment.
When Matt finishes his journey, I will have to start working over lunch or going out or something rather than surfing these pics.
Matt, how about walking back so you can say you walked both ways across the country? That way all us working bums can do something useful over breaks at work.
wow. 40 comments on one photo. has anyone noticed that the closer he gets to the end, with the pictures he posts, that the comments are on the rise, exponentially?! wow.
Yeah, like all the people with Forrest Gump on the end of his run…..
Forrest Gump: [running] I had run for 3 years, 2 months, 14 days, and 16 hours.
[he stops and turns around]
Young Man Running: Quiet, quiet! He’s gonna say something!
Forrest Gump: [pause] I’m pretty tired… I think I’ll go home now.
: )
Keep up the mailbox photos… been waiting for more of these.
I hope you have a crowd waiting in Rockaway -Eric