This is the same intersection as the previous photo, but looking to the right (northwest) rather than the left.  This direction leads you to Old NC Highway 75, which is one route to Durham, NC.  US-15 also runs along this street for a bit; in this direction a few blocks away, a veer to the south will put you on 15 proper bound for Creedmoor and Durham, NC and, eventually Sanford, Southern Pines, and with a turn or two, Cameron, where I used to hang out with some old friends of mine.  US158, which I described running east in the previous post, does also run west, but not from this intersection.  You have to follow through town, catch north a couple of blocks from here, and then follow it out of town to the east-northeast, where it runs to Roxboro, NC, Yanceyville, Reidsville, and Winston-Salem before ending in Mocksville, NC.  US 158 bears the minor distinction of being a ‘spur’ highway of US 58 that never actually intersects the main highway.  (I used to run US 58 across southern VA to I-77 traveling from NC to MI.)

This intersection is also four different roads; to the north where we’ve just come from it’s Broad Street; to the south it’s Linden Avenue and NC highway 96, which runs out of town to I-85 and then proceeds through Youngsville, Zebulon, and Selma before ending in Smithfield.  I’ve described the east and west routes, but again the roads have different names – to the west, Hillsboro Street, but Williamsboro Street to the east.

Please don’t be frightened – I’m not going to do a turn-by-turn repeat of my whole trip.  I frontloaded a few pictures because it’s where I’ve been for the last fifteen years, and at the time at least I didn’t expect to see it again for a couple of years minimum.  I was leaving my entire family far behind intentionally for the first time in my life, really.  They’d left ME far behind a couple of times, and while I’d left my folks locally several times when I was young, I also had a daughter when I was 18 who I’ve never intentionally gone away from for any reason, until now.  (The reason:  it was time and the opportunity presented itself.)

So I’m now officially driving “out of Oxford,” away from the center of town and toward the wide-open road.  One last stop:  The Great Stops gas station where I actually worked for a while in ‘02-ish after I got laid off from Nortel and had to move back to Oxford.  I got fired for – get this - “using the computer.”  Apparently they’d overlooked the whole “don’t touch the computer” bit during training, and I used it for several weeks running to print “Closed for Cleaning” or “Back in Five Minutes” signs for when I was working third shift and had to use the restroom or would be in the back room for several minutes getting the cleaning supplies in order.  So one day a couple of girls from the orphanage up the street had decided to run away and had come through the store.  When one of the local cops (who all hung out at this place on my shift, since it was the only place in town open 24/7) asked if I’d seen ‘em I said yes, so she (the cop) wanted to view the security tape, upon which the two young ladies were clearly visible buying sodas and I was clearly visible (no reason I knew of NOT to be) printing a sign.  Next thing I knew it was “whydidyoutouchthecomputeryerfired.”  *shrug*  I can’t say that I hate everyone there or anything, I met plenty of people over the years against whom I have nothing, but I never felt like I fit in NC, especially in Oxford, and at this point in my life I’d never been happier to shake the dirt of a place from my shoes.

And so I hit I-85 “south,” which actually runs more east-west in this part of the world, and hit the road.  This is where the pictures start getting thin, because I’d decided I was in a hurry.  I didn’t stop driving for anything but gas and bathroom breaks and one short nap near the Kentucky-Illinois state line until I was on the other side of the Mississippi River.

Next: Let The Road Pictures Begin!