Back twenty years to... Sunday, April 9th, 2006. Day 1. Getting the hang of life-on-the-road in a motorhome. Churches for every religious persuasion. 'Sonic Burgers', the White Sands Missile Range, and the oddly named town of 'Truth or Consequences'.

"As we all know so very well – "A thousand mile journey begins with the first step." The clichéd quote is attributed to 'Lao Tzu', and has something to do with Zen, or Taoism – or some other such ancient Chinese philosophy set. Anyway, I do as the old proverb instructs – pace-out thirty-odd steps around my van, after which I just buckle-up, turn the key – and select: 'DRIVE'. With the odometer set to zero, I fill-out the starting mileage and the 'star-date', in a notebook that will become my 'Captain’s Log', pull-out from the campground, drive just two-or-three blocks south – and now turn east onto Central Avenue – at precisely eleven-forty-five – Mountain-time.

It’s a balmy seventy-seven degrees and sunny, with the most delightful cooling breeze descending from the high, Sangre De Cristo mountain range. Running right alongside Interstate 40, State Highway 333, is actually part of the much glamourised 'Route 66', and I consider it most elegantly prophetic that I start my mammoth journey on this dislocated, isolated section of the mythological 'Mother Road'. And so – the near year-long road-trip begins. The three hundred-and-fifty day roller-coaster ride is underway, and can no longer be aborted. Cessation now, is 'Not an Option' – and so this'll be it for me – for the next twelve months, give-or-take. Each and every one of the United States. Fifty States in Fifty Weeks: 'In Search of Small-town America'.

Five days on, and I make a detour – to the fantastically titled town of, 'Truth or Consequences'. Originally named as 'Hot Spring' – just the same as fifty or-so other towns – it tookon the name of a popular radio game-show in 1950, when the Truth or Consequences anchor – Ralph Edwards, announced that he would make the tenth anniversary recording from the first town that renamed itself – after the TV show. Hot Spring won, and quite naturally there were a fair-few 'mixed feelings'. Mild indignation even. Locals now shorten it simply to – 'T or C'.

In Search of Small-Town America: Volume 1 is a free-of-charge Pdf digital download – available from our shop. A table of contents, the introduction, the route-map – and featuring content on the first two States travelled: New Mexico and Arizona.

Jeremy Hammond I am a British writer and photographer, and have travelled through India, China, Southeast Asia and Australia, but most extensively in North America. In the late seventies and early eighties, I worked as lighting crew, and later designer, for many top-named British bands, on tours through Europe, Japan, and the USA. I’ve worked as a cruise-ship photographer, in office and store design, database design, visual arts book publishing and as a London-based freelance photographer, specialising in interiors and architecture.