mobilene
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Posts posted by mobilene
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You know I'm in! Looking forward to hearing about your trip when you take it. -Jim
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Ok, the first three blog posts are up from my family's 66 adventure:
http://blog.jimgrey.net/2013/04/08/a-route-66-spring-break/
http://blog.jimgrey.net/2013/04/10/how-to-not-plan-a-road-trip/
http://blog.jimgrey.net/2013/04/11/finding-excellent-accommodations-on-route-66/
I'm slowly processing and uploading photos to my Flickr space:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mobilene/
-Jim
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One of the advantages of having my sons along is that I can occasionally be in the photo! My older boy, Damion, has pretty much become my official photographer.
-Jim
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Here I am, crouching in the middle of a very long stretch of ca. 1930 concrete Route 66 in Oklahoma. This concrete began in El Reno and ran mostly uninterrupted (but for asphalt patches and a couple miles where US 281 was laid over it) to about Weatherford, 40 miles away -- and then that concrete ran alongside the Interstate (with the usual interruptions because of exits) all the way to Elk City, another 40 miles away. 80 miles of 1930 concrete! I was in heaven.
We did a fair amount of the touristy stuff too. I'll have more to say about it in the days to come -- I'm blogging about it and will link to those posts here.
-Jim
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Wonderful photos, Dave.
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What a delicious ribbon of concrete!
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Not much of a back story. I'm embarrassed to admit I can't remember where I saw the map -- it was a few months ago! I saw it and this alignment, and much later traced it on Google Maps as described here. Now I'm hoping to come upon this or a similar map again and this time get a photographic record of it.
I am finding that the photos I treasure most are those that show common things that have since changed.
-Jim
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Not long ago, I found an old map that showed the following alignment of US 40 through West Terre Haute, Indiana. It answered some long lingering questions I've had.
Going westbound, the fork just screamed "old alignment" to me, but something about that hard turn just outside of town made me pause and refrain. Finding the old map that confirmed this was mighty exciting.
But what was more exciting was that back when I went to college in Terre Haute and had to pass through "West T" as we always called it to visit a girlfriend at St. Mary-of-the-Woods College, I used to take the right side of that fork -- and it was a concrete road. My memory says that the concrete had a center seam and regular lateral seams. Since that was the original alignment of US 40, based on what I know now, that concrete had to be poured in about 1925.
I needed to go over to Terre Haute not long ago and was kind of eager to go photograph that concrete. But I decided to see if Google Street View had captured it -- and was very, very sad to find this:
This is just west of where the older and newer alignments fork. Somewhere along the line, it was asphalted. By the looks of it, it happened some time ago. I don't remember the concrete being in poor repair, but I last drove it in the early 1990s and I suppose a lot can happen to a stretch of road in 20 years.
This just reminded me that the built environment does change with time, and the best time to go see something is right now, before it's gone.
Other notes: US 40 was rerouted along I-70 a year or two ago and now bypasses Terre Haute and West Terre Haute. So the map above shows old 40 and old old 40 (or, more precisely, old State Road 3, which was Indiana's number for this road before the feds got involved). The concrete was almost certainly poured during the State Road 3 days. If you drive into West T on the old alignment, you drive through a block or two of dilapidated, mostly abandoned storefronts. 20-30 years ago I used to puzzle over why they were there, but given that this was on the highway 90 years ago it makes total sense now. Here's a link to Street View: http://goo.gl/maps/Em6p0.
-Jim
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What a delightful old alignment and bridge! Especially the bridge. I love the slightly arched roadbed and corresponding railings. -Jim
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Very nice. It looks very much like the brick pavement I've found along the National Road in both Ohio and Illinois.
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Ooh, original pavement! That always makes me smile. -Jim
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Awesome! I love to see a surviving sign like this.
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Nice find! Kind of a shame it's a private residence if for no other reason than it makes it difficult to really survey it.
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Chris,
I got it -- thank you! It looks like you took a slower trip -- i.e. you drove fewer miles every day than we will. I don't anticipate us stopping for everything there is to see -- but your guide will help us not miss anything we want to see! Thanks!
-Jim
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The Claremore Motor Inn had very good reviews on TripAdvisor and also on route66motels.com, so I booked there. It will make for a shorter day 3, but we can always overshoot and double back if we want to.
I've been going through the Route 66 attractions book I bought and I can see how we can easily spend more time stopping for things than we will have time for, at least in IL and MO and into OK. Past OKC, things seem to thin out considerably. So I'm less concerned that my day-4 leg is longer now.
Hey, wow, my 66 directions guide does call out that dirt alignment! I do want to drive a few of the earliest alignments for my own sake and as a bit of a history lesson for my sons, but their tolerance for that stuff has usually been pretty thin. For example, I took 'em out to the abandoned US 40 bridge west of Plainfield on Saturday, but they were far, far more captivated by the hidden, forgotten cemetery just to the northeast of it.
-Jim
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Denny, thanks for the warning about the Desert Hills. I researched it but didn't find more recent comments like the one you linked me to. Yeah, sounds like a place to avoid. I'll end up booking a chain motel in Tulsa instead, since the rest of the trip's stops are set. -Jim
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Ok, the itinerary framework is set. As much as possible we're staying at independent motels, but in a couple places that was either not possible or not advisable.
Getting to 66 via the Lincoln Highway:
Sunday 3/31: South Bend, IN to Joliet, IL. Motel 6, woo hoo.
The Route 66 Tour:
Monday 4/1: Joliet, IL to Carlinville, IL. CarlinVilla Motel.
Tuesday 4/2: Carlinville, IL to Lebanon, MO. Munger Moss Motel.
Wednesday 4/3: Lebanon, MO to Tulsa, OK. Desert Hills Motel.
Thursday 4/4: Tulsa, OK to Sayre, OK (but we hope to get as far as Shamrock, TX, then double back). AmericInn.
Superslabbing It Back Home:
Friday 4/5: Sayre, OK to Cuba, MO. Wagon Wheel Motel.
Saturday 4/6: Cuba, MO to South Bend, IN.
I bought a new used car in November, a 2006 Ford Focus, and so we'll see how she handles on a road trip!
I'll be researching the potential daily stops between now and the time we leave. Thanks for the tip about Afton Station -- we'll hit it, don't you worry.
-Jim
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It looks like the northern section got used and the southern section not so much. But that's just speculation. At any rate, it's a great find, and your photos are mouthwatering. -Jim
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Nature always wins. But it's disappointing that the way was so utterly blocked. -Jim
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Ooh, ouch, looking at the Google Maps satellite view of Tucker Road, it looks like someone was in there with a jackhammer tearing out the concrete. :-(
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Wow, I had to look up Nacza lines. Nice try, Denny!!
That those lines are perfectly parallel to Dave's projection of the roadbed is not to be overlooked.
-Jim
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I don't see a roadbed in the photo (maybe I'm too tired), but those double white lines look for all the world to me like utility lines. -Jim
Route 66 Spring Break
in National Old Trails Road / Santa Fe Trail / U.S. 66
Posted
Dave,
Thanks for shedding some light. As much as I love the automobile -- and have all of my life -- clearly I need to spend some time studying up on its impact on society after its introduction. I would have thought that the automobile would have been thought of as here to stay by the 1920s, not the 1910s. I do at times make statements based on my impressions ... this time, it didn't work out so well!
Thanks,
-Jim