mobilene

Microsoft has issued some upgrades to Virtual Earth and their online map service, now renamed to maps.live.com, benefits. The UI is a little different there, to boot.

Sounds good to me. If my sons aren't interested in the tour of the hotel, they have learned to be patient with Dad through such things. jim

If it's a one-day cruise, I would do my level best to make it on 11/3. I'd bring my sons along, however, so I'd have to skip the wine at the end, if that's still part of the plan. jim

sweeeeeeet!

Here's a funny thing. A fellow from Colorado who went to IU in the 60s visited my Web site today and wrote to say he remembers noodling around the roads in southern Indiana back when, and how his favorite was southwest from Bedford through Williams on the White River -- i.e., SR 450! He said there was a little cafe in Williams where you could get catfish, which wasn't as common then as now. Anyway, neither of those weekends work for me. I couldn't make it until November sometime, unfortunately, and even then the scheduling is tight. :-( jim

That old roadbed was spooky! Of course, I want to follow it. Looks like I'd need a Jeep. Thanks for sharing this! jim

Aberrations. Anomalies. They're our state shame. We Hoosiers prefer not to talk about them. Why do we call ourselves Hoosiers? Because we can't spell Indianaonians.

I'm 99% sure my SR 62 photo is on the US 460 route. I'd go look it up on my old maps, but I do have a to-do list as long as my arm. I'd love to make that trip, Roadmaven. I've done 150 from Loogootee to Paoli before (it's part of the trip from the late-summer 62 photo) and would love to do that again. I've never done 450 before... looks wicked. Peace, jim

Guys, this was a normal day along the two-lane in Indiana! Not only do you see lawn tractors turn onto the highway, you sometimes get some nitwit farmer who turns his combine out into the road right in front of you and then proceeds to go 4 mph. While I am liberal on the gas on the open road out there, I stick like glue to the in-town speed limits, no matter how annoying they are. I may tell the story why someday. Are you kidding, Keep? I would love to see 40+ year old road films! I'll bet I'm not the only one. Uploading to YouTube is easy and you don't have to worry about disk space! jim

When I was driving home from my US 31 trip I went exploring, noodling along US 6 and then a bunch of state highways I'd never driven before. One of them was State Road 17. It struck me as the typical minor Indiana two-lane highway -- cornfields upon cornfields, with some 90-degree turns left over since the road was never major enough to warrant being smoothed out. So for those of you with unslaked Indiana two-lane thirst (and I'm thinking of you, Keep) here is 5 minutes and 23 seconds of State Road 17 on a hot summer day. Please pardon the black area on the left edge; I think it's a result of having dropped my camera on the trip. I didn't know at this point I had damaged it or I would have pushed the lens into proper position. Bonus points to anyone who can identify what I was absentmindedly whistling starting at 1:12. Here's a couple minutes of video as I drove through Burlington, IN, which is on State Road 29, which has been an old friend of mine for many years now. It's also the northern connector of the Dixie Highway. It's also the Michigan Road, Indiana's first state road, built in the 1830s and 1840s, running from Madison on the Ohio River up to Michigan City and Lake Michigan. My kids' school was first built in 1837 along this new road. These aren't professional productions. I shot them partly just to see what would happen! But given that, gosh, everybody has a dream of driving in Indiana one day, I thought I'd take the edge off by sharing these now. jim

D'oh! Yes, I meant Dale, childhood home of Florence Henderson. I am delighted that Car and Driver named this stretch a best driving road! This stretch of highway was instrumental in my love of the road. A college buddy grew up near Leavenworth, and one long weekend he took me down there to see that part of the state. He had enough experience with that road's curves and hills to expertly drive it at high speed even in his creaky old Pontiac Grand Am. I alternated between "wa-hoo!" and white-knuckling the dashboard and the door grip. If you ever make this drive, I recommend eating at The Overlook restaurant just west of Leavenworth. Food's only okay, but the views of the river are really satisfying. You can also drive down a hill and see Old Town Leavenworth, with a few old buildings left from the town's first location before flooding in the 30s caused residents to move uphill. I have seen maps that indicate that SR 62 used to run through Old Town and then right next to the river, but I haven't been able to find that yet. Here's a late summer shot of the same spot along 62. This and other SR 62 photos are here.

I was noodling around tonight and found these two photos from my spring break trip with my sons. This photo is of State Road 135 in Bean Blossom, pretty much due south of Indianapolis. The morning mist was lifting, and had reached treetop height, as the road bottomed out in a hollow. This photo is of State Road 62, by far my favorite road in Indiana for all its curves. This is the kind of road where you need to turn off the radio and tell the kids to be quiet so you can focus on it. Much of this road was cut out of the rock, without which there would not have been a surface suitable for a road. Its best portion runs from Corydon to about Dana in southern Indiana, not too far from the Ohio River. If you click on the photos, you'll go to my Flickr page where you can see them larger. jim

Just one for me: South Bend, Indiana.

I'm confused. The newspaper story seemed to say that the difficulty of plowing snow off this road is the reason for this, and that there have been a few asphalt patches here and there. Am I missing something? Where I grew up, there are many brick streets left in the older parts of town, and I believe the city has been plowing them successfully for many decades. So I'm not sure why plowing would be a problem. jim

Yes, yes. One unsubstantiated Web ref amounts to hearsay, two or more are thin evidence. I'm willing to draw operating conclusions based on even one Web ref, but that conclusion carries an asterisk, if you will, that means "subject to change if new evidence comes in." jim

I'm in that post-divorce, need-furniture, avoiding-debt phase. I bought a nice dining room set off Craigslist for $90 the other day. I used to keep all my mags but the clutter became too much. All I keep now is CA. I had about six years on the shelf until about four years ago when I lost them all (long story). They were excellent reference material. I met a man yesterday who owns a '49 Dodge Coronet club coupe and I was dying to go see if I had an article in the archive about that car. No luck. jim

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Rte66RightOfWayMarker.jpg http://www.cart66pf.org/66caravan/roadlog48b.htm These two links include photos that are called Illinois state right-of-way markers. Neither photo shows the complete marker; all you see is some portion of the word STATE and the rest is buried. But from these photos and the accompanying text, we learn that very early (before the twenties) Illinois state right-of-way markers were cement pillars that began with "STATE." (Later markers left "STATE" off.) Whether or not the marker in question reads R R | or 1 W 0 it is still a right-of-way marker. Based on routing info at n9jig.com and the aerial maps available online, this marker is along "SBI (State Bond Issue) Route 10," which was authorized in 1918. While the SBI routes were Illinois' first numbering system, when the later "IL" route system was developed, this road kept its number, 10. In 1937, Route 47 was extended along Route 10's alignment through here, which is why the online maps call this "Old Route 47." jim

heh! "Fault tolerant" -- spoken like someone who has spent time in systems development and implementation! Yeah, I'm on Firefox.

Keep, that would be the $25 recliner I picked up at Goodwill. I expect the rest of your description will be spot on, however. The other magazine I take is Collectible Automobile, which I read cover to cover because it's so daggone good. I expect I'll experience the same with American Road! jim

Now that I have my new permanent address, I subscribed to American Road today. I'm looking forward to the Autumn issue! jim

My 1916 ABB just arrived today... says that the route from Decatur to Springfield follows the PP-OO. Good grief, when am I going to find the time to trace the route on WLL?!!? The postman ringing the bell to deliver aforementioned ABB caused *my* nap to be interrupted. I tried to go back to sleep, but it just wasn't happening when there were routes to explore. Haven't had a moment to check your links yet, Keep, but I'll get to it.

I'm awfully tired today, but Keep, I'm not seeing how your view of the route is different from what we've been discussing. Did I miss something? BTW, I told Windows Live Local to plot a route between Seymour and Monticello, and it says to drive on the segment of road that no longer exists between E 2100 Rd N and Route 10. jim

<grumble>I'd really much rather drive out there today and see than go to work.</grumble> Seems like I could make quite a road trip just exploring where IL 10 used to go. I'm really impressed with the Mapquest imagery here.

Keep, your two newest links are broken. You might want to have a look. jim

My 1924 ABB (see page 1 of this thread) says to follow old SR 10; was this road on the ABB's route?