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Celebrating our two-lane highways of yesteryear…And the joys of driving them today!

mobilene

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Everything posted by mobilene

  1. KTSOTR, I was thinking about your resources yesterday. My original plan was, after exploring the PP-OO, to go all the way back to Rockville and follow the scan you posted some time ago from one of your guides that tells how to get from there to Terre Haute. It went through Rosedale and ended up on the original alignment of US 41 through Terre Haute. But then (a) I forgot to print it out and ( I ran out of time anyway. I would be thrilled, for example, for a scan from a 191x road guide for my US 31 trip in a few weeks. South Bend to Indianapolis. (This route used to be Indiana SR 1!) You have said before that you are willing to share, and perhaps if you are interested in creating a site of scans, adding scans there as requests here arise might be an efficient way to go. jim
  2. It's a long and unpleasant story, but I no longer have my old cameras. I have recently started collecting again, slowly and deliberately. I'm going after rangefinder cameras, TLRs, and bellows cameras primarily. I have a Minolta Hi-Matic 7, a Kodak Automatic 35F (with a broken light meter, rendering it useless), and a Brownie Reflex Synchro Model that an old friend gave me. I do have a precious few photos I took with my old cameras, and I posted some of them here. jim
  3. Ok, so does anybody know why that segment of I-44 west of Rolla was abandoned? jim
  4. I joined the '90s this year myself with my first digicam. I used to have a large camera collection -- had a hundred of 'em from 1910s bellows cameras to Polaroids to box cameras to TLRs to lousy instamatics. I ran film through several of them. It was fun. But once I got my digicam and took it on that first road trip, I think I could cheerfully never use film again. jim
  5. The map I found at fhwa.dot.gov show the Dana-Chrisman PP-OO route existing in at least 1915 and 1916. I believe its route through Crawfordsville to the north came later. I can't tell you how cool it was to be driving this farm road, realizing that at one time it stretched to the coasts. I wondered, if I had an accurate map of the route, how much of it is still driveable today. From Rockville to just west of Montezuma, US 36 and PP-OO appear to follow much the same route. There are two places where PP-OO diverges, and reconverges, with US 36 about 3 miles west of Rockville. One of those was the photo of the gravel road; the other of those was the photos of the covered bridge and the forgotten segment of US 36. (OH how I wish I had looked for a marker on the new bridge there telling when it was built!!!!) To see the PP-OO diverge from US 36 west of Montezuma, go to Google Maps or Windows Live Local and look up Montezuma, IN. Follow US 36 west. Just before SR 63 note E 610 S, an old alignment of US 36. West of SR 63, US 36 curves sharply and then back again to cross the railroad tracks. PP-OO, on the other hand, stays with the tracks. It's marked E 500 S. At that point, US 36 banks pretty good, and you have to make a left to get on E 500 S/PP-OO. Stay on it as it leaves the RR and then curves to head straight west. You'll pass through Dana before you know what hit you. When you cross into Illinois, the road changes from asphalt to a chip-and-seal that kicks pebbles into your car's undercarriage. Now that I look at the map of Chrisman I'm not sure whether the PP-OO went all the way to the town square. It may have turned north briefly at IL 1/US 150, and then back west on 2300 N. When time allows, I'll update my existing US 36 trip report to include US 36/PP-OO to IL 1, and then PP-OO back to just west of Montezuma. Denny, how disappointing about that PP-OO book you mentioned. Those are amateur mistakes. Pat, I'd love to make a trail trip one of these days. Bob, you know in all the years I lived in Terre Haute I never ate a square donut? Anyway, I don't get out there often but one of these times we'll have to get together. jim
  6. The house stuff is all relative. Houses are a heckuva lot cheeper just down the National Road in Terre Haute. I had outright sticker shock when I moved to Indy in 1994. So from where I sit, the glass is half empty. From where you sit, it sounds like my glass is way more than half full. My brother would move to Oregon, specifically Portland, yesterday except for the cost of housing. jim
  7. I remember the Red Barn. There was one just west of Miami St. on the south side of Ireland Rd. in South Bend, Ind., where I grew up. It was the place Dad liked to go, on those rare occasions he picked up dinner. The last time he did that had to be about 1975. Don't believe the building is still there. I have dim memories of a joint further west on Ireland Rd. called Mr. Quick (or Mr. Quick's). I think theirs were the first onion rings I ever ate. Wikipedia says it was a regional chain mostly in Iowa and Illinois.
  8. I needed to go out to Terre Haute today so I did it via US 36 and and finally finished my drive from Rockville to Illinois. I also went as far into Illinois as IL SR 1, then up to Chrisman, west to their square, and then all the way back to US 36 near the IN SR 63 interchange on the PP-OO. How do I know it's the PP-OO? Because the map from a TIB guide published here shows the shape of the road, and there's a country road coming out of Chrisman with the same shape. I also finally took a photo of the 1931 gas station building along the National Road in Terre Haute. It used to be in town. I vaguely remember where it was -- it was before my roadgeekdom and so I wasn't paying close attention. It was next to Maurizio's Pizza, for what it's worth, but I can't remember the cross street! But that spot is a vacant lot now, and the building, which looks like a small house, is now a concession stand and restroom for the baseball field at Rose-Hulman. It's still on US 40, just a few miles east of its original location. Rose and the National Road Assn. moved it in 1999 to save it from demolition. I'm doing this hurriedly since it's late and the 5:30 alarm will go off whether I'm ready or not tomorrow. To see the photos, go to my Flickr space at http://www.flickr.com/photos/mobilene/, then wade through the handful of other photos I have there to get to the ones I'm sharing from this trip. Full writeup will follow, eventually. jim
  9. Oh, I get exactly what you mean. Abandoned alignments are my favoritest thing.
  10. Welcome, Kevin! I look forward to your trip reports. Hope to see you hanging around here quite a bit. jim
  11. I've only driven the PA Turnpike twice, and both times it was in a driving snowstorm. So I don't have fond memories of the Turnpike. But both of those trips were in the 1980s, well after this bypass went in. I've stumbled across this site before in my travels but it's great to look at the photos again. jim
  12. I am soooooo not into losing my vehicle. I'm such a wussbag when it comes to driving an abandoned road or in difficult terrain. I will creep along at 1/2 mph if I have to, feeling what each tire transmits to my butt as I go, my clutch foot hovering, my right heel ready to pivot to the brake, if the car feels even slightly not planted. I still explore, just with all the hairs standing up on the back of my neck. I'll bet you're right about why the Dalles-California road is clear and driveable. Funny how governments will just let roads rot unless there's a good reason to keep them open. But I have to stop looking at the photos now because they're making me want to spend my whole day looking for old alignments, when I have to go see my kids play soccer in 30 minutes and then spend the rest of the day at chores. I'm going out to Terre Haute tomorrow to see a friend; maybe I'll revisit the old alignments along US 40 as I go. Goooooodness, sometimes this feels a little like the alcoholic who hasn't had a drink in a few days. jim
  13. KTSOTR, these are fabulous articles, and so chock full of neat information that I can hardly take it all in. I am glad for your animated "3-D" gifs, by the way, because due to an eye injury at birth I can't see in 3-D. I live in a 2-D world! Seeing these photos, I am itching to put my car on the old paved road. For the dirt road, maybe I'll bring my mountain bike. jim
  14. Heh! Miami Road (aka the Miami Highway or just Miami Street) is east of the DH. This road starts at the LH in South Bend (east of 31) and flows down just into the next county, just south of US 6 and west of Bremen, ending at the Plymouth-Goshen Trail. South of SB it's posted at 55 MPH, but it's the quality of a "nice" rural road -- no shoulders, but striped. I use it when I'm heading south out of SB when there's construction or bad traffic on 31. If you look it up on a map, you'll see Miami Road ends at the Plymouth-Goshen Trail. I keep meaning to follow that road, which winds and stops and starts and might even become SR 119 for all I can tell before actually reaching Goshen. I grew up just off Miami Street. There was a great 5 and dime with a soda fountain there, maybe 10 blocks south of the LH. That 70-41 connector has been under discussion for twenty years, easy. The company I worked for when I got out of college was just south of 70 on SR 46. The first route of that connector was going to take out the building I worked in. I remember the day that hit the paper; what a stink it created. I think it was later moved a bit north and then consumed just the corner of my company's property. Anyway, I remember seeing the director of the West-Central Indiana Economic Development District (or whatever it was called) on TV extolling its virtues, esp. as a way of attracting I-69 to the region. (Hadn't met my now ex-wife yet, and so I didn't know that she was dating that guy. That's what it's like to live in a small city. Too big to know everybody, but small enough to cross everybody's path.) I'll look for Schoop's as we head into Plymouth then! jim
  15. They want US 31 to be limited access all the way, I think, so the by-bypass would not lend itself to that kind of development stupidity. There'd be opportunities only at the exits. I've been to Plymouth any number of times and have never heard of Schoop's! Too bad it'll be something like 8:30 or 9 am when we get there... Maybe another day, when my sons are along. jim
  16. I was looking at the new Web site for the South Bend-to-Plymouth leg of the northern-Indiana US 31 upgrade, http://www.us31plysb.com/. Maybe 10 more miles of the DH northern connector will be on a decommissioned road when this is done. New US 31 splits from the old a few blocks south of where "the bypass" (as we called it when I was a kid) rejoins US 31's original route on South Bend's south side. The road flows west of current US 31 at first, but quickly crosses over and flows east, bypassinig Lakeville and LaPaz. US 31 is four lanes through both towns today, but the 35 mph speed limits can create traffic challenges. But these two small towns do offer at least a little charm along this highway. It looks like they're going to extend SR 4 east to end at the new US 31; SR 4 is an east-west road that begins just north of Lakeville. I've rescheduled my US 31 trip for Sept 15. We'll start at the Michigan/Indiana line and go through South Bend on old US 31, and then follow eventually-to-be-old US 31 south of town. North of Plymouth we'll stay on the DH route, old US 31 (evantually to be old old US 31) as it goes, until old US 31 splits from it in Rochester. jim
  17. I'm overlapping residences for a month. I'll probably move Sept 29. I need to do some prep on the house before I move. High property tax is right. $2,400 a year on a $90,000 house. Blows my mind. If my kids didn't live 1 mile away and in that school district I'd've stayed in Pike. Whoakay, this thread is totally hijacked. Sorry about that.
  18. After showering several at the Garage, mobilene became quite tired and hid in the boiler room for a nap. As he dozed off, he wondered whether visas or H1Bs are needed to emigrate to Tennessee.
  19. Leave the county? Not on your life! I'm a city boy through and through. I'm buying at 56th, Kessler, and Cooper in Washington Twp. You all go on your trip and think of me as I deal with all the charms and pleasures of moving into a 50-year-old house. jim
  20. After reading the info on the site I know I'd love to go, but the timing is terrible for me. :-(
  21. Yeah, I used my real name, and I'm surprised you remember. I was part-time and worked Sunday 10-2, so I wasn't exactly all over the airwaves. You might remember a lady from the T-S who once worked for me as a technology writer, Liz Carver. She had a column there by the time I left TH in 1994. And I desperately miss Headstone Friends. Ok, enough talk about stuff that nobody else here will get. Welcome aboard, and I look forward to more road trip reports. jim
  22. Brian, you are one lucky fellow to be able to undertake this. I'm sure I'm romanticizing it a bit but daggone would I like to do something like what you've done. I looked at your article and found your photos to be wonderful, esp. the one in the snow (the fenceposts add real interest). Peace, jim
  23. KTSOTR, you got some fine photos there, esp. of the river, the switchback, the hotel, and the bridge. I understand there are a number of tunnels on the Columbia River Highway; did you go through any of them? Indiana is tunnel-free so it's always exciting to me to go through one. The Balch Hotel looks, from the outside, like it is in excellent maintenance. Look at all those new windows! Anything else up your sleeve? jim
  24. I don't think I've ever seen one of those half-marble signs in use out here. As far back as my memory goes, stop (and other guide) signs have been made on reflective material.
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