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Dave, sorry to hear of your brush with doctors; hope all's well. Looking forward to seeing photos from your trip. Did you snap the Warrenite marker? -Jim

Dave, thanks so much. I hope to have greater heights, but if I don't, I sure have that one killer story to tell, no?

I turned 45 this year. I'm halfway to 90! http://blog.jimgrey.net/2012/08/13/halfway-to-90/ Thanks for the well wishes, guys.

I've not stayed anywhere in French Lick, but I'm aware of two independent motels that promise reasonable rates. Lane's Motel: http://www.lanesmotel.com/ Michael T's Motel: http://www.michaeltsmotel.com/ Both are on SR 56, kind of on opposite outskirts of town. Good luck! -Jim

I'm not sure how I missed this thread the first time, but am sure glad I caught it now. Great find on that sign, and how awesome that you can pinpoint its original location! I didn't think I'd ever get to see a Goodrich sign. -Jim

Now THAT monument will be impossible to miss! Glad to see it. -Jim

Nice. Way to hit the lesser-known routes. Looks like the VA portion is just State Route 55 with US 48 signs on it. -Jim

Chad, great shots from along 66. Thanks for sharing them. -Jim

This effort sets the standard for all who will follow in the footsteps of mapping the old routes. Just an awesome accomplishment. -Jim

I've been following too, and a time or two I would have liked to leave a comment. Sure hope he opens them up.

Annnnnnnnnd finally...... Finally, the south side of Indy! This is more of what people think when they think Indiana: flat, cornfields. As this video comes to an end, I'm about to come to a "Y" intersection on Troy Rd. In the 1920s, Troy went straight here, but I-465 was built through here and Troy was looped awkwardly rather than just go over the highway. I decided not to record the loop.

The Dandy Trail followed the National Road eastbound briefly, between Franklin and Post Roads. Back then it would have been a two-lane road, but today, wow. Stick around until the very end of this one for a brief surprise that quickly passes by. Denny: Does your sound app recognize this one? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzvI-SRJPGw

Ok, here are the last three videos from my tour. Unfortunately, a part of the Dandy Trail has been "improved" to become part of the ramp system for I-465 at 56th St. on the east side. Fortunately, if you keep right you'll end up heading southbound on Shadeland Avenue and all will be well.

Dave: Heh, looks like I immortalized a moving violation in video. MGA: Yes! The school is about a mile away from the little jig-jog I make upon entering Broad Ripple Village.

Yes, you've noticed Broad Ripple. It was indeed a little fairly self-contained village connected to Indianapolis by streetcar and the Westfield Road. Today, it is a destination of restaurants, nightclubs, and a few artsy shops. It is so well developed today that I would be surprised to find a single ghost sign in an alley, but I haven't explored every one. A few years ago, a building at the end of the "strip" was remodeled from one purpose to another, and while the previous facade was stripped off you could see very clearly that the building had been an A&P. Sure wish I'd made time to photograph that.

So much of the trail on the Northeastside winds through hilly countryside like this. Where I veer right, I'm following Fall Creek Road's original alignment. The current alignment continues straight. I-465's construction interrupted Fall Creek Road's original alignment, making the new alighment necessary. Old Fall Creek Road lies abandoned on the other side of I-465.

I was very pleasantly surprised by how much of what was the Dandy Trail is still a pleasant drive today. The woman who laid out this route did a nice job finding the winding roads, and many of them are probably little changed from the 1920s save asphalt pavement and more houses built alongside. This is East 86th St. as it approaches Sargent Rd., and then Sargent Rd. south to 82nd St. This is in the far northeast corner of the Dandy Trail. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKOckpLv3Ww

Denny, your SoundHound app is right. Except that the Jerry Garcia clip also features David Grisman with equal billing. Encouraged, here are more "reels." The Dandy Trail's path on the north side of town where it crosses the White River along 86th/82nd St. has changed significantly over the years. The bridge that carried the trail was actually a bit south of this one, which was built in 1941. Historic aerial imagery of this area show quite a different alignment of 82nd St. here, too, and it was a two-lane road out here until the 1980s. Today, it's sprawlburbia. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7OtWWy6J9s PS. This was State Road 100 at one time. It was going to be a loop all around the city on existing major surface streets, but I-465 supplanted it before it was finished.

Nice. That corner has been photographed a whole bunch by roadfans far and wide -- those guys in Winslow are plenty clever.

One more. This is Westfield Blvd. as it heads to Broad Ripple. Broad Ripple used to be a little town, but is now part of Indianapolis and is essentially a neighborhood. It also was signed as State Road 1 when Indiana put its first numbered highway system together in 1918, and became US 31 with the advent of the route system. It hasn't been US 31 in a very long time. On the left is the Central Canal, part of a set of canals that, along with other infrastructure projects, bankrupted Indiana in the 1830s. Where I turn left and then right, Westfield Blvd. used to go straight through without that jog, through about the early 1980s. Also, beyond the jog Westfield Blvd. was two lanes (one each direction) until the early 1990s, when the parking situation there was created. Dave, this video goes a tad over 2 minutes, but I hope you won't doze off. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-KE6z1Cyos

Another clip. As I drove, I came to see the wisdom of the roads chosen. It made quite the scenic drive then and, in many cases, even now. This is Spring Mill Hill, on Spring Mill Road. This is also the first place I encountered where modern roads don't exactly match the Trail. In 1921, Spring Mill Road didn't end at Kessler Blvd. as shown. Rather, just before it reached where Kessler would come to be, it veered left and crossed a river over a bridge that no longer exists, and then veered right and flowed right into what is now Illinois St. Today, you have to stop at Kessler, turn left, cross the bridge there, and then at the end of the bridge if you want to go onto Illinois St. you have to turn right. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2b1lrEeItE

Thanks Dave! Yes, more than 2 minutes of the road unwinding before you can get pretty dull, even for a roadfan. I shot probably a half hour of video yesterday, but will be doling it out in much smaller pieces. Yes, that Cadillac did pull out in front of me... the wide-angle lens I was using made him look farther away than he actually was -- in reality, I had to slow down to avoid hitting him. But if I *had* hit him, I would have had plenty of evidence for the police!

The 1921 Dandy Trail map says to just go out any major road until you reach the Dandy Trail, so that's exactly what I did yesterday. I live closest to the old Michigan Road, so I went out it until I reached Westlane Road, which was the Dandy Trail. I drove it halfway around the city, to where it intersected the Michigan Road again on the south side of town. I'll complete the loop another day. I knew that stopping for photographs would be difficult, as what's not a busy city street on the trail is a narrow two-lane that may look like a country road but gets city-level traffic. So I got out this suction-cup camera mount dojobby I have and attached my camera to my windshield so I could shoot video. I did that everywhere I thought the view was interesting. The first place I shot begins as I turn off Michigan Road onto Dandy Trail, er, Westlane Road. This is very much in my neighborhood; I use both of these roads all the time. This is one of the ways I can travel to work. Westlane Rd. is lined with apartment complexes here, which is hard to tell in the video. These have become lower-income complexes in the years I've lived here, and it has become very common to see people who live in these apartments but who do not have cars walking along this road to get to a bus stop. At one time, this stretch of Westlane Road was State Road 434 (http://highwayexplorer.com/EndsPage.php?id=1434&section=1). Anyway, the video.

PS. I'm thinking about donating these negatives to the Indiana Historical Society or the Indiana State Library or someone who can take proper care of them. I'm happy to have only the digital scans.