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

DennyG

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Everything posted by DennyG

  1. Even though I couldn't answer all the questions, I started a reply then got picked up for dinner and fortunately found Jennifer had responded by the time I got back. The only other thing I had in my reply was the observation that the American Road Newsletter was emailed in HTML as well as being posted here in BBCode. I'm guessing that there is a newsletter feature included in Invision Board that allows a newsletter to be composed with BBCode then converted and mailed in HTML. But it also seems possible that (as Russell would like) it was originally composed offline (in MS-Word or similar) then mailed and posted. What's the truth, Jennifer? I'll also mention that if you click an attribute with no text selected, an opening tag is inserted and you'll have to close it manually or by clicking the red X (it might be a crossed out T) at the far right of the font selection line. Selecting then clicking is probably more intuitive. I was also going to suggest an attachment as a workaround. I thought that the "Global Space Left: 19.53mb" comment next to the attachment controls might be a concern. But it shows the same number after Jennifer's post with attachment so maybe it doesn't mean what I thought.
  2. DennyG

    Gas Prices

    I just now stopped at Shell on the way home. $2.189.
  3. DennyG

    Gas Prices

    Regular is around $2.40-$2.50 in the Cincinnati area. Over Labor Day, I saw two stations (Portsmouth, Chillicothe?) at $2.33. It's kind of scary that we now have fond memories of the days of two dollar gas but promising that some predict we'll be back to that price by Thanksgiving.
  4. I just couldn't let a three day weekend go to waste so I drove a smallish loop through parts nearby. Even though I didn't get too far from home, I still managed to see some new stuff. The first day was along the Ohio River and the third day somewhat followed the Scioto. In between was a meeting with forum member Baby Boomer Bob and visits to a pair of old iron furnaces. Pix & words at: Labor Day Loop --Denny
  5. One of the better known books (actually a two volume set) on the National Road was edited by Karl Raitz. When I saw the name on the newspaper article (Karl Ritzler), I had to pull out the book to double check my memory. Pretty good article on a stretch of road that I'm fairly familiar with and think everybody should visit. What Ritzler says seems pretty accurate with one outstanding exception. "11 Madonnas"? Everyone knows that Madonnas, like eggs, are sold by the dozen. I've never seen the Madonna population miscounted before and I doubt that Mr. Ritzler actually thinks there are only eleven. It's gotta be a typo.
  6. Yes sir! Those look like my kind of road trips. Looking forward to you getting those Blue Ridge & Natchez drives posted. Nice ride, too. And don't worry about a few paint chips; They're great reminders of the fun you had getting them. I don't exactly do a blog but if I was starting fresh and didn't have so much webaggage that's probably what I'd do. Blogspot, Blogger, and others make sharing less painful than it was in the old days (7 years ago ) and that's good for both writers and readers. I do know some other forum members that have blogs and if they don't jump on this thread, I'll out them myself. What I do have is a website that I sort of try to treat like a blog when I'm traveling by putting up something at the end of each day (or the next day, or maybe the day after that ). A link is in my signature. edit: My site was moved to a new server last night and things were working fine when I posted this. Then, almost predictably, things ran amuck a short time later. All appears OK now, but...
  7. Sorry I missed the span setting. That looks pretty interesting. I'm seriously thinking of taking US-36 home from the Springfield Route 66 Festival in September. That would give me a chance to get a peek at the bridge before it's completely finished. Hey, that's right on a potential Bremer-Springfield route. Wanna play bridge?
  8. OK, here's an intro from an old Buckeye. That's pure unadulterated Buckeye since I've always lived in Ohio's southwest quarter. Heck, make that the southwest eighth, or tenth, or twelfth - never more than 40 miles from Indiana or 80 miles from Kentucky. And those distances sort of describe my childhood travel range, too. Before high school, a long family road trip was, at most, a fifty mile outing to visit relatives in Dayton. Once, in the crowded back seat of an uncle's sedan, I did get a few miles over the Pennsylvania line. But maybe Dad really was waiting for me to possess a driver's license because once that happened there were drives to Detroit, Columbus, Indianapolis, and, just once, all the way to Washington, DC. I was seventeen when we did that DC trip and got to drive quite a bit. Eastbound, we picked up some of the PA Turnpike. The return route involved some of US-50 through VA and WV. From the turnpike section about all I remember is a tunnel or two, From the drive home I remember, wiggly roads, some pretty scenery, and stopping at tiny roadside businesses for gas and sodas. I think that one trip was enough to figure out that I liked wiggly and pretty and tiny better than fast and straight. I also learned that my Dad really did like road trips. There just wasn't any time or money for them earlier. Time and money are always going to be limiting factors and that trip demonstrated that going and coming by different paths was a sensible way to get the most out of both. So four decades later, what I learned on that family trip to DC still influences my travel. When I can, I'll double my pleasure by following different routes there and back. When necessary, I'll make use of an expressway to speed me to where something more enjoyable can begin. I will also leverage vacation days and dollars by using them to extend company paid business trips. And I still keep my eyes peeled for wiggly, pretty, and tiny. To round things out, I'm in my mid-fifties (59.4 ), have successfully completed two marriages, and loosed three offspring into the world. One son is seeing the world as a member of the U.S. Navy and the other is seeing it by Eurorail, hitch hiking, and tagging along with friends. Only the daughter opted to live in Ohio. I work as a computer programmer for a small company but, with retirement not all that far away, I'm looking into that hitching and tagging stuff.
  9. With all of its fans, it seems like I might want to give Streets & Trips another look. Can anyone tell me if S&T supports the exporting of routes to other programs or GPS devices?
  10. The 17th Annual Missouri Motor Tour is just two weeks away. The tour starts September 8 at Litchfield, IL, ends at St. Robert, MO, and includes a crossing of the Chain or Rocks Bridge at St. Louis. Look here for information from the Route 66 Association of Missouri.
  11. DennyG

    Tire (Muffler) GIRL?

    I've yet to see a Uniroyal Gal (That's how RoadsideAmerica.com refers to them.) in person but have faith that I will someday.
  12. I've been aware of this for some time and have been toying with the idea of flying to Tulsa for the car resurrection then heading west at least as far as Tucumcari (for the Blue Swallow) and returning to Oklahoma in time for the big Sixty-Six doings in Clinton the next weekend. At the moment, it all seems feasible and would certainly be a lot of fun. I'll get serious (or not) early next year.
  13. After thinking about it for a few years, I finally made it to the Parke County festival last year and really enjoyed it. Sadly, I never saw the original Bridgeton Bridge. Those pictures at the Parke County site show that the rebuilding is well under way as I guess it would have to be if it's to be completed by this year's festival. I've never seen a covered bridge being built and know that I'd really enjoy getting to Bridgeton during construction. I don't know if I can pull it off but I'll give it some thought. Just in case, I checked to make sure I still have the "Building A Bridge" pin that I bought in Bridgeton last fall.
  14. There ought to be something in that title for just about everybody. Woodward On Friday evening I drove to Detroit to attend the Twelfth Annual Woodward Dream Cruise. It was a bit moist but it's too big an event to let a little rain interfere in any significant way. Some pictures at My First WDC. Repps Since American Road's World Headquarters are nearby, I though there might be some folks from the magazine at the Cruise. I checked into this with a note to Becky Repp and learned that there just wasn't room in the schedule to attend the WDC but maybe we could get together somewhere a little closer to their neighborhood. The result was that, after a day on Woodward, I hooked up with Thomas & Becky Repp for dinner, roadie chatter, and an all around good time. The mag's in good hands. NASCAR OK, so I don't really follow NASCAR and, until yesterday, didn't even know where Michigan International Speedway was. My motel was on US-24 and, anticipating a more leisurely drive home than my Friday night dash, US-24->US-12->US-127 looked like a good route. As I progressed along Twelve, I did see a few "Welcome Race Fans" signs and noticed that a couple of waitresses where I ate breakfast were wearing Dale Jr. shirts. It finally came together about five miles from the track; Which I now learned is right on US-12. There were a some warning signs and then the two lane road was divided into thirds by orange cones. Two lanes headed to the track and one away. Half of each outer lane used the paved shoulder and the middle lane (My lane!) was centered on the double yellow line. It was strange but I did get another two or so miles of progress before traffic came to a sudden crawl. The line eventually inched to a point where a side road beckoned and I turned south to make my way to US-127 on back (including gravel) roads. The Great Darke County Fair One of the attractions of US-127 was that it passes right by (used to go right through) Greenville, Ohio, where The Great Darke County Fair had opened on Friday. That's my home county and I managed a visit with my parents, watched some sheep, rabbit, & horse judging, and treated myself to a Sno-Cone, a Lemon-Shakeup, and an apple dumpling complete with home made (freezer turned by an antique gas engine) ice cream. Michelob is OK, but I'm pretty sure this is what weekends were really made for.
  15. I was on US-127 earlier today and that put me on US-20 for a couple of miles. This was heading south out of Michigan and the two are duplexed just west of Fayette. That's just business as usual. Then, a half dozen miles further south, US-127 crosses US-20 again although it's officially called US-20A. Any good gossip or stories about how this came to be? I-80 (Ohio Turnpike) runs between the two Twenties which makes it just a bit more interesting.
  16. I've read that all four episodes will be shown back to back starting at 6:00 EDT on Saturday. Check local listings for a television near you.
  17. People in the Route66 group over at that place we just left (yeah, Yahoo) have been praising a new book on the route. I just got my copy and had to echo all the good things that guys like Bob Moore, Rich Henry, & Jim Conkle were saying. What follows is the same note I posted there as a reply to one of their messages. Let me get in the line of folks praising David Wickline's "Images of 66". My copy arrived yesterday and it's a real page turner. About 90% (unsupported SWAG) of the book's surface area is covered with photographs but it's not an artsy coffee table book. It has plenty of descriptive text, quite a few directions, and a fair amount on contact information but it's not a guide book. Wickline calls it "An Interactive Photographic Journey". Good enough for me. Each page contains a half dozen or so photographs with descriptions. Some of the photos could be works of art in a large format coffee table setting but in "Images of 66" they're more works of documentation. The whole route is covered and that's a lot of motels, diners, and just plain cool spots. Most appear in just a picture or two but some get a little more attention. These include La Bajada with six pages and a page (plus a pic) on El Vado. The La Bajada pictures let me get a much better feel for a place currently (and maybe forever) outside of my experience. The Lay-Flat binding is a nice touch and indicates that the book is made to be used. Sure you can read it (The four page introduction doesn't just introduce the book, it's one of the better intros I've seen to the road itself.) and it is a great view-port for armchair touring, but it is intended to ride along with you to help find, identify, and appreciate all sorts of things along Historic Route 66. That means that a page might get folded or even torn now and then and there will probably be coffee or worse spilled on some of those great photos. I'm pretty sure David won't mind. I know you can get the book at Henry's Rabbit Ranch and probably several other places along the road or it can be ordered from the author's website: RoadHouse66
  18. Three former chains from southwest Ohio came to mind immediately: Sixty-Second Shops, Carter's, & Parkmoor. All were Big Boy style drive-ins with car-hops, etc. A story I've heard has the Sixty-Second Shops (Service in 60 seconds!) coming from a split between two partners in a place called The Clock Restaurant or Clock Burgers. I understand that was a chain, too, but I don't personally remember it. There is a building downtown with the imprint of a clock in cement above the door. I've been told that that is the original Clock Burger location but I have nothing to support that. I don't recall where that clock is so have the target for a future treasure hunt. Carter's was the local Kentucky Fried Chicken franchisee and I believe they tried a legal challenge when KFC opened their own stores in Ohio. For awhile (late '60s, early '70') you could buy official Kentucky Fried Chicken from either of them. Parkmoor was in Dayton, Cincinnati, and several other towns in the area. The other two may have been Cincinnati only. It also featured fried chicken which a matchbook that recently went unsold on eBay identified as "Dixie Golden Fried Chicken". I remember others having arguments over whether Carter's or Parkmoor had the best chicken but for me it was the Parkmoor onion rings that stood out. Those at Parkmoor came in a box and were the best. I still miss those. And I do remember Lum's. They sold beer in big frosted schooners one of which I believe I just may still have at home. Adopted legally from the schooner orphanage if anyone asks.
  19. I saw this "small space" comment earlier (It's from Glenn Wells' RoadSideFans report.) and had to smile. "relatively" is certainly the operative word here. A thousand postage stamps fit in a desk drawer. Get yourself a few Holiday Inn, Big Boy, and Earl Sheib signs and you're talking some noticeable real estate. The American Sign Museum is a wonderful addition to Cincinnati.
  20. Know thy enemy --- but just barely. There were three rounds of five questions each and untallied rounds of 23/12 ounces each. The questions were on the interstate system. The ounces were of Amber Bock. I barely reached my "don't be embarrassed" goal of five digits on the questions: 10096. Details on the Amber Bock score will not be published.
  21. Thanks to RoadDog I've learned that there is a pre-festival Chain of Rocks crossing and tour planned for the morning of Sep 22. Some info & phone #s at the festival website ( Springfield 66 Festival ). I hope to be there and I have the distinct impression that the RoadDog will, too.
  22. SA has stops & vias and I've always managed to eventually get the route to go where I want but it sometimes takes some effort. Trouble spots are things like a road that has been "streamlined". Several vias may be required to stay on the old alignment. That construction data seems pretty cool. Apparently there's no subscription required as they let me download the update. Of course it's of no use to me but I got it. I'm not ready to switch just yet (there's a lot in DeLorme that I like) but I'm always looking.
  23. Matt: While I have my issues with electronic maps, gross inaccuracy isn't one of them. I've encountered some errors but I'm actually rather impressed by how much they (Mapquest & DeLorme SA for me) get right. I can get incredibly frustrated at how they want me to get from A to B but they usually have A and B in the right places with the right roads between them. Maybe I'm not looking close enough. Jennifer: Do you mean that S&T includes automated access to current construction information that it uses in maps and routing? That's something that SA doesn't have.
  24. First off let me note that you're making a trip that's on my list, too. US-36 is one of the few US routes with an endpoint in Ohio and one of only two that pass through the county where I was born (Darke). Last year it looked like my son might be stationed in Colorado and I started planning a full length Thirty-Six run with visiting him as the justification. He ended up elsewhere and the trip got shelved. Someday. I'm a GPS fan, too. I've have used GPS in conjunction with a laptop and admit that it's probably the best way to stay on a route you've defined. But that approach is bulky and almost requires an operator/navigator. My old "buddy" is a Garmin GPS III that does no routing but with which I've become rather comfortable over the years. I've just recently upgraded to a Garmin Quest which did require some retraining but which seems a perfect unit for me. I guess it wasn't actually retraining since the stuff I had/have to learn is stuff that the old unit didn't do. It even accepts routes directly from DeLorme SA2006 but I guess the maps don't line up precisely so it sometimes gives funny directions and it really wants to calculate the route itself. Although I've learned the basics of operating it, I'm still working out how to best use it to feedback routes of my choosing.
  25. Ah ha! Another person who not only wastes time on the internet but also whiles it away in noisy unsavory taverns by punching buttons in response to meaningless questions. I am so there! Even though I'm hardly an interstate expert I will commit to posting my score here. Assuming, that is, you will, too.
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