Chris Rowland

My first map was a Fred F. Johnson... In 1976 I was 4 years old when my dad gave me his 1972 Fred F. Johnson map of Indianapolis (in Convenient Book Form). I started tracing our route to church and to grandma's house on that map... So this one's a little sentimental for me. Chris

Why did you have to say that about wheel covers! We hadn't lost any until my wife lost our first one this week. I hope your premonition about your clutch is not contagious, also. I don't want any problems like that. As far as the wheel cover, I don't think I'm ready to shell out $80... not sure what I'll do yet, if anything. Hey, if you get those rims, I might be in the market for some "used" wheel covers from you. Chris

Great photos! I really enjoyed the slideshows. I also watched US-36, another favorite of mine. This summer, it looks like I'll be taking US-52 from the Saskatchewan border to Indiana--too bad you haven't been there yet so I could get a preview... Chris

cbustapeck, next time you go by there you can look to see how far "ahead" the service station was. It could have maybe been at that tiny crossroads? Or maybe a mile or so up the road...

Were you not able to see the image in my reply? Here's a close-up, or you can follow this link: Cities Service Logo I thought of it because I have a road map they distributed with their logo on the top. It's an H.M. Gousha 1959 map of Baltimore Metropolitan Area. Chris

Are you sure it couldn't just be an advertisement for "Cities Service" ahead? The curvature of the "Cities Service" station logo is similar to the curvature of the sign. What do you think? Chris

I enjoyed your video--it's been four years since I'd seen Multnomah Falls. It is a bautiful area. How do you take the video while you are driving on some of those curves? Do you have the camera mounted or use an assistant? Or are you just highly talented? Chris

I've begun looking into this too. I haven't tagged any of my photos yet, and my biggest concern right now is selecting the right tools to use to tag my photos, both the captions and the geotagging. I downloaded the wwmx stamper a week or two ago, but I wasn't sure how it was storing the info. Does it store the coordinates in the same place that Picasa does with the same EXIF tags? My big fear is to spend weeks tagging photos with one tool that becomes obsolete and stores the tagged info in some header that no other tool uses. I want to make sure it's in some sort of "standard" format so my time spent won't go to waste--I'd like to make sure that software I'm using 20 years from now will see and recognize those tags for what they are. I assume you are tagging with WWMX--what other tools have you successfully read those tags out with? Chris

I've enjoyed days 1 and 2 so far. The photos from the Federal Highway sure make Alabama look quiet and deserted... But I guess Sundays are like that in the South unless you are near a church? Chris

"Rue" is more like a street whre "route" would be like a road or highway. If going for French, I would suggest simply American Road": "Route Américaine" Chris

You got it, Larry. I took the photo from a nice view point within the park at 41.835,-103.700 looking southwest, where you can see the park entrance and visitor center off of Nebraska 92. I love the arc in the park road and how it curves up into the tunnel that gets you to the back of the ridge to make the rest of the ascent up Scotts Bluff. It was named for Hiram Scott whose skeleton was found there about the 1830s--kind of a mystery as to what really happened to him. Chris

Dave, how did you ever do that? I am amazed that you could look at that building and figure out where it was. I did find the reference you were referring to and put it here so we could all see it. This photo from the inventory looks like a train behind the station--I tried looking at the satellite photos of the Sutherland area and couldn't quite place it. It's a pretty small building under a tree, so it might be impossible to spot. Chris

The photo locale is definitely within 5 miles of the old Oregon Trail. Chris

This is a photo that I took at a famous Nebraska landmark. There is a state highway running across the middle of the frame, coming in from the left and vanishing in a pass between the cliffs. Name the landmark, provide the number of the Nebraska state highway, and preferably the latitude and longitude where the photo was taken. This one might be easy, but I can give more hints if it is too difficult. You should be able to click for a larger image. Chris

This is Tollgate Rock, probably taken in the 1930's. I'd say that the photographer was standing at 41.539, -109.482, shooting the photo NNW. I did find a more recent photo from almost the same spot: I should have guessed Green River earlier... we drove right by that rock last summer on our Wyoming trip, and my wife and I were married in Green River in 1995. Her family lived just down the road in Rock Springs at the time. That's really the only region of Wyoming I'm much familiar with, being a Hoosier. Thanks for the challenge! Chris

I think perhaps you're asking a little too much on this one... I'm assuming that's a river on the left and there's a big rock. Maybe a town on the left side where the road goes to a vanishing point? Unfortunately, most maps and aerial photos won't be helpful in finding that rock configuration. It's also such a small piece of road, that I'm not sure how to track it down. Do you have any clues at all to help narrow down what part of Wyoming this might be? Right now this seems impossible. Chris

I especially enjoyed the Virginia City footage--I stopped by there twice in the past five years on business trips to Reno. I remember going into the "Totem Trading Post" and walking up the boardwalk sidewalks that are shown in the clip. I loved taking Nevada-341 over the mountain from Reno. Chris

Our family loved Carhenge last summer! Our boys were 9 and 7 at the time. Chris

It kind of looks like this angle looking toward Cape Sebastian: Meyer's Creek Beach, From Above The Coast Highway, but I don't quite think so. This is a photo kind of looking the opposite direction: Coastline with highway and seastacks, Pistol River State Park. The road and the rock seem to match up, but the problem with this location is that I don't see where those buildings would have ever been. I'll keep looking. Chris

I really enjoyed the challenge of figuring out where this photo was taken. I think it would be awesome if people could post landscape pictures that had roads/buildings/rivers/mountains, etc. with just enough detail in the picture and the description so that we could search and try to determine based on maps and satellite imagery where the photo might have been taken from. This post card was a beautiful example... Is anyone else interested in doing that type of sleuthing? Chris

Are you thinking that this is the bridge at (47.10098,-120.702603)? I think it matches up pretty closely. Also, my map doesn't say US-10 but a state road 10. From the image on Google I linked to, it looks like the picture probably was taken from highway 10, looking southwest as you mention. Of course I've never been on that highway--just a virtual tourist via satellite. Chris

I count at least three toll gates on that little section of map--how did those work? Were they operated by the people who lived on the adjoining parcel? Who did they give the money to? Did they have to give a portion to the county, or how did that work? I wonder what kind of an income one of those toll gates could earn someone compared to farming back then. I can see taking a toll on some of the major trails like the Michigan Road, but I can't imagine that some of those smaller county roads would get a lot of traffic that wasn't local farmers and neighbors. Chris

This excerpt from a map on the IUPUI server (Map) is actually labeled Michigan Road all the way down what is now MLK and West Street to what is 10th Street today (labeled First St.) on the map. I don't see any other evidence of it south of there until it breaks from the National Road. The only two logical options I can see are that it continued straight south on West to Washington or took West down to the intersection with Indiana and then headed southeast, but I have never seen that documented. Check out the canal crossing between Fifth and Sixth streets on the map (14th & 15th street with today's numbering. Until recently I remember some strange remnants visible on the southeast corner of 16th & Martin Luther King. Chris

There are a lot of old alignments along I-74 as the Michigan Road leaves Indianapolis until it gets to Greenburg. It erratically alternates between disconnected frontage roads on the north and the south sides of the Interstate. This brings up one of my biggest complaints about the recent interchange work at I-465 and I-74 on the southeast side of Indianapolis. Traffic on I-465 South (multiplexed with US-421 South) used to be told that exit 49 took them onto I-74 East and US-421 South. Since they put up the new signs, the route turn for US-421 has gone stealth and is never mentioned, like it doesn't exist. Isn't this against regulations (AASHTO or other) to have a route leave one highway and join another without any signage? After being multiplexed with the Interstate for 22 miles, who is going to remember what exit number they needed to turn onto? I hate how they have routed all of the US and state highways around Indianapolis, but they could at least tell you when to get off!!! My guess is that it was either an oversight by the highway contractor doing the signs or a cost saving measure because the old sign that held both the I-74 and US-421 shields was much wider. I've tried to figure out who to complain to at the Indiana DOT but haven't had any bright ideas yet. Back to the Michigan Road... you'll note that the old alignment cuts straight south just past Napoleon, Indiana and bypasses Versailles entirely, running along the border of the Jefferson Proving Ground. I'm guessing Versailles lobbied to be put onto the highway even though it added 2.6 miles to the route. Be sure to plan for some time to look around Madison. Also, Clifty Falls State Park is a must-see if you haven't been there. Chris

That is depressing. Of course the driver's liability insurance probably won't do anything about it.