Chris Rowland

The current plans for I-69 appear to use a lot of the right-of-way of the current IN-37, a lot of which is not original Dixie. Most of that damage has already been done when the current 4-lane divided highway went in. The Dixie would be tied to the original IN-37 alignments, which Jim has well documented on his site (State Road 37 from Indianapolis to Bloomington). Just looking at the three maps he presents on that page (1937, 1970, 2005), you can see that almost all of the old Dixie in Monroe County should be safe. A good section through Martinsville would also be preserved. If you want to spend some time going through Jim Grey's site to compare the old alignments he has documented against the proposed alignments on the I-69 site, you can see there will be some impact to the old Dixie Highway. I actually think that some of the more 'abandoned' sections of the old state road will become more heavily traveled because of the limited access to the I-69 corridor compared to the many connectors to today's IN-37. Chris

We'll see everyone at the BBQ in New Paris at 7 p.m. Friday. Looking forward to that great Ohio weather. Chris

The BBQ place in New Paris sounds great for Friday night, and I know we can get there by 6:15 to 6:30. My current plan is to reach the Golden Inn at 6 or so to check in, and then head to dinner. If anyone else is headed to the motel first, maybe we can all just take off to dinner from there. Reaching Joe's for lunch may be a little tight, but we'll get someone's cell number so we can check out where makes sense to join up again. The Golden Lamb sounded interesting to us. But we will gladly go wherever the group wants to on Saturday night. My wife loves steak, and her participation in this cruise are somewhat dependent upon promises of beef. Chris

I remember the one in Great Smoky Mountains N.P... I did a search for the one that Wikipedia mentions in Poland and included a link to it for anyone interested in seeing a pigtail in a quite urban setting. Chris

I know you planned to start with some sites in Indy, but do you have an approximate guess for what time you will be leaving the Indy area? We won't be able to get on the road until 4:30 p.m. and I was just trying to estimate where you think you will be at that time. Chris

I found those fish of the Pymatuning Reservoir spillway quite fascinating. I got distracted at work today for a full ten minutes reading about them. Chris

I recommend skipping Dinosaur National Monument since the Visitor Center is closed. We stopped by there in July 2006 just after closing it, and all we could see at the park were the petroglyphs. They hope to open a new visitor center in a couple of years--I recommend waiting until then. Chris

Definitely interested! Anything that gets you closer to Indiana... Chris

Nice to meet you, Tara! We look forward to hearing more about your travels and interests. Chris

How many of those places did you plan to see in advance? Seems like you had pre-planned at least some GPS coordinates for the LH markers. Did you pre-plan all of the bridges, etc., also? Or did you just play it by ear? Chris

From what I can tell, it looks like the road makes kind of a U-turn at the dam. So the picture from the Arizona side and the picture from the California side are both of the same side of the dam. That's why the water looks the same level from both sides of the river. The low water would be on the back side of the dam, which is not pictured. Chris

I looked through your photos--definitely a beautiful area! Chris

Everything is coming together. I've got reservations at the Golden Inn for Friday night and the Shaker Inn for Saturday night. Katherine and our two boys will be with me and we should be available for everything except Saturday morning. I'm going to try to get off of work a little early on Friday and try to catch up with whoever is in Richmond late that afternoon. And my mom and dad are still planning to join us for the sign museum on Sunday. We're really looking forward to the weekend! Chris

Denny, I talked with my dad last night, and he is interested in the sign museum. That will bring the Rowland head count up to 6: 4 adults and 2 children (aged 10 & 12) for the museum. I am still trying to work out whether we can swing joining on Saturday afternoon. Looks like I'm not scheduled for any duties at our local church that day (have to verify this), so we may be able to hit church services near Dayton, Ohio on Saturday morning and then meet up around 1 p.m. in the vicinity of Springfield. I'll get back to you later on that. Chris

I'm "in" for the Sign Museum on Sunday April 26 and will see if I can work it out to join everyone earlier that morning. Depends on whether I can talk my dad into joining us for the sign museum. Chris

"In 1985 New Richmond, Indiana, was turned into Hickory, Indiana, for the filming of the movie Hoosiers" Perhaps New Richmond might be a little less out of the way. Chris

That Croton Dam is rather beautiful. I had forgotten the Taylorsville Dam near Vandalia, Ohio on US 40! Chris

I drove over one a couple of years ago, US 191 at Flaming Gorge in Utah: 40.914988,-109.421672 Chris

I had heard they were going to replace it, but I didn't know it was going to be this soon. You can also get some good pics from I-65, too, since it's just a few yards away. I love US 52. It was just last summer that we drove it all the way from the Canadian border back to Indianapolis. We drove some nice old alignments through Minnesota. Chris

We've had our 2003 Matrix since 2002 and it has yet to get tagged for any violations. Hopefully I can keep it "under the radar", so to speak. It's an automatic (for my wife's sake--I prefer a manual), so we haven't had transmission issues, but the 'check engine' light for the catalytic converter and oxygen sensors became a problem after 90K. We got the sensor replaced that they recommended, but that kept the light off for only a couple of weeks. So I've been driving around with a 'check engine' light off and on for about 2 years now. The car has always run fine, though, except for that golden glare off of the dashboard. Chris

I think solving mysteries is fun in itself, whether or not someone else knows the answer. Chris

Becky, I looked at the calendar and there are so many events... Is there some way to filter them possibly by state/province so that things can be more easily located?

Most "publicity" shots you see of Route 66 are from summer. Now, after visiting Chicago in January, I can see why most people aren't foolish enough to visit while it is still below freezing. I was headed to Chicago for a week of training and I had to leave the Matrix back home so my wife could drive it (she can't drive the 5-speed in my Echo yet, but is still learning!). It turned out pretty well. I brought my wife up with me for Saturday and Sunday, we did the Route 66 tour on Sunday morning and then went to the Museum of Science and Industry. On Monday morning I put her on a one-way flight back to Indianapolis. I couldn't believe the flight was $45... I couldn't pass it up. Chris

I just uploaded photos from our very first true "Route 66" trip last week from Joliet to Chicago. The photo set is available here on Flickr. We had driven other parts of 66 before in Missouri and Oklahoma, but those trips were not pure 66 trips. I don't think I'm going to post any sort of "trip journal" for this one, just the photostream. You can see how all of these attractions look in January in the snow. All of the photos are geotagged from where they were taken, so anyone wanting to follow our footsteps can easily find their way. Some notes, though. The Wishing Well Motel in LaGrange is completely gone now. I saw in the images from Google Maps Street View that it was surrounded by a chain link fence, but I can definitively say that it is now totally gone. Of course with the snow cover I couldn't tell whether the foundation was there or not, but it was a little disappointing. We had also hoped to eat at White Fence Farm, but they were closed for the winter season. We did get to have a wonderful lunch at Lou Mitchell's in Chicago, and I was able to sample their Reuben sandwich. Enjoy! Chris

Welcome, Kat! You'll find plenty of places to visit here. I especially like reading along and seeing the photographs posted by our members. We'll look forward to your comments and insight. Chris