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

mga707

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Everything posted by mga707

  1. ...and even one MORE piece of Hudson trivia: Hudson successor American Motors (AMC was formed by the merger of Nash and Hudson, although it was really more of a Nash takeover than a merger of equals) kept the rights to the "Hornet" name and brought the name out of mothballs in 1969 for the all-new 1970 AMC Hornet. The Hornet's second incarnation lasted through the 1977 model year, and the basic 1970 Hornet body lasted, through the Concord and Eagle, all the way until the takeover of AMC/Jeep by the Chrysler Corporation in 1987!
  2. I'm certainly no Yellowstone Trail expert, but the way that the Yellowstone Trail Road as shown on the GPS dead ends at both ends just as it approaches the I-90 right-of-way seems like a clue that it could at one time have been an old Yellowstone Trail section. Experts?
  3. Hey Jeff (or anyone)-- What's the name of the John Madden-recommended Mexican restaurant in Van Horn? The name escapes me... As I recall, it was pretty good...(wait for it)...for Texas! (said condescendingly like a true Arizonan )
  4. Amen to that! I sure wish I'd had it with me in '08 when we were (fruitlessly, as it turned out) searching for the Old Plank Road remnants west of Yuma.
  5. Loved the photo album, as always. I've driven 101 around the Olympic Peninsula twice, in 1990 and again in '98. Both times on Olympic NP visits. One town with an interesting name you missed by heading out to the beach: Humptulips! Loved the "no karate chopping seal pups" sign. Still laughing over that! I guess Aberdeen still does not officially recognize their most famous son, huh? Oh well, Hibbing MN doesn't have a "birthplace of Bob Dylan" sign either. And he's still alive! OTOH, North Myrtle Beach SC proudly lets visitors know that they are the hometown of Vanna White. Wonder if the boring clam is from Boring OR? If you ever make the trip again, take any or all of the inland drives to the Hoh, Queets, and Quinault rain forests in the park. They're all amazing.
  6. Thanks for the reply! Of the 58 designated National Parks, I have so far visited 36, with three more in Alaska scheduled for this June. I think I've been to all of the well-known, "signature" parks, with the surprising exception of Shenandoah. Don't know how I've missed that one, as I've been all around it!
  7. Wow. Sometimes the ol' memory still works! My remembered figure of 58 designated parks was right! I guess four more areas have been added to the total NPS site list since my '06 map was printed, but none are designated as parks. I know that Congaree in South Carolina is still the newest of the 58. As far as visiting even all 58 of the actual parks, the National Park of American Samoa (LONG way away!) and Kobuk Valley and Gates of the Arctic (along with a couple of others) in Alaska are going to be tough to get to--no road access at all!
  8. Believe me, I know about the incredible deal that is the lifetime pass. One of the few good things about turning 62! I've got a few more years (10, actually) to go, and in the unlikely event that this bargain is still around in a decade, you bet I'm snagging it the day I turn 62. Luckily for me there's an NPS site (Saguaro NP) just 'up the road' from my house, so I don't have far to go to get it. Just ten more years...
  9. Just for clarification: Do you mean only areas designated as National Parks (I believe there are 58 so designated, although I could be off a couple), or do any and all NPS-administered sites qualify? According to my NPS map and guide, as of 2006 there are 388 such sites in the US and possessions. Included are National Monuments, National Historic Sites, National Historical Parks, etc. In addition, there are a growing number of Federally-designated National Monuments that are not administered by the NPS, but by other agencies such as the Bureau of Land Management or the Forest Service. The vast (and amazingly scenic) Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in southern Utah is one such area. I am an NPS 'completist' and one of my lifetime goals (now that I have visited all 50 states) is to visit every NPS site. I highlight them in yellow on the abovementioned map as I 'check them off'. I'm probably approaching the halfway mark to bagging all 388!
  10. Show: Really? "Oly" beer is no more? I well remember the "It's the Water" radio/TV ads way down here in southern AZ back in the 60s/70s (I was too young to drink the stuff back then, but we all knew the ads!). If memory serves, the ads always said "Olympia brewing company, Tumwater , Washington". You mean it's gone to Falstaff/Burgermeister/Schlitz/Hamm's/probably-too-many-other-defunct-brands-to-name beer heaven? Guess I assumed it was still around, albeit on a regional basis.
  11. Show: Your bridge "way down upon the Suwanee River" jogged my memory, so I checked the gallery, and, sho 'nuff, it looks almost identical to the old US 80 bridge across the Gila River by the Gillespie Dam (between Gila Bend and Buckeye, AZ), that I shot last year. It was also constructed in 1926, so that was a common type from that era, it seems.
  12. I love bridges, too, but I'm really chiming in here just because I love your screen name! Wish I could think of something half as clever.
  13. Did the Cienega Creek/Marsh Station loop today, with Jeff's book as a guide. Although I have driven this bit of old 80 quite a few times, thanks to the book I now know that there is an even older, pre-80 1921 alignment that dates from the completion of the bridge and veers off from the later, 1933 road in some areas. I'd driven right by those old bridge abutments and abandoned grades and never noticed them until now. The book is great, and incredibly thorough and detailed. Can't wait to drive the Pinal Pioneer Parkway stretch (Tom Mix!) with the book along to spot old abandoned alignments! Got one disagreement with the author (Jeff), though: He prefers Saguaro National Park's newer (1960s), West Unit, to the original (1933 established as Saguaro Nat'l Monument by Pres. Hoover) East Unit. I'm a Saguaro East fan all the way! Much more history there, and better hiking trails. There's nothing to compare to the Cactus Forest Loop road (WPA built) in the West unit, nice though it also is. Anyway, love the book. Highest recommendation.
  14. Yes, it came today--next day service! Thanks--it looks great! Since I'm off this week on a little 'staycation', I think I'll motor east tomorrow to the Cienega Creek/Marsh Station loop and possibly on to Benson and Tombstone if I've got time. The book will be on the passenger seat--I'm so excited!
  15. Thanks for the info! I'm going to order it right away--sounds great! I posted pictures on the gallery of the old Cienega Creek and Gillespie Dam bridges last year. Update: My check's in the mail.
  16. Cool! That would've been a fun convention, I'm sure. Wish I'd known about it at the time. I've been to Ely and it's a funky little town--liked it! Trivia: For a number of years prior to 1980, Ely was the smallest US town, outside of Alaska, that had scheduled commercial jet service. United ran two daily 737s through there, SLC-Ely-Elko-Reno, and vice-versa. Ely (and Elko) were the first towns UAL dropped following deregulation in 1979. Now I don't think they even have scheduled "puddle-jumper" (commuter) service of any kind! At least Elko still has regular 'scheduled charter' gambling trips on Allegiant and others due to their larger number of casinos. Would be great to somehow get gov't. permission to have a "Lincoln highway expedition" on the old alignment through Dugway. they'd just have to hide the 'reverse-engineered' flying saucers and the captured aliens while we're out there!
  17. The "closed area" is the military's Dugway Proving Grounds. If a recent "UFO Files" episode is to be believed, the "cammo dudes" will be all over you rather quickly if you even loiter outside the fences. They really, REALLY don't like photography of the area, which seems kind of silly in an era of satellite imagery readily available on the web. Supposedly Dugway is the 'new' Area 51. I remember reading years ago that there are some really nice Lincoln Highway remnants preserved within what is now a highly restricted area.
  18. Hey, everyone, don't forget about the Royal Gorge bridge in Colorado. I know it's more of a tourist trap, er, attraction than a bridge that's necessary to get from point 'A' to point 'B', but still, that is one HIGH bridge! As far as bridges that are necessary to go from 'A' to 'B', I think (IIRC) that West Virginia's New River Gorge bridge (US 19 north of Oak Hill--where Hank Williams died) has the longest drop to the river of any in the USA.
  19. Ditto as to the Salt River Canyon stretch of 60 between Globe and Show Low as being a 'must drive'. The stretch just west of that segment between Superior and the Miami/Globe area is no slouch either. The New Mexico portion of 60 can't match either of the two Arizona portions above for white-knuckle mountain curve thrills, but the part west of Socorro (Catron County) is scenic. Don't miss the Very Large Array/multiple radio telescope site between Pie Town (is that a cool town name or what?) and Socorro. East of Socorro (and the Rio Grande), two of the three Spanish Colonial missions (Abo and Quarai) that make up Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument sit just off of 60 (the third, and largest, Gran Quivira, is a bit farther south). Well worth a visit.
  20. Took the Lewes--Cape May ferry (US 9) across the mouth of Delaware Bay just about three weeks ago on my first trip to the East Coast in 8 years. What a neat 80-minute crossing!
  21. How awesome that it is still there (and perfectly readable) some 90 years or so after it's inception!
  22. The Harry Truman National Historic Site in Independence, MO, is definitely worth a day's visit if you're in the Kansas City area. The site has both the Truman library and museum, as well as the home on Delaware Street that, as I found out from reading "Harry Truman's Excellent Adventure", was the only house that President Truman ever owned! It was in Bess Truman's family and was their home until Harry became Vice-President in 1945 (he was only VP for three months when FDR died). Harry and Bess returned to their unpretentious but comfortable home when he left office in 1953, and Harry lived there until his death in December 1972 (just one month before LBJ's sudden death--Harry's funeral was LBJ's last public appearance). Bess continued to live in the home until her death a decade later. A great place to visit!
  23. Mr. Algeo brings up this fact in the book, and, funny enough, makes the same conjecture!
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