Jump to content
American Road Magazine
Celebrating our two-lane highways of yesteryear…And the joys of driving them today!

sit properly

Full Members
  • Posts

    158
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by sit properly

  1. Denny - Maybe we'll even need another Vespa! (or at least a side car) Dave - Thanks so much! Every time we're out by Spencer (which is quite a bit), we talk about how much fun that day was with you. And I agree with Jim, great shot with the roll film! It really did seem to retain the color. I hope the stuff Fuji makes now will hold up as well. Looking at GoogleMaps, the schoolhouse seems to still be standing in Richmond. There's a good chance that we'll be headed that way prior to the 66 trip. If so, I'll try to grab a shot from the same angle (using a Polaroid, of course).
  2. The turkey tracks are one of my favorite Route 66 stops. They've been there since the original concrete was poured. The reason they are pointed out, however, is because of one understandably proud (and lucky) fellow. http://route66news.com/2010/07/14/making-tracks/ It's a testiment to the cement, is it not?
  3. Thanks! We're ridiculously excited about this. Honestly, we're more excited about this than the actually wedding. We're pretty awesome.
  4. Hi folks! I usually post in the Yellowstone Trail forum, but my original old road love is, of course, Route 66. I wanted to tell you a bit about a project that my gal Sarah and I are doing this summer and how you can get involved. In June we'll be traveling from Seattle to Central Pennsylvania (mostly along US 2 and 6) to get married where we grew up. For our honeymoon, we'll be leaving almost immediately for Route 66. We'll be start from Chicago around June 25. Over the next two-three weeks, we'll be documenting the Mother Road using vintage Polaroid cameras. These relics are 30 to 50 years old, and yet, Fuji still makes film for them! But this isn't really the fun part. We don't plan on keeping these photos. Instead, as part of our project funded via Kickstarter.com, we're mailing them to people who support us. You can read all about the project here. Basically, we want to show people how amazing Route 66 actually is through the use of vintage Polaroid cameras. In the days of digital photography, sharing pictures means emailing or posting computer images. Actual film-made photographs exposed onto paper are all but gone. Maybe this will serve as a bit of a reminder that, like the Mother Road, film photography is still alive, though perhaps a bit rare. This will be my fifth time across Route 66, though the last time I did it was in 2008 and I was on a Vespa. Sarah has done bits of it before, but this will be her first full adventure. Oddly enough, the idea of Route 66 as a honeymoon was her idea! For those who support us, we'll be sending the photos in screen printed, hand canceled envelopes from various small towns along the road. Also, we'll be blogging along the way and updating our Facebook page (both of which are usually about travels in the Pacific Northwest). So, if you care to give a bit of support, that's great! Thanks! Eric
  5. I agree with Denny - definitely start in Joliet. It's a great town. 300 miles a day on average is pretty good and it will allow you to hit the small towns through Illinois and Missouri. If it were just me, I'd skip the larger cities (St. Louis, both Springfields, Tulsa, OKC, etc). They're nice to explore, but are HUGE time eaters. Seek out the old, rural alignments and just enjoy yourself. -Eric
  6. Thanks Mike and Dave! The Old 99 in Washington site is amazing and helpful and basically a labyrinth that could wrap me up for days upon days. I agree with Dave, please share the other sections. I live in Everett, and so getting to the ones near Burlington is actually pretty easy. I've driven most of the old alignments between here and Bellingham, so there's a chance I know the roads and have just missed it - the cement here is darker than back east. Why is that? -Eric
  7. I saw that too! I wasn't 100% sure it was the same exact road, but if it was, that kind of breaks my heart. But it says quite a bit about their special effects team. Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.
  8. The range finders are so much fun. The 250 (or 100) are both great. Keep the rollers clean and your shots will turn out even better than you'd expect. Sometimes they turn out almost too good. Most of what we'll shoot on our 66 trip will be with 250s and 100s.
  9. Hi Jim! The Big Swinger 3000 is, I think, my favorite of the pack film cameras (maybe after the 250). The single element lens pulls off some wonderful shots. I absolutely love it. I just wish they would have made a single element camera that could take color film. I don't usually shoot B&W. I've got six or seven pack film cameras. I can't believe I somehow missed out on this. Some of my shots from the BS3k are here. I checked out your blog and I'll start following. Your collection is fairly amazing. Mine, here, is smaller (and missing all of the Polaroids that I now have). I think I've gotten a few others since then. They're all 120. I like big negatives, I guess. -Eric
  10. There's something to be said about straying way off topic. Thanks!
  11. Dave - Thanks! These are "as shot" sort of. It's sort of long to explain, but they're "reclaimed negatives." Basically, when you take a picture with Polaroid packfilm, you peel off the photo and throw away the back. But the back is actually the negative. If you clean it off (which includes bleach), you've got yourself a rather large negative. The weirdness of it is in the color shifts. I love it. I've been taking a LOT of film shots lately (everything on my flickr page is shot from film - mostly 120). I've even started processing my own - it's a lot cheaper. I've done 25 or so rolls thus far. I don't have a dark room, but I don't need one, since I'm only processing the film, I'm not making prints. The jist of the Route 66 project is taking Polaroids and mailing them to people who want us to mail them Polaroids. We keep the backs (the negatives) and they get the originals. We'll have different themes and packages for people to choose from and will even do custom shots. But all that's in the future. Mike - And thank you! What I love about shooting film (Polaroids included) is how the other-worldly aspect somehow perfectly captures the moment in a way that digital (or "normal" film photography) simply doesn't. This is especially true in the desert or in really small towns. The places that already feel surreal can be perfectly captured using certain kinds of film that portray that surreality. The colors may be off, the contrast is wacky and maybe some stuff is blurred, but, while that's obviously not how it looked, it's precisely how it felt. And that is wonderful. I can't wait to get out there again.
  12. Hi Mike! We've played around with Impossible Project's stuff and were just not impressed with the quality. It's great that they're trying to do it. It's exciting. But it might just be impossible to perfect it. We use colorpack Land cameras. They're the kind that you peel the photo off the negative. No powder or stuff to coat. Fuji still inexplicably makes the film and we can get it at our local camera store (Glazier's in Seattle). We're having tons of fun with it. You can see some of my work with it here. As for Route 66, there's no better way of seeing it than on two wheels. I did that (on a Vespa, no less) in 2008. Spent three months on the road and about a month on 66. I've done it three full times and still haven't seen everything. You're completely right, it would probably take a year. But then, things change so much, you'd have to start all over again. Before you know it, you'd be a hippie painting murals or something. Dave, thanks so much! We're really excited about the honeymoon. Since we're getting married in Pennsylvania, we're not nearly as excited about that. Planning a wedding from 3,000 miles away is a really bad idea, which we're going to do anyway. The pay off will be worth it.
  13. If the road is CGI, they more than likely just lifted it from a real concrete road (or at least used it as their source). Such a shame though. I really wanted this to be real. Ohh well. And absolutely we still have it! Wouldn't give that up. We could definitely get a good photo of it for you. Really weird that the map included Spencer, but I guess that was the only "town" between Coulee City and Waterville (or was there another just east of there?). Since we explored Spenser, we've been out to the coulees quite a lot. We'll always check out old alignments, etc., but I've become obsessed with the geological history out there. Sarah covered our last outing on her blog. Check it out if you like. There's a bit of old US 2 alignments, but mostly just horrible back roads and glacial erratics. I love it! And speaking of Sarah, we're getting married in June. Heading to Pennsylvania for the wedding and then doing a three (plus) week, cross country Route 66 honeymoon. We'll be capturing the whole thing on old Polaroid cameras. The Route 66 idea was hers - I swear! I'm kind of a lucky guy.
  14. Oh I am! This is really interesting. Looking on Google Earth, I can't find where the road would be. It's really possible that they're two shots stitched together with CGI. But that road looks real. And beautiful. You know my love for old concrete!
  15. I'll admit, when I saw the Grand Canyon in 2006 (the only time), I just wasn't impressed. Seriously. The first time I saw it, sure, I was awestruck. But after about five minutes, it was just a big hole in the ground. I'm not sure what that says about me. In my defense, the trip was incredibly strange. It was a crosscountry, Route 66 trip that my girlfriend at the time and I had been planning for about a year. Two weeks before we left, she broke up with me, leaving for another guy. We decided that it would still be okay to make the 7000ish mile trip. We were wrong. Sort of. I mean, we did get a crosscountry trek out of it.
  16. Not boring at all, I love this kind of stuff. And that area is simply beautiful.
  17. I've actually been through Big Water, but missed the museum AND the polygamists! But since then, I've found that Big Water is sort of the "good" polygamists (as opposed to the ones making the headlines). They even seem to have the support of NOW (National Organization for Women). They seem to be working to decriminalize it and making the community healthy and not so culty, even allowing openly gay couples. When he died, their leader and town mayor listed his occupation as "pirate" on his death certificate. It's still not for me, but hey, good for them, at least they seem to be having fun with it. Big Water used to be called by another name and was featured in Edward Abbey's book Monkey Wrench Gang.
  18. Dave, Well, now you've got my attention. I've had a thing for Goodale's Cutoff of the Oregon Trail since riding through Craters of the Moon in 2008. I've got a feeling that the road you're talking about will include at least some of that old trail. Not sure if we'll be able to join you, but it will be on my to-do list, for sure. -Eric
  19. Dave - Which road used to be part of the PPOO? Sarah and I (and just me, by myself) have taken a lot of chances that could have easily turned bad. We try to assess the risks before going down that road, but often it's a game of "don't think about it." So far, we have survived. For example, when we were on the old RR bed, I decided that it would be a bad place to take the Vespa. Now, I am itching to do it. Same goes for La Bajada near Santa Fe. I'll look for the Oregon maps that you posted, could be fun. I like to know exactly where things happened/existed. The "nearby this location" stuff that most historical markers provide is just frustrating. That said, the OT main branch through Idaho is very well marked. MGA- Studying the Civil War has led to an interest in the Pony Express trail, as well. I accidentally followed a bit of it in Nevada in 2008, past Fort Churchill. We passed a few markers in Utah this past trip, too. Thanks for the info on the Donner Party. Hastings Cutoff does jog the memory, but it's always hard to think of where things are when you're there in person. I've heard that the FLDS-filled Police force in Hilldale/Colorado City have been replaced by nonFLDS members now. Since the raid in Texas, things seem to have calmed down there a bit. Though with the Warren Jeffs trial coming up next month, who knows. There's another Utah community that caught my eye. I was planning on taking Old Route 6 & 50 through western Utah and came across the town of EskDale. Residents are followers of the Aaronic Order, which is kind of a spin off of LDS (though they don't practice plural marriage). I've always been interested in intentional communities (even lived on one for a bit). This one has a bunch of fun old photos. One caught my eye: In the older pics, they appear to be wearing the FLDS style dress, but in the more modern pics, they look like normal folks. I guess I digressed from talking about highways a bit.
  20. Thanks! So the California Trail that we were on (or near) was the same one used by the Donners? Neat. I've been a huge Oregon Trail fan for years, but haven't had a lot of time to check out original alignments (aside from a few in Idaho and near Walla Walla). Most markers and signs just say that the Oregon Trail was "somewhere near here," which is pretty useless to an obsessive roadie. Oh, I definitely recommend doing the abandoned RR bed in a high clearance AWD. But when in a pinch, apparently a Toyota Yaris will do. Next time, it'll be on my Vespa (with a LOT of extra gas). The Grand Canyon trip sounds like something I will end up doing. And visiting Colorado City/Hilldale is actually on my list of things to do. I've become kind of obsessed with the FLDS lately (in a research sort of way, I mean - one gal is enough for me, thanks). I had a similar mud puddle (lake) experience on the Vespa in Texas on an old Route 66 alignment west of Amarillo. A storm was coming up, so I couldn't turn back, but going forward meant getting stuck in Texas mud, which mean that I would be a resident of Texas for an indefinite amount of time. Luckily, some pushing, pulling, cursing and praying got me out of it. I'd do it again though. Obviously.
  21. I first visited Promontory, the site of the Golden Spike Park commemorating the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad, in 2008. While there, I was told by a park ranger that the old Central Pacific grade could be followed for nearly 100 miles west of Promontory. Being a huge rail buff, I was excited, but figured that I'd never get to do it. Thankfully, I was wrong. My gal Sarah and I decided to visit a couple of friends in Salt Lake City. She, as usual, left the trip planning to me. Bless her heart. And her Toyota Yaris. Though I posted a bit about it in my blog, I'll recap here. We started from Seattle, hitting a few fun spots along the way. The most fun was Emigrant Hill near Route 30 in Oregon. I've not been able to find out if it was actually part of the Oregon Trail, but I believe it was originally US Route 30. Quite a bit of fun. You can see photos from that here. We made it to Twin Falls, ID the first day, visiting the canyon and the Evel Knievel jump site on the morning of the next. After accidentally blowing by an old alignment of Route 30, we dipped south, past City of Rocks on Lynn Road. This seemed to be some sort of emigrant trail called the California Trail, but it was kind of hard to tell. Anyway, we entered Utah on a dirt road, which is quite fitting. Every trip with me somehow involves trains, old highways, the civil war and dirt roads. I'm pretty good at hitting all four. We were in Sarah's new Yaris and the dirt was piling up. She was a little nervous. The road was rutted here and there, but otherwise fine. Finding where the Central Pacific RR trail starts was difficult. It's not well marked and I completely failed at doing my research. Turns out, it's five miles off Utah State Route 30 near Lucin, which is just a name, not a town. We arrived with about a quarter tank of gas. This was bad news. According to the GPS, the nearest gas station was 45 miles away on I-80 via dirt roads. Using my intuition, I decided two things. First, we needed gas and water. Second, gas was closer than 45 miles away. We hit State Route 30 again, headed south and into Nevada, which we had already been to in looking for the old rail bed. Twenty miles later, we found Montello, a town with an interesting history and thankfully a gas station. We filled up, got some water and headed back to the rail bed. From here, I could describe the next 90 or so miles, but wouldn't do it justice. The photos can't do it as much as it deserves, but they are much better than words. For that, I direct you here. We traveled the old railroad grade as much of the way as possible, even getting a bit lost during a detour. I was trying to get to the Golden Spike Park before it closed. I failed, but we had a bunch of fun. There's not much out there. Some old town sites with a LOT of debris, and just open land. It's beautiful and dangerous. If anything went wrong, you were stuck there for awhile. We saw no cars the entire five or six hours that it took us. Two ATVs zoomed past us, but that's it. We faced a decision concerning a very large mud puddle that engulfed the entire road. To go through it meant that we stood a good chance of getting stuck. Without cell reception, getting stuck meant walking 30 miles to get to a phone (at least). Turning around would mean driving 60 miles and then 150ish to get to Salt Lake City. Also, it would be a huge bummer. Since it was her car, I let Sarah decide what to do. She suggested we take the little thing off roading. We did and made it. There's a video of that with the photos. You'll see. That night, we made it to our friends' house and to some wonderful veg Chinese food. Salt Lake City! The next day, we went back to the Golden Spike Park, saw the reenactment of the ceremony (which was cheesy and quaint all at the same time - but hey, they have two working steam engines, so I let it slip). We also stopped at the Spiral Jetty, which needs to be seen to be believed. Also, more veg food in SLC. We also visited Temple Square. Pics of that are here. The following day was mostly US 50 through Nevada. I've done it before, but it's always wonderful. You can see such things here. The highlight for me was the stop in Ely to see a working steam railroad machine shop. I was in heaven. I might do a separate post about that in the LH forum. We shall see. -Eric
  22. Dave, Oh we're still road tripping, hitting old alignments and dirt roads as much as possible. I'll do a little write about about the Utah trip, it was quite a bit of fun. Very interesting about the 7th Kansas Cav. I'm about four months ahead of the sesquicentennial, so Quantrill is just starting to get active, having just left Price after Lexington. In doing the CWDG, I'm finding that I can still talk about and research old roads. My favorite, by far, is the Wire Road through Missouri, which somehow connected to the Overland Stage route through New Mexico. I've been following Denny via Twitter and am mostly jealous. Would be great to meet up. Your discovery sound fairly delightful. Sarah and I were looking for some place to go. It's possible. -Eric
  23. Hi Dave! I've been crazily working on a Civil War project that takes up WAY more time than I thought it would. I spend about three hours a day writing and researching for the Civil War Daily Gazette, a blog that covers the CW one day at a time, 150 years later. Quite a bit of fun. But alas, I have no free time. For the next four years. That said, I *did* just return from a run to Utah/Nevada and hit some of the Lincoln Highway as well as the 100 mile stretch of the abandoned Central Pacific RR bed west of Promontory/Golden Spike. I should do a bit of a post about it, even though it's not really a highway in the traditional sense. As for the screencaps above, the shooting was mostly in and around New York. I've been up and down the Jersey shore, but have never seen anything like this. One possibility is that the road is real, but the ocean is fake/CGI'd in. Actually, that's quite probable. The grass on either side of the road isn't really specific to anywhere in particular. It could be a stretch of Route 66 concrete in Califoria for all I can tell. Sarah and I recently did the Cascade Loop, with a stop by Spencer. We also hit Washing State Route 11 (Old Pacific Highway) and have done a couple of alignments of the PH up to Bellingham. When will we hear about what you're researching? Odd bits of road still thrill me to no end. Can't wait! -Eric
  24. Thanks! I wish I did more traveling these days, I really miss it. I also wish I could have gotten clearer screen caps. The road definitely looked real. Either that, or the CGI folks have a great eye for old roads (which is possible). Luckily, in Washington, we're blessed with a lot of original concrete. Not as much as, say, Route 66 in Oklahoma, but still quite a bit. Nothing beats riding/driving on old pavement.
  25. Hi folks, it's been awhile since I've been here - a lot going on in life. However, I was recently watching the HBO series Boardwalk Empire, which is set in the 1920s. In it, a few mobsters meet on a concrete highway near a beach. Now, the series is set in Atlantic City and the special effects folks did an amazing job at recreating the look of the town. There is, however, one scene in the final episode of season one that has me hopeful of its reality. Here are a couple of pics. Like I said, I have no idea if the road is real. It somewhat reminds me of the Old Pacific Highway near Wedderburn in Oregon, though the screenshots are clearly east coast. More than likely, it's CGI, but if an old stretch of original concrete exists next to a beach, I'd sure love to see it. Thanks, Eric
×
×
  • Create New...