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

usroadman

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Everything posted by usroadman

  1. Does Streets & Trips optimize the order in which he should visit the cities? I've played with this kind of thing using the free trip planners on the internet (Mapquest, Bing, Google), but I believe they all require you to select the order of the waypoints first, then they'll do the routing between them. For my real trips driving US routes end to end it doesn't really matter (I just go wherever the state DOTs tell me to), but I have also played with planning hypothetical trips to visit every "something" (e.g. US & Canadian state & provincial capitals). Since I was just "playing", figuring out the optimal order was part of the fun, but I can see how having software do it for you would be helpful. I'm sure software exists somewhere to do this since it's an age-old delivery problem (I have to make 20 deliveries, in what order should I make them), but wondering if anyone had found it for free or low cost.
  2. Great stuff. Sounds like an incredible adventure. Thanks for sharing. I remember seeing all of the cracked windshields driving through Montana too.
  3. Just after finishing US 42 last month we continued on to US 43. The photos of US 43 have now been uploaded here http://travel.webshots.com/album/577397260NiQdPt It was another enjoyable ride. Through Tennessee the road has been rebuilt as a 4-lane recently, so it's quick but loses some of its excitement. Much of the road is Alabama is still an old 2-lane winding through the hills and the small towns. Very pretty. The route now ends within sight of Mobile, but still quite a ways out. Mobile itself was quite lovely. Unfortunately I didn't realize the current issue of American Road had an article on Mobile until I got back home, but hopefully we'll be back again in not too long for US 45.
  4. I got my photos from US 42 loaded. They can be viewed here http://travel.webshots.com/album/577396759eyTTVD Enjoy.
  5. Exactly 100 years apart, that is interesting (or a "Pure" coincidence). We finished US 43 also now. 43 is all improved 4 lane in TN, so good for getting from A to B, but not terribly interesting for a country drive (although the old road may still exist nearby - it didn't seem like it was just a simple twinning of the old road). The northernmost part of AL was a bit crowded, and the southernmost part was mostly just 4-lane, but the majority of the state was very pretty two-lane, winding through the hills and small towns. 43 now ends well north of Mobile, although you can see downtown in the distance. We still followed some of the older road into downtown, and really liked the city. (Back when we did US 31 we only went to Spanish Fort and then over to Pensacola so never saw downtown.) I have a feeling a ride on US 90 and/or 98 in the area would be very nice. Overall a good week of driving the 2-lanes. Both routes were relatively short but interesting drives. (Only low point was getting in an accident in Cincinnati. That'll teach me for getting in the Interstate.) It'll probably take me a month or so to get pictures up, but I'll post once I have them.
  6. Finished driving US 42 yesterday (and am now in Alabama half way through US 43). I'm still a long way from putting together photos, but will say that it was a really nice drive. Started in downtown Cleveland, and actually found street parking on Euclid a block and a half from Public Square so got to get out and take some pictures. The drive was a bit slow in the Cleveland and Cincinnati areas, but still enjoyable. Those and Louisville are the only major cities though with most of the rest of the route being relatively old narrow two-lane through the farms and small towns of Ohio and hills of Kentucky. Very scenic, especially the Kentucky section once it drops down to two lanes. Kind of interesting in that I don't think there was any section that actually multiplexed with an Interstate. Found a couple of interesting things along the way. On the way out of Cleveland a few of the potholes in US 42 revealed the old red brick underneath, so it's definitely still there, just hidden away. When US 42 gets to US 40 near Lafayette, where the two meet at a "modern" interchange photographed by George Stewart, it looked like they are replacing the US 42 bridge over US 40 so we were detoured onto US 40 for a short stretch to the intersection in the center of Lafayette (in front of the Red Brick Tavern also photographed by Stewart) where we made a left to get back to 42. Just before the end of the detour I noticed that the road we were detoured on was "Old US 42", so kind of neat that it had been resurrected as US 42 (for a short time anyway) after more than 50 years. Red Brick Tavern Along with all of the usual small town Americana, I got a quick picture (while stopped for a traffic light) of this old service station I found kind of interesting.
  7. It's sad that adaptive reuse wasn't successful. Being built in 1927 you'd think it was basically a simple steel-frame structure at it's heart, making floor re-configuration to something more modern relatively straightforward, but who knows (and I admit I know nothing about building renovation).
  8. Thanks! Yeah, I was very happy that I chose the Hilton downtown. Aside from the hotel being very nice and right at the crossroads so I could experience a bit of history, downtown just had a totally different feel from the standard jumble of Interstate exit hotels further down the road. Yup, I believe the only place we hit major rain was Chicago, where a bunch of strong afternoon thunderstorms came through just after we crossed into Illinois and didn't dissipate until we were pretty close to downtown. Also hit an afternoon thunderstorm in northeast Georgia, but it was over pretty quickly. The entire trip was unbelievably hot though. I'm one who really likes to drive with the windows open in the morning to enjoy the fresh air, and the only time the whole trip where we could survive without air conditioning was driving along Lake Superior near Copper Harbor where we got a nice breeze off the lake. The whole rest of the trip was brutal, but I guess it was August. The heaviest but still moving traffic was in Wisconsin pretty much from Michigan until we were on the city streets in Milwaukee. US 41 seems to be the only real highway that connects Milwaukee to Oshkosh and Appleton so it sees a lot of traffic (far more than we saw on I-43 on our way up north). I-94 (& US41) was a parking lot in southern Wisconsin due to all of the construction. Chicago city streets had what you'd expect in a major city. Lake Shore Drive was a little backed up, but I think the thunderstorms actually helped us out there. There was a big airshow on the day we were driving through, but the weather chased most people out early. Beyond that the only place we hit really bad traffic was Dalton, GA, and I think that might have just been that we happened to hit their early rush hour (but thankfully rush hour was over by the time we got to Atlanta). Yes, a bunch of really nice old small towns, particularly in Kentucky, Tennessee, and especially the southern half of Georgia. In all of these areas US41 is paralleled by an Interstate-quality road, so US 41 still goes through the small towns. This was especially true in the southern half of Georgia where US 41 and many of the towns it went through felt like they were still in the 1950s.
  9. Back in August we did the family trip down US 41. Summer is long gone, but I have finally finished posting pictures from our trip. They are available through my website, or directly on Webshots. We had a great time on our trek from Michigan to Florida. We tried pasties in Calumet, Michigan and some kind of local sausage at Congress Pizza in Ishpeming, Michigan. In Wisconsin we stopped for frozen custard multiple times, and my 5-year old got the cheese-head he so craved. In Kenosha where we went for a trolley ride, the kids got honorary police badges from a local officer (very nice of him) and we stopped at an old downtown Walgreen's (don't see too many of them anymore). Pizza from Giordano's in Chicago was quite good. Spent the night at the corner of Wabash and 7th in Terre Haute. Saw a movie being filmed (on US 41) on the Kentucky - Tennessee border (Michael Clark Duncan was there so I'm guessing the movie is "Bailey"). Took an early morning train ride in Nashville. Had lunch at the Dwarf House (Chick-fil-a) on US 41 in Hapeville, Georgia. Saw a bunch of interesting old/abandoned service stations in Georgia. Breakfast in Valdosta was at the small, out of the way but very yummy Dixie Cream Donuts. Finally in Miami just before the end of US 41, we stopped at a little outdoor restaurant counter where my wife got a Cuban sandwich and I had some kind of sausage with fried potatoes. Not exactly sure what it was since the lady at the counter didn't speak English and I don't speak Spanish, but it was tasty. Overall it was an enjoyable trip down 41.
  10. I got to go to the top of one of the towers of the George Washington Bridge about 15 years ago. Really cool views, but walking around on the open metal grates 300 feet above I-95 was not for those afraid of heights. Honestly, even the public sidewalk is really high at over 200 feet above the river. I do get nervous at those kinds of heights, but I still love walking across big bridges. I've walked the US 2 bridge between Superior and Duluth, a bunch of the bridges between Cincinnati and Kentucky, the National Road Bridge over the Ohio River, the Brooklyn Bridge, GW Bridge, Bear Mountain Bridge (US 6 over the Hudson), Mid-Hudson Bridge (US 44), and the new Walkway Over the Hudson (212 feet above the river). The views are always incredible.
  11. I received an e-mail from "Patricia" asking about US 60 east of Phoenix. I've never driven it (other than a couple miles of the freeway in Phoenix), but I'm sure some folks on the forum have, so I was going to send her here. Below is the e-mail she sent: Any info y'all might be able to provide her would be welcome. Thanks.
  12. Great pictures. Even today my wife really likes going in to local grocery stores while we're on road trips to see what kinds of different local items they have. Also, how the selection of items changes from place to place. Although things have become a lot more homogeneous over the last few years, there are still some differences, like the size of the canning section in northeast Indiana, and the lard selection in the mountains of West Virginia (I'm not even sure my local supermarket sells lard, although I guess they must).
  13. I'll second Mo's (actually Mo's Annex across the street so you can sit and watch the seals). I haven't thought about that place in years. Stopped there on our honeymoon. Didn't know about Fat Smitty's at the time, so we missed that one. I think they've now decided to forgo the Oregon coast in favor of some of the inland attractions though. Some tough decisions though. From our own experience in early August, 12 years ago driving US101 from Seattle to LA, then CA-1 back up to Mendocino / Leggett: we loved Washington, thought the Oregon coast was spectacular, enjoyed northern California, 101 from SF to LA is a freeway so not much to say, then CA-1 back up the California coast was --- kind of boring (or at least really didn't live up to our expectations). Now, before I get slapped, a weather report is in order. In Washington and Oregon we had beautiful warm sunny days with easily 20 miles visibility on the coast. In California, especially south of the 101-1 split, east of the mountains (on 101) was warm and sunny, while the coast was overcast with a cool drizzle pretty much the whole time. Even all 4 days we were in San Francisco, 80 degrees and sunny on the bay, and 60 and drizzle 5 miles away on the ocean. While this weather pattern was really cool to see from above the clouds on Mount Tam, the natural splendor of the coast is kind of lost when everything more than a half mile from your face disappears into a shroud of gray. So, my recommendation is to stay flexible. Once you get into town, check on the weather for both coasts, and if one is expected to have better weather than the other one, aim for the good weather. In all of my traveling, I've found weather really does make a big difference in how I remember someplace. As I was flipping through the older posts, I noticed your comment Yeah, the folks here really are great. Since I started looking at forums a few years ago, I pretty much spent all of my time here and on a few other road forums on Yahoo. On all of them people have always been pretty helpful and friendly, so I kind of started taking it for granted. Recently, I started lurking on some other forums on a bunch of non-road-related topics that interest me, and I'm really amazed at the number of negative, crude, abusive posts out there on other forums. The folks here really deserve a big thank you for consistently being positive, upbeat, and helpful.
  14. US 1 goes over the Conowingo Dam on the Susquehanna River in Maryland. Most of the reservoir dams north of NYC have roads, but they were all closed after 9-11. Even the satellite views on Google are now blurred. I used to cross the Kensico Dam almost every day. It was a pretty major local short cut. I also used to cross it a lot on foot as a kid. I crossed the Croton Dam and the Cross River Dam a few times also, but they saw almost no traffic since the approach roads were dirt.
  15. Standing pretty much in front of the theatre you can see a set of westbound shields.
  16. Although I haven't been there in a very long time, it looks from the satellite view that the bridge was replaced. I understand from others who have looked for it that the shield is long gone. I'm sure when they rebuilt the bridge they also rebuilt the approach roadway (the old wooden guardrail probably isn't up to code) and down it came.
  17. In White River Junction, Vermont US 4 originally crossed the White River into downtown via Bridge St. Today US 4 crosses on a newer bridge about a quarter mile upriver, bypassing downtown. The new bridge has been in use since at least the 1970s. In 1990, the old bridge, then just used by local traffic, collapsed after the spring ice undermined one of the piers, dropping a couple sections of the bridge and a few cars (but luckily no people) into the river. I stopped one afternoon to get some pictures of the collapsed bridge, and noticed that there was an old US 4 shield still standing at the entrance to the bridge. I found these old photos over the weekend, and rescanned the one with the shield.
  18. No guard dog, and there's actually a sidewalk along the road there, but it looked like you'd have to go a long way to get to the sidewalk (no place to stop on US 46 and no connections to the cross streets for many blocks), so my guess is it's rarely used.
  19. My son and I took a trip across US 46 a few weeks ago. Since the route is only the width of New Jersey, we easily made it end to end on a Sunday. Pictures are available at http://www.usroadman.com/us46links.htm . Overall it was an enjoyable ride. The eastern part of the route was most interesting for still being a good showcase for the cutting edge of 1930s highway design. A lot of the bridges had 1930s dates. On a Sunday morning, these 70 year old highways still work pretty well. The narrow, grade separated highways are kind of interesting to drive. The western part of the route was much more rural than I expected. It is mostly two lanes, winding its way through forests and farmland. On an old 1930s section of US 46 in Clifton I noticed a black & white embossed cross-street sign on an old iron post. I'm guessing the sign is original. Unfortunately it was on a long narrow stretch of highway so I did not get my own picture, but Steve Alpert has a shot of it on his website ( http://www.alpsroads.net/roads/nj/us_46/2.html ). We stopped for lunch in Netcong at a place called Mr. C's. A guidebook I had listed the location as having car hop service (and the place was under a different name). The car-hop service was gone, but we still had a couple of good hot dogs (or as my son points out, I had a Texas Wiener, not a hot dog). Aside from the good food, I was struck by how immaculately clean the place was. Even the restroom was so clean you could have eaten in there. It was a nice ride for a Sunday.
  20. Great pictures (as usual). It reminds me of my family's hometown. My great grandmother (and her parents and grandparents) grew up in Kensico, New York, which in the 1910s was flooded to become the Kensico Reservoir, part of New York City's water supply. Some of the buildings (I know of a least a church and some houses) were moved to a neighboring town (Valhalla), but most of the buildings were razed. (There are myths that when the water level is very low you can see an old church steeple, but I found a copy of the old engineering reports and they confirmed that not only were the buildings removed, but all organic matter (trees and topsoil) was removed to improve the water quality, since to this day it remains unfiltered drinking water.) I have pictures of the old family home and store, but I'm pretty sure those buildings weren't moved. The main road in the area, which on a new alignment would later become US 7 and is now NY 22, ran through the town. Although the town was drowned, just north of town the road climbed to higher ground and traversed what is now a 2-mile long peninsula in the middle of the reservoir. In my youth (about 20 years ago), a friend and I conveniently didn't see the hundreds of no trespassing signs and went exploring on the peninsula armed with an 1899 USGS topographic map and a very detailed 1869 map. The buildings were all gone, but the road was easy to find and the foundations, stairs, and fence posts for the old homes, barns, and according to the maps a school, were still there. Eventually though, the old dirt road disappeared under the water.
  21. It's a pretty major state route, running along the eastern border from New York City to the Canadian border, but it is a state route. When I drove US-22, most of my family and friends assumed I meant this state route, not the US route to Cincinnati. It's almost all still just two-lanes generally, except for the first 20 or so miles north of NYC where it's 4 REALLY narrow lanes. I've probably driven at least 60% of it over the years, and most of it is quite scenic. I hadn't thought of that; I like it! If you ever do manage to do "Sixty-six: the hard way", stop by and say "howdy".
  22. Thanks, glad you enjoyed them. Yes, I generally try to get a route shield in every shot (for all of the routes I've driven, 1 through 40 & 101). It adds a bit of a challenge since DoTs don't always put shields in the most picturesque spots. It also makes it easy to remember which road it was. I admit I did cheat a little on some of the New York pictures. I live about a quarter mile from US 44, so I went back out early one morning and took a few extra pictures so I could choose the best ones.
  23. Although I was hoping to drive US 41 this summer, I need to save a few more pennies for that one, so we took a weekend last month to drive the much shorter US 44 instead. Photos of the route can be viewed at http://www.usroadman.com/us44links.htm . The route covers 4 states, but since it is in New England, we made the full round trip in two days. The route is almost all two-lane still, except for some commercial strips around a few cities, a new highway for the first few miles outside Plymouth, MA, and a couple of miles of Interstate in Providence and Hartford. The route offers a bit of coastal Massachusetts, a few smaller cities, the medium-size cities of Providence and Hartford, the picturesque small towns and wooded areas of northeastern and northwestern Connecticut, and the farms and apple orchards of New York's Hudson Valley. Overall it provides a very pleasant country drive.
  24. Ah ha, so that explains something that was bugging me when I was looking over the strip maps a few weeks ago. I had assumed US 101 used to follow what the map on msn.com calls Benbow Rd. (and it did, at least after 1934). What bothered me was that the msn map calls a road on the west side of the river Old Hwy 101, but then it just goes up into the hills (still labeled as Old Hwy 101). I figured the whole thing was mis-labeled (since the strip maps showed the road following the river), but I'm guessing that road is correctly "Old Hwy 101" to where you found the bridge piers, and msn mis-labeled it beyond that. Thanks for the find.
  25. Thanks. The strip maps are nice for their level of detail. I have a smattering of older maps but they're mostly state maps so kind of hard to see the detail. I also have a Rand McNally Commercial Atlas with a 1926 copyright (but it doesn't show the US Route numbers yet, just the auto trails and state numbers) and an ALA Green Book for the eastern US from 1928. The Green Book is pretty good, but unfortunately someone removed the big map before I got it, and the city maps mostly just show where each route leaves town, not how it went through town. So I may definitely take you up on your offer. All I need is some time to actually look at them. I haven't even found time to really go through all of my own yet. (That pesky day job keeps getting in the way. Speaking of which, time to get back to work.)
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