Tue 27 Jul 2010
Plano, a suburb of Dallas, opened Texas’ first “Michigan Left” today.
The newspaper was replete with graphic and map, while the local news had stories from confused locals – who were unable to ascertain how to use the newfangled contraption. Plano is also getting the state’s first SPUI, now under construction.
Sun 25 Jul 2010
The first in a series of articles about historic highway signage. We will be featuring many, many more articles, on a great variety of sign-related topics, on the AARoads Shield Gallery.
This Midland Trail overview is made possible by the indispensable research of Devon Mich’l, the foremost authority on Nevada highway signs in general, and especially the Midland Trail. All accurate facts in here are to be credited to Devon. Any misinformation, on the other hand, is certainly due to my oversight!
Overview
The Midland Trail was an unimproved wagon trail dating to the 1860s that crossed central Nevada and served the silver and gold camps of Tonopah and Goldfield in the early 1900s. It was still nothing more than a dirt trail in 1913 when it received its name, Midland Trail, as part of a much longer transcontinental route of that name. It became the first road in Nevada to be federally funded.
In this article, I talk only about the westernmost section of the Midland Trail, from Ely, Nevada (where it met the Lincoln Highway) to its terminus in Los Angeles.
The Automobile Club of Southern California marked the route very well, starting in 1915. With the Midland Trail well marked from Ely, Nevada to Los Angeles, Southern California was now connected to the Lincoln Highway.
A portion of the Midland Trail that survives near Goldfield, Nevada, in condition similar to what was seen in the 1910s. Photo by Devon Mich’l, 2009.
Wed 21 Jul 2010
a trip to Mills Canyon, along the Canadian River in northeastern New Mexico.
A demon beetle! These creatures are all over Mills Canyon. They’re two inches long and make shrieking noises. Oh, and they fly.
The Canadian River, in infrared. This is where we park for a lazy day of being lazy.
Really, this is our parking spot. It’s a little-known feature of the International Harvester Scout: Jesus Mode.
Here, damselflies engage in, ahem, damselfly production activities. This is in the middle of the river. I floated out there on an air mattress, camera several inches away from getting soaked.
Sun 18 Jul 2010
fireworks on the fourth of July in Raton, New Mexico – and other odds and ends.
Sunset over highway 64/87.
A few test shots before the last of dusk.
Perfectly clear skies at 6800 feet. 5 1/2 minute exposure.
Tue 13 Jul 2010
more from my trip to New Mexico, home of thunderstorms and brilliant orange sunsets.
It happens to be raining in sunny Union County.
Fence post, and observer, at sunset.
Orange skies are orange. I had not seen this sort of sunset since just after a thunderstorm in South Dakota in 2006!
Sun 11 Jul 2010
a visit this 4th of July weekend to sunny Union County, New Mexico. Just a brief dash of a trip: 2500 miles in two days driving, and then two days spent there being lazy and taking pictures of bees.
Sunny Union County is inhabited by huge bees.
Little house on the prairie.
Thu 1 Jul 2010
The second batch of South Texas photos.
A pair of Mexican eagles, not too far across the Rio Grande in Texas.
Odd duck of an interstate shield. Several of these are found in Laredo.