The AARoads Blog

And, finally, we have the third part of the trip – from Antelope Canyon to New Mexico. Daniel Brim and I, driving a cargo van… always fun exploring narrow old roads in a big old vehicle like that!

Here’s a 1950s Indian road sign! Complete with peeling numbers on some of the oldest engineer grade (does not fade to green) scotchlite I have ever seen. They invented the stuff in 1950 and this is not much newer than that. 18×12 inches; somewhere in southeast Utah near the Four Corners area.

This might very well be a meteor in daytime! I just noticed this when I was processing these photos – note the smoke trail in the middle. I have the photo from 1 second before, and 4 seconds after, and they show nothing – but this one definitely has that black streak, which I believe to be a smoke trail from a very bright meteor.

Behold the birds. Pagosa Springs, Colorado has this lake, fountain assembly… and swans!

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Took an afternoon drive from the Quad Cities up to Dubuque and back utilizing portions of the Great River Road system.

U.S. 30 joins U.S. 61’s freeway briefly at DeWitt, Iowa. The exit numbering of the U.S. 61 interchanges shifts to U.S. 30’s mileage along their shared alignment.

U.S. 61 varies between a four-lane freeway and four-lane expressway between Interstate 80 and its merge with U.S. 151 near Dubuque Regional Airport. U.S. 151 merges with the divided highway at a trumpet interchange.

U.S. 52 enters Dubuque from the southeast and joins U.S. 61 & 151 from Bellevue Road.

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Some notes and photos from a holiday drive northward from the Gulf Coast area to Iowa. Day 1 focused on the Interstate 55 corridor northward to Sikeston, Missouri. The day started out foggy, with lots of standing water from recent floodwaters over southern Mississippi. The the sun shined northward to Grenada, where murky skies set in and remained in place throughout the week

U.S. 84 shifted from its Main Street alignment through Collins onto a new four-lane bypass north of town. The old alignment was redesignated Mississippi 184. A new partial-cloverleaf interchange joins U.S. 49 with the relocated U.S. 84.

U.S. 49’s approach to Interstates 20 and 55 at Richland was upgraded to an expressway recently. The controlled-access route bypasses some of the businesses, now served by frontage roads, from the split with Old Highway 49 north to U.S. 49’s merge onto Interstate 20 west & 55 south.

Interstates 20 & 55 westbound near their split in south Jackson. Road work is underway presently to replace the westbound bridge over U.S. 51 / State Street.

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Photos from late August of this year, when Daniel Brim and I drove from California to New Mexico … in a moving van. Always fun doing three-point turns on narrow old alignments. We stopped at Antelope Canyon along the way – and this set will not include any pictures from there, as it ends just as we get there. The next batch will be the canyon itself.

Part of the collection of someone who wishes to remain anonymous. Well, the signs are visible to anyone from the public right-of-way, so you can go find them if you want! This style of directional sign, complete with glass reflectors, was used on high speed thoroughfares from 1933 to the early 50s.

Nevada state route 167 branches off of old US-91. The road is lit from the side by a truck stop immediately behind us, that serves Interstate 15.

The truck stop, now with actual truck.

The Virgin River Gorge – Arizona interstate route 15. Whereas old US-91 went around it, I-15 was blasted straight through, saving about 30 miles.

Fires in Los Angeles result in skies like this in Utah.

One from Dan, from the same general vicinity. His pictures can be found here. Go look, as his are generally like mine, except more awesome.

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Photos from Kansas, Colorado, and Oklahoma (and the single point in which they intersect) from September, 2009 – and some New Mexico, and a really, really small quantity of Texas.

This is the New Mexico/Colorado/Oklahoma triple point. Dale takes this opportunity to breathe some refreshing Oklahoma air, and drink some water he has brought with him from New Mexico – and park in two states at the same time.

Dale parks the car squarely in a single state, and looks up at the Kansas/Colorado/Oklahoma marker that is visible from miles away – a good thing, because the dirt roads that one takes to get to it are somewhat labyrinthine.

The Oklahoma panhandle is known for the occasional thunderstorm.

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More from my New Mexico trip of November 2008, including some actual New Mexico this time.

On the mountain pass between Chama, New Mexico, and Cumbres, Colorado – both states call this one highway 17. The sky was dark blue, just after sunrise – the snow is that bright, and there is just that little atmosphere, at 10,000 feet.

Sunset over the plains of northeast New Mexico. Old US-64 (now state highway 325) near Capulin Volcano.

An undisclosed location in northeast New Mexico, home to my friend Dale. Certainly no old signs to be found anywhere.

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Time for some photos from my trip from San Diego to eastern New Mexico and back, in November 2008. This batch is from the first day of my trip, and is heavily centered around Utah. Specifically: highway 95 in southeast Utah, crossing the Colorado River in red rock country.

The only button copy sign in Nevada. This one is very, very old.

Ominous clouds over old US-91 in southern Utah.

Red rock country. Utah, everybody.

Highway 95 at sunset.

Highway 95 somewhat past sunset. This wide-angle shot (about 140 degrees field of view!) is made possible by a fisheye lens and a rectilinear conversion tool. Large version of image is 7000 pixels wide!

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I’ve decided to go with this batch of wintry goodness: a November, 2008 trip to Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan.

It was a dark and snowy night…

Don’t eat the orange snow. Distant municipal lights provide the mushroom-cloud effect. I took this picture by the side of US-45 in Michigan.

The US-41 bridge in Houghton, Michigan.

Oh, nothing to see here, just the last embossed cutout US shield in the wild. Both that and the M-203 date back to the 1930s, and have definitely been repainted several times.

The oldest shield in Wisconsin, complete with old-style CITY banner. This one, and one just like it further down the same road, date back to about 1958.

Sunrise on the third day, along US-51 in Wisconsin.

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sale, sale, sale!

I’ve got this Arizona US 89 on eBay right now.

and am putting in an order for shields in general. Email me at shields@aaroads.com with your request – any state, any number.

the second day of my Alaska trip, and (in my humble opinion) the best – some unbelievable atmospheric effects, in air and in space. Don’t mind the long post, and enjoy photo upon photo.

Now 35% less bear feces.

Double rainbow! Actually, we can see at least four rainbows (and maybe a fifth if one jacks up the contrast a bunch). Look inside the inner rainbow – note the repeating red bands; I count two in addition to the primary.

16×16 shield that dates to 1962… Alaska is ripe for the old signs!

Well, that about establishes the absolute lower bound, doesn’t it? Along state highway 2 is this … veritable metropolis, teeming with life. Note the 1970s white signage; for all we know, the population may have, since that time, taken the final decrement towards the ultimate goal of occupancy.

Alaska Highway at sunset.

Tok. One of my favorite sign photos I’ve ever taken – just because the setting sun illuminated this sign perfectly!

Sunset. I took this one across the waters of the most majestic lake I could find: a mud puddle next to Tok’s main drag. Note the light posts. I think my camera was at most five inches above the water.

The northern lights, over the town of Chicken. Most notable in this photo is the purple jet on the left side. Green aurora are the most common, and purple is far more rare.

One more northern lights – my absolute favorite of the bunch. There is the one aspect of the northern lights that no photos can capture: their motion – they really do dance across the sky, and seeing them in person is something else. September 3rd and March 15th are the aurora peaks, due to the Earth’s position in its orbit, relative to the solar wind, which releases the particles that (upon impact with the upper atmosphere) cause the lights. These photos are from September 2nd, 2007 – so just about the fall peak, and I certainly got an impressive display.

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