photo taken in rural San Diego County.

Sunset, over one of Canada’s innumerable boreal forests.

A pair of otters. If anyone wonders why I spend so much time between blog posts… it’s the sheer quantity of photos I have to process. I took about 200 just of these otters! (One came out.)

Full moon, perched on top of a cloud.

Aurora, and inverted big dipper. We have arrived!

As promised, a photo of the Alberta/Northwest Territories border. with all the northern staples: aurora, big dipper, yes it is time to head north and see what the world brings.

To continue from the last batch of photos: another waterfalls route marker in sunset light.

Sunset view. I have lots of this general theme because I took about 300 pictures in the span of a half-hour here.

Some flash illumination on the foreground vegetation.

Same theme, slightly different angle.

In stark opposition to the Beatles’ experience: there goes the sun.

An otter, making a wake.

The last atmospheric feature to be illuminated red is this dash of virga to the east.

Obligatory rental-car portrait.

The road looking south.

Back at the territorial border. Spotty terrestrial clouds. It now becomes our task to find a clearing in the sky from which to view the aurora.

Look who shows up to the party! Don’t mind the blurriness – this was a test photo that I took handheld, 10 second exposure, just to detect the levels of auroral activity.

Fisheye, for maximum over-the-top value. Note that it’s not even full dusk, and the lights are this bright.

Over the forests, over the hills.

Just a little bit later in the night.

Back here again? Yes, we are running the same segment of the MacKenzie Highway and here is the place where the sky is the clearest.

and this is where we leave off for the night. I got a few hours of sleep… tomorrow, we resume with bears!

Painted skies at dawn.

A seagull at the Mackenzie River ferry. Yep, they do have them even thousands of miles from the nearest sea.

Some yellow and some evergreens.

Dawn. We take the first ferry across the Mackenzie River at Fort Providence. A bridge is being built, and will be opened sometime in 2012.

Yes, there is still a large gap in the bridge.

Looking like the makings of an excellent sunrise.

Also: attention, very bad flash photo.

A well-made bear sign.

Brightly colored dawn.

A closer view.

Everything is bright orange.

Off to the side.

More orange. More trees.

One last one before we leave the area.

The leaves are definitely changing color.

Bright yellow trees.

And some orange ones.

A truss bridge on the road to Yellowknife.

This is a standard bear highway marker.

Northwest Territories changed from green signs to blue sometime in the early 2000s.

The only place I saw a pentagon route 3. The others were all 1s. And this is the only photo from Yellowknife worth displaying. Not much to see there.

Nothing to see here, just a duck and a flag.

Cutout bison seems to be made of individual planks.

Fall colors.

The bison sign proves accurate.

A pair of bison. We’re in the middle of a large herd.

A year-old bison: young enough to look like a calf, but with the dark brown coat of an adult.

No traffic. No highway patrol. Set cruise control to a reasonable velocity.

I’m not sure what this plant is, but – let’s be honest with ourselves here! – it looks like a fuzzy turd.

A look back up the road to Yellowknife, even though right now we are heading back towards Alberta.

Plenty of older green signs still survive.

The crow is eyeing the dog’s lunch.

Bring out your nuisances. The sign, by the way, points to the garbage dump.

The sign at one point said “3″ instead of “1″. We are on highway 3 – the sign was an error.

We find ourselves back at the uncompleted bridge at Fort Providence.

A large piece of construction equipment.

We are on the ferry now.

Similar view as in the morning.

This might be the oldest sign we see on the trip. Very much custom fonts here. The road turns to dirt a couple miles down, so we will not continue that way.

The only green bear I found. Turns out there is another one at this junction which I flat out missed. Fearless and indestructible AARoads contributor Jim Lindsay got a photo of it a week before I was there, so it is preserved for posterity.

One of many random two-track roads that go to who knows where.

An incident of That Gull.

Some iridescent clouds.

I believe this is a Korean Air flight. Blue tail livery, and the general trajectory seems about correct for Seoul to Toronto or New York.

More yellow trees.

the farthest east we will head in Northwest Territories is the 5/6 junction. Alas, here we see no green bears.

Ominous distant clouds.

A cloud so big it needs the fisheye lens to be fit in correctly.

A small flash of color.

A bit of a rain shower on the windshield.

A better look at one of the Waterfalls Route markers.

Shooting dandelions directly into the sun.

Very bright colors.

And we’re going to leave off there with that sunset teaser. Next up – sunset and northern lights in Northwest Territories!

did I see the northern lights? In the interest of maintaining suspense, I’m not going to say quite yet.

Sunset. Usually shooting directly into the sun is a bad idea. Sometimes it isn’t.

The northern lights. Yep, they were out. This is about as bright as they get – when the red, purple, and green mix together to form a band of white.

Directly overhead, spanning the entire sky.

I used the fisheye lens for nearly all of the aurora photos seen here.

A view from the air. Crossing the Rockies, and I’m not quite sure but I believe that is Glacier National Park. (the one in Montana)

The Trans-Canada highway. The town at lower left is Exshaw, which is well on the way to Banff from Calgary.

And we’re on the ground. Our route takes us up the Mackenzie Highway to Northwest Territories.

Yes, that is a cutout moose advisory sign!

Standard route markers for primary and secondary.

Oops. This is supposed to be a secondary route, not a primary one.

A very important intersection. 43 continues to the Alaska Highway, while 49 goes to the Mackenzie Highway. Interesting that the two numbers are patches. Maybe the numbers were something else before? Without an old Alberta map, I just do not know.

We’ve reached the Mackenzie Highway. I didn’t take many pictures along this stretch, as I was dashing northward as fast as possible to be in viewing position for the northern lights.

In other news, this is the peak weekend for the leaves changing as well.

Sunset, looking the opposite direction as the photo I started off with.

The Mackenzie highway is always given two signs like this.

Sunset over a westbound secondary route.

The road’s primary purpose seems to be to service this radio tower.

Getting darker.

Looking off to the north.

Extremely wide-angle shot exaggerates the mild tilting of this post.

That about does it for sunset.

What do we have here?

A terrible photo which I had to publish just because it is unintentionally compelling. This is underexposed by what must be 13 or 14 stops, and is stretching the threshold of the CCD’s detecting ability.

This was the intended result.

The lights flared up, and I elegantly blew out the exposure.

Another long exposure – two minutes or so.

This exposure is maybe five seconds. That is how bright they can suddenly get!

The road heading … south? Yep, we’ve overshot our mark!

Red mixed in with green.

An exposure of moderate length. Wind is causing the trees to blur.

Time to get the fisheye, as it’s coming over the top.

A tower of green.

A very short exposure of the very beginning of a burst.

Directly overhead, and coming straight down.

Just a few seconds later.

Now with some context!

I must reiterate, that this spans the entire field of view, from one horizon to the other.

A giant spiral in the sky.

A truck goes by. Very light traffic at this hour – there was an interval where I spent about 20 minutes parked in the road without any problem.

The show goes on. Usually an active interval lasts 10-15 minutes. This one was 45!

The border line, with the barest glimmer of northern lights in the background. The next day, we’ll get a much more interesting photo of this same scene.

Our first Northwest Territories sign. Usually, NWT uses a route marker with a bear on it, but it looks like for a little while they experimented with this pentagon.

This sort of thing happens up here too.

Some very fine discrete filaments.

Sometimes the red and purple fringes are more prominent.

A very long exposure.

About the farthest we’ll get from actual shields with bears on them.

There, actual bears. Better photos to come during daylight hours.

The moon sets, while the northern lights continue.

Warning: photo may contain Clearview.

and that’s it for this day! Next up … daylight photos from Northwest Territories – and more northern lights!

Minimum maintenance road.

Flooding causes standing water. Standing water causes mosquitoes and other insects. A fresh source of food means the dragonflies grow fat and happy. This one was about three inches long, with a five inch wingspan.

We’ve got ourselves a good old fashioned lightning storm. Western Kansas.

We start with another train – no airplane fuselages this time, though.

The gantry tells the tale. At one point, this road was US-75, and the rightmost (missing) set of signs indicated that. Then, US-75 was moved onto the I-29 freeway, so they changed the gantry to indicate that – and added the new county route designation.

when they moved US-75 well into Nebraska, they took off the trailblazer, but oddly did not move the county signs to the main gantry. too much effort, apparently.

Green grass and high tides.

This old yellow stop sign might actually still be in service… it all depends on whether the dirt path it serves is a public road, or just someone’s driveway.

Old 75 intersects current 30. The sign dates to 1994, as evidenced by the sticker on the back, which implies that 75 was moved across the river after that time.

Iowa is the only state I know which uses outline shields for interstates so regularly.

One in infrared, for variety’s sake. Old US-30/75; the Lincoln Highway approaching Omaha.

Nebraska City is about the last place in the state where you will find these “BUSINESS”-tagged state route shields. The US routes are in a lot of places. The earliest ones date back to 1984, when the bypass was built.

The newer sign assemblies are divided into multiple pieces, like this one.

The view from the highway 2 bridge across the Missouri river between Iowa and Nebraska. Why is the water brown? A sewage treatment plant upstream was flooded. Ick.

The levee is holding … for now.

There’s an on-ramp in here somewhere.

You can see the first Iowa state highway 2 marker in the distance … not long before the road sinks.

The water isn’t usually this high. Or, this brown.

Instant business route marker… just add stencil.

Somewhere in Nebraska, this flower blooms.

We’re not just looking for pretty flowers. We are driving this road because it is an old alignment of Nebraska state highway 4. It got renumbered to US-136 sometime in 1951. The green post may very well have once held a NE-4 shield.

This might be the oldest sign we see in Nebraska. The black going all the way to the outside border, the yellow faded to white – this identifies the sign as mid-1950s. It’s on the same old alignment of NE-4/US-136.

Indeed, this sign was once yellow.

We are now in Kansas, where we find this white guide sign on an old US-24 alignment.

Cloud County indeed.

This storm cloud is centered over Salina, Kansas, over 75 miles away.

A railroad runs parallel to US-24. We catch this train just around sunset.

Blue skies and storm clouds.

The storm approaches. This is about a one-minute exposure, with the clouds being illuminated by successive lightning strikes.

We interrupt this meteorological quest to bring you a picture of an old brown 16″ county route marker. They’re getting quite hard to find in Kansas.

It’s electric.

Strike after strike after strike. I combined about seven consecutive exposures here.

The ranch fence gets one in the teeth.

One last lightning strike.

And now for something completely different. This might be the last cutout US route marker in Kansas. Apparently, the US-36 shields in St. Francis are gone, so this is it.

Next morning. As dawn breaks, we are in Colorado. Along the side of US-160 is this abandoned house.

Our first photo from New Mexico. It appears to be a large beast of some kind, possibly carnivorous.

Can a Prius go 100mph? Well, down a road I’ve driven far too many times… yes!

Oh dear, US-64 got demoted.

and that’s where we leave off for now!

Endless fields of yellow flowers are the most prominent feature of the eastern Montana landscape. All the way across the state on US-212, from I-90 eastward, featured miles upon miles of bright colors.

The Milky Way. A 90 second exposure.

Very early dawn in Nebraska. Above this house: a noctilucent cloud – one of the rarest kinds to see!

Slightly later dawn.

Nothing to see here, just a train carrying airplane fuselages.

A state-named I-90 sign which I managed to miss during my previous trip through here, in December, 2007. It’s in Laurel, about two blocks off the main drag.

Not particularly old signs, but definitely an old gantry. At one point, this mentioned US-10 for sure.

I do not know why this Montana 3 sign has an extra thick border. Also, why it does not point to 3 in any reasonably direct manner. It instead points to US-87. Since US-87 and MT-3 both connect Billings to Great Falls, it may very well be the cast that what is currently 87 was once 3.

Typical eastern Montana grasslands scene.

Close-up of the typical eastern Montana grasslands scene.

A different style of flower.

A strangely compelling era of Montana history comes to an end. I remember seeing, in 2005, an older-style US-47 shield here, and then was quite shocked when, in December 2007, I noted that they had replaced it with a shiny new … US-47 marker.

now, finally, state route 47 is correctly marked heading out of Hardin. a small part of us has died.

Infinite regression of purple flowers.

absurdly large dandelion. Seriously, it was about 4 inches in diameter.

This is the only example we found of a signed Indian Route. It uses the same route marker as the Montana state secondary highways – but a completely different range of numbers. The secondaries start around 270 or so.

US-212 in eastern Montana is the Warrior Trail.

This sign is neither embossed steel, nor cast iron. It is wood – and the parts not protected by black paint have weathered away over the last, oh let’s say 40 years.

in any case, the state of Montana wants you to know that if you want some heaps of dirt, you’ll just have to get your own.

We are now in Belle Fourche, South Dakota. And no – despite being 16×16 inches – these are not direct replacements for 16″ cutout US route markers. They’re just … oddly lame.

An original 1958-specification Business Loop 90 marker. It may very well be the only one in South Dakota.

An abysmally bad photo of the sunset. I took this one while discovering that a particular set of ramps on I-90 didn’t have anything to the north but the on- and off-ramps – so I was hastily beating a U-turn (probably quite illegally) before the cavalry came.

Lots of old signs to be found in the Black Hills. I need to return here sometime during the day. Perhaps in early October, to take photos of the leaves changing, and various other general-interest topics.

An oddly shaped 385.

A classic one, unfortunately hidden behind a pair of street blades. I’ll bet that, if I told you that it was in the town of Lead, that you could find exactly where.

Whoops, that’s supposed to be state route 87.

Nebraska. We drove through the night and we’re in about the middle of the state by dawn.

Foggy morning.

Another sunrise photo, through the fog and the trees.

Alas, not the original white town boundary sign.

An older Junction assembly. One can tell its age by the smaller numbers in the route markers – and, oh yeah, the general decrepitude.

What strange installations lurk in the fog?

Agricultural vehicle is agricultural.

An older faded sign.

There isn’t much button copy left in Nebraska. Most of it is here on the 129 freeway.

US-75 was moved from Iowa into Nebraska in the mid-1990s. Therefore, some signs needed to get patched.

One last set of flowers. This is in Iowa – where we will leave off for now. Next up: Missouri River flooding in Iowa, lightning storms in Kansas!

I find them at Lake Roberts, and we head up to the end of New Mexico 15 to the Gila Cliff Dwellings, find some hot springs, and generally have a quality time of things.

I took over 1000 pictures on this day – quite a lot of things to be seen!

Shelly, Dale, and Beverley at the entrance to the cliff dwellings. The ladder is a modern touch for modern folks. The original inhabitants, of course, flew from door to door on the power of their awesomeness.

Today’s theme ingredient is: forest fire.

I believe this is a desert spiny lizard (Sceloporus magister). Dale spotted the little critter first and it took me a good several seconds to note what he was pointing at. The camouflage is dang near perfect!

The Gila Cliff Dwellings. They were built around 1280 by the Mogollon people, and were abandoned sometime in the 1300s. Due to the desert climate, they remain very well-preserved; almost exactly how they looked over 700 years ago.

Dale. No further explanation needed.

A lazy evening spent at a hot spring. I took this photo while sitting in the pool. Probably not the smartest idea ever, but hey, the photo came out!

Green tree at the Lake Roberts campground.

A close-up of some of the leaves.

Lots of fossils to be found in the rocks that the New Mexico park service used to build the campground in the 1930s.

A little green and orange plant.

I don’t think the sign is particularly old, but it does have the classic 1920s block font.

A one-lane bridge on old NM-35. Lake Roberts is actually several miles to the east of 15; off 35.

This is actually the very last 15 “reassurance marker”. Here, we enter the Gila Cliff Dwellings national monument.

Yellow rocks cut away to provide room for NM-15.

This extremely green species of tree is all over the area.

Our first glimpse of the source of the smoke. We’ll be seeing a lot more of this very soon.

The confluence of the East and Middle forks of the Gila River.

Oh, that forest fire? Well, it’s here.

The Gila Cliff Dwellings visitor center flag. Brown light courtesy of – you guessed it – forest fire.

Fisheye to rectangular conversion on this one, explaining the wacky angles at the edges.

They’re circling …

Welcome to the enchanted forest of bizarre lighting.

A small stream on the way to the cliff dwellings.

Bright light. Big tree.

The cliffs. Soon, we’ll find the dwellings.

Another extremely green tree.

Different angle on the lizard. I circled around and got this photo before it decided it had enough and took off scurrying.

The path up to the cliff dwellings involves a lot of steps.

Our first view of the dwellings.

Getting closer.

Inside one of the dwellings.

Looking out the window.

I could never quite expose this one correctly.

A very Escher-looking photo.

Getting these photos to expose correctly is very difficult, due to the huge range in light levels.

About the only cliff dwellings photo which I didn’t blow out at least one corner of!

A petroglyph. Plenty may be found at the dwellings.

More views from the cliff dwellings.

The result of forest fire brown and camera flash white.

One last view of the same general area.

A helpful warning. It’s about a 20 foot drop.

I take thousands of photos. Shelly takes maybe 37. Beverley looks for Dale. Say, where is that man anyway? Did he get eaten by wolves?

We’ve completed our tour. And the sky is even more brown and filled with smoke.

A narrow cliffside path will lead us back down.

What happens when you put red dirt under red light?

The sky is completely brown, and even our favorite green trees are distorted in color.

A fire survey crew prepares to take care of business. It turns out that, as of this day, the decision was to let it burn, as it was not threatening any human dwellings.

Not shown in this photo: Captain Obvious.

Dale has to get his own picture … of just the sign, of course!

And the secret ingredient which makes the picnic sandwiches so delicious is …

And the secret ingredient which makes the picnic sandwiches so delicious is … hey wait a minute!

By wing coloration, this is a Baltimore oriole. By geographic location, it is a Bullock’s oriole. In any case, here he is, spying on our picnic, wanting a piece of the secret ingredient action.

A tree awash in brown light.

Not a sign you see every day.

Big tree, at the picnic area.

Oh, right, huge fire. And we’re planning on going forward.

A large tadpole meets an even larger blob of vegetation.

A reflecting pool.

Deer: not exactly a rare creature.

A brown reflection.

A decorative element at a hot spring we visited. It is, indeed, a 1927-1931 New Mexico state highway marker! Most of the surviving examples of this sign are in similarly execrable condition: there is only one that is pretty decent with the original paint and route number.

We’re still about an hour before sunset, but we get this kind of lighting.

And here is the reason why!

The sun sinks lower and lower.

Hot spring pool at dusk.

One more on the theme of “sunset through silhouetted trees”.

Brightly colored red rocks.

I have no explanation. Maybe Shelly does.

Horse and foal.

Bright yellow leaves.

Back at the Gila River bridge, looking at the confluence of the two branches.

Canyon in deep shadows.

Sunset through the smoke.

Have I mentioned the ridiculous colors?

Same yellow rocks as we saw in the morning. Completely different lighting.

The sun sets as we return to Lake Roberts. What a day!

Map of Niceville showing the under construction and proposed alignment of the extension of Toll Florida 293 around the eastern and northern portions of the city. The toll route will eventually end at a trumpet interchange with Florida 85 about a mile north of College Drive.

Future Florida 85/Florida 123 Interchange improvements:

A guide sign with an older style Florida 123 shield lets motorists know of the impending departure. Since a lot of traffic (regular and military) uses Florida 123 as a short-cut to get to Florida 85 northwest of Niceville, a well extended three-quarters of a mile left-turn lane exists to allow motorists the necessary room to queue for the turn. During peak hours in the afternoon this extended turn lane often fills quickly, and at times past capacity.

Northbound traffic along Florida 85 continues through a static green signal while traffic departing for Florida 123 north must wait for their phase of movement. The wait here can often get long during the afternoon peak as commuters leave from the Fort Walton Beach and Eglin areas heading toward Crestview and beyond. The abutments and pier of future Florida 123 north are in place awaiting the installation of the beams.

A much shorter entrance to the Northwest Florida Regional Airport is now in place due the construction at Florida 123. An interchange at the eastern end of the airport is planned as part of this project, allowing motorists from Florida 123 south to access the airport without having to cross Florida 85 traffic. A new entrance ramp to the airport will also be constructed along Florida 85 north.

Traffic along Florida 85 north is shifted to allow adequate room to work on the future interchange with Northwest Florida Regional Airport. Once complete, Florida 85 will fly over an airport access road. Southbound traffic is also shifted onto a portion of the future access road that will one day serve traffic movements between Florida 123 and the airport.

Southbound Florida 123 approaching its southern terminus with Florida 85, the north bridge abutment of the future flyover for Florida 123 north comes into view. Initial pavement has been laid on the north abutment and is awaiting the final construction of the flyover across Florida 85 and completion of the south abutment before traffic can be moved onto its new alignment.

Future Toll Florida 293 construction at various locations:

Support beams have been driven into the ground for the future overpass of Florida 293 over Range Road. The initial overpass will carry northbound and southbound traffic with a dual overpass being contructed as traffic demands increase.

The first phase of the Florida 293 toll extension will end here at Range Road, about a mile north of Florida 20 at what will be a future diamond interchange. The limited access highway will open to Range Road in mid summer.

Looking north along Range Road at Phase 2 of the Florida 293 toll extension. Clearing for this portion of the extension commenced in late January/early February. This phase of the project will consist of construction of Florida 293 as a super-2 with a grade separated interchange at Florida 285, along with one at-grade intersection with an extended Forest Road. An open-road toll plaza will be erected between Range Road and Forest Road, allowing motorists the opportunity to continue on without having to stop and pay a toll. For those without Sunpass (Florida's toll collecting program) license plates will be scanned instead, as a part of the Toll-By-Plate program being initated by Florida's Turnpike Enterprise.

Heading east along Florida 20 at the future SPUI (single-point urban interchange) with Florida 293. The four-lane limited access highway will pass over Florida 20 as it begins its bypass around east Niceville. The first phase of the project will realign Florida 293 along a new right-of-way around Niceville, eventually ending with Florida 85 at a trumpet interchange north of town. As a part of the extension project, a portion of Florida 20 southeastward of the current terminus of Florida 293 to just past the interchange is being widened to a four-lane arterial. Florida 293 will open up to this interchange on Thursday, May 12, 2011 with a ribbon cutting ceremony scheduled for 9am.

As construction at the interchange progresses, traffic patterns along Florida 20 have changed and a 25 MPH speed limit has been implemented through the interchange area.

A view of the clearing of the future brief extension of Forest Road to Florida 293. This will be the only at-grade intersection along the toll extension, allowing residents of nearby subdivisions along Forest Road and College Road direct access to the future highway. This is also the terminus of Phase 2 of the proposed route around Niceville. It is not currently slated to become an interchange, but perhaps as traffic demands increase an interchange will be proposed at this location.

Looking east at the future alignment of Florida 293 along Florida 285 about one-quater mile north of College Road. A diamond interchange is planned at this location and is part of Phase 3 of the limited-access highway around Niceville.

Extensive clearing has been done for the portion of Florida 293 between Florida 285 and Florida 85. This portion of Phase 3 will see the extension further west to a trumpet interchange with Florida 85, with no other access points between the two state routes.

Clearing has also began along Florida 85 north where future Florida 293 will intersect the route. The extension of the toll road will end here once complete, with the provision of extending it southwestward toward Fort Walton Beach and west toward Navarre as part of a proposed (and long debated) toll facility to aleviate traffic along the often clogged U.S. 98. Whether this proposed extension westward happens in the next 10 to 20 years remains to be seen. With factors such as current economic conditions looming, disagreements on a final alignment of the route, and final funding issues continue, the prospects of the toll facility reaching further west become more and more doubtful.

All above photos were taken on 04/08/2011 by ABRoads.

• Maps covering Baltimore, Cecil and Harford Counties extracted from a geodatabase built of northeastern Maryland, including a shapefile created that covers some of the abandoned freeway proposals such as the defunct Interstate 70, the Windlass Freeway, the Jones Falls Expressway northern extension.
• A look at surface routes through Baltimore from several drives through the city during Summer 2010, including looks at Maryland 2, Maryland 25, Perring Parkway south, Maryland 129 north, Maryland 139 south, Maryland 144/Frederick Avenue west, Maryland 147 north, and various other smaller segments.
• An overhaul of all freeway pages, covering new Clearview-based sign assemblies on Interstates 83, 95, 395, 695, etc.
• New highway construction such as the I-95 Express Toll Lanes and the new Woodrow Wilson Bridge.
• Several road enthusiast items of interests including:

The new stack interchange between Interstates 95 & 695 east of Baltimore, including a stub for an eventual direct ramp with the new I-95 Express Toll Lanes.

A southbound look at the new Woodrow Wilson Bridge.

Plenty instances of Clearview…

Revisits to routes previously covered.

Button copy signs.

Old reassurance shields in the city of Baltimore.

Old city-installed Interstate 83 trailblazers with the custom Maryland sign font.

And a few gems…

This poor guide sign has been cut into three pieces – and one is missing. But still, this is the only ACSC diamond I have ever seen which mentions “Arizona State Highway” and, even more spectacularly, the Grand Canyon! Certainly unique.

After Roy’s, we explore many roads – not all of which go to any particular place.

Well, what do we have here? Oh, just the only known surviving cateyed sign in California! This stop sign dates to between 1934 and 1942, and is the first cateyed sign anyone’s seen since the mid-1990s. A miracle that it would survive… and it does!

A nice early 1980s wood interstate shield from Arizona.

A porcelain interstate marker. California, 1970, intended to be affixed to a green guide sign.

A 1920s or 1930s Oklahoma state route marker.

Route 66 before it was route 66. Foothill Boulevard in Pasadena became US-66 in 1926. This sign dates to 1916 or so, and traces the route between San Bernardino and Los Angeles.

Rectangular guide signs with an inverse-text line at the top, like this 1937-1940 example, are quite a difficult find. I know of just this one, and one other.

This guide sign from the Death Valley Area dates to 1929-1934.

This Northern California guide sign dates to 1913-14, and is from the first run of the yellow diamonds. No distances, just destinations, marks it as a very early sign. It was posted on what would become US Route 101 in 1926.

Leaving Roy’s. Don’t ask why this gantry has green banners and arrow. I blame the city of Fontana.

If you catch it at the right angle, the new style of reflective sheeting shows why it is called Prismatic High Intensity.

Not at Roy’s, but a remarkable California route marker from 1934.

Day two of our travels – sunrise over the hills just east of Bakersfield. Old route 155 gives us this view.

Hills and high clouds off highway 155.

This isn’t an old white guide sign … but the post it is on dates back to the time when it did hold an example of the previous standard.

We find this 1930s bridge on an old 198 alignment south of Hanford.

The way to San Jose, under the high cirrus clouds.

This road connects Coalinga to state highway 25. It was built in the late 1940s.

Did I mention the high clouds? Also, we catch California in the last of its green season. In a month, this will all be dry.

We also get the last of wildflower season.

Uh oh, the road is flooded. It’s about 6 inches deep – will my low-clearance rental car make it? (Hint: it does.)

I do not know what kind of flowers these are, but they are across the river we just successfully forded.

We have made it to highway 25.

Why did the super fancy spotted chickens cross the road? Well, they didn’t; at least not while I was photographing them.

This 1957 guide sign is still in the wild.

As is this historic marker, also 1957. You can probably figure out approximately where it is.

An abandoned two-lane concrete alignment of US-101.

This experiment in retroreflective signage dates to about 1966. As you can see, it wasn’t a very successful experiment.

This 1960 sign on By-Pass 101 (“By-Pass” designation having been covered up since 1964) is the last known porcelain outline US shield green sign in California. I remember when I first moved to the Bay Area there were about 6 signs like this in this general vicinity – this is the only one which has survived some major construction projects. Apparently, California has the money to replace old signs. Go figure.

An oddity: green signs are not supposed to have the state name on the route markers.

The rarely seen 21×18 style of interstate shield.

And how about this brilliant emerald green porcelain guide sign? it is a City of San Jose installation, and dates to 1960, when the intersection of The Alameda (old US-101, now highway 82) with nearby highway 17 (now interstate 880) was built.

Just a shot straight into the sun with weird angles that I thought came out well.

This sign dates to 1960. Note the pattern of rivets around the 82 shield: yep, at one point the sign had a US-101 shield instead! Until 1964, this downtown route was US-101, and the freeway was By-Pass US-101.

And now, some photos from the third day of my trip. Why yes, that is a white porcelain CSAA guide sign half-buried in the shrubbery! The sign is from approximately 1948, when this road was built.

What other treasures does this particular intersection reveal? Here’s a CSAA nine-spot end-of-road reflector!

The intersection that keeps on giving! Three 1948-vintage signs to be found here.

A few miles up the road, we come across one more CSAA porcelain white sign.

This sign is notable for inexplicably featuring the wide US route shield for a route number that clearly does not demand it.

Would anyone like to tell me what this sign says? The pair dates to between 1964 and 1973, and therefore it would likely have, under the US-50 shield … another US-50 shield? And under the I-80 … another I-80? Highly confusing; why would they replace signs with themselves. But those are the logical routes that passed through this junction – US-50 heading south, and I-80 (which is now Business I-80, or “to I-80″ as the case may be) heading west. The question remains: why the late-90s patches? (And also, what was under Fresno? Oakland?)

Nothing to see here, just someone’s private collection of some rare and unusual California signs.

Some more signs out of a private collection. This pair, dating to 1961, once stood in Janesville, Wisconsin.

and that’s all, folks!