The AARoads Blog

at long last, I am back, with some photos for everyone … highway signs which showed up at Roy Reed’s gas and oil collectible swap meet, and then some scenery from the subsequent days, when I found I had some time on my hands and did a quick trip up to the Bay Area and Sacramento. enjoy!

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!

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The Green Bay Packers will be playing in Superbowl XLV this weekend, and I thought a fitting tribute would be a photo of Green Bay’s most famous roadgeek sight – the northern end of I-43. Photo taken Saturday, January 29th, 2011 – when it was very very cold.

I-43 northern end

Started out the day being greeted by this VMS with the message "I-80 EB Closed at Mississippi River". Had to turn around and trudge southward along the real I-74 eastbound, which was equally under construction for an ARRA based resurfacing project. A routine inspection revealed damage to a faulty floor beam and currently only one lane of westbound traffic is permitted to use the bridge due to repairs. Work began on April 5, 2010 on a $10.3-million project. Construction on the October 27, 1966-opened span will shift to the westbound lanes by early July, with on eastbound lane restored at that time.

A new set of Clearview signs were added to the 2008-replaced Lincoln Road overpass. Signs over the westbound lanes were added during the evening of May 5 as we drove under.

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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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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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