The AARoads Blog

Going back to June 2008, for an Oregon/Washington trip I took. Entirely west of the Cascades.

The Milky Way. Near Mount Rainier; well past the lights of the I-5 corridor.

The arc trail, by the way, is an airplane – note the break in the trail which occurred while I restarted the exposure.

And the find of the trip – this old-style Oregon 126 eagle highway marker. Marked 1/17/73 on the back; this style dates to 1948.

Mount Rainier at sunset.

The last remaining US-99 shield in Washington state. The Alaskan Way Viaduct was renumbered to state route 99 in 1969, but this shield remains at one of the on-ramps.

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Most of our Tennessee coverage is now online, including more photos of Interstate 40 east of Knoxville and Interstate 75 north of Knoxville, all courtesy of Carter Buchanan in 2005. Also for those unaware, Interstate 40 is set to close for 14 months near downtown Knoxville as part of the SmartFix project. Smartfix is a complete reconstruction of an almost two-mile stretch of freeway and viaduct. Some information regarding that project and an associated redesign of three full-cloverleaf interchanges on Interstate 275 in the city was added.

…And for those unaware, the closing of an entire freeway to rebuild it is a concept gaining steam. The concept was proven to be efficient and cost-effective when one direction of Interstate 95 in northern Delaware was closed for three months at a time in 2000. This resulted in the removal of 1961-concrete, replacement of it with new asphalt, and a lowering of the roadway under several key bridges. Presently a portion of Interstate 64 in St. Louis is closed, and so is a 1.5-mile section of Interstate 75 at junction Interstate 96 in Detroit…

A recent request made of us was to create guides for the Garden State Parkway. It is one phenominal road that deserves attention, and we’ve been sitting on photos of the road for almost three years now. Thanks to the urging of one of our viewers, I have created three of four pages covering the road northbound between I-195 and I-78 and southbound between I-87/287 and I-280, with further coverage continuing the tour southbound to I-95.

Finally, a project Matt Strieby has been working off and on for many months, has finally come together enough to debut on WestCoastRoads – a Portland, Oregon focus page. Matt plans on adding more detailed histories of the many cancelled freeways in the Rose City, and new and expanded guides of the existing roads over the coming months.

This past weekend’s roadtrip took us to Jacksonville, Florida, Savannah, Georgia, Charleston and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and Wilmington, North Carolina. But before I get into the details of those travels, it is time to take care of unfinished business…
Now two and half months removed from the trip, here’s a summary of Day 6 of our Northwest U.S. roadtrip.

Chris Kalina joined Andy and I for the two-day marathon drive from Seattle east to Montana and back. To get as far east during daylight hours, the day began before sunrise in Burien, Washington with myself loading up on coffee at 5:45 am (!). We arranged to meet Chris at a park and ride lot next to Interstate 405 at Bellevue by 6:30, but a gnarly traffic accident clogged the northbound lanes of I-405 at 6:15, causing us to get there 15 minutes late. Chris also showed up late, so all was ok, and we piled into our rental car and ventured east toward Snoqualmie Pass by 7 am.

The climb eastward into the Cascade Mountains was magnificent with layers of low clouds and fog shrouding the valleys and passes of Interstate 90.

Climbing toward the West Summit interchange (Exit 52) on Interstate 90 east. Snoqualmie Pass rises to 3,022 feet and is snow covered for most of the year. During this last day of August, the temperature was already down to 37 degrees!
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Started the morning in the quaint town of Cascade Locks, just a stone’s throw away from the Bridge of the Gods. The bridge is tolled and privately run, joining U.S. 30 in Oregon with Washington 14 just west of Stevenson. Stevenson is an equally quaint town along the north banks of the Columbia River. Washington 14 (former U.S. 830) and U.S. 30/Interstate 84 are both also paralleled by busy Union Pacific and Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad lines.

Looking west at the Bridge of the Gods and the Columbia River from a pier at Stevenson, Washington.

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After just five or six hours of sleep, we began our day in Corvallis traveling through downtown looking to photograph a sign we saw the night before. The sign in question still showed Oregon 99W as U.S. 99W, a designation long since retired. From there we opted for Oregon 99W west northward to Salem in lieu of Interstate 5 as an alternate. The routing also allowed us to visit two new counties too.

The U.S. 99W sign found within downtown Corvallis. U.S. 20 & Oregon 34 join together through town, intersecting the one-way street couple of Oregon 99W in the process. Corvallis is home to Oregon State University.

Oregon 99W did not disappoint as it traveled through pastural settings, farms, open fields, small stands of trees, all dotted with farm houses and small businesses. Once we were at junction Oregon 22, we took that east to the capital city of Salem. Oregon 22 travels an expressway between Oregon 99W and downtown Salem.

In downtown, we visited the capital complex and capital mall area. The state grounds were pristine with beautiful landscaping and fountains. The capital itself features a bronze statue gold statue finished in gold leaf on top. It represents an Oregon Pioneer, symbolic of the spirt of the first Oregon settlers.

Looking through the fountains at the Oregon State capitol building, with the Oregon pioneer statue looking back.

After wandering around the grounds for a good half hour or so, we headed out of downtown toward the Salem Parkway, what was planned as the Interstate 305 freeway spur. Salem Parkway ends just north of the one-way street couplet of Oregon 99E Business. It provides a four-lane expressway with four signalized intersections between Interstate 5 and the central business district. The north end merges onto Interstate 5 at the 45 Parallel, halfway between the North Pole and Equator.

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Day 1 – Portland to Vancouver, Vancouver to Eugene and Corvallis

My flight took me to Albuquerque, New Mexico as the stopover point, my first time there, and from there northwest to Portland International Airport. Coming in over the virtual desert of southeastern Oregon, the air thickened with smoke due to area wild fires and stagnent air from very hot weather. The peaks of Mt. Hood and Mt. Adams peaked above the purple haze below, and the Columbia River did not reveal itself until we sunk below the pollution deck.

After picking up checked bags, and taking the shuttle to the off-site car rental office, we headed north on Interstate 205, quickly crossing into Washington (my 42nd state at the time) en route to Matt’s house. The numbered street grid of Vancouvers transitions abruptly with the street grid of Battle Ground’s, so it took a while for us to meet up with Matt. Once we did, he showed us Mt. St. Helens from his backyard, and we had pizza at an eatery in town. Matt creates highway guides for Oregon and Washington on westcoastroads.com for those who might not know, and the three of us discussed roads, mountains, weather, etc. etc.

Although it was around 10:30 when we parted ways, Andy and I needed to get down to the Belt Line Road interchange of Interstate 5 in Eugene to clinch the freeway in Oregon. Rather than backtracking that far in the morning, we opted for it in the dark of night. Little did we know that the University of Oregon would be starting class the following week, so every motel and hotel in town was booked. Time to head back north, and check Albany, Corvallis, or Salem. Well by 0dark30, we found a place with a vacany in Corvallis, even with it being the home to the Oregon State University, which was also about to start its semester!

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We took a full week to drive around and visit friends and family in the Pacific Northwest between Saturday August 26 and Saturday September 2. Among the goals of our trip was to finish clinching the Oregon and Washington Interstate systems, for me to visit Idaho and Montana for the first time, to meet fellow road enthusiasts Matt Strieby and Chris Kalina, and to explore the Columbia River Gorge and Seattle among other locations.
Since we had next to no internet access during the trip, let alone time for the computer, I’ll be writing posts based upon our travels in retrospect. Additionally I’m writing about the last day first, as I don’t have the photos from the rest of the trip yet (those are on Andy’s laptop).

Day 8 – Olympia to Portland:

Not much to this day, woke up a bit after 0-dark-30, drove around Olympia to document some I-5 Washington shields we found, also photographed the “north” end of U.S. 101 at Interstate 5, and then headed down I-5 to I-205 and Portland International Airport so I could fly out. In the process we finished clinching I-5, the whole shabang from Mexico to Canada.

The “southbound” beginning of U.S. 101, just west of the interchange with Interstate 5. U.S. 101 travels west to Washington 8 along a freeway before turning north to Shelton and Port Angeles. The east-west segment of the highway along the north end of the Olympic Peninsula is signed east-west. U.S. 101 turns southward at Beaver and there finally gets the “South” cardinal direction banner.

The “north” end of U.S. 101 at Interstate 5. An end sign resides along the northbound on-ramp to Interstate 5. Like most Washington reassurance signs, the directional banner and shield are made out of one piece. There are 365 miles of U.S. 101 in Washington according to the mileposts at Olympia!

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