Hello from the Central Coast

coatimundi · January 21, 2016, 03:46:38 PM

Hello!
My name is Colin. I used to be somewhat active on misc.transport.road back in the day and created a couple of road geek web sites in the late 90's that I still find links to sometimes (though they've been gone a long time). I'm happy to find this forum because I was looking for a good way to waste time during work hours again.
I live just outside Monterey, California, and have for about two years now. We have our one freeway (appropriately numbered 1), our little stubs of freeways, and our one federal highway that varies from expressway to freeway all throughout the county. Not exactly the most interesting place to live as a road geek, but we still get our little projects happening.
I do travel a lot though, so I expect to be on here to get ideas of what I should see when I travel, and offer all the ill-informed comments I can.

hotdogPi · January 21, 2016, 03:51:44 PM

Welcome from Massachusetts!

freebrickproductions · January 21, 2016, 03:55:52 PM

Welcome from northern Alabama!

US 41 · January 21, 2016, 04:00:38 PM

Welcome to the forum! I have a friend that wants to drive CA 1 in its entirety, because of some of its incredible views of the Pacific Ocean. I offered to go with him if we took a detour and drove down to Cabo San Lucas. He wouldn't go for it though, because he's scared to go in to Mexico. I've never been to California before. In November I took a detour over to Springerville, AZ, from Socorro, NM, on my way to El Paso just to say I'd been to Arizona. That's the closest I've ever been to California. I am from Indiana, so I don't go out that way very often. I'm sure I'll see the Pacific one day.

jbnati27 · January 21, 2016, 04:05:06 PM

Welcome from greater Cincinnati!!

noelbotevera · January 21, 2016, 04:51:09 PM

Welcome from South-Central Pennsylvania!

wolfiefrick · January 21, 2016, 05:10:48 PM

Welcome from St. Louis! I've been wanting to go to Monterey for a while now, I hear it's simply beautiful. Share your travel photos, and again, welcome to AARoads!

kkt · January 21, 2016, 05:12:10 PM

Welcome from Seattle!

Lovely spot, Monterey. I'd like to visit again, especially the aquarium.

I have driven most of CA 1, missing only the parts south of Santa Maria. But not all at one trip.

coatimundi · January 21, 2016, 06:02:48 PM

I've never driven all of CA 1 in one go, but have driven it all at one time or another. Even the LA area sections, which can get just straight up ugly (Long Beach). The section south of me is, of course, the real deal, but other sections are pretty. The section south of Santa Maria is interesting, as it goes through the little farm worker village of Guadalupe, then over some scenic hills to the military town of Lompoc. It's not really a "coast highway" in any sense there (though you can hike to the beach at some places off the road, and there's one access point that can be reached by car that's owned by the military and has its own Amtrak stop), but I think it's nice. Certainly quieter than other stretches of the road. And that's what's kinda cool about Highway 1: I would suggest that it's one of the more diverse highways in the country. All it's missing is snow, but that's not really a bad thing.

slorydn1 · January 21, 2016, 07:47:54 PM

Welcome, Colin.

FLRoads · January 21, 2016, 08:25:36 PM

Welcome to the forum, Colin!

SignGeek101 · January 21, 2016, 09:41:39 PM

Welcome from dark-at-8-am Winnipeg!

You're lucky to have a freeway near you. I haven't been on a true freeway since last summer. Even a city of 700 000 inhabitants doesn't have a freeway. It's quite odd really. So, don't feel weird to be a roadgeek where you live. Roadgeeks come from everywhere!

coatimundi · January 22, 2016, 12:00:23 AM

Well, we haven't lived here for too long. I actually got really interested in freeways and freeway design when I lived in Houston in middle school. Now that's a freeway city. But, even before that, when we lived in little Johnson City, Tennessee, I was fascinated by the interchanges on then-I-181 (the older interchanges in Downtown JC are still pretty interesting) and even the little stub of US 321 that goes to Elizabethton. Oh, and we used to go visit my grandmother in Baton Rouge, and seeing those crazy left-side ramps on I-110 really blew my mind at that time. But I feel like it's not so much being surrounded by that environment but a tendency to have that sort of "road fetish" (for lack of better terminology).
We moved here from Bloomington, Indiana. It would have been interesting to see how I-69 played out, but I wasn't interested in dealing with the construction, since I worked 1-2 days per week in Indianapolis. Nobody hates that interstate more than the people in Bloomington.
I also spent about 8 years in Tucson. Again, not a freeway city. But it was fun seeing some of the newer freeways go up in Phoenix while I was living there.

ModernDayWarrior · January 23, 2016, 12:46:51 AM

Welcome from southeast Missouri!

froggie · February 05, 2016, 04:56:16 PM

I vaguely recall a Colin from MTR about 15 years ago. Posted in some Texas threads. Are you one-and-the-same?

Desert Man · February 13, 2016, 04:15:54 PM

Welcome to the AAroads forum! I'm from the Palm Springs area and I wish to visit the Central coast area in the summer to get away from hot triple-digit highs. From Salinas/Monterey or Santa Cruz down to Santa Barbara or Ventura/Oxnard is a part of CA one cannot ignore...just drive down the US 101 or CA route 1 right on the beach.

SimMoonXP · February 13, 2016, 08:54:45 PM

I am from near San Diego, California who loves to study Thomas Guides in single day since I was a boy like 6 or 7 years old in early 1990s. I am the one of "Thomas Guides" guy. Have you heard of Thomas Guides before? It is based by Thomas Bros. Maps/Rand McNally/GM Johnson! Message me if anyone still have Thomas Guide or Thomas Bros Maps Popular Atlas.

coatimundi · February 15, 2016, 11:48:51 AM

Quote from: froggie on February 05, 2016, 04:56:16 PM
I vaguely recall a Colin from MTR about 15 years ago. Posted in some Texas threads. Are you one-and-the-same?

Sounds right. I was on there well before 2000 though. 2000 would have been one of several returns, that time after coming back from overseas and censored internet that made it difficult to access any newsgroups. I believe I was using it on Google Groups at that point, which appears to only aggregate Usenet through archives now.

Quote from: SimMoonXP on February 13, 2016, 08:54:45 PM
I am from near San Diego, California who loves to study Thomas Guides in single day since I was a boy like 6 or 7 years old in early 1990s. I am the one of "Thomas Guides" guy. Have you heard of Thomas Guides before? It is based by Thomas Bros. Maps/Rand McNally/GM Johnson! Message me if anyone still have Thomas Guide or Thomas Bros Maps Popular Atlas.

I have a few Thomas Guides/Thomas Brothers maps. One is "California Road Atlas & Driver's Guide" copyrighted 1995, and I have a "San Diego & Orange Counties Street Guide" from 2005. They were also licensed by other publishers. I have a Rand McNally-published "The Thomas Guide" of Tucson from 2002. Several others as well from the late 90's and early 2000's. They're good maps.
But I've only lived in California for two years. Most of my map collection, especially historical, revolves around Texas.

News:

Hello from the Central Coast