We pick up in Iowa, where we decide to stop heading east in order to get to New Mexico. We see flooding along the Missouri River, and catch a thunderstorm in Kansas. 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. [...]
The longest swath of the Fourth of July trip that we’ll feature in one set of photos: about 800 miles covered in this burst. Continuing on US-212 across eastern Montana, to get to South Dakota, and then driving through the Black Hills at the time of day when they are the blackest. We then continue into Nebraska, and drive US-20 east all the way to Iowa. Endless fields of yellow [...]
We continue on the Fourth of July trip … across Beartooth Pass we go, on US-212. One of the most scenic drives to be found anywhere. Squeezing in the last of morning light. This sign might very well date back to when US-12 in Wyoming was renumbered to US-212 in 1963! There are very few US-212 shields in Wyoming. About 9500 feet up the pass. This view is in infrared, [...]
The Fourth of July trip. Undertaken by Daniel Brim and me. Our usual arrangement holds – we take approximately identical photos, and try not to hit any raccoons and/or rabbits. Our destination is sunny Union County, New Mexico – by way of Beartooth Pass, Sioux City, and various other places that call into question our ability to drive in a straight line. We fly into Salt Lake City airport, and [...]
The third day of the Gila River trip, in which I return from New Mexico back home to San Diego. Campfire from the night before. I don’t remember why we decided that Frosty the Candle Snowman had to go, but we certainly sent him off to Valhalla in style. An old alignment of New Mexico state route 32 yields this tilted, decrepit junction assembly. It dates to the late 1960s [...]
The Big Roads takes an in depth look at the history of the American interstate highway system through the experiences and research of one of its inspired travelers. With origins in groups such as the Lincoln Highway Association to the 1914 creation of the American Association of State Highway Officials (AASHO) through to the rise of the modern Interstate Freeway in 1956 and their fall during the freeway revolts of [...]
The second day of the Gila River trip – now with special guests! Dale, Beverley, and Shelly live in a completely different section of New Mexico, but when I discovered that they were camping on the western side of the state (only a 630 mile drive from San Diego!) I knew I had to drive out there for the weekend. I find them at Lake Roberts, and we head up [...]
A trip to New Mexico, essentially following the Gila River all the way. Part features the first day, and the morning of the second – driving from San Diego to Lake Roberts, NM. Adventures in terrible light-post placement. There are only two known 1957-spec interstate shields in Arizona. (The other one is on this exact gantry, facing the other direction.) Extremely pointy flower in morning light. Highway 90 between Lordsburg [...]
The second batch of photos from the trip ScottB and I took to Mariposa, in the western Sierra foothills. On this day, we leave the town and head southwards, on 49 and then various county roads, before spurring off on 168 into the mountains a while. Just a little stream, filled with floating vegetation, by the side of a county road just a mile or two from highway 41. An [...]
The new stack at the Dallas North Tollway and the Sam Rayburn Tollway in suburban Dallas is a little more than halfway finished. Construction began in February 2010, and the junction is expected to open in March, 2012. This photo was taken yesterday, looking north. http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5143/5773420857_d915346a9f_z.jpg
