A trip that JeffS and I took to Death Valley this previous weekend. We rented a big old truck, and in strict accordance with our rental car policy, we did not under any circumstances drive on any dirt roads looking for old highway signs. Jeff even brought a metal detector – just in case we could dig something up. Were we successful in finding old signs? Let’s find out! Be [...]
some photos from favorite old haunts … northeastern New Mexico, including a trip to Sierra Grande, the tallest mountain in Union County. Two days of photos – one of just hanging out, the second of actually going somewhere. Flowers still in bloom in late October at 6800 feet. Someone does one hell of a job with the gardening! Why has Dale ascended to such magnificent heights atop this flimsy half-a-utility-pole? [...]
Some photos, from a visit to the Laws Railroad Museum, in Bishop, California in October, 2010. Enthusiasts of railroads, old highways, and the general western frontier experience are strictly obligated to check it out. the Laws Railroad Museum this is a photo gallery of their highway sign collection. They mainly focus on the Auto Club of Southern California, as they are the ones who signed the Bishop area between 1913 [...]
The last of the trip from December ’07. Utah, Nevada, and California. Nope, this is not the Great Salt Lake – this is the Bonneville Salt Flats in winter, when there is a thin layer of collected rain and melted snow… and people drive in it. Tiny houses, colossal mountains. Somewhere in Nevada at sunset. Well past dusk, near Battle Mountain, Nevada. Donner Lake, the next morning. Clouds over the [...]
the eighth day of my trip across the Rockies. Here, having survived Million Dollar Highway, we head west across Utah on I-70, to get to I-15 and scour Salt Lake City for old signs. The very, very first rays of sunrise. An old, abandoned alignment of US-6 and US-50 near Thompson, Utah. A two-minute exposure at earliest dawn, with Venus tracking steadily across the skies on the left. Sunrise over [...]
We pick up in Colorado, December 2007 – where a snowstorm has just subsided, and we thus prepare to cross the Rockies, crossing our fingers hoping that it does not pick up again and render unto us blinding whiteout conditions. Of course, it does. Red rocks in winter. Colorado state highway 149 – just barely on the western side of the Rockies, after we cross on US-50 across Monarch Pass. [...]
South Dakota. US-16 and interstate 90. And a wee bit of Wyoming and Colorado in the evening. December 2007. Grim winter. 18×18 I-90 shield. 1957 specs. And, more interestingly, an embossed arrow to point the way. Since the 1957 specification called for white, not blue, arrows, they took a 1948-spec arrow that they had lying around and used it to point to the new freeway. This is the sign find [...]
East along I-80 in Nebraska, then north along I-29 into South Dakota, then westbound on I-90 – all the while looking for old signs. First thing in the morning. US highway 30 eastbound in western Nebraska. We follow 30 for a while because it’s a mile or two away from I-80 and more likely to have old signs. It may or may not be rather cold. Catch of the day! [...]
Here are photos from Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, and Nebraska. I woke up in Wyoming after being awake for 80+ hours, experiencing near-total biological failure and thus getting a lease on a $26 motel room and my continued sanity. I headed south to visit my friend Brian, then was about to turn back west to take photos of the Rockies… before noting that a Snowstorm of Usual Occurrence was blowing through [...]
back to US-10, back to Montana. We head out in the night eastbound, just to touch North Dakota, and then as the sun rises, to scour all the old alignments and see what there is to see – mainly, old I-94 signs. Then we head south on US-87 into Wyoming and search for old I-90 signs. Old US-10 bridge at dawn. Glendive, Montana. The bridge dates back to 1922 and [...]