Brent drove from Chicago west to QC and met up for a joint trip southeast to Champaign. A quick cold front blew through the morning of, washing out most of the ride west. This view shows that construction along Interstate 88 (East-West Tollway) is finally complete! If you drove through in 2008, you noted jersey barriers everywhere and your eyes bled orange. The Illinois Tollway is slowly [...]
the fourth fifth day of our trip. The fourth day was spend snowed in in sunny East Anchorage, where 16 inches fell overnight. Remember that storm that we escaped in the mountains to get to Anchorage? Well, it found us. However, Anchorage has the best snowplow routine I’ve ever seen, and we could’ve gotten out of there by noon, had we not been zonked. We waited ’til about 6 the [...]
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 [...]
the third day of our trip, on which we actually cross into Alaska, and complete the Alaska Highway. Dawn in Yukon. Just past Haines Junction, we hit the final stretch of Alaska Highway. Close-up of distant purple mountains over Destruction Bay. Yes, that is what it is called! It was named by the troops who were building the road in 1942, and had the wind blow away their new structures. [...]
Texas has pushed quite a bit of old video to the web, including a few historic road gems. Take a look at this view of construction in Austin in 1965. The Texas Archive of the Moving Image can be found here.
Continuing northward … and, on this day, greatly westward, as that is the way to get from Dawson to Delta Junction, which is the official end of the Alaska Highway. This batch of photos includes plenty of British Columbia and even some Yukon. About 70 photos total! Dawson Creek at dawn. This monument is at the intersection (BC-49 and BC-2, actually) where the Alaska Highway officially begins. 2 ends at [...]
Photos from the Alaska highway! Okay, well, first photos from flying to Seattle, and then driving to Dawson Creek, where the Alaska Highway begins. Some photos in this post brought to you by Daniel Brim. We have an equitable arrangement: he provides talent at taking photographs, I run us off the road only occasionally. Somewhere over the Rockies. Between Denver and Seattle for sure. And here’s the northern lights! Just [...]
The third day of the southern trip from July, 2008. And the fourth, since a lot of the third day was unfortunately spent in boring parts of Tennessee. Somewhere in all that kudzu, there is an old US-11 bridge. […]
Happened to check the local Wal-Mart after work today and found the 2011 Rand. Here are some of the changes: Symbology changes: Old style exit numbers have been replaced with a green box with white lettering, just like AAA Incorporated and unincorporated places are now differentiated by different town circles. Incorporated places are still the black dot with unincorporated places now being a hollow circle Subtle difference in the shields [...]
Second batch from July of 2008, featuring mainly US-82 and US-78 in Arkansas and Mississippi. Along US-82 in southwest Arkansas is a wild animal farm. Here is a half-horse half-zebra creature. Some of the last cutouts in Mississippi. There is a US-45 somewhere, too. Extra tall sunset, somewhere approaching Tupelo on old US-78. […]
