Since our friends decided to leave early, we followed suit and made a day out of it on the way back south. Decided on Interstate 89 south to check out the Barre Connectors first, both of which appear as freeways on maps sometimes, but really are expressway-like roads with no private driveways. Vermont 62 spurs east from Exit 7 into northern Barre, complete with a connector leading to U.S. 302. [...]
Spent our final full day in Vermont visiting Burlington and the University of Vermont. As always with this trip, we took convoluted routes to see more of the area. Departing Interstate 89 south via Exit 16 (U.S. 2 & 7), we traveled through Winooski, an old mill town situated along the north banks of the Winooski River. Redevelopment of the downtown area is phenomenal when compared to previous visits in [...]
Spent Day 7 driving around the Lake Champlain Islands and then down a combination of U.S. 7 and Interstate 89 among other routes to Burlington and back. U.S. 2 travels north-south through the Lake Champlain Islands, passing through small towns such as South Hero, Grand Isle, and North Hero. The roadway carries only two lanes with the exception of a brief four-lane section just northwest of the Sandbar at South [...]
This is a look at the Texas trunk highway system. It's an offshoot of the governor's crazy Trans-Texas corridor http://www.keeptexasmoving.com/index.php/trans-texas_corridor scheme, but makes more sense. The idea is to connect huge parts of the state with expressways, building freeway bypasses of almost every populated place. Click images for larger versions. Munday's (pop. 1,500) new bypass This view shows the bypass at Seymour (pop 3,000), which [...]
Lubbock, Texas is a city of about 250,000 smack on the middle of the Caprock - an oil and agricultural rich perfectly flat region in West Texas. The city is also in the process of getting its third freeway, named for retired Texas Tech basketball coach Marsha Sharp. What's the deal with naming freeways after people who are still alive? I thought you weren't supposed to do that. Click any [...]
Day 5 was spent mainly around Lake Champlain with an afternoon in Burlington to see a movie. A few road notes from the day: VTrans took a page out of DelDOT's play book and undertook carbon copy signing along Interstate 89 southbound at the full-cloverleaf interchange (Exit 14) with U.S. 2. A new sign bridge was installed to go with new signs. Signs unfortunately continue to omit the exit tabs [...]
Began the trip by plotting out a circuitous route to Lake Champlain, Vermont via the New Hampshire seacoast and Hampton Beach. Started out on Interstate 93 southbound to its end and encircling Boston via Interstate 95 north. Traffic on Interstate 95 and the Boston area was relentless, even on a Sunday night at 10:30 am. The number of cars and trucks barreling down the road on the area freeways makes [...]
Started the day off with a bang, a huge crash of thunder at around 6:30 am at the onset of a thunderstorm in Quincy, MA. A few hours later storm clouds gave way to brilliant skies, setting the tone for the day. We were due in Vermont this night, but opted to stay with our friend in Quincy another night and explore more of the area roads instead. Beginning on [...]
Spent Saturday redriving many of freeways of metro Boston, Rhode Island, and eastern Massachusetts. Started things off by heading northward into the Big Dig and then northeast across the Tobin Bridge to the U.S. 1 Northeast Expressway. A repainting job is underway along the Tobin Bridge at mid-span. U.S. 1 was once touted as part of the through-city routing of Interstate 95 through Boston. A section of the highway is [...]
The beginning of a week plus trip that took us northward from Delaware/Philadelphia to Boston for several days and from there to Lake Champlain in Vermont for a 5-day vacation... We started our journey just south of the Pennsylvania state line, beginning first with a visit to the Pennsylvania Welcome Center to obtain the latest copy of the Pennsylvania State Highway Map. Construction is present along all of Interstate 95 [...]
