Hello from St. Louis!

[wolfiefrick]

Hi all! I discovered this forum when I was nine years old but my parents wouldn't let me sign up for it. I left it alone for awhile and I'm a new member! Let me tell you a bit about myself- I was born, raised, and currently live in the St. Louis metropolitan area of eastern Missouri, right along the mighty Mississippi River, I'm fourteen years old, and I've loved roads since I was young.


When I was five, I started drawing interchanges on pieces of paper and making road signs out of paper and wooden dowels. When I was seven, my parents were taking a road trip to Chicago and the crappy GPS suggested a route that was horrendously indirect, so I proposed a more direct route for them and they arrived hours before the rest of the party. When I was nine, I rode shotgun on a road trip to Florida and directed my mother, who looked at me when I gave her directions as if I had two heads, but the routes were more direct than what she argued and they ended up being faster, much to her amazement. When I was eleven, for my birthday I got a set of pine wood planks and started building intricate interchanges with them. And when I was thirteen, I took a trip to San Francisco and directed my very confused father for most of the way around the confusing roads of that area.


People around my high school call me the "walking map" and are constantly asking me for more direct routes across town. One of my hobbies is maintaining a Minecraft server I created a few years ago and a massive transportation system spawned, with more than 16 highways and thousands of roads, all the result of thousands of hours of work.


And that brings me here. I love this forum after posting a whopping eight replies to one topic! So, hello from St. Louis from wolfiefrick! 

[Alex]

Welcome to the board!

[SignGeek101]

Welcome from Last-Minute-Christmas-Shopping (and snowed in) Winnipeg!

I've already welcomed you in the Redesign This thread, but since this is the proper and formal place to do it, I'll do it again.

It's really nice seeing young people join. I joined when I was 17, but got interested in signs when I was 15. Now, I'm a second year civil engineering student at the University of Manitoba, wanting to eventually go into road design later in my degree. I like to do signs in my spare time. Since I'm an engineering student, I use AutoCAD (Computer Aided Drafting) program to do the signs. To be honest, I thought your signs in the 'Redesign This' thread were Zeffy's.

I've always also had great navigational skills. I was similar to you, leading around my parents in foreign places (mostly in southern Ontario and southern Quebec). I still do, just last week I corrected my dad on a turn onto a route.

I also take pictures of signs on Flickr. Most of my pictures are of Canadian signs, as I've only been to the US a few times (Northeast, northern Michigan, and Florida), but hope to return in the future to clinch and take more pictures.

[noelbotevera]

I'm currently the youngest guy on this forum. I joined at the age of 11 a month after my birthday (April 22).

[hotdogPi]

Welcome from Massachusetts!

[Zeffy]

(Official) Greetings from a fellow sign artist living in New Jersey! 

[freebrickproductions]

Welcome from the warm Tennessee Valley region!

[ModernDayWarrior]

Welcome, from a couple hours south of you! Good to see another Missouri person on the forum.

[TravelingBethelite]

Greetings from a similarly-aged fellow sign fan from western CT! You're a year younger than me, but way more accomplished than me, so an ode of congratulations is in order. I did some of the things you talk about, as I pasted road signs I drew onto my set of wooden blocks. I pass through St. Louis from time to time when heading to a ranch house of ours near Ava. But anyway, a warm welcome to AARoads!

[brycecordry]

The writer's description suits me to a "T". I live in Columbia, MO, but have made numerous trips to other states. I remember being just a toddler and reading the highway signs, such as "North 57" or "Exit 283, 24, Gilman, Chatsworth" (typed exactly as my three-year-old self said it). I also remember being cognizant of the fact that I was in another state, what highway I was on, and the type of interchange we were passing (or using).

I am glad to see so many young souls on here. Perhaps they will take some of these ideas and get them going through Congress and into reality.

[cappicard]

Welcome from the other side of the state.

[jbnati27]

Welcome from Cincinnati!!

I agree, it's really cool to see these young folks on this board. And it's nice we can all come together. When I was 14, I thought I was the only road geek on the planet!

[Buffaboy]

Let us know the IP from that Minecraft server. Welcome!