Do you have or recall your first road photo, hand-drawn map or road scene?

Started by hockeyjohn, April 14, 2020, 10:54:02 AM

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hockeyjohn

While hunkering down for COVID-19, I went through an old folder of saved papers and some photo albums and came across documents suggesting this topic - do you still have (or recall) your first road photo, hand drawn map or road scene?

My first road photos were taken with an inexpensive camera in March 1976 at age 10 in Alpena, Mich.   The US-23 sign was the last shield remaining in the county south of town and was just in front of a "Polar Equator Trail" sign (wish I was closer to both signs for the photo).   The M-32 sign was at the corner of Washington and Potter.



The map, part of Michigan, I drew in July 1976 was based on the Standard Oil Maps of the late '60s / early '70s.   Looking at it now, I had spelling issues and put Benton Harbor and St Joseph incorrectly south of New Buffalo.   I borrowed my Mom's green-red-blue-black Bic pen to draw it!



I drew this map of Indianapolis in 1979 at age 13 using coloured pencils and see a few errors in it, too.   The Airport Expressway (continuation of Raymond Street) was not a freeway east of I-70 and there was not an interchange with Holt Rd.; I-70 does have an interchange with Harding St.; Lafayette Rd. should have curled under I-65 to its west between 71st St. and the then I-465 dog-leg instead of staying east of I-65; the proposed but never-built I-165 would have ended at the I-65/I-70 north split and not to the east as shown.   Otherwise, it isn't too bad of a map.

Northern half:

Southern half:


My first road scenes were based loosely on reality.   The one from 1974 at age 8 is of a fictitious junction of US-8 and STH 65 in Wisconsin.  It shows a made-up village of Hoover and "features" a four-lane US-8 having to stop for gravel surfaced Business 65.   Not sure what mainline STH 65 was doing here - I don't appear to have it turning either way onto US-8.



Later, I started drawing pictures to remember road scenes that seemed cool.   This one was drawn after coming home from a Tigers game in Detroit (1977) and was of M-14 (Plymouth Rd.) where it narrowed down from 5 to 2-lanes near Plymouth, Mich.   I don't recall 5-lane roads in Indiana at the time so that part was interesting as was Michigan's use of "Form 1 Lane" and "Pavement Narrows" signs to mark the right travel lane ending.   The other thing I tried to capture here were the remnants of the old white and black alternating center line on the 2-lane portion still visible on a double yellow stretch.



hbelkins

I didn't save them, but when I was young, I would draw an imaginary route using the road I lived on (KY 52) with sign assemblies, and all sorts of state routes, US routes, and Interstates. I would even have the road go near state lines so I could use route markers from the adjoining states (I only knew that Virginia used shields, West Virginia used squares, and Tennessee used triangles back then, as I hadn't been to any other neighbors at the time.) I'd use a combination of the standard square markers that we use now, and cutouts, as there were quite a few of them still in use back then.


Government would be tolerable if not for politicians and bureaucrats.

jemacedo9

This takes me back... :)

I wish I had saved that stuff.  My dad had brought home some triplicate paper once, and the yellow paper was perfect for diamond signs...so I cut that into little diamonds and created my own sign shop...same with the regular white paper.  Then I had a large cardboard box that I drew roads on and used my signs and my matchbox car collection. Finally...the older Legos, you could write on them with a pencil, so I used to make BGSs (but red since green Legos were rare). 

I did also draw hand maps, both real and imaginary. 

Max Rockatansky

I have road photos from the early 1990s that I started taking with my Dad on road trips.  The California album is always neat to look through but it is incredibly primitive by today's standards. 

I used to design freeways in my sand box when I 3-7 years old before we left Michigan.  I usually designed them after the Lodge Freeway since the sunken trench look was fascinating to me.  In high school I was pretty good at drafting urban landscapes and highway infrastructure which I used to pass a lot of classes. 

Hot Rod Hootenanny

My first hand-drawn map would have been when I was in Kindergarten (1980-81)
My first road photo wouldn't occur till after I discovered MTR, in 1998.
Please, don't sue Alex & Andy over what I wrote above

Roadgeekteen

I don't really handdraw maps, but my old rand mcnallys had interstates drawn on them (and railroad lines).
God-emperor of Alanland, king of all the goats and goat-like creatures

Current Interstate map I am making:

https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?hl=en&mid=1PEDVyNb1skhnkPkgXi8JMaaudM2zI-Y&ll=29.05778059819179%2C-82.48856825&z=5

US71

Like Alice I Try To Believe Three Impossible Things Before Breakfast

csw

My first road photos were taken in and around Princeton, IN, and Mt. Carmel, IL, during May 2017, the first summer I lived by myself. I've since deleted pretty much of all of them because they're poor quality - the oldest photo I still have is this one, taken on US 41 northbound, crossing the Ohio between Henderson, KY, and Evansville, IN.


3 years later I've got nearly 5000 photos from 23 states - thankfully, of much better quality. I think I'm an addict (help!).

paulthemapguy

The first road photo I took was a picture of the westbound junction marker for IL-89 on US6 in Spring Valley, IL (GSV-- it was a 36" route shield when I took the photo).  My mom and I went to the Starved Rock area and then just explored around after that, I believe.  It was late summer 2004, and I was 14.  That was the moment I decided to start collecting routes I traveled on by photographing the route markers.  I don't think I still have the photo anywhere.
Avatar is the last interesting highway I clinched.
My website! http://www.paulacrossamerica.com Now featuring all of Ohio!
My USA Shield Gallery https://flic.kr/s/aHsmHwJRZk
TM Clinches https://bit.ly/2UwRs4O

National collection status: 361/425. Only 64 route markers remain

Henry

Quote from: Roadgeekteen on April 14, 2020, 10:18:52 PM
I don't really handdraw maps, but my old rand mcnallys had interstates drawn on them (and railroad lines).
Glad to see I'm not the only one drawing freeways on old atlases!

I also did a hand-drawn map of Chicago that included the Crosstown proposal; it had already been cancelled by the time I graduated from grade school.
Go Cubs Go! Go Cubs Go! Hey Chicago, what do you say? The Cubs are gonna win today!

nexus73

As a child in the early Sixties, using stiff colored paper, magic markers and such let me make up a little city with streets that had center lines that sat on a medium sized top of a cabinet.  Maps hung on the wall to show Oregon and PDX.  Free maps were easy to get at service stations back then. 

Rick
US 101 is THE backbone of the Pacific coast from Bandon OR to Willits CA.  Industry, tourism and local traffic would be gone or severely crippled without it being in functioning condition in BOTH states.

noelbotevera

Quote from: US71 on April 16, 2020, 11:35:38 AM
First photos I remember taking were in Missouri.


Just gonna ignore the blood on this photo?


I still have the atlas that made me a roadgeek - the 2009 Pennsylvania State Road Atlas by American Maps. In 2011 or 2012 (7 or 8) I began to ride in the front seat of the car; from there I'd begin guiding my family on long trips and ultimately ended up on this forum in 2015.

Roadgeekteen

God-emperor of Alanland, king of all the goats and goat-like creatures

Current Interstate map I am making:

https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?hl=en&mid=1PEDVyNb1skhnkPkgXi8JMaaudM2zI-Y&ll=29.05778059819179%2C-82.48856825&z=5

nexus73

Quote from: Roadgeekteen on April 17, 2020, 01:58:41 PM
Quote from: US71 on April 16, 2020, 11:35:38 AM
First photos I remember taking were in Missouri.



I like those old Missouri shields.

Agreed.  Those are a lot cooler looking than a black/white shield.  State route markers used to have some real personality!  Who would have thought the 21st century would look so blah?  Give me beauty or give me death...just not a coronavirus one...LOL!

Rick
US 101 is THE backbone of the Pacific coast from Bandon OR to Willits CA.  Industry, tourism and local traffic would be gone or severely crippled without it being in functioning condition in BOTH states.

frankenroad

When I was in first grade (1961-62), I hand-drew a map of the US on lined school paper.  My mother was so impressed she sent it off to have it printed on a giant ash tray (I know that sounds wierd today, but back then almost every adult smoked).  I think she had three made - one for herself and one for each set of grandparents.    I think one of them might still be somewhere in storage.  I'll have to look.
2di's clinched: 44, 66, 68, 71, 72, 74, 78, 83, 84(east), 86(east), 88(east), 96

Highways I've lived on M-43, M-185, US-127

SoDakInterstateEnthusiast

"Please like, comment, and share on MySpace, not your space, you freak of nature"

hockeyjohn

Quote from: SoDakInterstateEnthusiast on May 04, 2020, 05:08:00 PM
Can this include shields/signs youve drawn?

Sure, why not?

US71

Like Alice I Try To Believe Three Impossible Things Before Breakfast

SoDakInterstateEnthusiast

Here we go. SD-45 Shield I drew I don't know when, but I was definitely younger.

"Please like, comment, and share on MySpace, not your space, you freak of nature"

Truvelo

Sadly the maps I drew in the early 80s were binned decades ago. I can still remember how they looked. They were towns with expressways full of cloverleafs and trumpets.
Speed limits limit life

SoDakInterstateEnthusiast

Oh, dug up some more out of my closet. This first one is an old US-12 shield.



This I-29 shield isn't as bad as it looks, just got very crumpled in storage.



This US-281 shield I drew with the wrong proportions - instead of being 2.5:2 it's 3:2. *sigh*

"Please like, comment, and share on MySpace, not your space, you freak of nature"

kphoger

Quote from: SoDakInterstateEnthusiast on May 04, 2020, 05:08:00 PM
Can this include shields/signs youve drawn?

I've been doing that since I was so young I don't even remember my age.  I would sit in the back seat with a pad of construction paper and a baggie of markers.
Keep right except to pass.  Yes.  You.
Visit scenic Orleans County, NY!
Male pronouns, please.

Quote from: Philip K. DickIf you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use them.

SoDakInterstateEnthusiast

Also can you all see the last three images I posted (US-12, US-281, and I-29 shields)? I can't see them but I embedded the links in BBCode and I have a feeling others can see them and theyre just not showing up for me.
"Please like, comment, and share on MySpace, not your space, you freak of nature"

NWI_Irish96

I wish I'd saved it, but when I was about 8 or 9, I mapped out an imaginary town. The primary roads were US 560 and IN 21, which met in the center of the town.  Two miles north of the town was Interstate 60. There was a BL-60 that angled in and out of town and ran concurrent with US 560 through town.  Two miles south of US 560 was a railroad running E-W.

The E-W streets north of US 560 were numbered 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc. The E-W streets south of US 560 were named alphabetically with trees Apple, Birch, Cedar, etc. The N-S streets east of US 560 were the Presidents in order Washington, Adams, Jefferson, etc. The N-S streets west of US 560 were the states in order of admission Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, etc. 

I don't remember exact locations, but the map had schools, town hall, police and fire stations, industrial park, and a library. I do remember that my house was at the corner of Indiana and US 560.
Indiana: counties 100%, highways 100%
Illinois: counties 100%, highways 61%
Michigan: counties 100%, highways 56%
Wisconsin: counties 86%, highways 23%

amroad17

One of the first road(geek) photos I took (in 1985) and still have is of a sign no longer standing.  It was a mileage sign: Syracuse 6/Watertown 79 on I-81 north of the Lafayette interchange.
I don't need a GPS.  I AM the GPS! (for family and friends)



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