Columbus, Ohio road meet: September 30, 2017

Started by Nikolai, March 25, 2017, 04:51:50 PM

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Your preferred meet dates?

Saturday, September 30
5 (41.7%)
Sunday, October 1
2 (16.7%)
Saturday, October 14
6 (50%)
Sunday, October 15
4 (33.3%)
Saturday, October 21
4 (33.3%)
Sunday, October 22
5 (41.7%)

Total Members Voted: 12

Voting closed: June 23, 2017, 04:51:50 PM

Hot Rod Hootenanny

Quote from: hbelkins on September 24, 2017, 08:56:46 PM
Quote from: Hot Rod Hootenanny on September 16, 2017, 10:20:57 PM
That said, if timing is of the essence, just spend the night in Grove City. It'll be a twenty to thirty minute drive up to Polaris/Westerville in the morning with no potential issues along I-71.

I opted to reserve in Grove City for a variety of reasons. But I'll probably come up 315 instead of staying on 71. I've driven both in the past and prefer 315.

Planned route is US 23 north to the state route that turns left off 23 somewhere south of I-270 (665, I think) to 104 to Stringtown Road. I can't foresee any real advantage to taking 104 all the way north out of Portsmouth. That route was recommended to me several years ago as an alternative to 23, for reasons long-forgotten, and I ended up getting a speeding ticket on 104.

Having driven 665 just a couple of months back, I found myself (after 5 PM, on a Wednesday) sitting in gridlock approaching 104 (4-way traffic signal with no left turn lanes).
Just saying......
Please, don't sue Alex & Andy over what I wrote above


Nikolai

Only a few days to go. If you're planning to attend, use the Facebook event to RSVP, or message me here if you're not a Facebook user.

Hot Rod Hootenanny

Weather for Central Ohio this weekend....
Friday; High of 70 degrees with clouds (20% chance of rain midday)
Saturday; Morning low of 46, high of 68 (Shirtsleeve weather) Partly Sunny
Sunday; Morning low of 50, high of 70, Full sun (well feel warmer than it actually is)
Please, don't sue Alex & Andy over what I wrote above

US71

Quote from: Hot Rod Hootenanny on September 28, 2017, 07:30:47 PM


Saturday; Morning low of 46, high of 68 (Shirtsleeve weather) Partly Sunny


All my shirts have sleeves. Or do you mean long sleeves?  ;)
Like Alice I Try To Believe Three Impossible Things Before Breakfast

Alps

Quote from: US71 on September 28, 2017, 08:42:22 PM
Quote from: Hot Rod Hootenanny on September 28, 2017, 07:30:47 PM


Saturday; Morning low of 46, high of 68 (Shirtsleeve weather) Partly Sunny


All my shirts have sleeves. Or do you mean long sleeves?  ;)
Just the sleeves.

7/8


bandit957

Might as well face it, pooing is cool

Hot Rod Hootenanny

Please, don't sue Alex & Andy over what I wrote above

Nikolai


US71

Like Alice I Try To Believe Three Impossible Things Before Breakfast

Brandon

Quote from: bandit957 on October 01, 2017, 10:14:50 AM
How many bunker blasts were detected?

Only one, but it came from the direction of Highland Heights, KY.  It was big enough to be smelled as far north as Columbus.

Does that satisfy your fetish?
"If you think this has a happy ending, you haven't been paying attention." - Ramsay Bolton

"Symbolic of his struggle against reality." - Reg

hbelkins

#86
Thought I'd report on my trip, since I was finally able to make a meet this year.

Drove up Friday afternoon using, basically,the Mountain Parkway, KY 205, US 460, KY 7, I-64, KY 67 and US 23 to get to the Columbus area. I couldn't really tell how much progress has been made on the northern/western terminus of the Portsmouth bypass since my last visit there a couple of months ago. I do know that I was extremely happy to get out of Portsmouth. I saw two wrecks and three other near-misses.

To avoid I-270, I took OH 665 to OH 104, then intended to use Stringtown Road to get to my motel for the night, but Stringtown was closed, so the detour was White Road and Buckeye Parkway. Traffic was a mess on Stringtown, as there is some sort of construction project at the I-71 interchange.

I was able to sleep in a bit Saturday morning since I was just across town from the meet location. I got there by using I-71 and OH 315 to I-270, so as to avoid the I-70/71 mess downtown. There's some button copy left approaching the I-71/I-70/OH 315 interchange and just beyond it on 315. Once I got to I-270, I circled around to I-71 and then OH 161 so I could see the oval error sign on US 23 that the meet tour was supposed to pass by, but I would have departed before it got there. From there, back to I-71 to the meet location. Exiting from northbound I-71 to the Polaris/Ikea interchange is a bit tricky because of the weave from entering I-270 traffic and exiting traffic.

Lunch at 101 Beer Kitchen was good, but pricey ($13 for a burger and fries? Ouch.). It was good to see everyone at the meet, most of whom I already knew. I drove solo on the tour because I planned to depart early to make my destination before dark.

I followed as far as the old OH 762 Darby Creek bridge, and afterwards I set out for Steubenville. I returned to I-71, then took I-270 around to I-70 east. Nothing really to report along that route, although the three-lane segment between Buckeye Lake and Zanesville seems a little odd to me as to why that section is three lanes but none of the rest of the route is.

Google indicated that the faster route (by three minutes) was to take I-70 to I-470 to OH 7, but the shorter route was I-70 to I-77 to US 22. I opted for the latter route, which I had driven westbound more than 10 years ago. I did not really remember much of it. I'm curious if there have ever been any plans considered or under discussion to widen/relocate US 22 between I-77 and Cadiz to complete the route to Pittsburgh.

My room was in Steubenville, but first I crossed the river to hit the Weirton Sheetz. To my great surprise, Sheetz wasn't the gas price leader in that area. Several of the stations on WV 2 in the downtown area were 10 cents cheaper than Sheetz.

I had two goals for Sunday. One was to complete all crossings of the Ohio River between West Virginia and Ohio, and the other was to clinch the signed West Virginia primary state route system. Knowing that OH 7 is generally a faster route to use to parallel the river than is WV 2, given the number of towns each route passes through, I opted to mostly use OH 7. I had to go north to East Liverpool to cross the Newell Toll Bridge. The price listed for passenger vehicles was 75 cents, but the collector gave me a ticket back instead of a quarter when I handed him a dollar bill. Once I crossed into West Virginia, I had to head north through Chester to US 30 to get back to OH 7. The Ohio random taxers were working OH 7 pretty hard on Sunday morning.

I passed through Steubenville, having crossed both bridges there previously (but regretting never having crossed the old Fort Steuben Bridge before it was torn down) and headed to Bridgeport. The old Aetnaville bridge is completely closed now, even to pedestrian traffic, so I did not get to use it. I needed to cross the old Wheeling suspension bridge, which I had never done before. I used the US 40/US 250 bridge to cross to Wheeling Island, then crossed the suspension bridge, circled the block in Wheeling, crossed it back, and then went back into Ohio.

The only bridge that I could remember having crossed between Wheeling and Williamstown (or Bridgeport and Marietta, if you prefer) was the New Martinsville bridge. (Not including the old Benwood-Bellaire bridge, which is closed but still stands sans an approach on the Ohio side). So I crossed at Moundsville and back to Ohio, then crossed at New Martinsville and then back into Ohio. My next crossing was the Sistersville Ferry. My timing was fortuitous. Sunday was the last day that the ferry was to be operating this year, as it was closing for the season after Oct. 1. I rode the ferry then took WV 2 to St. Marys and crossed that bridge. Knowing that WV 2 is a more direct route to I-77 than is OH 7, I decided to cross back into West Virginia after having clinched the crossings.

I had two routes I needed to finish to clinch West Virginia's signed primary system. To get to WV 53, I opted to take WV 14 from Mineral Wells to Elizabeth, drove WV 53 end-to-end, and then backtracked. It probably would have been faster to take WV 47 to WV 53 to eliminate the backtrack, but I had driven that section of WV 47 a few weeks ago and hadn't been on that section of WV 14 for several years. Then I took WV 5 through Grantsville and Glenville to Burnsville. When I reached the I-79 interchange at Burnsville,that completed my clinch of West Virginia's signed state primary system. I still have three unsigned primary routes left to go for a total clinch (Alt. WV 3 in Whitesville, Alt. WV 16 in Welch and Alt. WV 61 in Mt. Hope) but those are in reasonable proximity to each other and to my home, so I will get them before too terribly long).

I had reserved a room in Weston for Sunday night, so I made the short drive north on I-79.

Monday was a direct route home via I-79, I-64, US 23, US 460 and the Mountain Parkway. The Sheetz at Weston has several Tesla charging stations, which I found to be a bit of a surprise. I can't imagine I-79 getting a lot of Tesla traffic. Also, the Sheetz there was selling gas seven cents more expensive than the Walmart across the street. There have been several instances lately where I've found Sheetz to be significantly more expensive than its competitors, which is unusual.

I did make one stop at a place where I usually don't, however. That's the Elkview exit on I-79, just north of Charleston. My bladder insisted that I needed to pull off the interstate. This is the place where the shopping center's lone access point (a bridge) was washed out several months ago, causing the businesses there to be closed. The new bridge there opened earlier this year, and just about all of the businesses have reopened -- including, believe it or not, a Kmart that appeared to be thriving. This place always fascinated me. It's out in the middle of nowhere and the shopping center has a hotel, several restaurants, a Kroger and a bunch of other stores. This Kmart would have been prime for closing in the last couple of rounds of store closures, since it was not operating, but it reopened and the parking lot was well populated with cars.

Great progress is being made on both segments of the Mountain Parkway reconstruction project.


Government would be tolerable if not for politicians and bureaucrats.



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