Your planned 2016 Roadtrips

[rawmustard]

I decided yesterday to attend the St. Louis meet next weekend. I will likely use I-55 on the way out while either taking I-70 to Indiana or a less-direct I-64 so I can see the portions of I-69 which were completed since the last time I was in that corridor. At least the weather out there looks to be good, so hopefully the drive out and back will be pleasant.

[D-Dey65]

On my June 2016 road trip to NYC, which I just got back from last night, I found that the BGSs at 48th Street/Rocky Hill Road and I-295 were replaced. I don't remember if that had button copy before, but it's not there now.

I also took an additional road trip to northern Westchester County and Brewster, using parts of the Taconic State Parkway, Saw Mill River Parkway and I-684. The two rest areas along I-684, which are encouraged for the use of drivers who wanted to text looked surprisingly accommodating for a New York rest area that isn't on the thruway. If I didn't know any better, I'd think I was on I-95 in the Carolinas or something like that.

Also on the way back, I noticed a disturbing dip in the side of the road on southbound I-95 between Exits 8 and 5 in South Carolina. I hope that's not the formation of a sinkhole there.


Not planning anymore big road trips for the rest of the year right now.

[Max Rockatansky]

I'd like to head up to Lassen Peak maybe via CA 1 north of San Francisco...  I "COULD" do it this weekend....but....yeah rather save it up for a weekend or a couple days off that don't include a holiday...maybe later this month or early August.

[swbrotha100]

This summer, family planning a road trip from Arizona to the Northeast US (New York or New England). Partly work related, partly to get out of the desert heat. Last summer we went from AZ to North Dakota.

[US 41]

To Oscar and Signgeek:

Hopefully I can still go up to North Dakota. I'm not sure I'm going to be able to get the time off work yet or not. Summer's are our busy season. I might just have to take 4 days off and go up to Ontario instead. Regardless I plan on going to Canada sometime within the next two months. Canadian weather in the summer is very delightful compared to muggy hot Indiana.

To Kphoger:

Knowing how I am I'll probably end up trying both routes (via Eagle Pass and via Colombia).

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EDIT 7/7/16: The North Dakota / Saskatchewan trip is now officially cancelled. I will be be traveling to Ontario via Sault Ste Marie next month instead. I'm planning on clinching ON 129 and then after that whatever happens, happens. I can easily get 4 days off in a row to do this trip. After some reconsideration I decided I didn't really want to take that much time (7-10 days) off of work at this time. This winter I'll be able to do a weeklong road trip without too much concern. (I work a part time job and the summers are when I make most of my money and all of my vacation is unpaid.) Right now I'm considering driving to Zacatecas, but I may do a trip to New Mexico / Chihuahua instead. I still have plenty of time to think that over.

[kphoger]

Well, we just returned yesterday from our trip to México, and I thought I'd share some pictures from the trip.  The first several pictures are to give you an idea of what we were doing, and then the last several are driving pictures.

Our family of five, another family of three (including a baby), and one other lady from our church (but not her husband, as this would not have been his kind of travel) went on the trip.  We left first thing on Saturday July 30 and returned yesterday evening.

In February, we sold our 2004 Dodge Grand Caravan (204k miles) and bought a 2007 Nissan Pathfinder with 4WD.  Our friend Adam sold his 1999 GMC Sierra pickup (288k miles) three weeks before we left and bought a 2005 Nissan Pathfinder with 4WD.  We did so specifically with trips like this in mind.  Adam also bought after-market skid plates and bolted them to the bottom to protect the undercarriage; I didn't do that, so I had to be a little more careful than he during the trip.

Total miles on the trip odometer:  2390
Total time in the car:  61½ hours

Our Pathfinder.  Both vehicles had these old Sears X-Cargo boxes on top, and we were still packed to the gills on the way down.  Adam took his off while were in México and didn't need quite so much space; I kept mine on the whole time.


My wife and three sons.  Josiah is super happy because we'd just told them we were stopping for lunch on the second day of the return trip.  My kids are road trip champs!


Our ministry base was Parras, Coahuila.  But our actual destination was a village named La Constancia, further south into the desert.  Here is our ministry partner Emigdio (and me) along the way to La Constancia.  His family and two other members of the church in Parras led the way in their ancient van.  Having mapped out the route in detail ahead of time, I think there was only one spot where I wasn't sure which way to go.


This is a typical street in La Constancia, which has a population of between 200 and 300 people.  Mud brick construction, lots of dirt and rocks and cactus.


Here's the house where we led a VBS (vacation bible school) for three days.  We hauled all our food and water and other supplies down from Parras, but we had electricity with which to cook.  Powdered Gatorade is a godsend!  Stick some spoonfuls in a 20-liter jug of water and shake a while; it was a hit with everyone.  No running water means flushing the toilet with a bucket, brushing your teeth from a cup, and bathing with a bucket and small pail (we Americans actually went without bathing the whole time).


Here we are getting ready for craft time.  My class (in the foreground, ages 8—14) ran about 20 kids per day.  The little kids' class (in the background under the tarp) ran about 20 as well.  Unlike VBS here in the USA, adults turn out for it too; the youth/adult class (behind the camera) had at least 30 each day.  If you think about it numerically, we had one-fourth the town at the house.


Five of our six tents.


The kids slept great.  The adults, not so much, because the donkeys kept braying through the night.  Good grief, donkeys are annoying!  Honestly, the kids did better at being in the desert than we adults did.


We went the long way around from Parras to La Constancia, because the roads are safer.  It's a total of 102 km, but only 40 km are paved.  Due to the rough roads, it was about a four-hour drive each way.  At the end of our time there, Adam's family and our family decided to see how much of the short way we could do, directly through the mountains.  We got to see why Emigdio didn't want to try it in the van, what with the tight turns and steep grades.

Here's a very typical view of the road.  Just a two-track through the desert.  I enjoyed the rocky, gravel sections much more than the rutted, dirt sections.


Adam coming up a hill.


The road behind us.


Don't go over the edge!  And don't meet any oncoming vehicles...


Sometimes the road was rather tricky.


And sometimes the road was a lot of fun!!


And sometimes it was easier to avoid the road altogether and use the creek bed instead.


This was one of the best views along the way.  Emigdio, being a lover of all things agricultural, amazed us every so often by picking fruit from cactus during potty breaks and offering it to us to try.


The short way down, directly through the mountains, afforded the best views however, and I'm so glad we did part of it just for fun after returning to Parras.  (Some of the pictures above are actually from the short way, but I saved the best for last.)  Here we are almost to the top of the sierra.


I mean, seriously, are there any better views than this in all of México?


By this point it was time to turn around and pick somebody up in town.  So I said:  "Here's the part we're not going to do!  Let's find a spot to turn around and head back."  Well, there was no good spot to turn around until several switchbacks down the mountain.  Nothing but loose rocks for pavement, a mountain on one side and a sheer expanse on the other, hairpin turns...


Finally we found a hairpin with room enough to do a three-point turn and head back up again.  Whew!


Good-bye, México!  See you next year!

[US 41]

Looks awesome. Those pictures remind me a lot of when I went to Boquillas. They had a hundred donkeys there too although I slept amazing that night. We drove on gravel roads and down in dried up creek beds near Boquillas too. Boquillas does have running water (surprisingly) and the hot spring I swam in for hours was a good enough bath for me.

How was the drive down to Parras? Same as usual?

I also have to admit, I always imagined you being a lot older than what you appear to be.

[kphoger]

Looks awesome. Those pictures remind me a lot of when I went to Boquillas. They had a hundred donkeys there too although I slept amazing that night. We drove on gravel roads and down in dried up creek beds near Boquillas too. Boquillas does have running water (surprisingly) and the hot spring I swam in for hours was a good enough bath for me.

How was the drive down to Parras? Same as usual?

I also have to admit, I always imagined you being a lot older than what you appear to be.

Technically, there was water at the house. In lieu of pipes and faucets, there was a hose that popped up from underground in the front yard with a tap at the end. Under the end was a large tub. There were also two other large vessels of water, although I'm not entirely sure how those get filled. But no running water inside the house. Going to the bathroom meant filling a bucket from a vessel outside, hauling it inside with you, then emptying the bucket into the toilet bowl to flush when you were done. You could rinse your hands off in the water outside, but hand sanitizer was a requirement afterwards. We were all a combination of sweat, dust, and sanitizer by the end of the three days.

There were donkeys just probably twenty yards away from our tents. When one would start braying, invariably at least one other donkey within earshot would bray back. Combine that with a slow-leaking air mattress, roosters, and a distinct lack of body fat to keep me warm at night...

Driving to Parras was great. We were smuggling quite a lot of clothes over the border, having mixed them in with our own clothes and hiding them inside blankets inside space bags and that sort of thing. The border agent barely even looked at our stuff and didn't open the cargo boxes at all. Coah-114 appears to have had a lot of its potholes filled in. With two kids in diapers and one breastfed exclusively, the trip down and back was very smooth. Our friend's baby did have two amazing diaper blowouts. One required disassembling and laundering the car seat later, and there other somehow ended up on her head. I remain a huge fan of crossing Texas on US-277 and the border at Del Rio.

How old did you think I was? I'm 35 years old.

[US 41]

How old did you think I was? I'm 35 years old.

I imagined you being around 45 for some odd reason.

BTW how old do you think I am? 

[Max Rockatansky]

God that looks so much like the desert roads I used to go off-roading on near the Goldwater Range out in Arizona.  Those were some of the best trips that I used to take camping in the winter time...well it was until being near the border got kind of dangerous.  Nice pics though of the road and vistas.

[kphoger]

The flora reminds me a lot of southern Arizona and southern California: ocotillo, prickly pear, lechugilla, century plants, mezquite. The roads remind me of backcountry Big Bend: rocky, rutted, cattle guards, 20 mph max.

BTW, 41, I imagine you being around 18 years old. I had your same reaction upon meeting Jonathan Winkler: where's the old erudite gentleman?

[US 41]

The flora reminds me a lot of southern Arizona and southern California: ocotillo, prickly pear, lechugilla, century plants, mezquite. The roads remind me of backcountry Big Bend: rocky, rutted, cattle guards, 20 mph max.

BTW, 41, I imagine you being around 18 years old. I had your same reaction upon meeting Jonathan Winkler: where's the old erudite gentleman?

You are correct. I'll be turning 20 later this month.

[vegas1962]

I am not much of a roadtripper any more, but soon I'll be taking a long weekend trip to Kansas City for a ballgame.  I'm flying into KC on Saturday and renting a car for the weekend.  On the non-game day, I'll be in the car and knocking off Kansas and Iowa from the list of states I haven't been to (and maybe work in the corner of Nebraska since my wife has never been there).  Just need to plot out a loop to get it done....I'm sure I-29 will be prominently involved.  Any suggestions from folks who know the area (decent and/or scenic roads, a good lunch spot, etc.) are greatly appreciated.

[kphoger]

I am not much of a roadtripper any more, but soon I'll be taking a long weekend trip to Kansas City for a ballgame.  I'm flying into KC on Saturday and renting a car for the weekend.  On the non-game day, I'll be in the car and knocking off Kansas and Iowa from the list of states I haven't been to (and maybe work in the corner of Nebraska since my wife has never been there).  Just need to plot out a loop to get it done....I'm sure I-29 will be prominently involved.  Any suggestions from folks who know the area (decent and/or scenic roads, a good lunch spot, etc.) are greatly appreciated.

The best reasonably priced Chinese restaurant I've been to in a very long time is the Red Dragon House, downtown KCMO on 8th Street just east of Broadway.

[US 41]

To Kphoger:

I just thought of something I meant to ask you. Have they started construction on MX 57 in Monclova yet?

[kphoger]

To Kphoger:

I just thought of something I meant to ask you. Have they started construction on MX 57 in Monclova yet?

They've redone the intersection with Francisco Madero to include a monument in the center.  Other than that, I don't believe any new work has begun yet.  From Skyscrapercity, I gather that several projects have been announced and/or funded, but I didn't see any other projects actually underway.

[US 41]

To Kphoger:

I just thought of something I meant to ask you. Have they started construction on MX 57 in Monclova yet?

They've redone the intersection with Francisco Madero to include a monument in the center.  Other than that, I don't believe any new work has begun yet.  From Skyscrapercity, I gather that several projects have been announced and/or funded, but I didn't see any other projects actually underway.

Thanks for the update. I'm still considering driving down there this winter. I'm still undecided on whether or not I will though.

[tckma]

My wife wants to go visit a friend of hers in Houston; we would be driving from Maryland. 

This would be a better-planned version of a road trip we took about a year and a half ago on which Houston was kind of an afterthought.  The robotics team I volunteered with had made it to the World Championships in 2015, which are in St. Louis.  So we made plans to go there and my wife to come with, stopping in Chicago on the way back home.  We drove to St. Louis using I-68 to I-79 to I-64, stopping overnight in Kentucky, wherein we decided to make a random impromptu trip to one of the bourbon distilleries in the area; we chose Maker's Mark, but didn't go on the tour as we didn't end up having time.  Then we went on to St. Louis via I-64.

Something happened where we ended up not having enough money for the hotel in Chicago, I think?  I don't remember.  For some reason we cancelled Chicago and drove to Houston, where we stayed for a week -- We stayed in a hotel, so the budget couldn't have been a factor.  I don't remember why this was a last minute decision.  We took some desolate US highway through Missouri and most of Arkansas, picking up I-30 in the Little Rock area, driving to Texarkana, and taking another set of US and Texas state routes down to Houston (mostly at night; we arrived at 2 AM after leaving St. Louis around 8 AM that morning).

Then at the end, we drove back to Maryland via I-10 to I-59; it was a drive that was taking MUCH longer than expected -- we'd had a hotel reservation somewhere in Alabama, but as it got later and later at night we changed that hotel reservation to one in Hattiesburg, MS, a night I got for free from my hotel rewards points.  As a result of this, we ended up taking a detour to Raleigh (I-20 to I-85) so we could spend a night with my father-in-law and not spend more money on a hotel, and then back home via the usual, boring I-85 to I-95.

I think if we end up making a trip to Houston again, number one, it will be just to Houston and back, since it will likely be in the fall and robotics doesn't therefore enter the picture, and, number two, we'll have a better idea of how long the trip is and where to plan overnight hotel stops along the way.  I'd like to take I-81 through Virginia and Tennessee; but I think my wife wants to stop in Kentucky again and actually do one of the bourbon distillery tours instead of merely hanging out and buying booze and trinkets in the gift shop.

[kphoger]

My wife wants to go visit a friend of hers in Houston; we would be driving from Maryland. 

This would be a better-planned version of a road trip we took about a year and a half ago on which Houston was kind of an afterthought.  The robotics team I volunteered with had made it to the World Championships in 2015, which are in St. Louis.  So we made plans to go there and my wife to come with, stopping in Chicago on the way back home.  We drove to St. Louis using I-68 to I-79 to I-64, stopping overnight in Kentucky, wherein we decided to make a random impromptu trip to one of the bourbon distilleries in the area; we chose Maker's Mark, but didn't go on the tour as we didn't end up having time.  Then we went on to St. Louis via I-64.

Something happened where we ended up not having enough money for the hotel in Chicago, I think?  I don't remember.  For some reason we cancelled Chicago and drove to Houston, where we stayed for a week -- We stayed in a hotel, so the budget couldn't have been a factor.  I don't remember why this was a last minute decision.  We took some desolate US highway through Missouri and most of Arkansas, picking up I-30 in the Little Rock area, driving to Texarkana, and taking another set of US and Texas state routes down to Houston (mostly at night; we arrived at 2 AM after leaving St. Louis around 8 AM that morning).

Then at the end, we drove back to Maryland via I-10 to I-59; it was a drive that was taking MUCH longer than expected -- we'd had a hotel reservation somewhere in Alabama, but as it got later and later at night we changed that hotel reservation to one in Hattiesburg, MS, a night I got for free from my hotel rewards points.  As a result of this, we ended up taking a detour to Raleigh (I-20 to I-85) so we could spend a night with my father-in-law and not spend more money on a hotel, and then back home via the usual, boring I-85 to I-95.

I think if we end up making a trip to Houston again, number one, it will be just to Houston and back, since it will likely be in the fall and robotics doesn't therefore enter the picture, and, number two, we'll have a better idea of how long the trip is and where to plan overnight hotel stops along the way.  I'd like to take I-81 through Virginia and Tennessee; but I think my wife wants to stop in Kentucky again and actually do one of the bourbon distillery tours instead of merely hanging out and buying booze and trinkets in the gift shop.

Distillery tours (and winery, brewery) are really cool, and they definitely make the visit more worth it than just doing a tasting and buying stuff in the gift shop.  On our honeymoon, my wife and I took a day trip to the José Cuervo distillery in Tequila (Jalisco), and it was one of the highlights from our trip.

[noelbotevera]

I want to go to New York City on December 31st to see New Years 2017. Probably not gonna happen.

[1995hoo]

We made our trip to Florida from July 16 to 31. Total distance 2,908.0 miles. Took the direct route down I-95. Intended to come home via I-75->I-675->I-285->I-85->US-29, but a traffic jam on I-85 led to a detour via back roads to Eatonton, then up past Athens to I-85. The direct route home is 860 miles and the way we went came to 1,130. Finished off I-75 in Florida, the mainline of the Turnpike, the Bee Line, Florida's x75s, the new FL-9B, and I-475 past Macon. Started whittling away at portions of US-41, but I'm realistic and I know I'll never finish that road. I've been to the other end in Copper Harbor, at least.

We did encounter a rather scary situation in Georgia:

[D-Dey65]

I want to go to New York City on December 31st to see New Years 2017. Probably not gonna happen.

I'd be just fine with going in late-November and jumping on the old Arnines they bring out every Christmas shopping season. Hell, I 'd be just as happy going there for the opening of the Second Avenue Subway. I have as much of a chance as you to do either one.

[jwolfer]

We made our trip to Florida from July 16 to 31. Total distance 2,908.0 miles. Took the direct route down I-95. Intended to come home via I-75->I-675->I-285->I-85->US-29, but a traffic jam on I-85 led to a detour via back roads to Eatonton, then up past Athens to I-85. The direct route home is 860 miles and the way we went came to 1,130. Finished off I-75 in Florida, the mainline of the Turnpike, the Bee Line, Florida's x75s, the new FL-9B, and I-475 past Macon. Started whittling away at portions of US-41, but I'm realistic and I know I'll never finish that road. I've been to the other end in Copper Harbor, at least.

We did encounter a rather scary situation in Georgia:

What was the scary situation?

[1995hoo]

We made our trip to Florida from July 16 to 31. Total distance 2,908.0 miles. Took the direct route down I-95. Intended to come home via I-75->I-675->I-285->I-85->US-29, but a traffic jam on I-85 led to a detour via back roads to Eatonton, then up past Athens to I-85. The direct route home is 860 miles and the way we went came to 1,130. Finished off I-75 in Florida, the mainline of the Turnpike, the Bee Line, Florida's x75s, the new FL-9B, and I-475 past Macon. Started whittling away at portions of US-41, but I'm realistic and I know I'll never finish that road. I've been to the other end in Copper Harbor, at least.

We did encounter a rather scary situation in Georgia:

What was the scary situation?

The guy driving on the wrong side running people off the road and blowing a stop sign in front of an oncoming tractor-trailer. The camera makes objects look further away than they are.

[noelbotevera]

I want to go to New York City on December 31st to see New Years 2017. Probably not gonna happen.

I'd be just fine with going in late-November and jumping on the old Arnines they bring out every Christmas shopping season. Hell, I 'd be just as happy going there for the opening of the Second Avenue Subway. I have as much of a chance as you to do either one.

Second Avenue Subway sure isn't opening in December of course.