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[paulthemapguy]

Ey erryone it's ya' boy Pauly.  I got goons to see all ovah the nation.  And by goons I mean....roads....peh

This is a thread for talking about upcoming travels.  I may dredge this up later to talk another of my trips, instead of starting another whole new topic, just to keep the place a bit more tidy.

In August I'll be taking a two-week trip to drive west to the Pacific Ocean, via Theodore Roosevelt NP, Glacier NP, the Columbia River Gorge, and returning via Yellowstone.  The route is as you may predict, except in a couple places:

-From Theodore Roosevelt NP, we head west to Glendive and cut north to US2 at Wolf Point, MT.  From there we follow US2 west to Columbia Falls.
-From Yellowstone NP, we use US16 east to reach I-90.
-The west coast is reached at Seaside, OR.  We will see the west ends of both US30 and US26 in the process.
We will clinch almost all of I-84 and I-94, plus all of I-86.

[A.J. Bertin]

You should post a report from your trip!

[paulthemapguy]

Day 1:  Drove to Fargo from SW Chicago Suburbs.  I-90 was riddled with construction, and, because of all the dimwitted Chicagoland people going to Wisconsin Dells, the road was also riddled with crashes.  I counted five.  FIVE WHOLE ACCIDENTS WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU ILLINOIS DIPSHITS anyways we took I-90 to Madison, then I-94 to Fargo, bypassing the Twin Cities on I-694 along the way.


WI-I-94X059W by Paul Drives, on Flickr                   IMG_4294 by Paul Drives, on Flickr

Day 2:  Drove across North Dakota to the other side, in order to visit Theodore Roosevelt National Park.  Stayed the night in Glendive, MT, where a huge lightning storm knocked the power out at about 11:30pm.  Right when I wanted to go to sleep.  Great.


IMG_4394 by Paul Drives, on Flickr                    IMG_4541 by Paul Drives, on Flickr

Day 3:  Drove across most of Montana via Circle and Wolf Point, then US2 from Wolf Point all the way to Columbia Falls.


IMG_4608 by Paul Drives, on Flickr                   IMG_4754 by Paul Drives, on Flickr

Day 4-5:  Glacier National Park


IMG_4778 by Paul Drives, on Flickr

Day 6:  Went from Columbia Falls to I-90 at St. Regis, then west to US395 south to the Tri-Cities.  Since the I-82 bridge was closed over the Columbia River, we took a detour east on US12 to US730 SW to I-82.  Then I-84 west to the Hood River area in the Columbia River Gorge.


IMG_4831 by Paul Drives, on Flickr                         IMG_4982 by Paul Drives, on Flickr

Day 7:  We reached the ocean!  WA-14 (former US830) west to I-5 north to Longview, where we crossed the Columbia River back into Oregon to reach Astoria.  We went to the beach at Astoria, then drove down to Seaside and US26 east to Portland.


IMG_5103 by Paul Drives, on Flickr                     IMG_5121 by Paul Drives, on Flickr

Day 8:  We spent a day in Portland.


IMG_5150 by Paul Drives, on Flickr                    IMG_5185 by Paul Drives, on Flickr
 
Day 9:  We checked out Panther Creek Falls near Carson, WA, then we went to Mount Hood.


IMG_5249 by Paul Drives, on Flickr                     IMG_5266 by Paul Drives, on Flickr

Day 10:  I-84 east to I-86 east, ending in Pocatello.


256 US197 by Paul Drives, on Flickr                        IMG_5407 by Paul Drives, on Flickr

Day 11: I-15 north to US26 east to ID-31/WY-22, ending up in Jackson, WY for lunch.  Then we saw some of Grand Teton National Park.


260 I-86W by Paul Drives, on Flickr                  264 US189 by Paul Drives, on Flickr

Day 12:  Staying in Cody, we saw some of the south half of Yellowstone.  Yellowstone is a constant traffic jam that's impassable because of all the ignorant tourists that would rather drive into a ditch than take their eyes off a commonplace coyote.  We saw about half of what we wanted to see.


IMG_5550 by Paul Drives, on Flickr                     IMG_5586 by Paul Drives, on Flickr

Day 13:  Tired of the bullshit in the south half of Yellowstone, we took an alternate route to the north side of Yellowstone using WY-296, which is now my avatar since we clinched it.  WY-296 is a very beautiful drive.  We got held up by buffalo 4 different time going west into the park.  We saw Mammoth Hot Springs, which was also exceedingly crowded.  We went back to Cody having seen very little, once again.


IMG_5641 by Paul Drives, on Flickr                  IMG_5648 by Paul Drives, on Flickr

Day 14:  We started the drive home.  US16 east to I-90, ending in Mitchell, SD.


268 US310 by Paul Drives, on Flickr                    IMG_5709 by Paul Drives, on Flickr


271 I-25 by Paul Drives, on Flickr                    273 US85 by Paul Drives, on Flickr
 
Day 15:  I-90 sucked in Wisconsin, so we took a route through Iowa back to the Joliet area.  This was mainly I-35 south to IA-27 to I-80.


278 SD-19 by Paul Drives, on Flickr                    281 MN-23 by Paul Drives, on Flickr

[Brandon]

Day 1:  Drove to Fargo from SW Chicago Suburbs.  I-90 was riddled with construction, and, because of all the dimwitted Chicagoland people going to Wisconsin Dells, the road was also riddled with crashes.  I counted five.  FIVE WHOLE ACCIDENTS WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU ILLINOIS DIPSHITS anyways we took I-90 to Madison, then I-94 to Fargo, bypassing the Twin Cities on I-694 along the way.

There's a reason the Cheeseheads call them "FIBs".

Day 15:  I-90 sucked in Wisconsin, so we took a route through Iowa back to the Joliet area.  This was mainly I-35 south to IA-27 to I-80.

Just be careful of the two speed cameras in Cedar Rapids on I-380.  I had a coworker who got caught by one of them several years ago.

[A.J. Bertin]

Thanks so much for sharing your trip report, Paul! I enjoyed reading it and following along on Google Maps to see where all you went.

The beginning of your route was very similar to the route my husband and I took a year ago to Yellowstone and the Tetons (I-94 across Minnesota, North Dakota, and part of Montana). We took I-94 until its western terminus and then followed I-90 to Bozeman and then headed south toward Yellowstone. I've never been to Glacier National Park but I would love to someday. I love Yellowstone and the Tetons, but I'm sorry to hear that you didn't enjoy Yellowstone because of all the crowds and the slow traffic getting through the park.

When you were describing your route in Washington, I had to look up which cities the Tri-Cities were. I've never been to that part of Washington before.

I took a look at your Flickr photos too and will say that it was nice seeing all the scenes from around Oregon. I'm geeked about the fact that my husband and I will be in Oregon in just TWO DAYS!!!

[paulthemapguy]

My first trip to Yellowstone in 2009 used I-90 to Bozeman and then US191 south to West Yellowstone: the South Dakota version of your route.  A wildfire is burning right by US191 NW of Yellowstone--so it's a good thing we didn't take that route this time.

Our journey through eastern WA and OR on day 6 was the hottest day of my frickin life.  Eastern WA and OR, to many people's surprise, is a desert.  The temperature stayed above 100 degrees from Spokane all the way to The Dalles (the car thermometer topped out at 109°F!).  Shout out to my car for keeping its cool all the way through lol.

[A.J. Bertin]

Our journey through eastern WA and OR on day 6 was the hottest day of my frickin life.  Eastern WA and OR, to many people's surprise, is a desert.  The temperature stayed above 100 degrees from Spokane all the way to The Dalles (the car thermometer topped out at 109°F!).  Shout out to my car for keeping its cool all the way through lol.

Wow!!

[US 89]

Our journey through eastern WA and OR on day 6 was the hottest day of my frickin life.  Eastern WA and OR, to many people's surprise, is a desert.  The temperature stayed above 100 degrees from Spokane all the way to The Dalles (the car thermometer topped out at 109°F!).  Shout out to my car for keeping its cool all the way through lol.

I don’t doubt that it was hot, but I find 109 hard to believe. Car thermometers tend to run high in the summer: I once got a reading of 122°F in Salt Lake City, where the all-time record is 107.

The other important thing to note is that when it gets that hot in the west, it’s typically a dry heat. 100 degrees in Chicago is going to feel a lot hotter than 100 in Spokane, simply because the humidity/dewpoint in Chicago is higher.

[Brandon]

Our journey through eastern WA and OR on day 6 was the hottest day of my frickin life.  Eastern WA and OR, to many people's surprise, is a desert.  The temperature stayed above 100 degrees from Spokane all the way to The Dalles (the car thermometer topped out at 109°F!).  Shout out to my car for keeping its cool all the way through lol.

I don’t doubt that it was hot, but I find 109 hard to believe. Car thermometers tend to run high in the summer: I once got a reading of 122°F in Salt Lake City, where the all-time record is 107.

The other important thing to note is that when it gets that hot in the west, it’s typically a dry heat. 100 degrees in Chicago is going to feel a lot hotter than 100 in Spokane, simply because the humidity/dewpoint in Chicago is higher.

I know that it was warm on Saturday (8/11), crossing Montana for me.  I saw temperatures in the high 90s regularly in the car, and it even got up to 102 at one point on the plains.  And it did feel rather warm out when I went to the welcome center in Wibaux, and filled up in Miles City and Livingston, MT.

[paulthemapguy]

Our journey through eastern WA and OR on day 6 was the hottest day of my frickin life.  Eastern WA and OR, to many people's surprise, is a desert.  The temperature stayed above 100 degrees from Spokane all the way to The Dalles (the car thermometer topped out at 109°F!).  Shout out to my car for keeping its cool all the way through lol.

I don’t doubt that it was hot, but I find 109 hard to believe. Car thermometers tend to run high in the summer: I once got a reading of 122°F in Salt Lake City, where the all-time record is 107.

The other important thing to note is that when it gets that hot in the west, it’s typically a dry heat. 100 degrees in Chicago is going to feel a lot hotter than 100 in Spokane, simply because the humidity/dewpoint in Chicago is higher.

You're right!  My car thermometer over-reports the temperature by about 3-5 degrees (more when it's hotter), so I think the actual temperature topped out around 104.  And yeah I know dry heat blah blah.  My phone reported temperatures peaking at 103.

[paulthemapguy]

TL;DR-- I am trying to get a photo of every state highway in Ohio, and I plan to get a piece of southwestern Ohio done early next week.  Check back for new photos.

So a lot of the people on this forum have devised some kind of way to achieve travel completionism, whether it's county clinching, highway clinching, or something else.  If you aren't familiar, my travel goals include a standalone route marker photo for every Interstate, every US highway, and 3 state highways from each state.  I also have goals for getting a photo of every Interstate, US highway, and state highway in 5 Midwestern states within my reach: Illinois (complete), Indiana (1 away), Wisconsin, Michigan, and Iowa.  I have decided recently that Ohio would be decently possible from my position, as well, even though Ohio has far more distinct state highways than any other state I've tried to conquer before.  I've been able to whittle the remaining Ohio highways down to four more trips, corresponding to the NW, NE, SW, and SE sections of the state.  The NE and SE trips will be much longer than the SW and NW ones, partly because they're closer to my home in Illinois and partly because I have many more routes to cover in the eastern sections of Ohio (I have many Ohio routes covered already in the west half of the state).

So I'll have a slew of photos from southwestern Ohio banked and ready to post in the middle of next week!  The current breadth of my Ohio route collection can be seen here, and the shield cutout images are here.  Both albums will be updated sometime around October 11.

[paulthemapguy]

Next week, weather permitting, I'll be driving down to the Mississippi Gulf Coast.  I'm going to clinch I-55 and I-12 on the way there, meaning I'll have to loop from Hammond to Laplace to Baton Rouge to Hammond into Mississippi.  Then, I'm clinching I-59 and I-24 on the way back, plus I-169.  (I'm only missing the section of I-24 east of Nashville.)  I'm not sure how posting photos is going to work, since Flickr won't be the place where I store or host my photos anymore.  Hopefully I'll figure out how sharing works with my new cloud.

[AsphaltPlanet]

How much of the interstate system have you driven now?  Seems like a fair amount of it judging from your posts.

[paulthemapguy]

How much of the interstate system have you driven now?  Seems like a fair amount of it judging from your posts.

I haven't clinched much of anything.  My main goal is to visit a highway rather than clinch the whole thing--I want a photo of every US and Interstate shield, which involves nothing more than encountering that highway.  It leads to a great diversity of photos but not a lot of full-on clinching.  This map thanks to user @Jim's Travel Mapping site shows the extent of the Interstate highway system I have driven.  I only really keep track of Interstates and Illinois state highways in terms of clinching, but clinching isn't the highest priority goal of mine.

[AsphaltPlanet]

^ That's fair.  I figured that clinching wasn't your primary purpose (it isn't mine either), but you do seem to cover some ground.  I hope you enjoy your trip.

[paulthemapguy]

I remembered that I created this separate thread for my travels, so as not to clutter the details from my random exploits in other threads.  I mentioned in the overall 2019 thread that I'm planning to go with my girlfriend on a trip to eastern Canada and Maine.  It's supposed to be a 15-day road trip through Toronto, Montreal, Quebec City, NB, PEI, NS, and Acadia NP.
Day 1:  Drive to Toronto from Chicagoland, using I-94, 275, 696, more of 94, ON-402 and ON-401.
Day 2-3:  See Toronto
Day 4:  Drive from Toronto to Montreal.
Day 5:  Montreal.
Day 6:  Drive to Quebec City, ferry across to Levis to stay overnight.
Day 7:  Now that we're on the correct side of the St. Lawrence, drive to Moncton, NB, cutting through Fort Kent and Houlton, ME to see the northern ends of US1 and I-95.
Day 8:  See Hopewell Rocks and kayak around them, then make the short drive to New Glasgow, NS, staying 3 nights there and branching out to other places in Nova Scotia during the next 2 days.
Day 9:  Cabot Trail
Day 10:  Halifax
Day 11:  Ferry north to PEI, go southwest across the PEI bridge, across NB, and to Ellsworth, ME.
Day 12-13:  See Acadia NP.
Day 14:  Start driving home, clinching I-84 in the process, ending up in Bloomsburg, PA for the night.
Day 15:  Finish the drive back to Chicagoland.

Any good things to see in these locales?  Any "travel advisories" you would have for me along the way?

[Jim]

I liked Fundy NP, but I imagine you can get a similar experience with the huge tides if you go elsewhere on the Bay of Fundy.

[paulthemapguy]

I liked Fundy NP, but I imagine you can get a similar experience with the huge tides if you go elsewhere on the Bay of Fundy.

We'll go kayaking at Hopewell Rocks near Moncton, so hopefully we'll experience them there.

[Rothman]

Kind of hard to kayak around the Hopewell Rocks at low tide.

I'll be there in a couple of days.

[paulthemapguy]

I haven't touched this thread in two years, but I thought I'd catch up on here, reporting about my travels.  I did want to report, first of all, that I'll be taking a trip around southern and western Iowa this upcoming weekend.  This three-day trip, and another two-day trip I'll take in the future, will complete both my route collection and county collection for the state of Iowa.  Photos will be posted on Flickr after the trip, as always.

I have taken four other noteworthy trips in the last two years:

1. August 2020 circle tour around Lake Michigan, including the Porcupine Mountains, kayaking at Pictured Rocks, Mackinac Island, and Traverse City.
2. March 2021 trip around southeastern Ohio, bringing me much closer to finishing Ohio's counties and route shields.
3. Early April trip to Detroit and Michigan's thumb, leaving only one three-day trip remaining before I conquer Michigan's route shields and clinch its counties.
4. April 2021 trip to Virginia, where I clinched I-68 on the way home.

Stay tuned for more content next week about Iowa!

[paulthemapguy]

My Iowa shield gallery is two away from being complete!  I'm currently missing one state route and one Interstate.  I can snag those plus Iowa's remaining 15 counties on a 2-day trip in the future...maybe this winter. I got a picture of an I-880 marker, new to Iowa, as part of my album of source photos showing where I got my shield photos for the shield gallery.


IA-I-880-I-29ER by Paul Drives, on Flickr

[paulthemapguy]

Here's a recap of the trips I've taken in 2022 so far.  There may be one to three little trips I might take between now and the end of the year.  But for now, here's a recap of trips I have taken as of mid-September.

• In February, I took a winter weekend with nicer weather, as an opportunity to drive I-55 in Illinois, I-65 in Indiana, and I-64 in both Illinois and Indiana.  I never bothered to clinch I-64 in my home state of Illinois, and I like to stay fairly near home during the winter.  I ended up getting clinches of I-170 in Missouri and I-264 in Kentucky along this trip, as a bonus.
• In May, I took a trip to the Cedar Rapids road meet, and I ended up using this trip to Iowa to complete my routesnapping of the state!  I only needed photos of Interstate 380 and Iowa Route 139 to complete my shield gallery.  The completed shield gallery can be seen here!  If you want to go a bit more behind the scenes, to see where the shield images came from, the original photos can be seen here! This trip was also the final piece of the puzzle to clinch all the counties in Iowa!
• As July faded into August, I took a trip to both peninsulas of Michigan, to finish county clinching and routesnapping that state as well! The trip took me to the Keweenaw Peninsula, Drummond Island, and Alpena.  I have a complete shield gallery for Michigan, seen here, and the original photos are available for viewing here.
• As August faded into September, I took a trip with my wife to see the four national parks of Colorado.  We flew into Colorado Springs, and drove counterclockwise around a big circuitous path.  In order, we visited Rocky Mountain National Park, Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Mesa Verde National Park, and Great Sand Dunes National Park.  Our overnight stays, in order, were in Estes Park, Paonia, Montrose, Cortez, and Monte Vista.  All four national parks are now covered in the appropriate section of my website, which first was published in December.  I got a few route marker photos for my national collection, including the three state highways in Colorado, US160, US550, and US285.

Future trips for the rest of the year may include a routesnapping trip across the northern half of Ohio, a trip to clinch all the Interstates of Iowa, and a visit to some family in Arizona that might get me coverage of Saguaro National Park.  All three of these trips are merely maybes at this point (I'll definitely go to Ohio, but I don't know if I'll spin it into a routesnapping excursion yet).