Hello! I had joined a few days ago and wanted to introduce myself to the others on the forum. I actually have been a "lurker" for a number of years, so I have become acquainted with some of the *interesting* personalities here.
I probably have been a road geek for 50 years or so, although I didn't know that there was a name for it. In the 1960's, while still of elementary school age, my dad would chart the family vacations that we took - pretty much a paper-and-pencil spreadsheet (of course this was before the advent of home computers). This fascinated me, and he showed me how he created them, along with reading maps and counting the mileage between points. I soon took to making my own chart, and following along with his. Where many kids my age would nap or read (again, no smartphones then to bury your nose in!) and not care about much until their destination, I would be constantly watching where we were going, what route we were on, and following our progress on a hand-me-down map that I had.
I had pretty much maintained my love of roads and travel all these years, and was pleased to find there were communities of people that shared this interest.
Some of my interests - I have an interest in recording highway clinches and county clinches, and have accounts on the popular sites for those. (Is it within forum rules to put hyperlinks to those in a signature?) I've traveled a decent amount in the US east of the Mississippi River, not so much west of it. I have also visited and driven in Canada and Iceland. I also have a fascination for long and/or unusual bridges, especially those with an "industrial" look (lots of iron etc).
I'm not too much into fictional highways and mass renumbering of highways just to fit a grid. While it would appease a small fraction of people, (just my opinion) it would just confuse a much larger group. But that's just me - I see that many of you enjoy that!
Anyway, better stop before I got too long-winded.