When did you become interested in roads/road trips etc.?

[bcroadguy]

I just remember being about 5 years old and going on a trip to Seattle and noticing that the traffic lights were all black and hung on wires and thinking that was really cool.

[machias]

Pretty much all of my life, though my inner road geek didn't kick in until summer 1976, when my family took a drive to relatives in southern Virginia. I was just shy of 8 years old. It was then I really started noticing things, like modified guide signs on I-81 in Pennsylvania saying P.A. 106, with just a trace of "U.S." underneath.

[GaryV]

I can't recall exactly.  We went to Florida when I was 5, before I started school.  I was just learning to read - one of the new words on my list from that trip was "POOL", according to my mom.  (I don't remember it, but I guessed I was looking for motel signs as we were preparing to stop for the night.)  At that time, I didn't know what maps and highways were - I was just along for the ride.  In fact, I don't remember much about the roads, just the places we stopped.

By Junior High when we went on a class trip to Washington DC, I certainly had become proficient with maps.  My mom gave me a map of the Eastern US to take on the bus.  I thought I'd be mocked for having it, but when I got it out once a lot of the other kids wanted to know where we were.

Later the realization that there were "old" roads out there got me much more interested in how and where roads were developed and how they changed.

[PHLBOS]

Probably as long as I can remember.  Initially, I was just glad to be in a car (my first memories were of the red interior and dashboard of my mother's '64 Ford Country Squire wagon when I was either 3 or 4 years old); then later it was traffic lights in the area.  There were times, I would beg one of my parents to go a certain way in order to see/pass by certain signalized intersections.

At the age of 6, when I first attended day-camp out in Boxford, MA; I started taking a greater notice/interest in roads & highways while riding in a bus/to from camp.  This was when I discovered/became aware of roads like US 1, I-95, MA 128, 114, 35, 62 & 129.

In association to the above & at age 7, I started taking interest in road maps... particularly of the local area then later statewide.  Although there is an old black-and-white photo of me at roughly 3 years old looking at a Route 66 Station road map that my grandmother/Oma was holding in her hand.  Maybe one day, I'll scan that photo & post it; such is in an album & still packed away in storage following last year's sale of my mother's house.

My interest only heightened when I started biking then, years later, driving.

[thspfc]

I can remember being entertained by roads as far back as kindergarten or first grade. 

[US 89]

I've been interested in roads to some degree my whole life. One of my earliest memories is going down the 500 South-400 South curve in Salt Lake in my mom's Jeep and thinking it was the coolest thing. Around kindergarten/1st grade, I recall making exit lists for I-15 and I-80, and my mind was blown when my dad told me the US 89 in Ogden was the same highway as the one in Salt Lake.

That eventually progressed into reading and drawing maps, and I could draw a map of Utah's interstates and US highways from memory by the time I was in middle school. We started taking more road trips around the west, and on many of these I was in charge of directions, either from a physical atlas or from directions printed off from MapQuest. And I paid attention every time I was in the car; by the time I was old enough to start driving, it was pretty much impossible for me to get lost within an hour of home.

I became interested in old alignments and historical routes after stumbling upon an awesome collection of old Utah photos on Flickr. I found this forum not long after that, lurking for a few years before finally joining.

[Buck87]

Basically as long as I can remember. I was born into a road tripping family, so long trips were a part of my life from the start, and I made it to 48 states before turning 15 (despite not flying in a plane until age 19.) I became interested in maps and road signs not too long after learning to read, and became known by my classmates for my ability to draw a freehand map of the US from memory while still in elementary school.

One thing that really cemented my status as a road geek in my family was when, at age 10, I was thrown the map and asked to navigate after my dad had gotten us lost in the southside of Chicago after dark during a sightseeing side trip into downtown, and I managed to get us out of it and back to our hotel in Joliet. That's become one of those family stories that's gets told over and over again. In the years that followed I became the official navigator for our annual 2 week summer family vacations, provided with a supply of maps and sometimes an official AAA Triptik of our planned route, and would give instructions from the back row seat of our 1991 Ford Aerostar (my little sister always had the middle row seat.)

[DandyDan]

I always remember being interested in roads and road trips and maps and the like. I think it was originally accelerated by the fact my mother liked to go to garage sales and would take me along. Eventually, I was the navigator as my mom, my great-aunt (her aunt), and various other relatives went to their garage sales. Eventually, they always got the up-to-date Minnesota map, basically for me to look at, and all the other states we ever went to.

[Dustin DeWinn]

My interest became apparent in 2015 when I was getting my Master's in technical communication and was studying design standards for warning labels, wayfinding design, and hazard communication.

I had always liked the signage but became neck-deep in the psychology and design standards used locally and internationally. I fully understood the typography choices, colors, shapes, and iconography.

My interest is a little esoteric and outside of what others get wet about, but for me it's the design.

I even contacted the 511 team about the phone logo.

[KEVIN_224]

When I was a kid, I lived in Hoboken, NJ - right before it really gentrified. We didn't have much money, but my mother was insistent that I not become a city kid who never left their city, so we took road trips up and down the Eastern Seaboard my whole life. She had been in a nasty rear-end collision before I was born that left the backseat of her "˜82 Celica somewhere around her ears and was terrified after she had me in "˜87 that it could happen when I was back there (and restrictions on child seating  didn't really tighten up til the 90's), so I was in the front seat next to her from the very beginning, child seat or not.

At least the Hoboken waterfront gives you great views!


Better than looking at their City Hall...right?

[ctkatz]

summer 1994.  I was 10 that year, and that was the year when we went on our first big road trip when we went from home to my mom's sister's place in alabama to the grand canyon and back home again. I brought lots of books with me but I spent _a lot_ of time looking at the scenery outside the window and following along with the aaa triptik my parents got when they were planning this thing out. this was also back when you could plan everything through aaa from your route to booking hotels.

it not only got me interested in the interstates in general but always looked to take the road as an option whenever possible.  last year was probably the most epic trip that I made road tripping out to los angeles and coming back home going through oregon just because I was out there, hadn't been there yet, and didn't forsee an opportunity to road trip out there anytime soon.

[frankenroad]

As long as I can remember, I have been fascinated with roads, maps, and license plates.  As a kid, I would scarf up every free map at every gas station we stopped at.    I had an extensive collection of maps that I filed in shoe boxes.   I wish had kept them when I left home.   I still have part of my license plate collection, but sold most of that.

When we took road trips, mom would give us an outline map of the states, and a box of stickers.  When we saw a license plate of a given state, we would put a sticker in the state on the map.

I took over as the navigator for our family trips around age 9.

Back in the early 80's, someone sponsored a contest where you had to answer a bunch of obscure questions using the Rand McNally Road Atlas.  (I don't remember any specific questions, but it would be something like, "if you are traveling east away from I-65 and go through the town of Maple, what is the next town you would come to?", or harder).   My roommate and I entered and we were among the winners (tied with a bunch of people for third place, if I recall correctly).  We got a little pewter (or pseudo-pewter) cup as a prize.

I am proud to say that my daughter has inherited my love of maps - they even played a part in the table decorations at her wedding.

[kennyshark]

I first got interested in roads & roadtrips at age 7, back in '72 (apologies to Bob Seger).  First, we made a couple of trips to look for a house in the Toledo area (we settled in Perrysburg, right by the I-75/I-475 triple-decker).  Right about that time, we also made our first long road trip to St. Louis.  I was fascinated not just with the road trip, but all those freeway-to-freeway interchanges, especially driving thru Detroit (I was a Metro Detroiter at that time, as I am today).

By age 8 or 9 I was studying the Rand McNally Atlas quite closely, so I guess that's when my roadgeeking started.

I still love taking roadtrips today.  I'm one of those who can guide you around Michigan, parts of Indiana and Ohio, and up the 401 to Toronto or QEW to Niagara almost blindfolded.

[ClassicHasClass]

At least the Hoboken waterfront gives you great views!

My "favourite" waterfront view was in Delaware, when I was stopping at Fox Point State Park in Wilmington for somewhere to eat my take-out. On an otherwise nice day in November my first view of the Delaware River was a big garbage barge.

[roadman]

Been interested in roads and bridges all my life.  Started reading road maps at the age of four when I discovered a 1949 Rand McNally atlas in my parent's credensa.  My true inner roadgeek was first triggered on a 1967 road trip to Annapolis, when I saw the stack interchange on I-84 outside of Hartford.  At the time, it had full overhead sign gantries - with blank sign panels - at the exit ramps, and full luminaires along all the ramps.

By the age of seven or eight, on long road trips I was the only other family member my father trusted with the road maps, and to hold on to the toll ticket when we used turnpikes.

[akotchi]

For me, it was back when I was about 9 years old.  For a few years, we were doing driving trips both ways between the Lancaster, Pa., area and South Florida, where my grandparents and uncle had lived.  I am an only child, so I did not have anyone to fight with in the back seat, so I was looking at maps and Trip-Tiks and staring out the windows.  With I-95 having several gaps at that time, I saw a lot of different types of roads and other highway features in our travels.

[Hwy 61 Revisited]

I was reading up on a local route and its history, and wondering why it and its old alignment were disconnected. Then I thought about extending the road back along its original alignment.

[EJumean]

I've been interested in roads / road signs and stuff since I was a kid. So much so that when I was a kid in the late 70s / early 80s, a cousin of mine got me a stop sign that she actually removed from a pole on a road somewhere. (I still to this day don't know exactly how, where or WHY she did this for me, even as a kid I figured it was hella illegal, LOL!)

And before the age of Google Maps I would buy roadmaps / books of all sorts of places. Mostly from where I had traveled, both in Canada and the States, but also of locations that I had never visited (and still haven't to this day).

I love the road memories I've had. Memories like being driven on Highway 402 before it was completed to London in 1982. I remember us going off the freeway about 2/3 of the way to London (where it still ended) and then taking a two lane highway the rest of the way. I also had a road trip to Washington DC with my relatives when I was about 10, and being obsessed with the tunnels we drove through on the way. Also me and my cousins going "Whee!" every time we encountered a sharp curve on the road. And I remember us being stopped at a traffic light in DC that seemed to last for five minutes.

Man that was a fun bout of nostalgia for me.

Emile

[Roadgeekteen]

My whole life. I remember my mother printing out wikipedia pages for state highways in MA as she didn't want me reading wikipedia.

[skluth]

I've been a map and geography geek my whole life. I collected maps from gas stations and state info centers as a little kid and would design highways on the old ones that would put FritzOwl to shame when the new editions were out. I memorized nations' capitals for fun; I knew all the state capitals at 7. I ended up majoring in geography and worked as a cartographer, so it worked out. My dad loved maps, so I'm sure I picked it up from him.

[OracleUsr]

When I was in North Dakota as a little kid, we traveled quite a bit through Canada and the northern states (back in the 70's when you didn't have a hassle traveling into Canada and back).

When we moved to NC in 1975, my dad's family lived mostly in Tennessee and we went there about once a quarter.  I became fascinated with road signs in particular (those who have ever seen my FB page know this) and have been quite an adventurer since I learned to drive.  Not to mention I went to school in SC and spent part of my time as a co-operative education student with IBM in Atlanta.  Gotta pass those 4-6 hours each way somehow, right?

[J3ebrules]

I was reading up on a local route and its history, and wondering why it and its old alignment were disconnected. Then I thought about extending the road back along its original alignment.

Ok, so the obvious question - which road? US 61, as your avatar shows, or a different one?