Attemping to Find Where I Was in this Photo (in Texas)

[jk403]

I was in Texas in December of 2014, and recently I've been trying to re-trace my routes from my time down there. I took a photo of a sunset that I pulled to the side of the road for (and by chance a small snippet on the edge of the frame captured this part of the freeway which is included here), and am not sure where this location was (for very specific route tracing purposes). I believe it was somewhere on I-35 -- I went for dinner at Rosa's in Waco (31.5258193,-97.1654613), and my next photo after this was taken in Austin.

If anyone on here has traveled I-35 from Waco to Austin, TX, and this area looks familiar, I would be glad to hear it! I scoured Google Street View and looked around at all the I-35 junctions and exits between Waco and Austin that I could find. Spent a couple hours doing so... and nothing matched this interchange. Round Rock had a shopping center complex with a building tower similar to the one under the red arrow, but the bridge didn't match up (nor did the number of freeway signs). Hope it can be found - I'll keep looking.

[BigRedDog]

Not from Texas and haven't been there. (Yet.) I did some casual looking on GM & SV and didn't see anything that stood out. But, maybe a couple thoughts to spur your thinking.

Perhaps you can trace the time of sunset on the day of the picture and compare it to the time you were at the restaurant. Then, you may be able to narrow down the stretch of I-35 you were on.

Totally an example, making some assumptions for the example: sunset on Dec 10, 2014 is 5:26 and twilight ends at 5:52. If the picture from Rosa's is dessert and taken at 4:45, then factor in time to eat the pie, pay the bill, and hit the road. Which means you'd be ~30 minutes (give or take a few) from Rosa's, or somewhere near Temple. Again, totally an example.

Speaking of Temple: doing a search for Rosa's shows a result in Waco and a result in Temple. Not that I doubt your info, just being sure you've got the place.

Finally, maybe the position of the sunset in the picture can help point to the location on I-35. In other words, if the sun is setting due north, then this section of I-35 would be facing west or maybe northwest. Figure out the direction of the sunset in relation of I-35 and it may help.  There are a couple of sections I-35 near Temple that run WSW and south of Georgetown that run due south and maybe even SSE. Something to consider.

Again, I'm just helping to spur your thinking about timing and location. Hope it helps!

[US 81]

I had another thought which you may have already considered: that segment of I-35 from Waco to Austin has been under construction in that time period so perhaps the bridge and/or signs have changed.
http://ftp.dot.state.tx.us/pub/txdot/my35/news/semiannual-update.pdf

[1995hoo]

I had another thought which you may have already considered: that segment of I-35 from Waco to Austin has been under construction in that time period so perhaps the bridge and/or signs have changed.
http://ftp.dot.state.tx.us/pub/txdot/my35/news/semiannual-update.pdf

I noted the same thing in looking at the satellite view.

I see there is a La Quinta with a tower at the location shown below. Maybe it was somewhere around there? The tower doesn't look quite like the right shape, though.

https://www.google.com/maps/@31.0335334,-97.4726226,1312m/data=!3m1!1e3

[US 81]

Here's my tentative guess:

https://www.google.com/maps/@30.6338627,-97.6919707,3a,66.8y,201.47h,79.96t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1s7dXzxj4x0Z8ZirGtQzH-Fw!2e0


I wish I could get street view closer to what would have been your vantage point; the signs and probably the bridge appear to have been reconstructed.

[jk403]

Not from Texas and haven't been there. (Yet.) I did some casual looking on GM & SV and didn't see anything that stood out. But, maybe a couple thoughts to spur your thinking.

Perhaps you can trace the time of sunset on the day of the picture and compare it to the time you were at the restaurant. Then, you may be able to narrow down the stretch of I-35 you were on.

Totally an example, making some assumptions for the example: sunset on Dec 10, 2014 is 5:26 and twilight ends at 5:52. If the picture from Rosa's is dessert and taken at 4:45, then factor in time to eat the pie, pay the bill, and hit the road. Which means you'd be ~30 minutes (give or take a few) from Rosa's, or somewhere near Temple. Again, totally an example.

Speaking of Temple: doing a search for Rosa's shows a result in Waco and a result in Temple. Not that I doubt your info, just being sure you've got the place.

Finally, maybe the position of the sunset in the picture can help point to the location on I-35. In other words, if the sun is setting due north, then this section of I-35 would be facing west or maybe northwest. Figure out the direction of the sunset in relation of I-35 and it may help.  There are a couple of sections I-35 near Temple that run WSW and south of Georgetown that run due south and maybe even SSE. Something to consider.

Again, I'm just helping to spur your thinking about timing and location. Hope it helps!

Glad you're a sleuth as well!

I did all my searching about a month and a half ago, at the time I signed up for an account here, but I got sidetracked with other things for a while and just got back to looking in the past day. I went to the Rosa's in Waco - I remember it because it was tucked away next to 2 highways. Drove from the Dr. Pepper Museum in Waco and needed dinner as soon as possible after that. My photo of the sunset said "5:52 AM" but I assume the time was correct apart from the AM/PM mix up, I just got the camera and this was the second day I'd used it. I remember checking sunset tables on either a weather website or Photographer's Ephemeris (I seem to remember it matched up with the day I was there); I also looked at the angle of the sun on Photographer's Ephemeris but I can't remember the exact sunset point but it wasn't a shock so I think it made sense being on the southbound side of the road.

Also looked at the timestamps a little bit more just now (if the timestamps aren't exactly 12 hours off on the AM/PM spectrum, they should hopefully still be accurate for the time elapsed between the different places I visited! Last photo at the Dr. Pepper Museum was at 3:44, and the next photo was one of the Rosa's building at 4:26 (the last photo there was at 4:27) and then the following one was one of the sunset pics at 5:52. I do kind of remember some kind of strange layout on the highway, where it might have been under construction. We were traveling down the highway when we saw the sunset, somehow really easy to pull over for a photo. I just found a short 5 second video, and it looked like there was some kind of frontage road we were on that went parallel to the Interstate (or it was a really long exit). My next photo after the sunset ones was taken in Austin outside the hotel at 8:26. I assume it was after we unpacked and were heading out to South Congress rather than just getting to the hotel, cause my next photo was taken outside a boot shop at 8:35. That area was quite a walk, but a good one, from the hotel! I'll try to add some more photos to Flickr but they basically show just the side of the road . Thanks for helping out with the ideas!

I had another thought which you may have already considered: that segment of I-35 from Waco to Austin has been under construction in that time period so perhaps the bridge and/or signs have changed.
http://ftp.dot.state.tx.us/pub/txdot/my35/news/semiannual-update.pdf

I will be sure to check that out in the morning! When I looked at the street view captures from the areas I thought were similar, they seemed to be a couple years prior to when I was there. Thanks!

Also went as far as trying to find if there are listings of where manholes or drainage pipes are - there is one in some of the pictures located near a field on the side of the road. I'll try to get that uploaded and post it

https://www.flickr.com/photos/157156548@N03/26633094889/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/157156548@N03/26633094669/

The second photo is brighter

I had another thought which you may have already considered: that segment of I-35 from Waco to Austin has been under construction in that time period so perhaps the bridge and/or signs have changed.
http://ftp.dot.state.tx.us/pub/txdot/my35/news/semiannual-update.pdf

I noted the same thing in looking at the satellite view.

I see there is a La Quinta with a tower at the location shown below. Maybe it was somewhere around there? The tower doesn't look quite like the right shape, though.

https://www.google.com/maps/@31.0335334,-97.4726226,1312m/data=!3m1!1e3

I remember looking at this place hoping it was it. I can't tell if there is a hollow area near the top of that structure or that is the color of the La Quinta logo showing up that way in the photo. Depending on how far back on the road I was, there could be a cleared out field back there. It's also on the correct side of the 2 intersecting roads based on traveling southbound.  Thank you!

Here's my tentative guess:

https://www.google.com/maps/@30.6338627,-97.6919707,3a,66.8y,201.47h,79.96t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1s7dXzxj4x0Z8ZirGtQzH-Fw!2e0


I wish I could get street view closer to what would have been your vantage point; the signs and probably the bridge appear to have been reconstructed.

This is the one I was trying to find above, not in Round Rock at all! It matches the building quite a bit, the part that threw me off was the overgrowth on the side of the road. It was more of a cleared field when/where I went by but things change. Reconstruction would make a lot of sense cause last month I pretty much dropped my search because the look of the road in my photo vs street view didn't match up. Thanks for searching and finding that location! Hope the google car drives past there soon

This is the full (but resized smaller than original) photo where the road appeared on the left side, with the manhole thing and the field, but it's really dark
https://www.flickr.com/photos/157156548@N03/26633094429/


Here's a still photo from the video at the point where the greatest amount of the road was shown:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/157156548@N03/38409897101/

[DevalDragon]

I've spent enough time over the past 25 years I'd like to see if I can help with this.

Any chance you can post a bigger photo / higher resolution? I can't quite make out the details.

[jk403]

I've spent enough time over the past 25 years I'd like to see if I can help with this.

Any chance you can post a bigger photo / higher resolution? I can't quite make out the details.

Sorry about that, here's the full resolution version

https://www.flickr.com/photos/157156548@N03/37707065914/
If flickr doesn't zoom enough, the full file here: https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4555/37707065914_fa6c81282f_k.jpg


The detail on this camera was limited in low light so the interstate signs won't be readable



Edit:
Looking at it on flickr, the max I see for that picture when clicking on their zoom feature is 2048x1536, where the original should be 5152x3864

Here's the roadway part of the image zoomed in to 96% of the original, from a computer screenshot

https://www.flickr.com/photos/157156548@N03/38366109606/
https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4543/38366109606_0f4b186522_b.jpg

[kphoger]

That tower thing looks an awful lot like the entrance to the shopping center on the southwest quadrant of I-35 & University Ave in Georgetown, but I am unable to find a vantage point that matches yours.

The metal post in the foreground seems to be a very important clue.

Here is the OP photo, enhanced for clarity.

[jk403]

One more important thing: I remember we tried going to the Waco Mammoth site before leaving Waco for Austin. It was a Monday I believe, and the mammoth site was closed that day and gated off. So no picture of that on my memory card - we just turned around from there and started going to Austin. It was probably before we went for dinner but not certain

I looked around on street view before in Waco for any interchanges that looked like this but I didn't go out toward the mammoth site yet

[jk403]

That tower thing looks an awful lot like the entrance to the shopping center on the southwest quadrant of I-35 & University Ave in Georgetown, but I am unable to find a vantage point that matches yours.

The metal post in the foreground seems to be a very important clue.

Here is the OP photo, enhanced for clarity.

It's really really tough! The street lights are facing to the left in the photo, from the median. Street View has them facing both directions, away from each other back to back in the median. The big billboard isn't there in mine. I looked at the fencing along the exit and it's a little different where there is any -- street view has it with a metal frame running along the top, and in this one https://www.flickr.com/photos/157156548@N03/26633094669/ it looks like a few strands of barbed wire or plain wire running across metal posts with no top frame. I'll take a look at the construction link user US 81 posted. The signage, billboard gone, and the change in lights could be the result of construction, but the fencing in my photo looks pretty old. The satellite view of that area does show an undeveloped section where it could match, but the field would've had to have been recently plowed and some trees removed

Satellite: https://www.flickr.com/photos/157156548@N03/38366568766/
Compared to fence/field pic: https://www.flickr.com/photos/157156548@N03/26633094669/

[kphoger]

No need to look at the construction.  You can simply go back to previous years' Google Street View, and nothing has changed much since you were there.

[jk403]

No need to look at the construction.  You can simply go back to previous years' Google Street View, and nothing has changed much since you were there.

It's kind of a conundrum. Nobody should feel like they should spend any more time on this  . It's all so I can trace my route and maybe take an alternate way if I ever go from Dallas to Austin again. But if I never find where this was, I'll scoot along I-35 again and am tempted to do so in the next few years, since I saw round trip plane tickets for under $30 each way for MN to DFW last April. The trip I took was before I was into tracking my routes and taking the "different way," so I doubt it was anything other than I-35 and I don't remember a detour onto something else.

YouTube luckily still had my Watch History from last month, and I watched this video for quite a bit that shows I-35 in these areas, but it was too fast to frame-by-frame. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgxdMI_c7mg

[Mapmikey]

Mystery solved.

You must have a pretty good camera...there is only one other set of metal poles between here and the tower but the fence line is further out and no manhole to the right...

https://goo.gl/maps/Rfqc5FXFmAN2

Here is what the diamond sign and tower look like up close...

https://goo.gl/maps/NovaRza7x6q

[jk403]

Mystery solved.

You must have a pretty good camera...there is only one other set of metal poles between here and the tower but the fence line is further out and no manhole to the right...

https://goo.gl/maps/Rfqc5FXFmAN2

Here is what the diamond sign and tower look like up close...

https://goo.gl/maps/NovaRza7x6q

Wow, you found it, thank you a ton!! I don't know how you managed to get to that spot and figure it out!

Now I can map this out accurately Thanks to everyone who looked at this as well!

[US 81]

No need to look at the construction.  You can simply go back to previous years' Google Street View, and nothing has changed much since you were there.

It's kind of a conundrum. Nobody should feel like they should spend any more time on this  . It's all so I can trace my route and maybe take an alternate way if I ever go from Dallas to Austin again. But if I never find where this was, I'll scoot along I-35 again and am tempted to do so in the next few years, since I saw round trip plane tickets for under $30 each way for MN to DFW last April. The trip I took was before I was into tracking my routes and taking the "different way," so I doubt it was anything other than I-35 and I don't remember a detour onto something else.
...

If/when you do come back, feel free to tap the collective wisdom of this board. There's a lot of I-35/US 81 road history still extant between DFW and Austin/San Antonio. As for alternate DFW-Austin routes, US 281 is a bit out of the way but very scenic.

Glad the mystery has been solved.

[jk403]

I'll be using this website more often certainly. I only found out about the site last month, and it seems like the best place to discuss/ask as it seems pretty active.

Only started getting into all the road stuff in the past year. I've always liked taking scenic routes and different ways of getting places, but I never knew people had so much focus on certain things that I had generally considered before but had never done -- tracing my travel routes on the computer or a poster to know where I've been, solved by the TM Teresco database which is much more accurate than tracing a line by hand; taking "Old US-##" routes or formerly major roads that are no longer commissioned in the same matter; driving a new alignment of a road just after it opens, or taking an old alignment before it's about to be altered.

Signs are also an interesting part for me, especially that are old or unique/non-uniform. Iowa has Interstate signs that don't match the generalized look of what I've seen in every other state, which maybe most people here know. New signs are going up on MN state highways in my area recently...I wish I could've gotten one if they are sold to the general public.

A lot more to learn as well!