News:

Thank you for your patience during the Forum downtime while we upgraded the software. Welcome back and see this thread for some new features and other changes to the forum.

Main Menu

Summer 2017 road trips

Started by noelbotevera, July 13, 2016, 10:42:58 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

JJBers

I'm possibly not finished for the summer, I might be going to the Augusta area this September or after.
But my biggest trips, Atlanta to Willimantic, and a trip to New York, with the return a massive detour all the way to New Hampshire.
Here's my New York Trip:

And here's my upcoming trip to Maine:
*for Connecticut
Clinched Stats,
Flickr,
(2di:I-24, I-76, I-80, I-84, I-95 [ME-GA], I-91)


JJBers

#101
Quote from: JJBers on August 24, 2017, 03:47:26 PM
I'm possibly not finished for the summer, I might be going to the Augusta area this September or after.
But my biggest trips, Atlanta to Willimantic, and a trip to New York, with the return a massive detour all the way to New Hampshire.
Here's my New York Trip:
snip
And here's my upcoming trip to Maine:
snip
Surprise trip to Acton, MA this weekend, I'll be back Sunday. October.
Map:
*for Connecticut
Clinched Stats,
Flickr,
(2di:I-24, I-76, I-80, I-84, I-95 [ME-GA], I-91)

Roadgeekteen

Just went to the white mountains.
God-emperor of Alanland, king of all the goats and goat-like creatures

Current Interstate map I am making:

https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?hl=en&mid=1PEDVyNb1skhnkPkgXi8JMaaudM2zI-Y&ll=29.05778059819179%2C-82.48856825&z=5

hm insulators

Quote from: hm insulators on August 10, 2017, 12:26:51 PM
I'm looking forward to my road trip to Branson, Missouri next week to see an old friend I haven't seen in many years and use his home as a base to see the eclipse of the sun. I'll probably use I-40 for much of the way but nothing's really cast in concrete, so to speak. I've reserved a rental car as my 21-year-old Buick probably couldn't make the trip.

The trip to see the eclipse was a success! I saw totality from a little town not far from St. Louis called Potosi.
Remember: If the women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy.

I'd rather be a child of the road than a son of a ditch.


At what age do you tell a highway that it's been adopted?

D-Dey65

Apparently I'm going to wind up in one to New York City and Long Island sometime this weekend.

The one I wanted for November is still being planned.



D-Dey65

As I had promised on two previous posts, I would explain why I was taking an earlier trip to the New York Tri-State Area when I came back. Now that I'm back, I'm going to tell you.


It was so my mother and I could bury my father's urn at Calverton National Cemetery. The man died just before all the hurricanes came, thankfully.

We took turns to drive, and at times it was a long, nerve-wrecking, and confusing drive for my mother, but not for me. It was especially bad in the DC Metro Area, as those of us in the know would expect.

On the way back, I decided I would take the wheel and get her around Baltimore and DC via US 301. Not such a great idea, since there MDTA was replacing bridge joints, and forcing traffic to use one lane. Virginia and Maryland had better team up and replace that damn thing soon.


Add to that the family Jack Russell Terrier who hates going in cars, and you've got even more of a fiasco.


I'm still going back up in November by myself, but I haven't set a date.




hbelkins

Shortly after I had to cancel my plans to attend the Twin Cities meet due to using up all my accrued leave time from work due to a medical issue, i found myself with some unplanned, unscheduled time off. I used the opportunity to take three road trips.

First was a trip out to the midwest to retrace some of the route I'd planned to take to the Twin Cities. I used the opportunity to clinch US 150 and I-39, and also to fill in some holes in my Iowa and Minnesota county maps.

Next, I ventured into West Virginia to clinch a bunch of state routes, which put me in a position to finish off West Virginia's signed primary route system. That trip took me into the northern and eastern panhandles, and I got to drive the most recently finished portion of Corridor H.

Finally, I headed to North Carolina to finish clinching the US route that runs closest to my home, US 421. Also on that trip, I completed I-40 and US 52 in North Carolina.

In addition, my brother and I went to Tennessee into the path of totality for the solar eclipse.

Then, when I went to the Columbus meet last weekend, I completed all Ohio River crossings between West Virginia and Ohio, and clinched West Virginia's signed state primary highway system.

I'm gradually getting those photos up on Flickr and Facebook.


Government would be tolerable if not for politicians and bureaucrats.

oscar

I took one huge mega-road trip this summer, cross-country to California and back with lots of sidewinding and side trips along the way. The trip took about two and a half months (net of two breaks, one a side trip flying round trip between Seattle and southeast Alaska, the other flying round trip between Sacramento and home), putting about 25,000 miles on my old pickup truck.

The outbound trip was basically a southern itinerary, clinching the parts of US 412 I hadn't previously covered then the south end of US 85 in El Paso to clinch that route, then over to US 191 from the border into Utah then picking up US 89 in Utah to start on finishing off both routes, then diving south to Yuma and along the border to San Diego before turning back north to the Extra Miler Club annual meeting in Ontario CA. From there I worked my way north through rural eastern California, toward Seattle for my side trip to Alaska, then back down to Sacramento for round-trip back home. After flying back to California, I wandered around northern California some more, then north into the total eclipse path just after the eclipse watchers had started clearing out, then some zigzagging from Oregon to Wyoming then back, then up to Montana to finish off several US routes, then arriving back home two days before the cataract surgery from which I'm now recovering.

As I mentioned in the solar eclipse threads, my August travels took me across the parts of the totality path between eastern Oregon and southwestern Wyoming. Unlike others on this forum, I set out to avoid the eclipse and its associated crowds and traffic. But eclipse-avoidance proved to be about as much of a pain in the ass as eclipse attendance. I might do things differently for the next U.S. total eclipse in 2024.

This was a productive but somewhat unpleasant road trip. My old pickup truck had three breakdowns along the way, each throwing me off my itinerary for a day or two. So this will almost certainly be that truck's last road trip, though I'm still noodling whether to replace it and with what. I had hoped to get in some hot springing, but it turned out to be the wrong season for most of the springs I wanted to visit (unpleasant weather and/or forest fires). I couldn't even get in some beach time, so until the last two days of my trip visiting some friends on the Jersey Shore, my only "beach experience" this summer involved a bear killing a deer on a cold gravel beach, less than 100 yards from the lodge where I was staying.

But just this year (including previous trips) I've been to 44 states (including Alaska and Hawaii), three Mexican estados, and four Canadian provinces -- no new counties or other jurisdictions, though my off-Interstate travels took me to many county seats I hadn't previously visited. I also finished off US 2 (western -- already clinched the eastern segment), US 12, US 20, US 26, US 30, US 85, US 89, US 95, US 191, US 310, and US 412, as well as about 95% of the California state highway system.
my Hot Springs and Highways pages, with links to my roads sites:
http://www.alaskaroads.com/home.html

Roadgeekteen

Quote from: oscar on October 07, 2017, 05:40:17 PM
I took one huge mega-road trip this summer, cross-country to California and back with lots of sidewinding and side trips along the way. The trip took about two and a half months (net of two breaks, one a side trip flying round trip between Seattle and southeast Alaska, the other flying round trip between Sacramento and home), putting about 25,000 miles on my old pickup truck.

The outbound trip was basically a southern itinerary, clinching the parts of US 412 I hadn't previously covered then the south end of US 85 in El Paso to clinch that route, then over to US 191 from the border into Utah then picking up US 89 in Utah to start on finishing off both routes, then diving south to Yuma and along the border to San Diego before turning back north to the Extra Miler Club annual meeting in Ontario CA. From there I worked my way north through rural eastern California, toward Seattle for my side trip to Alaska, then back down to Sacramento for round-trip back home. After flying back to California, I wandered around northern California some more, then north into the total eclipse path just after the eclipse watchers had started clearing out, then some zigzagging from Oregon to Wyoming then back, then up to Montana to finish off several US routes, then arriving back home two days before the cataract surgery from which I'm now recovering.

As I mentioned in the solar eclipse threads, my August travels took me across the parts of the totality path between eastern Oregon and southwestern Wyoming. Unlike others on this forum, I set out to avoid the eclipse and its associated crowds and traffic. But eclipse-avoidance proved to be about as much of a pain in the ass as eclipse attendance. I might do things differently for the next U.S. total eclipse in 2024.

This was a productive but somewhat unpleasant road trip. My old pickup truck had three breakdowns along the way, each throwing me off my itinerary for a day or two. So this will almost certainly be that truck's last road trip, though I'm still noodling whether to replace it and with what. I had hoped to get in some hot springing, but it turned out to be the wrong season for most of the springs I wanted to visit (unpleasant weather and/or forest fires). I couldn't even get in some beach time, so until the last two days of my trip visiting some friends on the Jersey Shore, my only "beach experience" this summer involved a bear killing a deer on a cold gravel beach, less than 100 yards from the lodge where I was staying.

But just this year (including previous trips) I've been to 44 states (including Alaska and Hawaii), three Mexican estados, and four Canadian provinces -- no new counties or other jurisdictions, though my off-Interstate travels took me to many county seats I hadn't previously visited. I also finished off US 2 (western -- already clinched the eastern segment), US 12, US 20, US 26, US 30, US 85, US 89, US 95, US 191, US 310, and US 412, as well as about 95% of the California state highway system.
Have you clinched all of the 2di us highways?
God-emperor of Alanland, king of all the goats and goat-like creatures

Current Interstate map I am making:

https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?hl=en&mid=1PEDVyNb1skhnkPkgXi8JMaaudM2zI-Y&ll=29.05778059819179%2C-82.48856825&z=5

oscar

Quote from: Roadgeekteen on October 08, 2017, 08:33:54 PM
Have you clinched all of the 2di us highways?

Not even close. The US routes (including 3dius routes) are a huge system covering over 138,000 miles (more than three times as large as the Interstate system), about 40,000 miles of which I haven't traveled. My coverage is particularly weak in the southeastern states, and north-south routes between the Rockies and the Appalachians.
my Hot Springs and Highways pages, with links to my roads sites:
http://www.alaskaroads.com/home.html

CNGL-Leudimin

So I ended up taking a roadtrip to Navarre in early September. As I'm running out of unclinched roads in my immediate area I now have to go further.
Supporter of the construction of several running gags, including I-366 with a speed limit of 85 mph (137 km/h) and the Hypotenuse.

Please note that I may mention "invalid" FM channels, i.e. ending in an even number or down to 87.5. These are valid in Europe.

kphoger

#111
I never did get around to writing this trip report last year, so here it goes.




On June 17, our family of five left Wichita for a road trip out west.  This was our first just-for-fun vacation, and we were excited.  I had an ambitious itinerary planned out through Colorado and eastern Utah.  I had most everything we would need for camping–tents, mats, blankets, and all that good stuff; a wood-burning camp stove, pallet wood for fuel, cookware, and recipes; a good cooler, groceries, and shopping lists for along the way; buckets, biodegradable soap, a foldable shovel, three 20-liter jugs of drinking water...

The trip ended up being an adventure, but not in the most pleasant of ways.  We never actually made it to Utah, although we came within three miles of the state line before aborting that part of the plan.  We had a lot of fun, but we also had a lot of stress.

The original plan:

Day 1:
Wichita to Dodge City (US-400)
Dodge City to John Martin Reservoir S.P. (US-50)

Day 2:
John Martin Reservoir S.P. to Royal Gorge (US-50)
Royal Gorge to Continental Divide at Monarch Pass (US-50)
Monarch Pass to Ouray area (US-50, US-550)

Day 3:
In and around Ouray

Day 4:
Ouray area to Ophir Pass (US-550, Ophir jeep road)
Ophir Pass to Bull Canyon Dinosaur Tracksite (Ophir jeep road, CO-145,  CO-141, Castleton-Gateway forest road)
Bull Canyon to Moab area (Castleton-Gateway forest road, La Sal Loop Road, UT-128, US-191)


Day 5:
Arches N.P.

Day 6:
Dead Horse Point S.P.
Mill Creek Waterfall


Day 7:
Moab area to Cisco (UT-128, old US-6)
Cisco
to Glenwood Canyon (old US-6, I-70)
Glenwood Canyon to Central City area (I-70, Central City Pkwy)

Day 8:
Central City area to Wichita (CO-119, US-6, CO-58, I-70, I-135)

Our family car is a 2006 Nissan Pathfinder, and we packed it to the gills, including an old Sears X-Cargo box on top.  With two concrete blocks and 60 liters of water directly over the rear axle, it was a little bouncy but not terrible.  The cargo box doesn't affect fuel economy very much except when there is a stiff head wind or at speeds above 70 mph or so.

I had developed a license plate spotting game for us to play during the trip.  I assigned point values to each state and province, based on proximity and population–such that large states and nearby states were worth fewer points than small states and faraway states.  I also divided the game into an eastern section and a western section, and each team had to decide if they wanted to record their find or take the risk and wait for a higher-point sighting during the other half of our trip (each state or province could only be counted once).  The only exception was if you spotted a license plate from an Indian reservation in a state you already had, in which case you could claim both point values for that state.

Day 1.  At Dodge City, we visited Boot Hill Museum.  In advance of the trip, I had our family reading about Bat Masterson, cattle drives, and cowboys, so the introductory video and some of the exhibits were exciting for the older two boys.  We were also just in time to see the noon shootout.  Heading on from there, we skipped the Santa Fe Trail tracks site, because I planned to see the one at John Martin Reservoir S.P. instead.  Well, it turned out that recent high water at the reservoir had that one closed off, so we never did get to see the trail remnants.  Only two of our campgrounds on this trip allowed for reservations, so I had reserved those a couple of months in advance.  The first one was for our first night at John Martin Reservoir S.P. in southeastern Colorado.  Lake Hasty Campground has 109 sites, and I thought there was no way in heck it would fill up even on the weekend, but I decided to play it safe and reserve.  Sure enough, when we arrived, there was a sign stating the campground was full.  Our oldest son liked our first night of camping the best, because it was the only night we used two separate tents and he enjoyed not having to sleep with us and the little squirt.

My three sons, happy to be on the road


The obligatory photo opp


Packed to the gills


Learning how to put up a tent


Because license plate spotting isn't nerdy enough without an Excel file


On Day 2, we headed out early, with Ouray as our target.  This was to be one of our longest days of driving, with a few stops along the way.  Pueblo was our first encounter with 85-octane gas.  Our car recommends 91, but if you read further in the manual, it actually only requires 87.  I usually fill up with mid-grade, which is 89 around here, but I happily used 87 in Colorado, knowing that it runs just fine on that octane.  85 was offered even as far east as Burlington (elev. 4170), which surprised me.

We stopped at Royal Gorge.  My wife doesn't like high bridges over water, so walking across Royal Gorge made her a little shaky, especially when park vehicles would drive by and shake the boards.  But that wasn't the really scary part.  What she really didn't like is that I was planning to take the aerial gondola back across.  When we got to the gondola station, our middle son started freaking out, hyperventilating, trying to run away, sobbing heavily.  He had seen people zip-lining across the gorge and, when he saw the cables, he thought we were going to cross by zip-line.  Then the gondola arrived.  "You mean we're going in the cool cars?"  he exclaimed, and then bounded up the steps as happy as could be.  My wife made it OK, but she charged me to never make her do something like that again.

As we were getting ready to pull off at the Continental Divide at Monarch Pass, my wife said, "Is that us burning antifreeze?"   So I popped the hood and realized what would change the course of our vacation:  after topping off the antifreeze prior to leaving home, I had neglected to put the cap back on the overflow reservoir.  Driving across the flatlands of Kansas and eastern Colorado, it wasn't a big deal but, now in the Rockies, antifreeze was spitting out of the reservoir all over under the hood.  So I improvised a new cap:  the stopper cap from one of the 20-liter water jugs, a piece of an old tee-shirt, and a bunch of duct tape.  And so we headed (downhill!) for Gunnison, where I bought a new cap at an auto parts store.  We arrived to the grocery store in Montrose at the time I had hoped to be finding a campsite two towns south.  With no campsite reservation for the night, I really didn't want to have to search for a site at sundown, so I was starting to get a little stressed out about the delay.  Fortunately, we found a nice open site at my first-choice campground, Angel Creek Campground, southwest of Ouray.  We still ended up having to put up the tent and eat supper in the dark.

Royal Gorge


My wife was not happy that I made her take the aerial gondola back across


Monarch Pass


US-550, south out of Montrose


Day 3 was more relaxed.  I spent a couple of hours cooking breakfast, because I'm apparently no good at keeping a hot fire in the camp stove.  Our site being far away from the port-a-potties, everyone in the family got a crash course in squatting (pooing is cool).  And, of course, our boys all thoroughly enjoyed playing with sticks and dirt.  Give a boy a stick and he's a happy camper.  We hiked up to Cascade Falls, which was still flowing very strongly; my wife struggled with the steep grade and the high elevation, but the boys were plenty happy and enjoyed climbing on the rocks and feeling how cold the water was.

After heading back to camp for some lunch, we drove north to Orvis Hot Springs near Ridgway.  Orvis is clothing-optional, but only in the outdoor areas.  It being a summer afternoon, and my wife having a sunburn already, and our boys being wusses when it comes to hot water, we spent most of our time at the indoor pool, which was less than 100°F.  We did spent a little while at one of the hotter ones outside, because it was shallow (our youngest was able to wade) and it had a little waterfall feature to sit under.  There was also a cold plunge pool kept in the 65°F range.  That was the only time I actually swam nude, because I really dislike the feeling of a cold, wet suit clinging to my legs.  Our eldest son and I were the only ones brave enough to go all the way under in the cold one.  Looking back, I wish we had gone in the evening, spent our time at the outdoor pools, and not worn swimwear.  The mineral content of the spring water turned our swimwear brown, and our middle son's white tee shirt never really came clean.

Angel Creek Campground near Ouray, CO


Our campsite, with the stove smoking away


Canyon Creek, whose gritty water we drank with lunch one day


My original plan for day 4 was to head south along the Million Dollar Highway, over Red Mountain Pass, and then cut west on the jeep roads over Ophir Pass.  But our car was still spitting antifreeze under the overflow cap on the up-hills, so we decided to play it safe and stick to the paved highways.  So we crossed the much lower Dallas Divide (pulling over shortly thereafter to clean up our youngest son's explod-a-puke, because apparently he gets carsick in the mountains) and headed for the Dolores River canyon, following CO-141 out of Naturita.  Just a few miles after we gassed up in Naturita, however, the car finally overheated.  We immediately pulled over onto the grass and shut the car off.  CO-141 is somewhat desolate, and it was 100°F outside, so we spread a blanket out under a tree for a while.  Not having any cell phone reception, I couldn't talk to anyone for advice; I could barely even get any text messages out.  I was feeling very exposed and helpless.  Finally, some loggers stopped their empty 18-wheeler on the road to assist us.  Because I had kept seeing fluid in the overflow reservoir, and because the car hadn't been overheating, I assumed it was still full of coolant, but apparently that wasn't the case.  We put about three gallons of antifreeze and water directly into the radiator.  We assumed that my not having filled the radiator directly had caused air to be trapped in the system and caused the problem to persist, and that the issue should now go away.  We headed into Gateway to eat lunch at the gas station there, and then headed west on the dirt road through John Brown Canyon.  Coming up out of the canyon, it was a steep climb.  At the top, 2½ miles from the Utah state line, I stopped and popped the hood.  Still spitting water out under the cap.  Great.  So we canceled Utah altogether and started heading back downhill.  The brakes were burning up as we descended back down into the canyon (it hadn't occurred to me that I should use low gear, duh!), so I stopped partway down and put another gallon of water into the radiator while they were cooling.  And then we drove the remaining 60 miles to Grand Junction to find a mechanic.  With the heater on full-blast to help keep the engine from overheating again.  In 105°F weather.  We made it to GJ with no further problems.

We settled into our hotel room and then hit the pool.  Next morning, I took the car across town to the mechanic I'd settled on, having looked at online reviews and determining which one would be most like my hometown mechanic.  I told him to take his time working on it, because I didn't want a quick fix to end up being no fix at all on our way back across the Rockies.  Not knowing how long it would take, we all just lay around in bed in the hotel room all that day watching TV.

Day 6 arrived with the mechanic still needing to bleed the cooling system and do one last test drive, but he had determined what the problem was.  On every other car I've owned, the cooling system has been pressurized through the radiator, with a spring-loaded pressure cap on the radiator and a plain flat cap on the overflow reservoir.  Apparently and unbeknownst to me, our car is the other way around, pressurized through the overflow reservoir, with a spring-loaded pressure cap on the reservoir and a plain flat cap on the radiator.  So, when I had bought a replacement cap a few hundred miles earlier, it never occurred to me to make sure it was a pressure cap, and putting the new cap on the reservoir did nothing to pressurize the cooling system and still allowed water to leak out the top.  Yes, it was a ten-dollar part that tanked half our vacation.

So, in the meantime, we took the city bus to the John McConnell Math and Science Center of Western Colardo, a couple of miles from the mechanic shop.  Very unassuming, it was housed inside a grade school in a residential neighborhood.  Open the door, though, and there's all sorts of fun stuff for the kids (and adults) to learn about and get their hands on.  It was a great find, relatively cheap, and actually my wife's favorite part of the whole trip.  While we were there, I got the call to come pick up the car, so we walked the two miles across the Colorado River (my wife in flip-flops, unfortunately, because we'd left her walking shoes in the car) to the mechanic.  With a working car again, we headed over to Fruita to visit Dinosaur Journey, part of the Museums of Western Colorado.  We had originally wanted to see a dinosaur tracksite in Utah, so this was the next best thing.  The kids dug it, and the price was right.  All in all, it's probably good that we never made it to Utah, because the region was in the middle of a heat wave, with temperatures hitting 100°F by noon.  With my wife already having a sunburn and us not having done long hikes before, I doubt Arches would have been much fun.  Instead, we got some relaxation and some indoor fun.

Stuff for all ages at the John McConnell Math and Science Center in GJ




Jurassic Park made these things out to be so much bigger than they really were...


Day 7 was time to put the car repair to the test.  Our destination was near Central City, and there were two mountain passes along the way:  Vail Pass and the Edwin Johnson Memorial Tunnel (under the Continental Divide).  At Glenwood Canyon, we stopped at the Grizzly Creek rest area and took a hike up Grizzly Creek.  The trail along the creek was beautiful, and we made it to a calm shallow spot where we could take our shoes off and wade into the cold water, throw pine cones and watch them float.  It was one of my favorite parts of the trip.  Back on the road again, I pulled over at the top of Vail Pass to check under the hood.  Hooray!  No water vapor hissing out!  Lunchtime weather in Idaho Springs was 49°F and drizzling; we changed into warmer clothes and then headed up for a tour of Hidee Gold Mine.  There, we walked back into the mine and learned about the practice and economics of gold mining from our guide, and then, way in the back of the mine, we all got to try our hand at chiseling out actual chunks of gold ore from the vein.  I had made a camping reservation at Columbine Campground a couple of months earlier; my first choice had been Golden Gate Canyon State Park, but all 135 campsites were already sold out for the weekend by that time.  Columbine–with only two sites left available when I reserved–required me to reserve Saturday night in addition to Friday night (stupid rule), but I figured that was better than not having anywhere to sleep for the night.  Our travel and meal plans having been thoroughly messed up during the trip, we had a strange combination of snack food for supper that evening, and then spent the coldest night of my life.  I had not prepared for overnight lows much under 50°F, and we really should have brought one more blanket even for that temperature.  But that night it got down to 41°F, and there was even some frost on our tent in the morning.  It was bad enough that, when our eldest son told me in the middle of the night that he had to go pee, I really didn't want to go out into the cold and so I told him to just hold it; he had wet his pants by morning, but I swear it was worth it.

Grizzly Creek, above Glenwood Canyon




Columbine Campground


On the morning of day 8, shortly after leaving camp, we got to clean up explode-a-puke #2 of the trip.  From Black Hawk we took US-6 into the Denver area and then hit I-70 back to Kansas.  This was just a day of straight driving, no sightseeing along the way.
Keep right except to pass.  Yes.  You.
Visit scenic Orleans County, NY!
Male pronouns, please.

Quote from: Philip K. DickIf you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use them.



Opinions expressed here on belong solely to the poster and do not represent or reflect the opinions or beliefs of AARoads, its creators and/or associates.