Central Ohio/Columbus road meet.

[Alps]

Just looks like showers. We can definitely see things through some rain.

[Hot Rod Hootenanny]

Just looks like showers. We can definitely see things through some rain.

If its cloudy all day, that will be better for photography anyways.

[agentsteel53]

If its cloudy all day, that will be better for photography anyways.

I disagree vehemently.  I've always hated the "blown-out white sky" look so I think sunny days are far better.





odd lighting for the win!

[6a]

Real life has intervened (the wife is in the hospital) so depending on how long these things last I may or may not be able to make it.

[Alps]

The disadvantage of clouds is that it's harder to take motion photography, such as when your car is passing by button copy. The best conditions are generally 10-3 (roughly) during the summer when it's warm enough to have your windows down (helps with side photos tremendously), no clouds, and the sun isn't getting in the way no matter which way you point the camera

[Alps]

Well, the meet was a tremendous success! The weather pretty much held up the whole time (a couple of bad storms barely passed us by) and we were on the road over 5 hours. We knocked the tar out of that other meet (: I'll let "Adam Smith" give the official recap but I'll be adding my own version once I get back home. Thanks again to him for a great meet at a great location with some great company!

[Hot Rod Hootenanny]

Well, the meet was a tremendous success! The weather pretty much held up the whole time (a couple of bad storms barely passed us by) and we were on the road over 5 hours. We knocked the tar out of that other meet (: I'll let "Adam Smith" give the official recap but I'll be adding my own version once I get back home. Thanks again to him for a great meet at a great location with some great company!

Um, we came, we saw, we drove.

[hbelkins]

Well, the meet was a tremendous success! The weather pretty much held up the whole time (a couple of bad storms barely passed us by) and we were on the road over 5 hours.

I may be in the minority, but for me that's too long of a meet tour unless it's part of a multi-day thing. I usually have travel plans made when I leave town after a meet's over with and I typically want to get a few hours of daylight driving under my belt. To me, a perfect meet tour is between 2 and 3 hours.

[Alps]

@HB: We sort of agreed to combine the after-meet into the meet itself - no need to go back to the restaurant if we were okay in the cars we had. Otherwise it would not have been far from any point to return depending on consensus.

The all-too-long recap commences:

Route out: Started my day in Staten Island at a meeting. To make up time once I got back, I took I-80 all the way out to US 219 to Brockway. I clinched PA 28 (in and out of rain, mostly in) and headed up I-279 for a clinch. There was traffic at the end leading into a lane closure north of PA 910. PennDOT does lane closures in a very poor manner - closes the lane for months while the contractor saws and repairs joints in the base one at a time. It would be a lot better to dig down, repair the joint overnight, and leave the lane open during the day. I know that adds to the project time, but you can't close lanes on a commuter route like this. From the end of 279, I U-turned at 910 and came back down I-79 south to I-70 (where I left off), west to PA 18 into PA 844 and then down WV 88. I was going to clinch 88, but a fallen tree and gravel washes from all the storms made me abandon my plans and cut over to WV 2. Finally, I cruised into Columbus on I-70 to I-71, and I-270 to the hotel on US 23. That night, I met up with AJ, Sam, and Brian R-K for a few hours.

Pre-meet, I arranged a little circle tour around the north. We came down US 23 to OH 161 and turned on OH 710 to clinch, driving by the Budweiser plant that was later featured on the tour. Back down to OH 161, we headed east to the end and straight onto OH 37. When it exited, we turned left on OH 661 for a clinch. This started the Day of Colleges - in order, we passed or visited Denison, Mt. Vernon Nazarene, Kenyon, Ohio Wesleyan, and then Fortis and OSU during the meet. We spent some time in Mt. Vernon (up OH 13 from 661) at the town square and with a loop consisting of OH 229, OH 308, US 36, OH 768, and OH 3. The drive headed west on OH 229, picked up clinches of OH 656 and 521, and took US 36 to old US 23, US 23, and OH 315. OH 315 has a couple of good stops for old bridges - the pier from Winter Rd. and the truss bridge that was W. Orange Rd. We left 315 at OH 161 and headed over to the meet at Roadhouse 66.

Attendees: Myself, AJ Bertin, Sam Scholtens, Brian Rawson-Ketchum, Brian Powell, Denny Gibson, Richard Ruffner, Dan Garnell, Ed and Shari Szuba, and finally (and indeed last to the meet), Sandor Gulyas.

The meet: We headed onto OH 710 (Schrock Rd.) to the Budweiser plant and then onto I-270 to OH 161 and the Sunbury Rd. interchange. This was redone not too long ago at great expense due to some wealthy backing in the area, and now has four roadways (two serving I-270 traffic, two serving OH 161 traffic) and a SPUI plus additional ramps. Back onto I-270, the meet went down I-670 and looped through the airport to check out the signage, then went back on I-270 to I-70 east and all the way out to Kirkersville. The northern end of OH 158 was rerouted out of town to a southwestern bypass, one that happens to have been built as a freeway with an abandoned westbound carriageway. This was where I-70 temporarily tied into US 40, which begins a four-lane divided section at this very point to head into Columbus. From there it was back to Columbus, continuing southwest on I-270 to US 33 and the OH 104 expreessway. I would bet that Columbus is the only city with two exit number concurrencies: 270 Exit 23 for US 23 and 71 Exit 104 for OH 104.

From here, the meet headed downtown on I-71 to OH 315 and east from the US 62/OH 3 exit to the new Main St. bridge that carries EB/NB traffic only on 62/3, and construction continues on the WB/SB Rich St. bridge. Instead of walking along the Scioto River to more bridges, we drove past the state capitol on High St. to US 33 WB, where there's an ALT 315 assembly from back when the Spring-Sandusky Interchange was still under construction. We left US 33 to drive past the AAA ballpark to the former Dublin Ave. bridge, which still has an abutment on the east side and has standpipes where the former central pier was located. This was the original US 33 bridge (or the road that predated it) until the WB side of the Spring St. bridge was built. (One might consider the EB side to be the Long St. bridge since it was built separately, but the two bridges were joined as one structure at that time.)

We came back on Spring St. under the Spring-Sandusky Interchange to Confluence Park, where the Olentangy River meets the Scioto, for a view of the Columbus skyline that apparently is used as the backdrop for Current Weather displays in the area. That's where we found out that we were still going while the Lawrence, KS meet had ended - and at this point we still had all of our participants! From there, we jumped on I-670 WB to I-70 and to US 40 at Wilson Rd., passing the old Route 40 hotel sign and the former town of New Rome that disincorporated. It's in bad shape socioeconomically. Our next stop was the underside of the Big Darby Creek bridge, which looks completely unassuming from the top of US 40. Forgoing a chance to see a similar bridge with less of a viewing opportunity, we at least got to see an amazing and unique structure on Beech Rd., a cable-stayed contraption that's quite new and replaced an old truss bridge (which the tour skipped, but has been relocated to the northeast). We weren't sure why the county went with such a mammoth structure when something much smaller could have sufficed to clear the creek.

By consensus, we headed downtown to finish off the meet, up Amity Rd. to Scioto & Darby Creek Rd., forced to bear left onto Cemetery Rd. due to roundabout construction in Hilliard. The one at Cemetery and Main St. is complete, but the leg of Scioto & Darby to Main St. needs more work. We followed Fishinger and Northwest Blvds. to Zollinger Rd. and North Star Rd., ending up on the Lane Ave. bridge and the OSU campus. That was basically the end of the meet; we got onto OH 315 to I-270 and took the US 23 exit to Wilson Bridge Rd. to say our goodbyes. After dinner, AJ, Sam, Brian R-K and I came back to the Roadhouse a third time (the owner's curiosity was piqued) and enjoyed some karaoke.

Route back: I left at the crack of dawn to see how much I could fit in, but I badly underestimated the time I needed in Cleveland due to bad signal progression and low speed limits for miles on end. My route was up I-71 to OH 750, which ends at an interesting dam/bridge worth checking out. I dropped down OH 257 to OH 161 and headed east to Cleveland Ave. for the start of my loop on I-270. I drove the entire route counter-clockwise, with two stops. One was to clinch OH 315 by going out on I-70 and coming back on I-670 to I-70, and the other was to head west on US 40 from the east side of town (exit 41, almost a third exit number concurrency) to OH 317 for a ridiculously old state-name I-70 shield. After completing the loop, I jumped on I-71 to Cleveland to pick up some miles on that road. In Cleveland, I finally got myself to the downtown (via OH 14/US 422) and drove in all directions around the square. The policeman directing pedestrian traffic was probably quite confused to see me pass so many times. Finally, I headed out on US 20 and lost an hour through Cleveland, East Cleveland, and the suburbs all the way out to Mentor and beyond. A small part of that lost time was due to a detour from the Komen Race for the Cure (which by that point was basically over, so I only lost a long block) and the Case-Western graduation procession (on a Sunday??), which caused a slightly longer detour. Once I met my former travels at OH 7, I jumped down to I-90, and discovered that the old concrete arch on former 7 has been closed. I hate to think that unique bridge is going to be demolished, but I don't know how they can possibly save or transport it due to the fragility of concrete (it would shatter under any sort of tension).

In PA, I took I-79 down for the full clinch (with a loop to clinch PA 102 and see two old bridges, one that seems about to disappear), and ran into considerable traffic due to another poorly conceived work zone. This time, it cut traffic down to a single lane, and to make matters worse, crews were there on a Sunday sawcutting the road straight up to the travel lane! No wonder I lost a half hour going just 3 miles! PennDOT needs a serious clue here. Even if you have a long-term lane closure, prohibit work from taking place near the travel lane during peak travel hours or if there's a queue. The capacity was easily cut by 1/3 if not 1/2 just due to the workers being there. For shame. After that rant I finally made it down to PA 910 and headed east to old PA 28. The rain that I had been dodging in and out of all morning finally came to rest here, and I never really got away from it the rest of the day. Nor was I able to avoid trucks and other left-lane blockers the rest of the day. Made for a very long and tiring drive. All I got to drive of interest from here was PA 56 to Johnstown, my last clinch of the day, with a detour to Freeport on PA 356 for the old button copy there. I'd meant to see it from PA 28 on the way down, since it's much closer, but at least I got to see it at all. By Altoona, I was 2 and a half hours behind my schedule and not looking to arrive home at 1 AM, so I called it quits, ate some dinner, and just took I-99 to I-80 to get back. I wouldn't have seen much on any other road anyway thanks to the persistent rain.

Well, all in all, despite the gloomy weather and, for the most part, a notable lack of good food (Roadhouse 66 was the main exception, though Chutny had some decently good Indian food too), I did enjoy my time on this roadtrip and am glad I went. It was great catching up with old friends and making a new one. Look forward to seeing you in Montreal, Morgantown, and beyond!

[Hot Rod Hootenanny]

For all our good luck with the weather on Saturday, I had the complete opposite Sunday in Union County (NW of Columbus) for a covered bridge tour. We were stuck with rain most of the day and I got home and had a look at radar, the only (major) storm cell in the region had settled right over us during the bridge tour. 

[Hot Rod Hootenanny]

Pre-meet, I arranged a little circle tour around the north. We came down US 23 to OH 161 and turned on OH 710 to clinch, driving by the Budweiser plant that was later featured on the tour. Back down to OH 161, we headed east to the end and straight onto OH 37. When it exited, we turned left on OH 661 for a clinch. This started the Day of Colleges - in order, we passed or visited Denison, Mt. Vernon Nazarene, Kenyon, Ohio Wesleyan, and then Fortis and OSU during the meet. We spent some time in Mt. Vernon (up OH 13 from 661) at the town square and with a loop consisting of OH 229, OH 308, US 36, OH 768, and OH 3. The drive headed west on OH 229, picked up clinches of OH 656 and 521, and took US 36 to old US 23, US 23, and OH 315. OH 315 has a couple of good stops for old bridges - the pier from Winter Rd. and the truss bridge that was W. Orange Rd. We left 315 at OH 161 and headed over to the meet at Roadhouse 66.

If I knew you guys were going by my house (I live 3 miles north of Oh 521), I would have had you wake me up.
I assume you guys got photos of the various sign errors within Mt. Vernon as well.

Attendees: Myself, AJ Bertin, Sam Scholtens, Brian Rawson-Ketchum, Brian Powell, Denny Gibson, Richard Ruffner, Dan Garnell, Ed and Shari Szuba, and finally (and indeed last to the meet), Sandor Gulyas.

The meet: We headed onto OH 710 (Schrock Rd.) to the Budweiser plant and then onto I-270 to OH 161 and the Sunbury Rd. interchange. This was redone not too long ago at great expense due to some wealthy backing in the area, and now has four roadways (two serving I-271 traffic, two serving OH 161 traffic) and a SPUI plus additional ramps.

It would be quite expensive for a duel carriage roadway to go from OH 161 to I-271

Back onto I-270, the meet went down I-670 and looped through the airport to check out the signage, then went back on I-270 to I-70 east and all the way out to Kirkersville. The northern end of OH 158 was rerouted out of town to a southwestern bypass, one that happens to have been built as a freeway with an abandoned westbound carriageway. This was where I-70 temporarily tied into US 40, which begins a four-lane divided section at this very point to head into Columbus.

The (semi-abandoned) roadway headed southeast to continue as I-70 east through Licking County. The temporary roadway we visited here was abandoned when I-70 was completed west into Columbus (in 1968...I think)

From there it was back to Columbus, continuing southwest on I-270 to US 33 and the OH 104 expreessway. I would bet that Columbus is the only city with two exit number concurrencies: 270 Exit 23 for US 23 and 71 Exit 104 for OH 104.

From here, the meet headed downtown on I-71 to OH 315 and east from the US 62/OH 3 exit to McDowell St. for a view of the Columbus skyline that apparently is used as the backdrop for Current Weather displays in the area.

The "weather backdrop" was at Spring-Sandusky with the confluence of the Scioto & Olentangy Rivers.
McDowell St. was to have been an overview of the I-70/71/315 interchange.

Snipped extra quoting

[Alps]

Pre-meet, I arranged a little circle tour around the north. We came down US 23 to OH 161 and turned on OH 710 to clinch, driving by the Budweiser plant that was later featured on the tour. Back down to OH 161, we headed east to the end and straight onto OH 37. When it exited, we turned left on OH 661 for a clinch. This started the Day of Colleges - in order, we passed or visited Denison, Mt. Vernon Nazarene, Kenyon, Ohio Wesleyan, and then Fortis and OSU during the meet. We spent some time in Mt. Vernon (up OH 13 from 661) at the town square and with a loop consisting of OH 229, OH 308, US 36, OH 768, and OH 3. The drive headed west on OH 229, picked up clinches of OH 656 and 521, and took US 36 to old US 23, US 23, and OH 315. OH 315 has a couple of good stops for old bridges - the pier from Winter Rd. and the truss bridge that was W. Orange Rd. We left 315 at OH 161 and headed over to the meet at Roadhouse 66.

If I knew you guys were going by my house (I live 3 miles north of Oh 521), I would have had you wake me up.
I assume you guys got photos of the various sign errors within Mt. Vernon as well.

Actually, didn't see any errors that I can remember. What ought we have been looking for?

From there it was back to Columbus, continuing southwest on I-270 to US 33 and the OH 104 expreessway. I would bet that Columbus is the only city with two exit number concurrencies: 270 Exit 23 for US 23 and 71 Exit 104 for OH 104.

From here, the meet headed downtown on I-71 to OH 315 and east from the US 62/OH 3 exit to McDowell St. for a view of the Columbus skyline that apparently is used as the backdrop for Current Weather displays in the area.

The "weather backdrop" was at Spring-Sandusky with the confluence of the Scioto & Olentangy Rivers.
McDowell St. was to have been an overview of the I-70/71/315 interchange.

Snipped extra quoting

Wait a minute though, I could swear we pulled out on McDowell to the parking lot for SOME reason. Now that I think about it, must have been pretty spotty.

[Hot Rod Hootenanny]

My attempt at tieing up lose ends from Saturday...
Broad St (US 40) bridge we didn't visit
http://www.roadfan.com/broadbr.html
Dublin Ave bridge
http://www.roadfan.com/dubavebr.html
US 40 over Big Darby Creek
http://www.roadfan.com/darby40.html
Beach Road Suspension Bridge
http://www.roadfan.com/beachbr.html
Dublin Bridge we didn't visit

Bill Moose roadside grave we didn't visit
http://news.webshots.com/album/559799711AXDkea

[vtk]

Wow, you guys really got around with your tour. Almost makes me glad I missed it, what with gas prices.

[Hot Rod Hootenanny]

Wow, you guys really got around with your tour. Almost makes me glad I missed it, what with gas prices.

We carpooled (11 of us in 3 cars). And your name was mentioned at lunch. should have been there.