While hunkering down for COVID-19, I went through an old folder of saved papers and some photo albums and came across documents suggesting this topic - do you still have (or recall) your first road photo, hand drawn map or road scene?
My first road photos were taken with an inexpensive camera in March 1976 at age 10 in Alpena, Mich. The US-23 sign was the last shield remaining in the county south of town and was just in front of a "Polar Equator Trail" sign (wish I was closer to both signs for the photo). The M-32 sign was at the corner of Washington and Potter.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/783/39583252370_c212aa4d55_w.jpg)(https://live.staticflickr.com/802/39583250240_386dcb44ed_w.jpg)
The map, part of Michigan, I drew in July 1976 was based on the Standard Oil Maps of the late '60s / early '70s. Looking at it now, I had spelling issues and put Benton Harbor and St Joseph incorrectly south of New Buffalo. I borrowed my Mom's green-red-blue-black Bic pen to draw it!
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49773298886_b859b9bb0d.jpg)(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49773297006_2955dc40da.jpg)
I drew this map of Indianapolis in 1979 at age 13 using coloured pencils and see a few errors in it, too. The Airport Expressway (continuation of Raymond Street) was not a freeway east of I-70 and there was not an interchange with Holt Rd.; I-70 does have an interchange with Harding St.; Lafayette Rd. should have curled under I-65 to its west between 71st St. and the then I-465 dog-leg instead of staying east of I-65; the proposed but never-built I-165 would have ended at the I-65/I-70 north split and not to the east as shown. Otherwise, it isn't too bad of a map.
Northern half:
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49773629172_342188acd6_z.jpg)
Southern half:
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49773300076_9bdd76bfcd_z.jpg)
My first road scenes were based loosely on reality. The one from 1974 at age 8 is of a fictitious junction of US-8 and STH 65 in Wisconsin. It shows a made-up village of Hoover and "features" a four-lane US-8 having to stop for gravel surfaced Business 65. Not sure what mainline STH 65 was doing here - I don't appear to have it turning either way onto US-8.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49773295611_d82a57af85.jpg)
Later, I started drawing pictures to remember road scenes that seemed cool. This one was drawn after coming home from a Tigers game in Detroit (1977) and was of M-14 (Plymouth Rd.) where it narrowed down from 5 to 2-lanes near Plymouth, Mich. I don't recall 5-lane roads in Indiana at the time so that part was interesting as was Michigan's use of "Form 1 Lane" and "Pavement Narrows" signs to mark the right travel lane ending. The other thing I tried to capture here were the remnants of the old white and black alternating center line on the 2-lane portion still visible on a double yellow stretch.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49773299546_53bf1eb96b.jpg)
I didn't save them, but when I was young, I would draw an imaginary route using the road I lived on (KY 52) with sign assemblies, and all sorts of state routes, US routes, and Interstates. I would even have the road go near state lines so I could use route markers from the adjoining states (I only knew that Virginia used shields, West Virginia used squares, and Tennessee used triangles back then, as I hadn't been to any other neighbors at the time.) I'd use a combination of the standard square markers that we use now, and cutouts, as there were quite a few of them still in use back then.
This takes me back... :)
I wish I had saved that stuff. My dad had brought home some triplicate paper once, and the yellow paper was perfect for diamond signs...so I cut that into little diamonds and created my own sign shop...same with the regular white paper. Then I had a large cardboard box that I drew roads on and used my signs and my matchbox car collection. Finally...the older Legos, you could write on them with a pencil, so I used to make BGSs (but red since green Legos were rare).
I did also draw hand maps, both real and imaginary.
I have road photos from the early 1990s that I started taking with my Dad on road trips. The California album is always neat to look through but it is incredibly primitive by today's standards.
I used to design freeways in my sand box when I 3-7 years old before we left Michigan. I usually designed them after the Lodge Freeway since the sunken trench look was fascinating to me. In high school I was pretty good at drafting urban landscapes and highway infrastructure which I used to pass a lot of classes.
My first hand-drawn map would have been when I was in Kindergarten (1980-81)
My first road photo wouldn't occur till after I discovered MTR, in 1998.
I don't really handdraw maps, but my old rand mcnallys had interstates drawn on them (and railroad lines).
First photos I remember taking were in Missouri.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/3237/2943099767_77dfbe6f45_d.jpg)
(https://live.staticflickr.com/3027/2982375059_e900d4e6e1_d.jpg)
My first road photos were taken in and around Princeton, IN, and Mt. Carmel, IL, during May 2017, the first summer I lived by myself. I've since deleted pretty much of all of them because they're poor quality - the oldest photo I still have is this one, taken on US 41 northbound, crossing the Ohio between Henderson, KY, and Evansville, IN.
(https://i.imgur.com/7c3YIlB.jpg)
3 years later I've got nearly 5000 photos from 23 states - thankfully, of much better quality. I think I'm an addict (help!).
The first road photo I took was a picture of the westbound junction marker for IL-89 on US6 in Spring Valley, IL (GSV-- it was a 36" route shield when I took the photo (https://goo.gl/maps/3x38PrcvyABWWbfK7)). My mom and I went to the Starved Rock area and then just explored around after that, I believe. It was late summer 2004, and I was 14. That was the moment I decided to start collecting routes I traveled on by photographing the route markers. I don't think I still have the photo anywhere.
Quote from: Roadgeekteen on April 14, 2020, 10:18:52 PM
I don't really handdraw maps, but my old rand mcnallys had interstates drawn on them (and railroad lines).
Glad to see I'm not the only one drawing freeways on old atlases!
I also did a hand-drawn map of Chicago that included the Crosstown proposal; it had already been cancelled by the time I graduated from grade school.
As a child in the early Sixties, using stiff colored paper, magic markers and such let me make up a little city with streets that had center lines that sat on a medium sized top of a cabinet. Maps hung on the wall to show Oregon and PDX. Free maps were easy to get at service stations back then.
Rick
Quote from: US71 on April 16, 2020, 11:35:38 AM
First photos I remember taking were in Missouri.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/3027/2982375059_e900d4e6e1_d.jpg)
Just gonna ignore the blood on this photo?
I still have the atlas that made me a roadgeek - the 2009 Pennsylvania State Road Atlas by American Maps. In 2011 or 2012 (7 or 8) I began to ride in the front seat of the car; from there I'd begin guiding my family on long trips and ultimately ended up on this forum in 2015.
Quote from: US71 on April 16, 2020, 11:35:38 AM
First photos I remember taking were in Missouri.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/3237/2943099767_77dfbe6f45_d.jpg)
(https://live.staticflickr.com/3027/2982375059_e900d4e6e1_d.jpg)
I like those old Missouri shields.
Quote from: Roadgeekteen on April 17, 2020, 01:58:41 PM
Quote from: US71 on April 16, 2020, 11:35:38 AM
First photos I remember taking were in Missouri.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/3237/2943099767_77dfbe6f45_d.jpg)
(https://live.staticflickr.com/3027/2982375059_e900d4e6e1_d.jpg)
I like those old Missouri shields.
Agreed. Those are a lot cooler looking than a black/white shield. State route markers used to have some real personality! Who would have thought the 21st century would look so blah? Give me beauty or give me death...just not a coronavirus one...LOL!
Rick
When I was in first grade (1961-62), I hand-drew a map of the US on lined school paper. My mother was so impressed she sent it off to have it printed on a giant ash tray (I know that sounds wierd today, but back then almost every adult smoked). I think she had three made - one for herself and one for each set of grandparents. I think one of them might still be somewhere in storage. I'll have to look.
Can this include shields/signs youve drawn?
Quote from: SoDakInterstateEnthusiast on May 04, 2020, 05:08:00 PM
Can this include shields/signs youve drawn?
Anything I've drawn is long gone.
Here we go. SD-45 Shield I drew I don't know when, but I was definitely younger.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49857021937_6606717fe3_k.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2iXGgCv)
Sadly the maps I drew in the early 80s were binned decades ago. I can still remember how they looked. They were towns with expressways full of cloverleafs and trumpets.
Oh, dug up some more out of my closet. This first one is an old US-12 shield.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49856741806_ba5289dfe1_k.jpg)
This I-29 shield isn't as bad as it looks, just got very crumpled in storage.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49856205933_28f765e14e_k.jpg)
This US-281 shield I drew with the wrong proportions - instead of being 2.5:2 it's 3:2. *sigh*
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49856203858_425f5b9572_k.jpg)
Quote from: SoDakInterstateEnthusiast on May 04, 2020, 05:08:00 PM
Can this include shields/signs youve drawn?
I've been doing that since I was so young I don't even remember my age. I would sit in the back seat with a pad of construction paper and a baggie of markers.
Also can you all see the last three images I posted (US-12, US-281, and I-29 shields)? I can't see them but I embedded the links in BBCode and I have a feeling others can see them and theyre just not showing up for me.
I wish I'd saved it, but when I was about 8 or 9, I mapped out an imaginary town. The primary roads were US 560 and IN 21, which met in the center of the town. Two miles north of the town was Interstate 60. There was a BL-60 that angled in and out of town and ran concurrent with US 560 through town. Two miles south of US 560 was a railroad running E-W.
The E-W streets north of US 560 were numbered 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc. The E-W streets south of US 560 were named alphabetically with trees Apple, Birch, Cedar, etc. The N-S streets east of US 560 were the Presidents in order Washington, Adams, Jefferson, etc. The N-S streets west of US 560 were the states in order of admission Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, etc.
I don't remember exact locations, but the map had schools, town hall, police and fire stations, industrial park, and a library. I do remember that my house was at the corner of Indiana and US 560.
One of the first road(geek) photos I took (in 1985) and still have is of a sign no longer standing. It was a mileage sign: Syracuse 6/Watertown 79 on I-81 north of the Lafayette interchange.
Quote from: SoDakInterstateEnthusiast on May 04, 2020, 06:35:44 PM
[img]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49856741806_ba5289dfe1_k.jpg[/img]
[img]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49856205933_28f765e14e_k.jpg[/img]
[img]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49856203858_425f5b9572_k.jpg[/img]
Quote from: SoDakInterstateEnthusiast on May 04, 2020, 08:06:09 PM
Also can you all see the last three images I posted (US-12, US-281, and I-29 shields)? I can't see them but I embedded the links in BBCode and I have a feeling others can see them and theyre just not showing up for me.
No, I can't see them. When I copy and paste the URLs in your post, my browser says "file not found". I don't see anything wrong with the URLs you used, so I'm not sure what went wrong.
Even though it's not my first ever one, it's one of the only two drawings I have scanned. This one is a redesign of the I-95 / I-93 junction in Canton, MA.
(if you really care, the date on it says 2/14/19)
(https://i.imgur.com/s0xkEts.png)
Could it be because I made the images pivate on F
Quote from: kphoger on May 04, 2020, 08:57:57 PM
Quote from: SoDakInterstateEnthusiast on May 04, 2020, 06:35:44 PM
[img]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49856741806_ba5289dfe1_k.jpg[/img]
[img]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49856205933_28f765e14e_k.jpg[/img]
[img]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49856203858_425f5b9572_k.jpg[/img]
Quote from: SoDakInterstateEnthusiast on May 04, 2020, 08:06:09 PM
Also can you all see the last three images I posted (US-12, US-281, and I-29 shields)? I can't see them but I embedded the links in BBCode and I have a feeling others can see them and theyre just not showing up for me.
No, I can't see them. When I copy and paste the URLs in your post, my browser says "file not found". I don't see anything wrong with the URLs you used, so I'm not sure what went wrong.
Could it be because I set the photos to private on Flickr after I got their BBCode urls? I didn't want a bunch of random people on Flickr getting a rough estimate of where I lived because of the route signs I posted. By the time I set them back to private, 5 random people had already seen them!
I'll try again - if it doesn't work, I'm going to set them public.
Quote from: SoDakInterstateEnthusiast on May 05, 2020, 10:44:25 AM
Could it be because I set the photos to private on Flickr after I got their BBCode urls?
Absolutely, that's the problem, but not for the reason you think. When you changed the
Viewing privacy from
Public to
Private, you should have gotten the following pop-up warning:
"Changing a photo to a stricter privacy level will remove any favorites that have accumulated.
It will also change the URL of the photo."
This means that the URLs you pasted into your thread post are no longer valid. So all you need to do is either edit your old post or create a new post and paste in the updated URLs for those images, and we should be able to see them just fine.
I have tested this out with my own photos by setting one of them to
Private, and both of them are still visible. I just made sure to grab the one's URL
after setting it to
Private, not before.
The photo below is set to
Viewing privacy = Public:
(https://live.staticflickr.com/3429/3406915396_39eb3b91fd_k.jpg)
The photo below is set to
Viewing privacy = Private:
(https://live.staticflickr.com/3235/3406915152_ce75a25b46_k.jpg)
(I hadn't used my flickr account in so long that I had to re-activate two e-mail accounts just to log in–one to get the login credentials for flickr, and the other one to get the login credentials for
that e-mail account!)
One of my earliest memories would have been from when I was about 3 or so, when I tried to recreate the east end of I-72, complete with BGSs, to "drive" my matchbox cars through.
Quote from: kphoger on May 05, 2020, 12:28:15 PM
Quote from: SoDakInterstateEnthusiast on May 05, 2020, 10:44:25 AM
Could it be because I set the photos to private on Flickr after I got their BBCode urls?
Absolutely, that's the problem, but not for the reason you think. When you changed the Viewing privacy from Public to Private, you should have gotten the following pop-up warning:
"Changing a photo to a stricter privacy level will remove any favorites that have accumulated. It will also change the URL of the photo."
Yeah, well, I did not get that. Flickr did me dirty. :pan:
Aahh, ok, I think I might have gotten it to work....
The I-29 sign I made when I was young, really not as bad as it looks, just got crumpled a bit in my closet.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49856205933_1e92628126_k.jpg)
The US-281 sign I made, which looking back I realize the dimensions are wrong. I made it 3:2 instead of 2.5:2
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49856203858_8b8b1c3a25_k.jpg)
This is a US-12 sign I made. This one I'm actually still really proud of because it just looks really good, imo.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49856741806_9f718cc6c6_k.jpg)
Quote from: SoDakInterstateEnthusiast on May 04, 2020, 06:20:33 PM
Here we go. SD-45 Shield I drew I don't know when, but I was definitely younger.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49857021937_6606717fe3_k.jpg)
(https://flic.kr/p/2iXGgCv)
Quote from: SoDakInterstateEnthusiast on May 05, 2020, 06:46:09 PM
The I-29 sign I made when I was young, really not as bad as it looks, just got crumpled a bit in my closet.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49856205933_1e92628126_k.jpg)
I think you're being kind of hard on yourself for what are, IMHO,
excellent drawings!
Quote from: SoDakInterstateEnthusiast on May 05, 2020, 06:46:09 PM
Aahh, ok, I think I might have gotten it to work....
The I-29 sign I made when I was young, really not as bad as it looks, just got crumpled a bit in my closet.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49856205933_1e92628126_k.jpg)
The US-281 sign I made, which looking back I realize the dimensions are wrong. I made it 3:2 instead of 2.5:2
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49856203858_8b8b1c3a25_k.jpg)
This is a US-12 sign I made. This one I'm actually still really proud of because it just looks really good, imo.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49856741806_9f718cc6c6_k.jpg)
Wow! I can't draw, so if I tried, it would look like a 5 year old drew it. Impressive!
I suck so much at drawing. I've had to draw a couple of things for classes during online school and I just used MS Paint.
Before all the cement in my yard was ripped up, I drew many roads, signs, and buildings using Crayola Sidewalk Chalk. I have to have a picture of one of the drawings I made when I was five or so somewhere.
When it comes to actual road photos, virtually all my photos I took prior to 2018 have gone missing or were carelessly deleted (my own personal Library of Alexandria). A few MoDOT mile marker errors and button-copy signs in Seattle before the viaduct was destroyed were the only notable road pictures I had prior to that point. Now, I'm taking garbage photos of road signs from the backseat of the car (I still don't have my license due to COVID 19). Lots of window glare and blurry shots, unfortunately.
Quote from: kphoger on May 05, 2020, 07:08:31 PM
I think you're being kind of hard on yourself for what are, IMHO, excellent drawings!
Quote from: Roadgeekteen on May 05, 2020, 07:15:43 PM
Wow! I can't draw, so if I tried, it would look like a 5 year old drew it. Impressive!
Wow, thanks guys! Wasn't expecting that. :-P
Here is an early road photo from summer 1975. CA 49 Andreas, CA. This was taken with '110' film, which disappeared years ago.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50000495701_6d32c9a57b.jpg)