2017 western Kentucky meet -- Sat., Nov. 4

[hbelkins]

Great! I'm looking forward to it. Just booked my hotel room in Paducah a few days ago. I'll be driving down Friday and staying in Paducah Friday night and Saturday night... then driving home Sunday. I still haven't fully decided on the route I'll take going down and back, but I want to see if I can minimize my drive time in Indiana, except for grabbing the one county I still need in the southwest corner of that state.

That leaves two options -- Ohio and Illinois! LOL

You flying solo, or is Sam or someone else coming with you?

[A.J. Bertin]

That leaves two options -- Ohio and Illinois! LOL

Haha! Well, I'm mainly thinking about Illinois (for the drive down and back), although I'm sure I won't take the same route. I just want to get the 37-ish mile stretch of I-24 that I need in Illinois. As for the rest of my Illinois route, I'm not sure. I'll probably want to take the quickest route home possible... so maybe I-24 to I-57 north. On my way down, I'll see what counties and highways in eastern Illinois I can clinch while staying off the Interstates.

You flying solo, or is Sam or someone else coming with you?

I'm going solo. Brandon, Sam, and I will share a hotel room - but Sam wants to drive separately because he has some specific counties that he wants to clinch which are probably off the route I want to take.

[jpi]

That leaves two options -- Ohio and Illinois! LOL

Haha! Well, I'm mainly thinking about Illinois (for the drive down and back), although I'm sure I won't take the same route. I just want to get the 37-ish mile stretch of I-24 that I need in Illinois. As for the rest of my Illinois route, I'm not sure. I'll probably want to take the quickest route home possible... so maybe I-24 to I-57 north. On my way down, I'll see what counties and highways in eastern Illinois I can clinch while staying off the Interstates.

You flying solo, or is Sam or someone else coming with you?

I'm going solo. Brandon, Sam, and I will share a hotel room - but Sam wants to drive separately because he has some specific counties that he wants to clinch which are probably off the route I want to take.

Have fun guys, Steph and I will be thinking of you all while we will be doing toy shows in Memphis and St Louis that weekend 

[hbelkins]

I'm beginning to think I chose the wrong date for this meet. It's a late fall here. Very few of the leaves have started changing colors, and usually this is the peak of leaf-peeping season around here. I'm not sure that the leaves will be gone by Nov. 4, which will impede visibility in at least one place where the tour is stopping.

I'm not changing the meet date, though. The following weekend is the first after the time changes back to standard time, which means it gets dark an hour earlier and thus would cut into the time available for the tour (and since the meet is in Central time, it gets dark an hour earlier anyway, which is why lunch is at 11 local time instead of noon local time).

[Brandon]

That leaves two options -- Ohio and Illinois! LOL

Haha! Well, I'm mainly thinking about Illinois (for the drive down and back), although I'm sure I won't take the same route. I just want to get the 37-ish mile stretch of I-24 that I need in Illinois. As for the rest of my Illinois route, I'm not sure. I'll probably want to take the quickest route home possible... so maybe I-24 to I-57 north. On my way down, I'll see what counties and highways in eastern Illinois I can clinch while staying off the Interstates.

Well, one idea to go down is to take I-94 to IL-394 and then just continue onto IL-1 all the way to the Cave-In-Rock Ferry.  You'd pick up the entire eastern edge of Illinois counties there and clinch IL-1 from IL-394 south.  A tidbit, IL-394 is oddly concurrent with IL-1 for less than a mile near the south end of IL-394.  IL-394 then ends while concurrent with IL-1.

I-24 to I-57 to I-80 will be very fast on the way up.

As for me, I'm taking a half day off work, so it'll be I-55 to Braidwood (Exit 233, Reed Road), then cut along the county line to IL-17, east about a mile and a half to line up with IL-115, then follow IL-115 south to IL-9, then over to I-57 and I-24.  If I find I have time, I may cut over at IL-154 to get Perry County, and then back to I-57.  My Illinois county count is up to 98, leaving Perry, Edwards, Wabash, and Richland Counties.  I think I'll pick up the latter three on the way back.

[hbelkins]

We'll be hitting six counties in Kentucky on the meet tour -- Marshall, Graves, Calloway, Trigg and Lyon. Lunch is in Livingston County.

[A.J. Bertin]

Well, one idea to go down is to take I-94 to IL-394 and then just continue onto IL-1 all the way to the Cave-In-Rock Ferry.  You'd pick up the entire eastern edge of Illinois counties there and clinch IL-1 from IL-394 south.

I am driving a couple hours on Thursday night to Portage, Indiana. On Friday morning I'm going to start off just like you described... I-94 to IL-394 south to IL-1. My rationale for starting the drive Thursday night is so I can get a couple hours' head start on Friday morning.

I wasn't thinking about Cave-In-Rock Ferry but that's certainly a possibility I can consider. I have 12 counties in southeastern Illinois I can potentially get and one county in southwestern Indiana. (I know for sure I want to get the Indiana county - Posey County.) My initial thought is to take IL-1 all the way down to Mt. Carmel and cross into Indiana from there to grab Posey County and then probably take I-64 back into Illinois. Prior to getting to Mt. Carmel, I'm going to see what counties I can get between IL-1 and I-57 that I need.

My hope is to leave Portage IN by, say, 6 a.m. Central. If I can do that, I figure there's a decent chance I can get all the counties I want and arrive in Paducah at a reasonable time. ("Reasonable" for me, in this case, would be defined as "before dinner".) I'm purposely not planning my route too definitively because I want to play it by ear.

I-24 to I-57 to I-80 will be very fast on the way up.

Yep... that's my plan for driving home on Sunday.

As for me, I'm taking a half day off work, so it'll be I-55 to Braidwood (Exit 233, Reed Road), then cut along the county line to IL-17, east about a mile and a half to line up with IL-115, then follow IL-115 south to IL-9, then over to I-57 and I-24.  If I find I have time, I may cut over at IL-154 to get Perry County, and then back to I-57.  My Illinois county count is up to 98, leaving Perry, Edwards, Wabash, and Richland Counties.  I think I'll pick up the latter three on the way back.

Nice!

[A.J. Bertin]

We'll be hitting six counties in Kentucky on the meet tour -- Marshall, Graves, Calloway, Trigg and Lyon. Lunch is in Livingston County.

Calloway and Trigg will be new counties for me.

[hbelkins]

A reminder that Tuesday, Oct, 31, is the drop-dead RSVP date for this event. I will need to call in an accurate headcount to the restaurant, which I plan to do on Wednesday, Nov. 1.

So far I have five confirmed attendees, including myself (Sam S., Scott O., Brandon G. and AJ B.), and Lou C. seems to be waffling on whether or not he'll make it. I know Steve A. and Anthony C. are possibilities. There is also the chance that my KYTC counterpart from that region, who lives in an adjoining county, will join us as well.

RSVPs can be made on the Facebook events page, in this thread, or via email at RSVP@millenniumhwy.net.

I'm having some vehicle issues at the present but that shouldn't preclude my attendance at my own meet (for the second time this year.) My wife has graciously volunteered to let me drive hers if I need to.

[Alps]

Anthony and I are likely yes at this point. I would include us in the RSVP.

[SSOWorld]

Anthony and I are likely yes at this point. I would include us in the RSVP.

*refers to his meme image in Facebook.*

[hbelkins]

The meet itinerary is now online at https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B3aPbzQ10A-yRjVnbTczOVhaRVE. I will have printed copies of this itinerary at the meet, but will NOT have printed copies of the map shared here earlier. In case of any conflicts between what may appear on the map shared earlier and this narrative, this narrative is correct. I will be taking a look at some of the places where construction has been active on Friday and will post any changes here, and will try to have printed revisions available on the Saturday of the meet.

A reminder that the drop-dead RSVP date is next Tuesday. Head count is now up to six, with one questionable in addition.

[hbelkins]

RSVP Reminder

I need your RSVPs by Tuesday, as I'm calling the restaurant on Wednesday to revise the initial reservation estimate.

If you have not confirmed your attendance on the Facebook event page, please do so by email to rsvp@millenniumhwy.net.

I have four people confirmed on the Facebook page and have received no email confirmations. This may end up being a small meet, which is fine.

I will communicate cell phone contact information privately after the attendee list is finalized.

[Duke87]

Anthony and I are likely yes at this point. I would include us in the RSVP.

Turns out we're actually no. Doesn't work out logistically for either of us.

[US71]

Definite NO, much as I wish I could go.

[hbelkins]

Looks like a small meet -- five, including me. If anyone else is interested in attending, you're welcome to join, although I can't guarantee you'll have seating for lunch. The restaurant is pretty popular and wait times can get pretty long on Saturday afternoons.

I think I'm connected with all the attendees on Facebook so I will be sending a private message with my phone numbers.

I will have a tripod for the group photo. I also have a few adapters to hold a cell phone if anyone wants a group photo with their cell phone camera. Someone else can provide the camera for the group photo.

With this small group, if someone has a car that can hold four passengers plus the driver, that will be great. If not, I can take one person with me and there will be three people in the other car.

The weather forecast is for a chance of storms on Saturday, but hopefully we'll be able to dodge any raindrops.

I'll do a final scouting of a couple of the tour stops on Friday to see if any changes in the itinerary are necessary. If so, they'll be posted here and on the Facebook event page, as well as being sent privately.

Let's try to be ready to cross the street and go to the restaurant about 10:50 CDT on Saturday. See everyone then.

[hbelkins]

I'd like to thank the four of you who came -- Scott, Brandon, A.J. and Sam -- for traveling south to the Purchase area of Kentucky. I hope you enjoyed the food and the meet.

As for the meet tour, I eliminated a couple of stops based on last-minute scouting. The access point to the first stop, near the Kentucky Lake Speedway in the southeast quadrant of the I-24/Purchase Parkway interchange, was blocked off and the spot I'd planned to use for the stop is now the northbound lanes where I-69 will merge with I-24 eastbound. So I cut that stop out. And I also eliminated the stop I had planned for the northeast side of the Purchase Parkway/Bypass US 45 interchange at Mayfield, because leaves had not fallen off the trees enough to provide the hoped-for visibility. However, the ramp from US 45 to the northbound Bypass 45/Purchase was opened a few weeks ago, so we were able to drive through the construction zone.

As for my trip from my side of the state to the opposite end, I took the opportunity to do some Kentucky state route clinching. Now that I have the signed portion of West Virginia's primary system clinched, I'm working on getting Kentucky's single-digit and two-digit (plus KY 100) routes completed. I left work Wednesday and stayed near Louisville, then Thursday morning got new mileage on KY 61 and completed what I needed of KY 44 (Shepherdsville to West Point). I then drove to Brownsville, where I picked up KY 70 and took it west to where it ends at the Cumberland River (having driven the short portion of it on the west side of the river back in the summer). I actually found that I had plenty of daylight left, so I grabbed a portion of KY 93, then clinched KY 58, got a needed portion of KY 94, clinched the short KY 83, then went to Paducah for the night.

I had planned to do much of this on Friday, so that allowed me to change up my plan and got a lot more routes under my belt. Friday morning I headed south from Paducah back to Mayfield, then clinched KY 97, then returned to KY 94 and clinched it. From there, I headed east and finished out KY 93, then headed to Fredonia and completed KY 91.

I drove north on the Purchase Parkway/I-69 to Henderson, then took the Audubon east to Owensboro, then headed west on KY 56, clinching it when I got to Morganfield. To get back to the Kentucky Dam area, I took US 60, US 641 and I-24, spending Friday and Saturday nights at Calvert City.

This morning I headed east, went back to Madisonville, then clinched KY 85. US 62 and US 231 put me back on the Western Kentucky Parkway, and I stayed on the parkways until the KY 52 Boston/New Haven exit on the Bluegrass. I exited there, then made my way to KY 46 and clinched it, then returned to the Bluegrass at Bardstown for the familiar drive on home.

I'm at 90 percent of my clinching goal now. I need most of KY 8, two small discontinuous segments of KY 39, KY 61 inside the Watterson Expressway in Louisville, most of KY 69, KY 73 northwest of Franklin, several big chunks of KY 79, that portion of KY 84 west of US 62, most of KY 86, all of KY 96, and the portion of KY 100 between Franklin and Russellville. (I will also need to reclinch US 79, as a new portion (southern Russellville bypass) opens next week.

[A.J. Bertin]

I'd like to thank the four of you who came -- Scott, Brandon, A.J. and Sam -- for traveling south to the Purchase area of Kentucky. I hope you enjoyed the food and the meet.

I very much enjoyed the lunch and the tour. Thank you again for hosting!