CoreySamson's Road Trip Reports

[CoreySamson]

Hey y'all! I figured that I would make a catch-all thread for my road trips (and maybe a virtual dump for some of my road photos as well!). Here's the recap from my last trip:

August 2025 Mission/College Trip
This trip, which took place over a period of about a week last week, had three legs.
Leg 1: Brazosport - Tulsa
The first leg of the trip would involve moving back to Tulsa for my senior year of college from my hometown in the Brazosport area in Texas. This part of the trip was mostly straightforward, leaving early to get ahead of Houston rush hour traffic. I ended up taking a few backroads through Spring on the north side of Houston to get around a gnarly crash on I-45.

The rest of the drive was mostly similar to my typical driving route from home to college, with only one huge exception: instead of driving straight through Dallas on I-45/US 75, I bypassed it to the east, mostly using TX 34, TX 205, TX 78, and TX 160, but not before doing some quick clinches in Ennis. I rejoined US 75 just south of Sherman, and took my typical US 75/OK 375 route back to Tulsa from there. Once in Tulsa, I dropped off my college stuff at a storage unit I rented and stayed the night at my pastor's house.

Some observations from this leg:
- Atoka, OK, was completely overrun with trucks. I think there was some minor sidewalk work that closed a lane, but the effects that the closure had were intense. The only places that I can recall seeing a higher concentration of trucks are I-40 in eastern Arkansas and I-45 on the south side of Dallas.
- I feel like there should be a freeway or expressway from Terrell to Farmersville on the east side of Dallas. The area is exploding and could use a little something extra to help with the traffic through Rockwall.
- The construction on US 75 through downtown and south Sherman is complete, but construction on the north side of town and south of it is kicking into high gear.

Legs 2 and 3: Tulsa - Coahuila - Tulsa
The next two legs of the trip used the same roads, so I will count them together. After I stayed the night at my pastor's place, I got up early to get ready for the next part of my trip, which was a church missions trip to Mexico. This trip would mark my first time spending any real time abroad (except for the five minutes or so I was across the Rio Grande at Big Bend National Park several years ago).

I got in my church van with some other people from my church, and we were off. Our route to Mexico was pretty simple: I-44 from Tulsa to Wichita Falls (using I-335 and I-240 to bypass OKC to the south), and US 277 from there to Del Rio, where we crossed the border. After we crossed the border, we took MX-29 down to the town of Zaragoza in Coahuila, where we stayed at a ranch. In Mexico, we gave out backpacks, school supplies, and shoes to about 3000 people, which was pretty awesome. We used the exact same route on the way back to Tulsa.

Observations:
- I liked Mexican signage quite a bit more than I thought I would. The pictographic warning signs made a lot of sense, and the guide signs are helpful. I wish there were more standalone shields and trailblazers, but that's not a dealbreaker.
- I also like Mexican-style passing, as @kphoger has mentioned elsewhere on the forum. Makes a lot of sense to me.
- I found some blue guide signs, which I don't think is typical practice in Mexico, as I have documented in the Unique, Odd, and Interesting signs thread.
- Any talk about I-44 being extended to Abilene along US 277 needs to be squashed. The route is kinda desolate, and much of it is already expressway grade.
- US 277 between Sonora and Del Rio is really pretty.


Overall, I clinched 4 new routes and 8 new counties, as well as 6 county equivalents in Mexico. I also spent considerable time in a foreign nation for the first time, and got a lot of new mileage in Texas and Coahuila, especially on TX 34, US 277, and MX-29. I got so much mileage in Coahuila, in fact, that I am now the leader user on the Travel Mapping website for active+preview systems in that province.

[kphoger]

Our route to Mexico was pretty simple: I-44 from Tulsa to Wichita Falls (using I-335 and I-240 to bypass OKC to the south), and US 277 from there to Del Rio, where we crossed the border. After we crossed the border, we took MX-29 down to the town of Zaragoza in Coahuila, where we stayed at a ranch.

In my experience, the road from Acuña to Zaragoza is just barely getting your toes wet in Mexican driving.  Other than the bouncy bridge abutments, it's basically just a wide open road with half the traffic having Texas plates anyway.  Driving through Acuña lets you know immediately that you're in Mexico, but then the stretch from there to Zaragoza is pretty ho-hum.  But now you've got the taste of it, at least, and I'm sure you'd love wading further into Mexico.

I've always thought Zaragoza looked like a pleasant town.  Very typical looking, not big enough to be noisy or bustling in any way, nice central plaza.  You say you stayed at a ranch there;  the word rancho can either refer to a ranch as we know it or to a small co-op village.  Was your destination an agricultural ranch near Zaragoza, or was it a different small town in the area?

I have some experience donating school supplies in Mexico, but only to either (a) a privately run children's home and (b) the parents' association of a rural small town (rancho) school.  Out of curiosity, who was the immediate recipient of your donations?  Also, I've never had to pay import duties on the supplies we brought in, but I know that's a possibility;  did you have to do anything like that?  Because Mexico is a huge clothing-producing nation, I assume at least the shoes might have been officially disallowed without paying import duty.

province

It ain't Canada, buster. 

[CoreySamson]

I had some random time this afternoon, so I thought I would visit a couple things on my local roadgeek bucket list: seeing some old truss bridges in northern Tulsa county as well as the OK 20 realignment in Claremore.

Bridgehunting
Northern Tulsa county is a treasure trove for old truss bridges. Today I visited 5 of these old bridges, which are all located in the Sperry/Skiatook area. Here they all are:

106th St over Hominy Creek

I actually didn't really expect to find this one (I thought that 106th St had one historic truss bridge, not two!). It had the shortest clearance of all of these trusses. This one is pretty narrow (one lane), and one of the bridge expansion joints makes a really loud sound, so this one was the most "scary".

106th Street over Bird Creek

This one was my favorite of the day. It was apparently built in 1912, and its metal deck was extremely unique. Probably the second bridge I've ever driven over with a metal deck. This one is also one lane wide.

96th Street over Bird Creek

Maybe the least interesting out of the five bridges I saw today, but it was still pretty cool. The most interesting thing about this one was that tons of vines were growing in and around the metal beams of the bridge:

Other than that, the bridge is in really great shape.

Old 131st St over Bird Creek

This one is closed to traffic, only accessible by walking. This one is heavily obscured by foliage at the entrance, which you can see in the photo. Makes it seem pretty magical when you walk onto it. This one was also impressively tall.

Old OK 11 bridge over Hominy Creek

This was interesting. The old OK 11 bridge over Hominy Creek was rebuilt several years ago, but instead of destroying the old truss, they hauled it almost 3 miles to the north and put the yellow truss structure over a ditch on private property next to the road, as you can see in this GSV:
https://maps.app.goo.gl/CwgmTeoPq2jXYwyb7

The website Oklahoma Bridges is a great comprehensive bridgehunting resource that helped me find these bridges, so I want to give some credit there. There are lots of great photos on the site!

Claremore OK 20 Realignment
After I explored these bridges, I went over to Claremore to investigate the newly-opened first section of the OK 20 Claremore bypass and new interchange with I-44. OK 20 now temporarily dips to the south of Claremore, bridges over OK 66, and loops back on itself to form a concurrency with OK 66, which it takes to downtown Claremore. The new bypass is 2 lanes each direction, separated by a turning lane. Here is a picture of the concurrency, looking west here:


And a picture looking northwest from here:


OK 20 was also realigned near the Verdigris River recently as well, which has an absolutely stunning rock cut, which you can see on GSV:
https://maps.app.goo.gl/AjQsQmtZP7xRaxYv9

====

Overall, it was a pretty fun day. In addition to seeing all these things, I also clinched OK 266, and got some decent mileage on OK 11 and OK 20.

[pderocco]

Where I grew up in Massachusetts, grates are common on bridges, because snow can fall through the openings, or be pushed through by tires. We probably had more snow than you do in OK.

[CoreySamson]

I recently completed a drive from Tulsa back to home in the Brazosport area via NWA for fall break. I left Tulsa on US 412 EB towards the Arkansas border, clinching US 412 ALT in the process. Once I got into NWA, I took a couple pictures of the construction on AR 612/future I-42:


At the future US 412/AR 612 interchange west of Tontitown


At the AR 112/AR 612 interchange

I then traveled down to Fort Smith, clinching AR 612, I-49 within Arkansas, and I-540. I-49 between NWA and Fort Smith has to be my new favorite stretch of interstate. Absolutely gorgeous. After hitting Fort Smith, I used US 71 to get to Texarkana, traversing some more beautiful terrain in the Ouachitas. In Texarkana, I clinched TX Loop 14, and then I traveled down US 59 all the way down to Houston (except for two diversions: (1) to clinch TX Loop 390 in Marshall and (2) to travel TX 315/US 259 between Carthage and Nacogdoches.

Here are my notes on US 59 between Nacogdoches and Houston:

I drove the I-69 corridor between Houston and Nacogdoches again yesterday. Here are the new developments since I took pictures in June. I did not take any pictures this time, as it was getting dark and I have a crappy phone camera (FYI, I drove it SB).

Cleveland:
Although this section of I-69 was designated last month according to the posts below, there are no new I-69 signs up yet. The northern terminus of I-69 is still at Fostoria Road.

Between Cleveland and Shepherd:
This section continues to be one of the most efficient parts of the I-69 project. SB traffic is now on the newly poured concrete SB feeder lanes, and asphalt for the future SB main lanes is being poured now. NB traffic is still on the ROW of the future NB feeder. There is some nice high mast lighting on this section that has also been completed and was on when I drove through.

Corrigan:
I didn't notice any work done on the approaches, very similarly to how the Diboll bypass was a few years ago, but I caught brief glimpses of decent progress on bridge supports over the railroad tracks directly paralleling US 59 there on both ends of town.

Diboll:
This is the big news here. The southbound lanes of the Diboll bypass are now completed, so the bypass is officially open in both directions! There remains a little bit of feeder road work on the north side of the project, but this project is basically completed.

Lufkin:
The work on Loop 286 on the NE side of town is now completely done. Feeders now flank the highway between TX 105 and the railroad tracks, marking another completed limited-access section. North of town, closer to Redland, there is some good progress. The new main lanes' asphalt is being poured in places, and this new bridge is basically complete. Very soon, US 59 between TX 103 and FM 2021 will be completely limited-access.

Nacogdoches:
I did not notice too much progress here since June. SB traffic on the south side of the project is now properly routed on the feeder instead of a temporary alignment, but other than that there wasn't too much progress.

Lastly, after I hit TX 288 in Houston on the back stretch home, I noticed that the ongoing construction on TX 288 in Iowa Colony is basically finished now, with the completion of 6 new interchanges along that stretch.

Overall, I clinched 5 new counties and 5 new routes. Not bad for just a trip back home.

[CoreySamson]

Now for the report on the 2nd half of my fall break trip (the leg from home back to college)! Firstly, I got some pictures of the 6 recently completed interchanges on TX 288 south of Houston near Iowa Colony and Manvel:





A couple things to note here:
- The new arterials in the city of Iowa Colony are named after major cities in Iowa, which is kinda funny.
- The first picture (Co Rd 60) is where the Grand Parkway will eventually intersect TX 288 once it gets built out.
- I have no idea why the sign for Davenport Parkway is left-justified.

After this, I attempted to use I-610 EB to get around downtown, but the freeway was closed completely, so I decided to backtrack and take 288 into downtown and clinch the 2 miles of I-10 (between US 90 ALT and I-69) that I was missing. With that, I finally have all of Houston's interstate mileage clinched. I then used I-10 EB towards Beaumont, exiting at TX 73 in Winnie.

The main reason I went on a side mission to Beaumont was because I wanted to completely clinch US 96. Getting on at the southern terminus in Port Arthur, I traveled US 96 all the way to US 59 in Tenaha without even stopping. After that massive diversion, the idea was to get back to Tulsa via the fastest way, so in Carthage I diverted from US 59 onto TX 149 to Longview. From there, I took a slew of highways (TX 300, Loop 281, TX 322) to get to US 271 in Gilmer. Once on US 271, I collected clinches of the various business routes along the route in NE Texas, and I followed US 271 to Hugo. I then used OK 375 and US 75 to get back to my dorm in Tulsa. Of personal interest, BGSs for the 141st St interchange in Glenpool on US 75 are now up.

Overall I clinched 9 routes and 2 new counties on this drive, which is my 2nd-best clinching day by amount of new routes all time (I had a day about a year and a half ago where I clinched 10 routes).

[CoreySamson]

I realize I haven't posted here in this thread lately, but I have done some interesting driving. Since October, I have been on 6 (or 7, depending on how you count it) road trips, some more interesting than others. While only one drive had a new endpoint (my Waco spring break trip), all the drives had unique sections I had never been on before. Here's a quick summary recap of each, with highlights!

10/27/25 - Thanksgiving Day Trip:
On Thanksgiving morning, I volunteered to take my friend to the airport. Since I knew I wasn't going back to sleep, I knew I wasn't going to get any work done on my senior paper, and I was eating Thanksgiving lunch with my pastor that afternoon, I therefore had an 8 hour window to do some local clinching/traveling. I decided to use that time to explore much of the OK 10 and OK 11 corridors. I traveled from Tulsa to Pawhuska on OK 11, from north of Pawhuska all the way to Muskogee on OK 10, and OK 51 back to Tulsa. Here are a couple pictures from OK 10:

Sunrise overlooking the unique hills of the Osage Reservation on OK 10 somewhere near Copan, OK.


Hanging Rock Bluff, also on OK 10, between Tahlequah and Kansas, OK.

12/12/25 - "The Flat Tire Incident"
My next trip was from Tulsa to the Brazosport area for winter break. On this trip, I largely paralleled my usual route home but made some interesting diversions in the morning. I drove some back roads (including US 62) to get to Checotah, OK, and then I drove much of the original Jefferson Highway routing that parallels US 69/75 in Oklahoma. Here's an old truss on the route over Clear Boggy Creek near Caney:


And here's another old truss going over the Blue River near Armstrong, OK, just north of Durant:


Once I got into Texas, I made a couple other diversions off the main highway, including clinching Loop 12 in Dallas and much of TX 5. Between Dallas and Houston, I used I-45, wherein disaster struck... my first flat tire ever, in the Huntsville construction zone 100 miles from home:

(you can see the bulge on the sidewall of the tire here)

I had never changed a tire before, and I was by myself in a Taco Cabana parking lot off the side of the highway, but I got the job done in an hour. Now the real question of the evening... how to get home? I didn't trust the spare on the freeway, so I nursed the car back home on the I-45 frontage road and FM 521, with a quick diversion through downtown Houston (how convenient!).

12/15/25-12/19/25 - Memphis Trip
Once home, I got the tire replaced and then turned around the next week for a trip to Memphis to see family. This trip was relatively straightforward, but there were also a few diversions sprinkled in.

On the way to Memphis, I mostly paralleled US 59/I-30/I-40, but diverted into Louisiana to see the TX/LA/AR tripoint as well as another diversion in central Arkansas, using US 270 and US 167 instead of I-30 in between Malvern and Little Rock. On the way back, generally using I-55 and I-10, I passed through Baton Rouge (my original hometown) and visited the State Capitol, clinching several highways in Louisiana and Mississippi, including MS 569, LA 3006, and LA 3045.

1/10/26 - Back to College
This trip back to college was mostly focused on picking up new clinches, turning out to be one of my most productive road clinching days of all time. I clinched 13 new routes that day (all in Texas), a daily record that still stands. Most of these routes were extremely obscure; they included TX 110, my 18th-longest clinch, four business routes of TX 78, 3 Texas spur routes, and 3 FM roads. On the trip, I largely stuck to back roads east of Dallas before rejoining US 75 at the Oklahoma border to get back to Tulsa.

3/11/26-3/14/26 - Waco Spring Break Trip
This was the most exciting trip of the last several months! For this trip, I got to visit Baylor University in Waco for the annual conference of the Society for Pentecostal Studies. I drove several people from my school to Waco; as such, there was no time for my typical diversions. I decided instead of blasting through Dallas at rush hour that we would go west over to OKC on I-44 and then use I-335, I-40, I-240, I-35, and I-35W down to Waco. The gamble seemed to work well; we only encountered minor traffic around Norman. During my stay in Waco, I clinched a couple of Texas loop routes.

After the conference ended, it was time for me to head back home, this time alone, so I could do some roadgeek diversions. I elected to use the TX 6 corridor from Waco to Hempstead and a variety of FM roads (FMs 359, 1093, and 723) to get to Rosenberg, and TX 36 to get home from there (but not before doing a bit of investigation concerning I-69's southern end. Spoiler alert: it hasn't changed). The most amusing road sign I encountered on this trip was this:

Hehehe...

Over the course of this trip, I clinched 8 new routes. The highlights were I-35W, my most prominent clinch this year, three business routes of TX 6, and several other miscellaneous routes, all in Texas.

3/21/26 - Back From Spring Break
This drive was straightforward. I drove a school friend from Houston to Tulsa on this trip on a relatively strict time schedule, so no opportunities for diversions off the main I-45/US 75 route. However, he informed me that he would be ready only in the mid-afternoon, so (like my Thanksgiving trip), that gave me another window to explore. He was on the southeast side of the metro, so I took the opportunity to drive the length of the barrier islands of Follett's Island and Galveston Island. The Galveston Island part of that drive gave me two new clinches: FM 3005 and TX Spur 342.

[kphoger]

I had never changed a tire before

I just changed my first tire a few weeks ago.  I'd previously always been able to nurse it to the shop—once by putting air in at every QuikTrip between our house and the shop.  One other time, a friend of ours came to the house that day, and he changed it for me.  But a few weeks ago was the first time I had to do it myself.