A non-roadgeek's road photos across America, 2010-

[bugo]

I don't consider myself a roadgeek either.  I don't "geek out" about roads, even though they are a strong interest of mine.  I do "geek out" about cars from the '50s to the early '70s, guitars, and music.

[Mr_Northside]

Not to give too much information on the internet... but my house is pictured in this photo.  Also, since Labor day, 3 of the houses in the row have been demolished.
I guess since you can't make out the license plate, I can also mention that's my car as well....

Wow, small world. My mom used to work at the library down there, before it was renovated. Have you eaten at the BBQ place that replaced the Brightwood Diner? I've heard good things about it, keep meaning to check it out...

Small world indeed....

I got a menu for that BBQ place at some point months ago intending to try it out sometime.... though I think it's now too late. 
Since at least summer there has been a sign in the window saying it's closed for a "Hospital Emergency", and it hasn't been open since.

[bugo]

Here's a non-geeky shot of US 52 northwest of the US 2 split near Minot, North Dakota:

[Alps]

wphiii

First of all, you are a gifted photographer. You have a knack for capturing the essence of wherever you've gone in a single picture. I feel like I just traveled the country going through your photos.
Second of all, and I am not joking, this is my favorite roadgeek collection of photos ever. Yes, we all love old signs and alignments and whatever, but this truly lets me see roads in their natural habitat. When I go on vacations, I take photos of a certain subset of things. I won't take scenery photos unless it's something amazing (like your Million Dollar Highway views), but what truly makes a vacation enjoyable and relaxing to me is the time spent seeing new scenery and absorbing a different part of America than I've ever seen before. (I've come to like night driving less, sadly, because I just can't see as much around me.)
I didn't know I had an unscratched itch until I viewed these. I don't know what it will affect in the future regarding my photography, but I've been touched. Please keep sharing.

[Brandon]

I try to set up some of the "geeky" photos as "non-geeky" photos.

Eisenhower Expressway inbound at Oakley:


Kennedy Expressway inbound:


Stevenson Expressway inbound at Western:


Underside of the Blue Water Bridge looking east into Point Edward:


Extra-large chess set in Port Huron:


Illinois 115 South near Piper City:


Dunes Highway (US-12) east near Burns Harbor and Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore:

[Brandon]

Looking west through the lock on the Chicago River:


Caton Farm Road eastbound east of Grove Road.  A nice bit of Illinois flatness and moraines (ridge up ahead):


Yes, I have a lot of Illinois farmland and flatness.  Illinois 47 South north of Forrest:


Old Northern Highway, south of Alton Ha, Belize:


Local street after the Groundhog Day Blizzard of 2011:


Looking north along the Las Vegas Strip:


Hana Highway from a rest stop:


That's just gay:

[Alex]

Nice collection of photos wphiii! To echo Steve's comment, I also felt like I got a nice tour of the country while viewing your selection of photos.

[bugo]

Picture of a field near Velva, North Dakota.  This picture is untouched except for a slight crop to remove a mirror.  It was taken from the front seat of a Jeep with the window down.

[kphoger]

Eisenhower Expressway inbound at Oakley:

I absolutely love this picture, and it perfectly captures the non-roadgeek highway picture idea for me.  I've always enjoyed the Blue Line stations that are accessed via highway bridges (e.g. Harlem and Cicero).

[formulanone]

Wow, and I thought I get around randomly!...keep on clicking, and uploading, please.

[D-Dey65]

These are non-roadgeek photos? I don't believe it.

[AsphaltPlanet]

I sometimes think the meaning of roadgeek is taken to literally sometimes.  Who among us doesn't love the first time a city skyline makes its appearance when when drive through on the freeway?  Who doesn't love the mountain road that provides scenic views of the sparkling blue river below?  Isn't roadgeeking sometimes just the love of being on the road?

This was a good set of photos wphiii.

[okroads]

Big box/fast food hell on U.S. 71 in Joplin, MO (6/10)

Interesting shot here of what this section of Range Line Road looked like before the F5 tornado in May 2011. I took a picture of this same area in December 2012 (looking southbound):

[xcellntbuy]

Incredibly wonderful photos!

[jemacedo9]

FANTASTIC photos, indeed!  The one that slightly stood out among all of them (your photos are 9s and 10s, but this one is a 10+) was the New River Gorge Bridge coming out of the fog.  That bridge has been photographed many times, but to catch it like that...WOW. 

[Sykotyk]

Very much enjoyed your photos. I live not far away from the Pittsburgh area.

I'm similar to you in my appeal of roads. I've never gotten the whole 'sign' thing. Signs don't interest me. Roads, freeways, interchanges, and where the road leads is what interests me. I like following the expansion of new roads.

[kphoger]

Cell phone pictures from Wichita, Fall 2011

The Canal Route (I-135/US-81/K-15) from the end of the 3rd Street canal:


Kellogg (US-54/US-400) from the Chautauqua Street pedestrian bridge:

[wphiii]

Another handful, culled from my travels through the first four months of 2013.


The division of Constitution Ave and Pennsylvania Ave in Washington, DC, on a foggy but balmy January afternoon (1/13)



Nighttime view down W 34th St, New York (2/13)



Eerie fog on U.S. 322 near Clearfield, PA (2/13)



Main St (PA 948), Ridgway, PA (2/13)



The back streets of Punxsutawney, PA (2/13)



Forbes Ave, Oakland, Pittsburgh...I like this scene because it would have been much the same 40 years ago, between the Cathedral of Learning, Litchfield Towers, Gus Miller's News Stand, the Dirty O, and Primanti Bros. Squint to make the King's Court Theater marquee return in place of the T-Mobile store and the streetscape is virtually identical as it would have been back then (3/13)



I recently discovered PA 160 between Berlin and the PA/MD border, which became an instant favorite for its abundant windmills and hilly two-lane ambiance (4/13)



A route so nice, I'll show it twice (4/13)



MD 36 approaching U.S. Alt 40 and Haystack Mountain at the northern end of the Cumberland Narrows. Rail trestle today carries the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad and the Great Allegheny Passage long-distance bike trail (4/13)



I-64 westbound in western Virginia (4/13)

[wphiii]

Returning from one of my weekend visits to Washington a couple of months ago, I decided to avoid the Turnpike entirely and take a "Blue Highways"-style meander through the MD/PA countryside. What is usually a 4-hour trip ended up taking nearly 7, but it was a lot of fun, and also gave me a good opportunity to practice my taking-photos-while-operating-a-moving-vehicle skills.


MD 77 through the Catoctin Mountains



Some lovely rolling farmland along Leitersburg Smithsburg Rd in northeastern Washington Co, Maryland



PA 16 west of Greencastle, PA, approaching Tuscarora Mountain



PA 16 winding down the western face of Tuscarora Mountain



Pitt St, Downtown Bedford, PA



Heading home on the Lincoln Highway



More Lincoln Highway landscape



A Lincoln Highway themed barn along U.S. 30



A previous alignment of the Lincoln Highway trailing off into the hills



Roller-coaster like stretch of U.S. 30



U.S. 30 through the Loyalhanna Gorge west of Ligonier



The Tri-Boro Expressway (PA 130) in the vicinity of Wilmerding, as a ferocious storm rolls in

[wphiii]

It's been a while...haven't done as much serious road tripping as I'd have liked in recent months, but here's a few more road pics that I've managed to snag:


Clement St, Richmond District, San Francisco (8/13)



Water St, Santa Fe (12/13)



Dunes Dr, White Sands National Monument (12/13)



U.S. 70, approaching the Organ Mountains at dusk (12/13)



NM 9 approaching Columbus, NM (12/13)



U.S. 180 northbound outside of Hurley, NM (12/13)



Bullard St, Silver City, NM's "Main St" - the unusually high curbs were designed to help cope with occasional floods (12/13)



Housing project, Ciudad Juarez, Mexico (12/13)



The old West Virginia State Penitentiary fronting Jefferson Ave in Moundsville, WV (2/14)



Belmont St, Bellaire, OH, viewed through the stone arch of the B&O Railroad Viaduct (2/14)



The remnants of the Bellaire Bridge, purportedly the 2nd-oldest vehicular truss bridge built over the Ohio River. It's been defunct since 1991, when the access ramp on the Ohio side was destroyed to make room for the new-and-improved OH 7, and no provisions were ever made to reattach the bridge to the street grid. Somehow it has staved off demolition for over two decades, largely due to legal and financial issues (2/14)



Following the Old National Road across to Wheeling Island (2/14)

[wphiii]

As spring is upon us, I've been able to do a little rambling in recent weeks:


PA 45 east of State College, following the route of one of the original pre-motor Turnpikes in the state. (3/14)



Sunbury St (PA 61) through dreary Shamokin, a place that fascinates me because of how it (and many of the other small towns in PA coal country) was built to a level of density that wouldn't be out of place in say, a neighborhood in Philadelphia or Baltimore, very strange for a town of this size and so far removed from any major urban area. Now it is only about a third full when compared to its peak population, which adds to the weird feel. (3/14)



Abandoned portion of PA 61 south of Centralia, where a mine fire that started nearly 50 years ago continues to burn underground to this day. The resulting subsidence rendered unsafe this stretch of roadway, once the primary route in and out of the town. It can still be hiked on foot and is covered in graffiti. (3/14)



Further down the abandoned PA 61, where evidence of the structural problems caused by the underground fire can clearly be seen. Often times, smoke can be seen coming out of this fissure, but it was too cold and damp on this occasion - though the ground here is still warm enough to keep the snow from collecting. (3/14)



The windmills of PA 160. (4/14)



More PA 160, snaking towards Berlin. (4/14)



Not a road picture per se, but I like that here we have right next to each other both the pre-auto (Boston Store at left) and early-auto era way-stations along the Ohio & Erie Canal as it runs through Cuyahoga Valley National Park. (4/14)



Coming in Howard St, Akron just about manages to pull off looking like a real city. (4/14)

[jeffandnicole]

Abandoned portion of PA 61 south of Centralia, where a mine fire that started nearly 50 years ago continues to burn underground to this day. The resulting subsidence rendered this stretch of roadway, once the primary route in and out of the town, unusable. It can still be hiked on foot and is covered in graffiti. (3/14)


Further down the abandoned PA 61, where evidence of the structural problems caused by the underground fire can clearly be seen. Often times, smoke can be seen coming out of this fissure, but it was too cold and damp on this occasion - though the ground here is still warm enough to keep the snow from collecting. (3/14)

Centralia is one of my favorite small (non-existent) towns. It's amazing what's become of this town, and only about a 2 hour drive from Philly. Pictures overlooking what was the town are incredible as well - it's a typical small PA town layout, with a grid street system, with curbcuts, driveways and sidewalks leading to nowhere. The houses and buildings - almost all gone. I was here a number of years ago. I still have a few bare sticks I picked up while walking thru there, a result of the trees dying from the heat of the ground.

The Yuengling Brewery is not too far away from here. I intend one of these days to do the brewery tour there some day, then head back to Centralia to check out the town again.

[AsphaltPlanet]

Centralia is a place that I have always wanted to go, but have never yet made it.  It's an eerily interesting ongoing natural disaster.  I was actually talking about it with a coworker the other day, who was familiar with it as well.

Thanks for the pictures.

[kkt]

Thanks for posting these photos!

I love that "vehicles maintain 50 foot interval, 2 ton limit".

[algorerhythms]

There are a bunch of photos in there that I looked at and recognized as places I've been to lots of times. The one in Cumberland, MD, is on Queen City Drive just north of Baltimore Avenue. My grandparents lived up on the hill not far from there (Goethe Street to be specific). Also, since I lived in Allegany County and went to college in Pennsylvania, I often used PA 160 (it was a little bit shorter than taking I-68 to US 219).