12 Clinches of ChristmasWhen I planned to head to the Carolinas for a few days at the end of December, I anticipated a chance to enjoy some warm weather. It turned out to be at or below freezing almost every day, but I fortunately avoided weather every day except one. On the 18th I headed to Tennessee first and collected a few missing links of US 321 & US 421, and spent the night in Boone. The next morning I headed east and picked up some more miles of US 601, 158, and 15 plus a new stretch of I-840, clinching US 15 in Virginia and discovering Alt 15 in Farmville in the process. Then I headed home for a few days, resuming the trip on the 26th.
The 26th was the longest driving day of the trip (17 hours; the others were typically 12-14), and it netted me the first US clinch: US 158, whose final miles were collected near Murfreesboro, NC. The bypass of Murfreesboro seemed fairly recent, so I drove it as well as the business route since I'm not certain which route I had driven when I went through the area the first time about 15 years ago. Besides that, I collected some miles on US 258 and nabbed a few business US routes and Virginia state highways before aiming towards Rocky Mount, my stop for the night, which included the nicest AirBnb I've ever experienced as well as my first visit to a Lidl, which only began operating in the US in a handful of states last year.
The next day I headed south to Wilmington, clinching US 421 on the way. Once there I drove the final segment of I-140 that had opened the previous week as well as the expected new routing of US 17 through the city; I wasn't planning a US 17 clinch this time, but wanted to have that part complete since I don't anticipate another trip to the area anytime soon. Next I headed north and clinched US 258 near Snow Hill, and headed back southwest to pick up the new-ish segment of NC-295 between US 401 and the All American Freeway. Which makes me wonder: why isn't the All American Freeway included in usasf?
From there I took US 401 and US 52 south to Florence and my next night. Early the next morning I headed west to Sumter via US 401, making that my fourth US clinch of the trip. Then I headed back north via 15 and 52 to US 1, taking that southwest to 601, which I followed to its south end at US 321, taking that in turn to its south end at 17. From there I made my way over to US 21 and headed through Beaufort and down to its south end before turning around and following it back north to its junction with US 321 just south of Columbia, and thence back southeast to Charleston on US 176. While in Charleston I completed every US route in and around the city, again with the expectation that I wouldn't be nearby for a while.
Waking up to the sound of freezing rain in the morning, I checked the news and discovered that the US 17/Arthur Ravenel bridge had been closed indefinitely due to ice. Fortunately I was in Mount Pleasant and heading northeast on 17, so I wasn't affected. The donut place where I stopped at 6 was somewhat more concerned, since a truck full of their supplies was stuck on the wrong side, and they were running out. But they assured me that there weren't any similar bridges between there and Georgetown, so I headed out anticipating an uneventful trip. The temperatures were hovering just below freezing, but since the previous day had been fairly warm, I doubted that ice would be much trouble on the roads, and I never noticed any slick spots. However, once I got to Georgetown, traffic stopped. I checked Google Maps on my phone and saw the dreaded "do not enter" symbol stamped on the bridge. This was frustrating for two reasons: the closed bridge was the only way into Georgetown that didn't involve a 30-minute detour, and I had never driven this stretch of 17. But with the temperatures showing no movement and sunrise at least half an hour off, I knew that it would be hours before the bridge reopened, so I turned around and took the detour. On the way back around to Georgetown, I had an idea, and so I made my way to the bridge approach on the opposite bank. It was still closed, of course, and dozens of vehicles waited. Holding them back were a car and truck from the police and fire departments. I walked up to the one from fire department, and approached his window to ask about the bridge. He pointed out that not only was it icy, but also there was a wreck, and it wouldn't reopen anytime soon; no emergency vehicles had arrived yet. I asked if it was closed to pedestrians, and he thought for a moment, and replied, "I would assume that it is not." I thanked him, and headed over to the police car to make sure. As I approached, I noticed the officer was asleep, and took that as a tacit approval. So I turned around and began to walk
the bridge.
There was no sidewalk, as the bridge was designed for highway speeds. As soon as I reached the end of the north approach, the surface turned from wet to ice-coated as the air below the roadway insulated it from any remaining heat in the ground. Fortunately, there was also a significant amount of road debris--pebbles, mud, tread pieces, some litter--that I could walk on to avoid slipping. Eventually, the debris thinned out and I could only use friction with the concrete outside rail to keep my feet from sliding out from under me as I ascended. Going up was a challenge, but coming down the other side proved even more so, as finding my footing on ice sloping away from me led me to settle on shuffling along the rail until I managed to reach the south bank approach. Of course, if I was going to mark this segment clinched, I needed to continue on to the Kangaroo station where I had turned my car around, so I proceeded an additional half mile to its driveway, turned around, and headed back to the bridge. The crossing took about 45 minutes.
I was pretty confident that I'd make it back across without incident, but I did need to get past some first responders on this side before I could. I chose to cross back on the same southbound lanes I'd used on the way over, since it would take me further from them. The return trip was just as icy, but seemed to go a little faster, since I already knew what to expect. At the top, I got a better look at the crash in the northbound lanes; it involved 3 cars all spun out in different directions as well as a logging truck. The ice would prevent any wrecker from reaching them for a while. A new truck had appeared in the southbound lanes, stopped at the north approach: it was spreading sand for traction (coastal SC has no salt spreaders, which is why any of this even happened), and it was stuck on the ice.
As I made my way back from the bridge to my car, I passed many people who were anxious about the closure, had seen me crossing, and wondered if I knew anything. I told them it would likely be closed for at least another hour, explained the accident, and showed them the detour. The whole process had set me back two hours, but at least I'd not been left with a tiny segment of US 17 a hundred miles from anything else I'd ever want to drive.
The rest of the day went surprisingly well: Alt 17 to US 15 (US clinch #5 at Sumter) to US 378 to US 701 (#6 at US 74), some already clinched freeways to Columbia, and US 378 from there to its clinch point just across the border in Georgia. I made it to my AirBnb less than 10 minutes after the kickoff of the OSU-USC bowl game, and slept great.
The next day took me west along US 178 (clinched at US 64) and east along US 176 to Columbia, then north along US 321 and back south again to Columbia along US 21. While in Columbia I clinched US 176 and 321 simultaneously at the I-26 interchange, and finished most of the rest of the US route mileage within the metro area.
The last day brought me home, via US 1, 601, and 21, the latter two of which I clinched in North Carolina. On the way I took a side trip to the new I-785 extension east of Greensboro and finished adding mileage by adding the remainder of US 52 in Virginia. Once back in Ohio the evening of the 31st I finally got a taste of the single digits (°F) I'd missed out on.
Overall numbers:2966 miles added (including 17 miles of interstate and almost 2500 miles of US Routes)
89 clinched highways, including 12 new US Routes (158, 421, 258, 401, 15, 701, 378, 178, 176, 321, 21, 601), bringing my total to 123 of 219. I also reclinched US 501 by finally driving the new alignment north of Roxboro, NC.
3 visits to Zaxby's, 3 to Bojangles, 2 to Cookout, 2 to some locally famous BBQ places, and 2 to a couple of Cambodian donut shops, all of which are lacking in my part of the world
