New Travels and Stats Discussion

[oscar]

I came back last week from a three-week trip out west to Montana, then to northern Texas before returning home.

I started Montana by clinching unpaved SR 328 from SD 20 to MT 323, which I also clinched. SR 328/SD 20 appears to be the only road crossing the MT/SD border. I also filled in several segments of MT 200 I'd missed on previous trips. That gave me a clinch of multi-state route 200, from US 2 in northern Idaho to US 2 in northern Minnesota (already covered ID 200, ND 200, and MN 200).

My other route clinches included US 73, US 82, and US 160 (had been missing a short segment in Missouri closed by bridge replacements during last year's attempt to finish off US 160). I also re-clinched US 30 with its new alignments in eastern Nebraska and Iowa, and US 412 by driving its new bypass around Paragould AR. I had hoped to finish off US 190 and US 290 on this trip, but ran short on time so I'm saving those for some later trip.

One other focus of my trip was adding to the states for which I've re-completed all their counties. I'd previously been to all the U.S. counties, which I completed in 2010, but I had just barely crossed into some of those counties, such as crossing the county line and then turning back as soon as I could. This time, I held out for higher-quality clinches, such as visiting their county seats (even really tiny ones like Gann Valley SD, population 14), or other major contacts. On this trip, I re-completed Montana, Minnesota, both Dakotas, and Oklahoma, bringing my total of re-completed states to 28.

[Markkos1992]

Last weekend I went down to my parents' house in VA for one friend having a graduation party and other friends having a retirement party.  I also took my parents to the Smithfield's Chicken-N-BBQ in Nashville, NC, for dinner.

Clinched: MD 806 (both segments in TM), MD 180, MD 383, MD 464, VA 234, VA 234 BUS (Manassas), VA 294, VA 38, US 360 BUS (Amelia, VA), US 360 BUS (Burkeville, VA), US 460 BUS (Burkeville, VA), US 360 BUS (Keysville, VA), US 15 BUS (Keysville, VA), VA 385, US 501 TRUCK (South Boston, VA), VA 129, VA 34, *US 501 (VA), NC 157, NC 86 TRUCK (Hillsborough), US 70 BUS (Hillsborough, NC), **US 70 BUS (Durham, NC), **NC 98, NC 98 BUS (Wake Forest) , US 64 ALT (Spring Hope, NC), US 64 BUS (Nashville, NC), US 158 BUS (Murfreesboro, NC), VA 379, US 258 (VA), VA 353, VA 22, VA 53, VA 388 (not in TM), US 29 BUS (Charlottesville, VA), US 250 BUS (Charlottesville, VA), VA 240, US 340 TRUCK (Waynesboro, VA), VA 254, VA 252, VA 285, VA 358 (both sections), VA 261 (unsigned), US 11 TRUCK (Staunton, VA), US 250 TRUCK (Staunton, VA), VA 256, VA 253, VA 331 (TM Section southeast of JMU), VA 280, ***VA 305, VA 263, WV 45, WV 45 ALT (Shepherdstown), MD 34, US 40 ALT (Hagerstown, MD), MD 76
New Mileage:  MD 550, US 1 (VA), US 360 (VA), US 15 (VA), VA 40, US 70 (NC), NC 86, **NC 55, US 1 ALT (Wake Forest, NC), NC 39, NC 231, NC 581, NC 58, US 64 (NC), NC 43, US 258 (NC), US 64 ALT (Tarboro, NC), NC 111, NC 122, NC 125, NC 903, NC 561, NC 35, US 158 (NC), NC 11, VA 20, US 250 (VA), VA 42 (North Section), US 33 (VA), WV 480, US 40 (MD)

*Clinched portion from US 58/US 360 to VA 304 that was closed in November 2020 due to flooding
**Sight-clinched portion still closed in the area of NC 55.  NC 55 is now open in this area unlike in November 2020
***Counted slight clinch as New Market Battlefield had already closed

[kjslaughter]

Just finished a 5 day road trip from my parent's place near Hendersonville, NC (they were keeping my son to allow me to make the trip).  Drove north to Lexington, KY via Cumberland Gap then lots of new travels mostly along Ohio River to visit two new states for me in Ohio and West Virginia.  I went from Lexington to the Serpent Mound in Ohio, then followed Ohio river from Portsmouth all the way to Marietta, OH.  I'm from Marietta, GA so seemed appropriate.  Then back south through Charleston, WV and New River Gorge bridge before taking I-77 south and clinching I-81 in Tennessee.  Lots of new roads, though not a lot of clinches.  As I think I've mentioned before, clinching is secondary to me to just mapping all the places I've been.  It just took me an hour and half to log all the new roads in my file, mostly due to Kentucky!

[Markkos1992]

Even though I did not clinch anything during the Delaware Road Meet yesterday as I had already clinched all of the mileage in New Castle County, I did get some work in PA, NJ, and MD done Friday and today.

Clinched: PA 415 (Both Sections), PA 309 BUS (Wilkes-Barre), PA 315, US 206 (NJ/PA-full), NJ 183, US 206 BYP (Hillsborough, NJ), NJ 54, NJ 56, NJ 77, NJ 48, MD 155, MD 22, MD 132 (East Aberdeen), MD 462, MD 156, MD 924, MD 646, MD 161, MD 623
New Mileage:  *PA 309, PA 118, **US 6 (PA), PA 191, PA 590, US 202 (NJ), NJ 129, NJ 29, I-195 (NJ), US 130 (NJ), NJ 49, NJ 45, MD 132, MD 136, MD 7 (White Marsh), MD 24

*Gives me PA 309 in full north of Coopersburg
**Gives me US 6 in PA from the north end of the US 11 concurrency to the NY Line

[HTM Duke]

I set out last week on a two-day clinching trip in the Florida panhandle, along with driving a chunk of US-29 in Alabama.

Clinched:
FL-273, FL-277, FL-83, FL-81, FL-189, AL-137, FL-87, FL-281, FL-89, FL-97, US-29 (FL), FL-4, FL-85, FL-2 (western segment), GA-285

New mileage:
US-231 (FL), FL-77, FL-79, AL-87, US-331 (FL), US-29 (AL), AL-55, AL-41, US-31 (AL), AL-113, AL-21, AL-54, AL-153, GA-91

[formulanone]

Spent the vacation in South Florida, then drove up to Orlando via US 441, CR 523, US 192, then the Turnpike to the new 417 ramps (finally!), then SRs 528, 536, 535 as per usual.

Spent the night there and flew to Providence, Rhode Island (PVD) the next afternoon. Flew a direct on JetBlue (an airline I hadn't flown in 7 years) and drove the long way to Hyannis, Massachusetts: I-95 to RI 3 to US 1, then west to the Connecticut border. Looped back to US 1 and nearly completed it (for the Ocean State) but for a construction detour at RI 102. Took that back to I-95, then I-195 to the Cape. Took MA 28/US 6 instead to the hotel. Drove out to the end of US 6 later in the week and picked up chunks of 6A, MA 28, and all of Routes 132, 149, 124. Took I-495 back and completed 24 on the way down, and picked up some of US 44 on the way back to the airport (PVD-IAD-JAX on United). Weather wasn't spectacular but it's nice to get a vacation spot for work sometimes.

Met with family again in Jacksonville, south to St. Augustine for lunch, and then I-95, I-10, I-75, and US 82 for a stay in Prattville. Hadn't found a way to get that part of US 82 in Alabama until now...the kids don't seem to begrudge the scenic routes sometimes, and traffic was very easygoing. Drove home the next day and now I'm off again to Memphis this week...

[SSOWorld]

Last weekend’s excursion to the mid-Atlantic for the Delaware road meet gained quite a bit.  I now have I-95 from just north of Richmond VA (I-295) to the Falmouth Spur after finally getting the battered yet bruised section through and northeast of Philly.  In addition I-95 ironically. Becomes the first Interstate driven in DC (tied with I-495 obviously).  I didn’t forget any other DC Interstate - including 66 (was toll free both ways at the time) and have all of DC’s. I also have DC 295 as well as one national parkway but got most of them and the US routes are still needed.  NJ’s Interstates are done as well (kept going on 295 then got 195) and have the ACX and it’s Brigantine connector.

[nezinscot]

I drove from Oxford ME to Pemaquid ME today, via Jackman and Greenville - a six hour diversion, to finish off Maine. 

Based on my recent drives around the state, the prettiest roads are at Acadia NP, but avoid tourist season.  The Blue Hill Peninsula is almost as scenic, but has the added advantage of almost no tourist infrastructure.  The coast east of Ellsworth, the mountains around Bethel and Rangeley, and surprisingly to me, Aroostook County were also very scenic.  Least interesting roads - I-95, York County, and around Portland.

I've now completed 4 of the 6 New England states.  I look forward to VT, but not the New York-ish parts of CT.

[clong]

2 trips - one to Panama City Beach completely via car and another to Baltimore but flying out of Atlanta got me several new routes including my first mileage on I-97.

[mapcat]

Last weekend I returned from a 16-day trip out west. After spending the first night in Tulsa, I headed west on a combination of US highways (mostly 64, 412, and 160), clinching 412 on the way. From Trinidad CO, I turned south and then west to Taos NM, but since the pueblo was still not admitting visitors, I spent most of the day in Santa Fe. On the way I did go to the smaller Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo and got some pictures, but left after a resident pointed out that it also was closed. The next day I headed east to Texas to pick up a few miles of US 60 and a few other US highways, returning to Santa Fe for the night. After that I went north to catch 64 again, taking it west to 160 and 89 and spending the night in Flagstaff AZ. I hadn't been near Four Corners before, and hadn't clinched 160 west of 491, so on the way I ventured towards it, but decided to pass after seeing a long line of cars waiting; I know my wife wants to go there eventually, so that will be a better place to visit once they end the pandemic-related restrictions on crowd size.

As I headed west, my internal clock stayed on Eastern time, so I woke up way too early the next morning. Having some unexpected extra time, I decided to clinch US 180, since the only part I hadn't been on was the stretch between Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon boundary. Since it was still dark when I arrived at the park entrance, I just turned around, since visiting in the dark seemed kind of pointless. I turned around and headed west along I-40 and clinched some usaib's before turning south and taking 93 and 60 to Phoenix. There I finished a clinch of the city's freeway system and followed that by taking 60 west to its end at I-10, clinching it. After that I followed US 95 to Las Vegas for the night.

I was fully expecting my plans to be upended by the fires burning throughout the west, but I didn't anticipate being detoured by water. However, after exiting I-15 onto US 93, I discovered the road had been buried by a mudslide caused by a thunderstorm the previous evening. NHP had several patrol cars blocking the roadway, and when I asked one of the officers how long it might be until it opened, he said he'd been there since 9:00 the previous night and only knew that the heavy equipment had reached the site. He said the closure was north of the NV 168 junction, so to get to Ely, I'd need to detour up I-15 to St George and then head north and west to connect back with 93 at Panaca. A quick calculation showed that this was going to add almost an hour to my drive, and since I'd never driven the segment of 93 between 15 & Panaca, I considered waiting it out, but given that it was around 6:30 am, it seemed like best action would be to accept the delay and continue north to Utah. I made up for the detour by clinching UT 34 (a block-long segment east of I-15 I'd missed previously) and UT 18, and grabbed the short UT 219 through Enterprise because why not. It turned out that 93 stayed closed for most of the day, so I was pleased that I didn't choose to wait. Everything else worked out, and I made it to my destination (Manzanar National Historic Site in California) with plenty of time for the self-tour. On the way to Carson City for the night, I passed a lot of fires on both sides of US 395, but fortunately none were threatening the road.

When I went to bed, a quick check of CalTrans QuickMap confirmed that the same was not true north of Reno. The Beckwourth Complex was burning across 395, which meant my intended path north would have to change. However, looking at Google Maps showed some traffic speed information along the route. I checked again in the morning, and discovered that it was open again. I sped northward to take advantage of the lifted restriction, and continued on to US 97 north of Weed, which had experienced a similar closure a week before. Everything was open all the way to Oregon, where the Bootleg fire was in the process of growing into one of the state's worst ever. The smoke was unbelievable--headlights on in the daytime--but fortunately most of the fire was burning far from populated areas, and OR 140 and this part of 395 were open as well. Other than the smoke, my trip east and west across the Oregon desert on US 20 and 26 was uneventful. I headed north to Washington, stopping at an indigenous history museum in Pendleton, and then heading over to Astoria OR via US 12 and US 30 to visit the Lewis & Clark National Historical Park.

After spending about 1 minute viewing the Pacific Ocean at Seaside, I headed back across Oregon on 26 and 20 to Boise, and from there took US 95 and ID 13 north to pick up 12 again at Kooskia. US 12 heads through absolute wilderness with over 120 miles of no phone service, and of course there were fires in that area too. Inciweb provided a number for the fire crew fighting one near Lolo Pass, and someone in their office confirmed that it was close to the highway but hadn't forced them to close it yet. There is literally one path from Kooskia to Missoula MT, my destination, so if they decided to close the road during the next three hours, I would only find out long after any other option had been made impossible and would likely be forced to sleep in the car. Fortunately, the fire was kept under control and I made it to Missoula earlier than anticipated.

The next day I headed north to grab a short segment of 93 before turning south towards southern Idaho via West Yellowstone, clinching the northern half of US 287 in the process. I weaved the scattered segments of 26 & 30 I'd driven previously into completions, and headed east to Wyoming to do the same there. After clinching 26 west of Torrington, I focused mostly on 30 for the rest of the trip, clinching it at Fremont NE. Since 30 had been moved recently to a new alignment in eastern Iowa (right after I'd driven that segment for the first time), I returned to Toledo IA and reclinched it. After that, it was a short, easy 9 hour ride home.

Overall, I added over 7300 new miles (out of about 13400 driven) and 137 clinched highways to my total, including clinches of US 26, 30, 60, 180, and 412. If not for the mudslide, I should have been able to clinch all of Nevada's US highways as well. After reclinching the segment of US 6 that was realigned in Sterling CO, I now need only about 11 miles parallel to I-70 to complete the longest US highway. And all that time spent in Arizona, Idaho, Nevada, & Oregon put me in the top 10 for mileage in those states, for now.

As for the roads themselves, US 12 across Idaho was a great road and would have been even more enjoyable without the threat of fires. Ditto for 20 and 26 across central Oregon. I was surprised how much of 93 in Arizona is still 2-lane. And US 30, my third cross-continental clinch, is a great, fast alternative to I-80 across Wyoming and Nebraska.

[andrepoiy]

I just finished my first multi-day road trip in which I was the primary driver. The major cities visited include: Montreal, Mont-Tremblant, Ottawa, North Bay, and Sudbury. A lot of minor cities were also visited.

This marks my first mileage outside my home province, and that province also happens to lack county roads, which is great to boost my mileage here on TM.

Within Ontario, you might see some gaps in my Highway 401, and that's because I had to exit to see certain attractions/towns. I was able to get a lot of new TCH mileage along Highway 17, 69, and 417.

I will outline my trip in more detail on AARoads, if you're interested in hearing more.

[Markkos1992]

I went to look at some construction projects in PA today (I-83 at PA 851 (Shrewbury DDI), PA 283 Interchange at PA 722 (may or may not involve a minor point relocation at some point), US 222 (Widening between US 222 Business and Genesis Dr (north of PA 73), and the roundabout at the Schantz Rd and PA 863 intersection), and I-78 (resurfacing and truck climbing lanes improvements between PA 143 and a mile or two west of PA 863).  I did not get any new mileage in PA, but I did do some mileage in MD northeast of Baltimore earlier on.

Clinched:  MD 136, MD 165, MD 145, MD 152, MD 132, MD 24
New Mileage: MD 146 (I planned to clinch this one, but I cut it once I learned that part of the road was closed.  However, I got to drive the Warren Rd bridge over Gunpowder Falls, which was just as interesting as the MD 145 one to the north.), MD 7 (White Marsh)

[oscar]

I got back a few days ago from my latest road trip to South Dakota, for a family reunion in the NE corner of the state where my father was born and grew up.

Accomplished on the way to and from the reunion:

-- clinched all the remaining Interstate business routes in South Dakota, including I-90 BL Wall (briefly visited the Wall Drug tourist trap, but like my first visit long ago I was unimpressed, and left after only about 10 minutes);

-- clinched ND 13 (my lucky number), and a few shorter state routes; and

-- re-clinched US 18, by traveling its relocated segment in Milwaukee.

[drebbin37]

I've now completed 4 of the 6 New England states.  I look forward to VT, but not the New York-ish parts of CT.

Congrats on being the first to clinch all of Maine!  I've also completed 4 of the 6 New England states; ME and VT are my two remaining.  I should be able to get to 99.xx% of VT (all but the border crossings) when I head up to the northern part of the state again in a few weeks, but my 2000 remaining miles in ME will probably take me years to finish.

Earlier this week I did a 15-hr round trip between Southeast CT and Western ME, mostly to fill in gaps on various ME state highways.  I clinched ME24, ME24Bus, ME137Bus, ME225, ME132, ME117, ME118, and ME119.  New mileage on ME138, ME104, ME137, ME27, ME133, and ME106.  My 600 driving miles netted 90 new TM miles.  Since I'm sick of I-495, I came home via NH16, NH125, NH101, NH13, MA13, MA2, and I-190.  It may have taken longer than 95 to 495 to 290, but there was a lot less traffic.  Plus, I avoided all the tolls!

[froggie]

Once the border properly reopens, I intended to get my last VT/QC border clinch (VT 253) which will fully complete Vermont for me.  Unlike others, I do not count "sight clinches".

I also (as long as the Delta variant doesn't derail things) have a 2.5 week trip planned out to Minnesota this month for family business.  My route out and back is planned to cover a lot of unclinched territory.