New Travels and Stats Discussion

[dave1693]

Last night I finally got around to entering my list updates through the end of April 2023. Travel opportunity was limited by circumstances, but I did get in the sort-of-annual trip to the Pine Belt of southern Mississippi (didn't make it to New Orleans this time though), several trips between VA and eastern PA, and one shot at getting in some new mileage around Annapolis MD due to attending the memorial service for a friend who passed away last fall.

New clinches:
PA 34, PA 416, MD 253, MD 259, MD 387, MD 435, MD 436, VA 299, US 15 Business (Warrenton VA), US 211 Business (Washington VA)

New mileage (non-clinching):
US 30 in PA, US 211 in VA, US 522 in VA, US 280 in AL, US 11 in MS, PA 641, MD 214, MD 255, MD 468, TN 36, TN 60

MS state routes being added now that usams is in preview. I did drive on some of these in March 2023 but I've driven all of them at some time before then:
MS 15 in Laurel, MS 26 in Poplarville, MS 42 in Hattiesburg, MS 43 in Picayune, MS 198 in Hattiesburg

For May through August I have a couple of triangle trips between eastern PA, western PA, and Virginia on the docket, as well as a few of the more usual VA-to-PA-and-back trips, and if I'm lucky I can squeeze in some more mileage in Bucks County PA and parts of NJ. I've got a conference in Milwaukee next month but I might not drive that trip.

[oscar]

I got back home on Monday from a week+ road trip to Iowa and Nebraska. My turnaround point was Valentine NE, in the eastern Sand Hills region. The focus of my trip was re-clinching my last few counties in Nebraska for my "round 2" count (counties re-visited after I completed all the counties in the U.S.). I also re-clinched some southern Iowa counties, mainly along the Missouri state line, while leaving a handful of northwestern Iowa counties for a future trip.

In Nebraska, I clinched all of US 275 (still some gaps in Iowa and Missouri), NE 2 (Lincoln, including the new southern bypass), NE 24, NE 51, NE 59, NE 97, and a few short link/spur routes. In Iowa, I clinched all but the eastern end of IA 2, and most of IA 1.

On the last day of my trip, I took a detour through Brookeville MD, to travel its new MD 97 western bypass. That restored my 100% clinch of all of Maryland's TM-mapped mileage.

[froggie]

Found some maps I thought I had lost that I used to hand-document my travels from 10-20 years ago.  Used them to fill in numerous gaps I had in my coverage, namely in AR, GA, KY, LA, MS, and NC.  Still compiling the MS routes.

[webny99]

then cut across to I-590/New York 590 to get to New York 286.  I drove that for the first time and went end-to-end.

I'm late seeing this, but cheers - that is right in my neck of the woods and often even part of my commute. Good choice as it's much less of a slog than parallel NY 441 or NY 31F and hopefully an enjoyable drive once you got out of town.

[webny99]

I have managed to add about 350 miles on several varied trips over the past few weeks. The majority of that was in ON, bumping me into the top-20 in mileage with over 1130 logged miles, and into the top-12 in traveled and clinched routes, with 37 and 16 respectively.

My NY travels notably included a clinch of NY104, my new longest state route clinch. I am just the 6th TM user to clinch the 183-mile route from Niagara Falls to Williamstown, NY. I set up the clinch late last summer by driving the short section east of I-81, and finally got a chance to squeeze in what I was missing north of Niagara Falls last week, passing through some really rough parts of Niagara Falls city followed by some spectacular hazy afternoon views of the Lewiston bridge near the Power Vista.

05/26
Clinched: NY359, NY321, NY297, I-690, NY635, I-481, NY481, NY264, NY631
New mileage: NY38A, NY41A, NY5, NY173, NY298, NY31, NY370

05/27-06/05
Clinched: ON58(Thorold), ON20, ON420, NY104, US62Bus(Niagara Falls)
New mileage: ON400, ON401, ON427, ON11, ON12, ON60, ON407, NY265

06/10
Clinched: NY270, NY263
New mileage: NY77, NY78, NY5

[mapcat]

My annual trip to retrieve mapkitten from SoCal afforded me the opportunity to finish off a few US routes and the (signed) interstate system. It also gave me a chance to drive a rental car for 9,000 miles after my transmission quit in Cheyenne.

Heading out west, I more or less travelled straight to Lincoln, Nebraska, and then began picking up some links and spurs adjacent to I-80 (plus the new NE 2 Lincoln bypass). In Wyoming, after learning my car wanted to stay there, I still had plenty of time to get all the highways I wanted (except Alt US 14, which was still snowbound), but unfortunately not enough to spend any time in Yellowstone, so I clinched US 14/16 and pre-clinched US 20 at the east entrance at dusk and turned around to spend the night in someone's camper in Cody. Next day I headed south to Utah, snagging the last business interstate (Nephi) and last two US routes (191 and 89) I needed in the state. After that, I crossed Idaho en route to Oregon, where I picked up a few more miles of US 20 before detouring to Washington and looping around the Olympic Peninsula on US 101. Back in Oregon, I finished off US 20, plus the last 4 bannered US routes in that state. In Newport, I turned south and continued along US 101 all the way to Ventura. I'd driven most of 101 in California already, so this time I took the business routes, along with a short trip over to Vallejo and my final 1/4 mile of I-780.

After a day of packing and moving, I dropped mapkitten off at the airport (for some reason she thought a trip of 7 hours would be better than one that lasted 7 days) and turned south, then east, picking up a few business interstates along the way and discovering that Peterson's Donut Corner in Escondido is worth the hype. En route to Texas, I pocketed some low-hanging fruit in the Mesilla Valley, and proceeded to Alpine for the night, anticipating a ride through Big Bend NP in the early morning. That failed to materialize due to rains the previous day, which resulted in a mud flow out of a canyon and across FM 170 east of Presidio (I arrived roughly the same time as the bulldozers). Not wanting to risk abandoning a second car, I turned around and approached Big Bend from the north, again turning around at the entrance so I could at least clinch 385 and still get to the shipping container accommodation awaiting me in Fredericksburg at a decent hour. Continuing through Texas for 3 more days, I finished off the named freeways, business interstates, and US routes for that state. Instead of heading home from the Metroplex, I instead turned toward the northwest after learning the repairs to my Honda were complete. The route I took through Colorado gave me the opportunity to pick up a few short routes adjacent to I-25 and only added a day to my trip.

Overall the trip added 3400 miles and 224 clinched routes to my totals, most significantly US 14, 16, 20, 101, 385, 277, 67, 77, 377, and 281.

[formulanone]

My wife and I took a trip to Kauai for our 20th anniversary last week, since we'd both never been to Hawaii before. So I picked up the roughly 100 TM-clinchable miles on the island, as well as a lot of other county routes masquerading as state routes. Pretty easy since almost all of them were part of the itinerary we'd created.

Long flights but picked up HI 570 was the first clinch, an easy one, since it just spikes out of Lihue Airport for two miles. And it leads to a Wal-Mart, where we picked up breakfast and lunch provisions for most of the week. Strolled the beach and put feet in the water, which also I like to "clinch" as soon as possible.

Sunrise comes early and even though we're five hours behind, it only felt like an hour or so thanks to a previous day that felt about 36 hours long that was fueled by my excitement, a few in-flight movies (the pick of the bunch being The Pez Outlaw), and my first ride on an Airbus A321neo. HI 51 and HI 58 were easy pickings as well, but saved them for the following day. Drove a bunch on HI 50 and HI 56 and checked out the lay of the land along HI 520/530 in Koloa and Poipu's beach, and had a nice dinner by candlelight and an incident whereby two roosters decided to squabble until a hotel security guard shooed them away. 

We took HI 50 to HI 550 all the way around Waimea Canyon, doing some "moderate" hiking (read: a strenuous 4 miles) and magnificent vistas. We were fortunate to see the north coast at the end of pothole-stricken 550 with some clarity in between 5-minute rain showers. Took 552 back down to 50 but that's apparently a county route; which makes sense since it doesn't seem to serve anybody or anything. We took 50 all they way as far west as one can go without military credentials, serving as both our westernmost points to date. Technically, my better half has me beaten by about two feet during the U-turn at the gate (she didn't want either of us get out of the car...fair enough, 'twas the only "no" I heard all week). Detoured though HI 540 to see the Kauai Coffee plantation. Was too tired for anything but a take-out pizza and we chilled out and watched the Spanish GP...thinking about how hardcore an F1 fan has to be in Hawaii to watch races live at 1:00am. 

Monday was a beach day and we just hung out at the hot tub because we're used to little easy-peasy hikes. Picked up HI 583 in Waimea Falls (parking is limited, but it's 10-15 minutes of views and that's it). Checked out some shops and dinner in Kapa'a. Many places aren't open for dinner that aren't food trucks, and several are just plain closed on Mondays. Still found a good meal if one is a little patient.

Floated some tubes at a former sugar plantation and did the lazy river thing. The locals told us about how much they like their Toyota Tacomas and dealt with an obscene amount of rainfall in 2018. They'd told us they'd only met one other couple form Alabama before. Apparently, Kauaians also really like Las Vegas as their favorite non-Hawaiian destination, and I told them they might like Colorado or the Smoky Mountains if they need a different fix that has elevation. Had some time between lunch and our luau for dinner on HI 580 and checked out the one-lane bridge at its end and snaked around HI 581, then the bypass 5600 which was conveniently used a few more times during our trip.

Got up early for the trip to Ha'ena State Park and another major hike (well, for us...we're not that hardcore on the 11-mile trek) to a semi-quiet beach. Saw a major pod of dolphins. Almost dunked all my camera equipment in the water. Made doubly sure not to dehydrate myself as much as on Sunday. Visited all 5 mainland moku. More importantly dear readers, finished off HI 56 and 560, the latter being one of the picturesque routes which also seems a little less state-route-like than the rest. We almost balked at the $50 fee to shuttle to the park but the views and hike were worth it. To top it off, we weren't as sore this time around, even though the hike was longer.

Did some ATVing on the south end of the island. Wasn't expecting my wife to prefer that over horseback riding, but there you have it. I got to swim in a waterfall for the first time in my life. She was afraid to drive but now wants one (a new one seems to cost almost as much as a horse). That just left one little nub of a route....HI 541. Between being too muddy to want to be seen in public, she wanted to see the unusual items on the McDonald's menu in Eleele, and I also got a fried taro pie out of it. Turned right and headed to the powerplant since she'd wondered where everyone got their electric power from island. Ding!

Spent the last day buying things and souvenirs. I bought myself a used Hawaii license plate, since I didn't have one. Watched some surfers, saw some turtles, did some bird watching, and headed for the airport. There's probably a bunch of unsigned routes that we didn't get to. I know I missed 543, but maybe just save it for the next visit.

On flight home, she wants to take a trip to Alaska. Back home, our kids guilt-tripped us because it's the first time we went on a vacation without them since 2005.

[clong]

Drove from Birmingham, AL to Russellville, AR filling in a county donut primary along MS8 between I-22 and I-55. Then crossed the Mississippi at Helena and proceeded to Pine Bluff, AR. Clinched I-530.

On the way home, mostly US64 in AR, then I-22 for MS and AL.

Picked up 19 new counties - 11 in AR, 8 in MS.

[mapmikey]

Went on a shorter solo ride yesterday to see if that is something I can resume doing on the regular.

New clinches - WV 104, LSR 120, VA 372, WV 112
Reclinches- US 501 (VA), James river bridge; VA 61 New River bridge
New mileage - WV 20

VA 372 is only posted with white rectangles so it won’t be added to TM.

WV 112 is mostly a terrible road and it has an unsigned turn EB.

[kjslaughter]

Just came back from a trip with wife to a place we had never been, Maine.  We flew into Boston and then drove up to Bath ME, so I was able to add miles to my Massachusetts travels on I-93 and I-95, clinched I-95 in New Hampshire like tons of other people, and then traveled on a few roads in Maine as we explored the Mid-Coast region and peninsulas.  Wife and time prevented extensive drives just to clinch highways, but still glad to add two new states to my travels.

[SSOWorld]

Today's (actually yesterday due to being 5h behind Jim's server) pull request will merge data for all 50 states for me with the latest added being AK - along with the end total of 5 CAN provinces (ON, SK, MB, AB and BC) and 2 CAN territories (YT and NT). What a rough road - literally.

[Jim]

A quick mid-trip update: My first-ever car travel in Spain and Portugal the last few days has allowed me to pick up almost 300 miles in Portugal and 360 miles in Spain.  This was after a few new segments in the Montreal area on our way to Dorval to fly over.  Our main event was attendance at a wedding in Cadiz, but it made the most sense to fly in and our of Lisbon and rent a car there.  On the way south, we started across the impressive Ponte Vasco da Gama and took A12 - A2 - A22 to the border, then A-29 to Seville.  A-4 and AP-4 to the Cadiz area then the north bridge, as our destination was at the north end of the city.  For yesterday's drive back, we first went south to San Fernando, then A-4 until it became N-IV and got a bit slow.  We cut over to A-471, which despite being an "A" (wrong color I guess) was also 2-lane.  I should have known it couldn't have been to major of a road if its system, whatever it is, is not included in TM.  That got us back to AP-4.  I mistakenly followed signs for A-66 that took me through the Puerto de Sevilla which was slow but fortunately didn't delay us much.  We fought through a little traffic and near 110-degree heat through Seville then got onto A-66.  That was a great ride through some mountains.  At Merida, I had the wrong route number in my head (5 instead of 6 because Spain's A-5 becomes A6 in Portugal) and ended up with a couple of extra exits on A-66 before reversing directions.  We had an easy shot westbound back into Portugal.  I wanted to take the A2 bridge into Lisbon then work our way up to the hotel by the airport but it looked to have some substantial traffic delays even late on a Sunday evening.

As I write this, I am waiting to board our flight to London, where we'll be until Sunday.  Clinching opportunities will be limited, as we won't have a car.  We do have one day between the two nights at Gatwick at the end of our stay when I'm still considering renting a car to explore a bit more outside of London but we'll see how it goes.  I've heard everything from "definitely do it, you won't have any problems and you'll see a lot more than on the trains and buses" to "definitely don't do it, there's no way you'll adjust to left-side driving in time to enjoy it at all and there's too much traffic anyway so don't clog up the roads and crash into people and things".  We'll see how things are going when the time comes.  Given what seems to be over-the-top rental car demand it might be impossible or prohibitively expensive on short notice anyway.

[si404]

Clinching opportunities are limited in London? Have you looked at the graph over London?!? Now sure, you won't get a huge amount by foot, but almost all the on-road walking you do do will be clinchable mileage.

I have well over 100 miles solely obtained on Shanks Pony in the London area. But that took rather more effort than you ought to, given your limited time in the the only place that rivals NYC as most important city in the world currently (not to disparage cities like Paris and Tokyo which aren't that far behind the Alpha+ pair, but NYLon gets it's own category).

As for a car, if you have a reason to drive a car for a day go for it. If you are mostly on limited access highways the left/right won't matter as much and most people I've seen comment on aaroads and the like find it a bit weird but not problematic. I'll happily suggest some destination beyond aimless driving (and routes that might maximise mileage while not making the driving difficult) if you let me know what kind of thing you might want to see!

Enjoy London. The weather's just broken, but cloudy, dry, and much closer to room temperature is better exploring weather than the sunny, muggy and slightly too hot that it has been.

PS: I should add that all train mileage will be clinchable the moment we have rail systems added...

PPS: I can't do tomorrow, or Wednesday evening, but if you would like to meet up, I'm free this week and only about an hour away. I'll buy you a pint, be a personal tour guide with a lot of knowledge you'd have to pay a professional quite a bit for, whatever.

PPPS: the A-471 in Andulucia would be clinchable if they were like the other Spanish provinces with their cartouche colours. Alas the are too proud and so the primary community roads are signed a level lower than they should be just because they insist on not sharing a colour with the feds for their top roads.

[Jim]

Thanks, Si!  I am sure to pick up some foot mileage.  I have some on my map from my 2003 visit.

The weather here is very welcome after the heat in Spain and Portugal.  Looks like it should be a good next few days.

Watch for an email from me about the chances to meet up.

[ntallyn]

Just got back from Guatemala. Got a few new miles in Florida on the way to the airport: I-195, I-595, FL 818, FL 836, FL 953, FL 959, and FL 969.

And a few new kilometers in Guatemala (though they aren't tracked yet): CA9, SAC_RD1, SAC_RD9, and ESC_RD3. I don't know if the RD routes will ever be included here, but I'm tracking them anyway.