New Travels and Stats Discussion

[oscar]

On my way to and from last Saturday's road meet in Memphis, my travels were largely on US routes rather than Interstates. Outbound, I clinched US 25W in both Kentucky and Tennessee. Post-meet, I clinched US 70 in Arkansas, adding to my previous clinches of that route in Tennessee and North Carolina. Later this year, I might finish off the rest of US 70 (missing parts in New Mexico, Texas, and Oklahoma). Then heading back from southeastern Oklahoma, I clinched US 64 in Arkansas and Tennessee (still missing parts in every other state it passes through, from Arizona to North Carolina). I also finished off US 25E, and added some mileage on US 45 as well as a few US business routes.

I now have over 75% of the U.S. routes systems, with primary and bannered (business, alternate, etc.) routes combined. It's over 76% just on the primary routes.

[Bickendan]

Non TM tracked clinches: Got the final segment of Cornell Rd in the Portland area clinched tonight (Brookwood Pkwy-Century Blvd), putting me one step closer to clinch all the arteries in the region.

[oscar]

Earlier this week, I took a four-day road trip to South Carolina. While there, I clinched (overall) US 15, US 21, US 521, and the Alt US 17 bypass of Charleston. I also finished off the long NC 24, and my last US route in Virginia (US 258 Smithfield), as well as lots of short Virginia state routes on the peninsulas between West Point and Hampton.

UPDATE: After followup day trips to the Lynchburg, Hampton Roads and Richmond areas, I've covered almost everything TM maps in Virginia that's north of the James River (missing, I think, only VA 151 north of Lynchburg), as well as everything else west of I-81 and east of I-77, and everything on the Eastern Shore. Still lots I haven't covered in SW and Southside Virginia, and the Norfolk/Virginia Beach area, which leaves me well behind mapmikey and one other user in Virginia.

[mikeandkristie]

I've enjoyed reading this thread so I decided to take a crack at it.  We've had three trips in the last month where we picked up some new mileage.

• Attended meet-ups of the National Parks Travelers Club at Camp Nelson National Monument a little south of Lexington, KY and William Howard Taft National Historic Site in Cincinnati.  Some new mileage on US 52 in NC and VA paralleling I-77, a short stretch of US 11W west from I-81, some US 25W north of Middlesboro, KY to I-75, US 27 north from Somerset, KY to Lexington's KY 4 loop, a little more of KY 4, and then US 25 under the I-75/I-64 interchange and then on to I-75 north unintentionally leaving a 2 mile gap on I-75 for us in KY, some I-71 and I-275 around Cincinnati, then OH 32 over to US 23 in Piketon to get the Portsmouth Bypass and then US 52 down into Huntington, WV.  Also some surface streets around Beckley, WV going to the Exhibition Coal Mine but stayed too late and had to cut some more elaborate plans on the way home.  400+ miles of new mileage and 14 new counties.
• A trip to Blue Ridge, GA to ride the Blue Ridge Scenic Railway.  Added a few misc miles on short jumps on and off I-40 heading west towards Asheville, NC.  Gradually chipping away at them as time allows on trips.  US 74 was new after we passed the US 441 exit towards Cherokee.  Left a gap when we detoured up NC 28, across NC 143 into Robbinsville, and then back down via US 129 which took us into Graham County to reach 100 out of 100 NC counties.  Connected with our previous drive along US 64 in Murphy for the night.  A bunch of GA state routes and a little bit of US routes in the Georgia mountains until we reached US 123 north of Cornelia.  Had not been on it before at all and clinched it going through Clemson into Greenville, SC.  Ditched some of my more aggressive options and took I-385 out to I-85 which we'd done before.  Took I-26 West at Spartanburg up to US 74 in NC to close one of our I-26 gaps.  A lot of I-26 in SC runs perpendicular to the direction we're usually going.  Drove east to Gastonia, NC to do two sides of the triangle instead of the one side of I-85.   Got some surface roads in Gastonia around I-85.  Then, finished the Charlotte interstates by heading south on I-485 from I-85 down to I-77 and then I-77 all the way up past I-485 with a short spin around Uptown Charlotte on I-277.  Cut across to Kannapolis and Concord and then paralleled I-85 on US 29 for a ways.  Did a southern chunk of I-85 Business through Lexington and Thomasville.  After getting lunch in Thomasville and almost getting to regular I-85, connected several sections of NC 62 to give us a full run from Thomasville to Burlington before heading home.  Another 400+ new mile trip and 7 new counties on this one.
• Made a visit to the NC Zoo in Asheboro.  Normally about an hour and 15 minute drive, but I made sure to take the scenic route.  Got some of the business route through Sanford then headed down and then turned west along NC 24/27 for a while before heading up NC 22 and NC 42 to Asheboro.  Staying there got us to the zoo earlier in the day.  Afterwards, went down NC 134 and then back up US 220 Alternate and then US 220 Business through Asheboro clinching the latter and knocking out a big chunk of the former.  Also got a chunk of NC 49 from US 421 up to I-40 that only makes sense on a limited number of trip destinations.  And left just one small run to do on our next trip heading west and we'll have everything between Raleigh and Greensboro from I-40 down to US 64 done.  Also, connected some more dots around Burlington.  Ended up getting 140+ miles to temporarily hop over Oscar for 5th place in NC.  The trip he mentioned just above this flipped it back.

Mike

[SSOWorld]

Last weekend's city meet in Providence netted me a completion of the Interstates in Massachusetts and some significant mileage of US 6 and US 44 as well as more Connecticut Interstate mileage.  It also netted me my first miles of routing in Vermont.  Nothing in between. I cheated by flying.

[dave1693]

March and April saw me making multiple trips between eastern PA and the DC FedroSplat (some via Hagerstown MD), plus one trip from DC out into the wilds of West Virginia. There's a lot of Nowhere in a 30 mile radius of Charleston. And US 119 north of I-79 is a tiny little two-lane squiggle following a creek, mostly with no shoulders. Not the most fun trip to take in a 30-foot RV.

Clinched routes:
PA29 (southern half), PA616, PA851 Truck near Shrewsbury, PA897, MD24, MD91, MD129, MD152, MD372, MD439, MD562, MD646, MD833, MD851.

New segments:
US11 in PA, PA23, PA24, PA74, PA82, PA233, PA401, PA425, PA465, PA851 (two new segments), PA896, PA999, US40 in Baltimore MD, MD23, MD136, MD144 in Baltimore, MD147, I-79 in WV, US119 in WV.

More trips to come in May, including the one I've already taken but still need to write down.

[mapcat]

Took a 3-day trip this past weekend and finished off the US Highways (specifically 11, 2, 9, 20, 4, 6, 202, and 1) in NY. I waved to Jim as I passed Siena. Since I was there anyway, I took care of another 300+ miles of that set in VT, MA, and CT as well, bringing me up to 74.72% of usaus overall. Weather was beautiful and the two border crossings (Rouses Point & Alburg) were uneventful. Traffic was manageable, except in The Bronx where a Sunday morning bike race closed several roads (including the lower level of the GWB).

Total new mileage: 1072, which included a handful of NJ and PA clinches on the way home. 4071 clinched routes (increase of 28).

Total states/DC with 100% of US Highways clinched: 13, including 4 others this year: PA (finished the previous week), and NJ, DE, & MD (finished in March).

Clinched US highways: 139 (11 & 9 are new).

Even though I'm no longer deliberately visiting new counties, I noticed that my total since completing the US 6+ years ago is an even 2200 now, or 70%.

[oscar]

Even though I'm no longer deliberately visiting new counties, I noticed that my total since completing the US 6+ years ago is an even 2200 now, or 70%.

I'm also reconstructing the counties I've revisited since I completed the U.S. counties in 2010. Like you, I'm not going out of my way to fill in holes in my "round 2" map, or otherwise jack up that count. But my normal travels including many of the U.S. routes are taking me back to many counties. Many of them I've "been to" the county seat (sometimes driving by the courthouse, sometimes just driving past the city limits line, which is probably a less stringent standard than you've been using), something I wasn't tracking during my "round 1" of county-snagging. 

My "round 2" count so far is 1867 (almost 60%), including 1306 "been to" county seats. Both will go up somewhat, as I come across old trips I've not yet included in my totals.

[mapcat]

I had a "see the courthouse" standard the first time, but this time I just check the map overlay at mob-rule and add anything new that I happened to drive through. Occasionally I'll notice that I missed a county by half a mile but it doesn't bother me. I won't finish a second time, because there are so many counties I have no reason to visit again. But it wouldn't surprise me if I eventually get 3000.

[dave1693]

Two more trips between eastern PA, Hagerstown MD, and the FedroSplat so far this month. (I also updated my CA travels -- all of one trip -- after finally noticing that usaca was in preview.)

Clinched routes:
US11 in WV, PA345, PA465, PA724, PA772, PA999, MD26, MD140, MD144Bal, MD216

New segments of:
US11 in PA, US322 in PA, PA23, PA74, PA233, PA441, PA533 (entire concurrency with US11), PA641, PA696

The next update after this will cover two more such trips, plus anything new covered in PA on Memorial Day weekend.

[osu-lsu]

Two more trips between eastern PA, Hagerstown MD, and the FedroSplat so far this month. (I also updated my CA travels -- all of one trip -- after finally noticing that usaca was in preview.)

Clinched routes:
US11 in WV, PA345, PA465, PA724, PA772, PA999, MD26, MD140, MD144Bal, MD216

New segments of:
US11 in PA, US322 in PA, PA23, PA74, PA233, PA441, PA533 (entire concurrency with US11), PA641, PA696

The next update after this will cover two more such trips, plus anything new covered in PA on Memorial Day weekend.

Damn! I thought I was going to be able to pass you on the 'active systems' chart with my travels to Cleveland next week. 
Now I'll just be hoping to tread water on that mileage list. 

[yakra]

Traveled beyond NH for the first time in about 3 years.
Construction detours robbed me of one new segment of NH108, and of a clinch of NH85 south of NH101.
South of NH27, the plan was to have a solid unbroken line of new travels all the way to the S end of NY I-478, but was foiled a bit early at NY NY9A AshAve where the right turn wasn't signed. I'm too cheap to have a data plan for my phone, wasn't packing a map, and ended up calling a friend; we decided the simplest thing to do was get me on the Saw Mill. As a consolation prize, I was able to finish off the Henry Hudson Pkwy. Then, I merged out of the I-478 exit lane for some reason at the last moment, ending up on the NB FDR. Turned around at exit 1, my previously .listed endpoint, for another accidental clinch.

My other 8 clinches were all previously untraveled:
NH236, MA108, MA19, CT19, CT140, CT318, CT343, NY I-478

I traveled on 29 other routes for the first time:
NH85, MA125, MA114, MA62, MA3AMan, MA27, MA117, MA85, MA70, MA9, MA122AWor, MA148, MA67, CT190, CT83, CT191, CT159, CT75, CT20, CT189, CT219, CT179, CT181, CT183, NY82, TacStaPkwy, SprBroPkwy, NY100B, NY9A

[Jim]

A trip to Rochester for the Strong Museum of Play (you should go!) and Letchworth State Park (you should go!) gave me a chance to pick up some TM miles in various places.  We bypassed a long delay on the Thruway on the way out by taking New York 31 along Oneida Lake (Verona to Cicero), all new to me.  Yesterday, I picked up various segments around Rochester including more pieces of New York 15, New York 15 A, New York 253, New York 31, New York 18, and New York 104, and I finished off the last pieces of the Lake Ontario State Parkway.  Today's main goal was Letchworth State Park then the ride home to Amsterdam.  I'd been to Letchworth almost 25 years ago, but I don't remember the details, so I never credited myself with any TM mileage down that way.  So on the day, I picked up I-390 from the Thruway to Mount Morris, my first mileage on New York 408 and a new segment of New York 36 to the north entrance to the park, my first miles on New York 19A and New York 436 near the south entrance, a bunch more of New York 408, all of US 20A east of I-390, then all new miles east out of Canandaigua on New York 21, New York 488 (a "natural clinch"), New York 96, New York 14, and New York 318.

Added 155 miles total: 27 usai, 3 usasf, 2 usaus, 25 usausb, 106 usany.  5 usany routes traveled for the first time, 1 clinched.

[michih]

I'm back from a trip to south-eastern Europe, mainly Italy and Greece. I got first mileage in Albania, Bulgaria, Greece and North Macedonia. In total, I've added almost 5,000 TM miles in 3 weeks

Updated motorway stats:
bgra 0.0% -> 6.0% (488mi total system length)
chea 88.5% -> 100% (1118mi)
fraa 97.6% -> 98.0% (7228mi)
grea 0.0% -> 74.3% (1463mi)
itaa 38.5% -> 82.6% (4547mi)

With clinching chea system, I have clinched 11 systems in total now. deua needs to be re-clinched later this year.
North Macedonia does not have an own motorway system but I've clinched more than 50% of the trunk road system mkda (548mi system length) with my trip.
I just drove 53mi in Albania, but no motorway.

Outlook:
The French and the Italian motorway system just need each another road trip for being clinched 100% Same for Slovenia and UK. All except Italy might be done later this year 

I just miss 69.01mi for rank 20 in active+preview systems now. julmac, I'm coming

[mikeandkristie]

We had a couple of big long weekend trips in May and picked up a bunch of new mileage.

May 8-12
We flew to Salt Lake City to go to the 150th anniversary celebration of the transcontinental railroad at Golden Spike NHP.  We met up with many other members of the National Parks Travelers Club there and had another meet-up on the 11th in Idaho at Minidoka NHS which is a World War II internment camp.  Not too far from Twin Falls.  We'd only had mileage in Utah cutting across on I-70 and US 50 going between Colorado NM and Great Basin NP, so everything from the SLC airport north was new.  Lots of new mileage on I-15 and I-84 and a little bit on I-80 and I-215.  Got our first mileage on US 91 in Brigham City and our first US 89 mileage that wasn't an overlap with an interstate.  Stayed in Tremonton and had two days to the park, so we were able to clinch several Utah routes in that area including UT 13, UT 67, UT 81, UT 83, UT 102, and UT 225 plus the interstate business routes in Tremonton.  Thought we got UT 82 as well, but found out when we got back that it was mis-marked.

We headed up to Twin Falls, ID on I-84 and then came back to SLC via I-86 and I-15 around Pocatello doing that full triangle and clinching I-86 which we couldn't fit into our schedule in 2016.  We had some mileage around Twin Falls from 2016, so we worked on connecting pieces, circling around Burley and taking US 30 from it all the way to US 93 in Twin Falls.  Some mileage on ID 81, finished our missing piece of ID 50, and finished the US 93 business route through town which is confusingly labeled as the mainline in lots of spots.  Got a little more of ID 25 on the way to Minidoka as well.

Altogether, I think it was 573 new miles with 269 in Idaho and 304 in Utah. 

May 24-28
For Memorial Day weekend, we left Friday after work and took Tuesday off.  Drove to Long Island which was the first time for either of us.  Visited Sagamore Hill NHS and parts of Gateway NRA on Staten Island and Fire Island NS.  That got us up to 150 National Park units. 

Mostly I-95 on the drive up Friday night, just getting new miles in Petersburg and Richmond, VA getting dinner and then right around the MD/DE border stopping at our hotel.  Went through town through Newark and New Castle, DE to hit I-295 over into NJ for some non I-95 miles. 

Right around 400 new miles for us across VA, MD, DE, NJ, PA, and NY.  Did a short run on US 130 after getting off the birdge.  Stayed on I-295 until Exit 36 where we took NJ 73 to the Betsy Ross Bridge and into PA so that we could go north through the now open I-95/I-276 interchange.  We'd missed it by 2-3 weeks back over Labor Day.  Nothing else new until getting off I-95 on NJ 440 to go into Staten Island over the Outerbridge Crossing.  Took it up to I-278, stopping at Fort Wadsworth (part of Gateway NRA) just under the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge.  Of course, after seeing traffic flowing well over it, there was a big wreck on the top deck right when we wanted to cross.  So, we found some dinner and then took the lower deck once we finally crossed.  The upper was open but still sluggish then.  Took I-278 through Queens to I-495 which was shocking how ancient and substandard a road it was calling itself an interstate.  I-495 was very sluggish until way past I-678 and the airport exits.  Finally, the last 30 miles or so were relaxing after I'd made it through all that traffic.

Got some NY routes heading out to Sagamore Hill on Sunday and then Fire Island on Memorial Day.  Came back mostly on the freeway route of NY 27, then the Southern Parkway, and the Belt Parkway to go over the Verrazano-Narrows again, this time on the upper deck.  We were well behind our original schedule so I had to ditch the idea of taking NY 440 up to I-78 and then taking it west and eventually out to I-81 for the wide swing around the big cities.  Instead, straight on I-278 to I-95 south and we only got down to Exit 5 of the NJ Turnpike that night.  Got a couple of zigzags for short bursts of mileage on US 206 and NJ 38 back to I-295 and then finished NJ 48 and NJ 140 with a little run on US 40 as we got close to the bridge into Delaware again.  Headed down DE 1 and then got the new US 301 bypass freeway around Middletown to complement our 2016 pass through town on 301 to connect things again.  Since we had all of US 301 in Maryland, we did some zigzags west of the road on MD 290 and MD 213 for some parallel runs.  Even got a tiny bit on Kent Island when stopping for lunch before crossing the Bay Bridge.  Did a little more zigzagging taking MD 424 down to MD 214, west to MD 193, down to MD 725 in Upper Marlboro and coming back into US 301.  Got some tiny runs of VA 218 and VA 205 to get some sides of triangles.  Then, we took US 17 south from US 301 over to US 360 in Tappahannock to fill in more of US 17.  The rest of US 360 into Richmond we already had.  Just did a short stretch of US 460 between I-295 and I-95 and finally the last stretch of US 1 between exits 61 and 40 of I-85 to connect our two sections.  We now have a full run on US 1 from Petersburg, VA down into Camden, SC.  So, other than the totally new sections on Staten Island and Long Island, it was a lot of connecting small pieces and filling in gaps which is what we've been gradually doing when we can on trips.

Mike