New Travels and Stats Discussion

[kjslaughter]

Spent a beautiful fall day last Friday and went up the Cherohala Skyway clinching a few roads en route as well.

[Markkos1992]

So the last two weekends I have gotten to do roadgeeking again with my temporary rental car while my normal car finally being in the shop, but not all was fun and games as we will see in Trip 2.  Thankfully, the rental car is running fine even though the right-front tire has gone low on air a few times.

Trip 1-Erie, PA, Trip (October 21-23, 2022)

Part 1-Through Western PA

I started off heading towards Bedford via already clinched mileage (with a full reclinch of PA 747) and quadrant routes.  Once I got past Bedford, I took PA 31 WB towards Berlin before using White Horse Rd (SR 2023) and PA 160 SB to access Old US 219 SB (SR 2047).  I took Old US 219 to PA 653 WB clinching that route before looping around Connellsville and eastern Westmoreland County to clinch PA 711.  Then after some looping around Greensburg to get the current PA Turnpike System clinched, I took US 30 WB to PA 8 NB to PA 380 WB to Downtown Pittsburgh before taking the Liberty Bridge/Tunnel to PA 51 NB to US 19 SB.  After reaching PA 519, I meandered around a bit to enter PA 576 NB from Morganza Rd.  I left PA 576 NB at US 22 EB to head back to US 30 WB to finally clinch that route in PA.

Clinched: PA 653, PA 711, US 30 (PA), PA 66 BUS (Greensburg)
New Mileage:  US 119 (PA), PA 982, PA 66, PA 130, PA 819, PA 8, PA 380, US 19 (PA)

Part 2-Pittsburgh, PA, Area to Erie, PA, Area

After continuing on US 30 through WV (and a detour to clinch WV 8 as well), it was mostly OH 11 and friends up past Youngstown all the way to Ashtabula (cue complaints from osu-lsu for missing his meet there).  After looping to clinch OH 531, PA 215, and PA 226, it was on to clinch US 6N before starting to work on Erie itself.

Clinched: US 30 (WV), WV 8, OH 11, OH 169, OH 711, OH 531, PA 215, US 6N, PA 226
New Mileage: US 30 (OH), OH 39, OH 7, OH 46, I-680 (OH), OH 193, OH 289, OH 534, US 20 (OH/PA), PA 5, OH 84, PA 18

Part 3-Erie, PA, and Jamestown, NY

Most of this portion of the trip was driving back and forth all over NW PA and western NY.  I also clinched the Bayfront Pkwy before District 1 starts construction on the improvement project for it next year, and took a drive through Presque Isle State Park.  The clinches of PA/NY/PA 426, PA 427, PA 428, and PA/NY 430 all helped in the lowest-numbered route game.

Clinched: PA 97 (North), PA 290, PA/NY 430, *PA 505, PA 832, PA 955, PA 531, PA 5 ALT (Erie), I-86 (PA), PA/NY 474, PA 89, PA/NY/PA 426, PA 408, PA 428, ***PA 8 BUS (Oil City), PA 417, PA 427
New Mileage: US 6 (PA), PA 8, US 19 (PA), I-90 (PA), I-79 (PA), US 20 (PA), PA 98, PA 5, NY 76, **I-86 (NY), NY 394, PA 27, PA 69, PA 77, US 62 (PA), PA 227

*I saw PCMS signs saying that PA 505 was being closed on 10/22 so I had to clinch it on 10/21.
**Still saw NY 17 signage on the portion I clinched west of the NY 430 connector (Exit 11).
***The District 1 office can be accessed when driving this route NB.

Part 4-Heading Home

Basically, this starts at the PA 27/PA 227 intersection at PA 36 in Pleasantville.  I basically took PA 36 SB to Punxsutawney to finish that route, then US 119 NB to its northern terminus at US 219, and then US 219 SB (again it seems) to PA 879 EB to PA 144 SB to PA 150 SB to I-99 SB to US 322 EB.  I quickly (after bypassing downtown State College) checked out the realigned PA 26/PA 45 intersection before taking PA 45 EB to PA 147 to check out the four-laned CSVT and the realigned PA 405 before heading home via US 11/US 15 and US 22/US 322.

Clinched:  PA 36, PA 879
New Mileage: US 119 (PA), PA 144

Trip 2- Sick VA/MD Trip 10-30-2022

I decided to go to my parents' house last weekend (went for time Friday night so nothing to report there except that there was no congestion getting onto I-95 SB in Fredericksburg even though I-81 SB had some north of Hagerstown, MD), and ended up being sick as I woke up Sunday Morning. While I maybe should have thought better of it, I moved forward with the full trip anyway.  It started with driving the new US 301 Nice Bridge while working more on VA and MD stuff afterwards (finishing all TM mileage in Northern VA, driving the new I-66 HOT Lanes between US 29 and VA 28, and driving the main continuous Braddock Rd corridor (via SR 705, SR 620, VA 28, SR 7783, and SR 620 from US 15 to VA 244)).

I got back to Harrisburg around 10 PM ET so it did work out.  I am slowly getting better as the week progresses.


Clinched: MD 225, MD 210, MD 414, VA 236, VA 420 (unsigned), VA 7, VA 401, VA 402, VA 338, VA 193, MD 190, MD 189, MD 112, MD 124, MD 94
New Mileage: MD 224, MD 28


I also want to note that on Saturday I convinced my friend to reclinch VA 895 with me as I wanted to document the new VA 281 signage.

[michih]

I have clinched my first larger region now: Baden-Württemberg with more than 9,000 miles I traveled the last five sections yesterday, which were under construction earlier this year. Of course, I also clinched the deubwl system now.
I'm already at 93.57% for Bavaria with its almost 14,000 miles, the largest German region. I'll try to clinch 99.x% this winter but there is also some long-term construction and I will likely only be able to reach 100% in 2024.

I traveled a lot through Germany* during the pandemic and have clinched 77.25% of the German federal road system deub now, and I have over 50% in all states (only RP is below 60%). The total clinch rate was 67.79% at the end of 2021. 58.95% at the end of 2020, 41.85% 2019, 35.4% 2018, 29.3% 2017, and 24.0% at the end of 2016. I think that I will add more mileage in the coming months but don't focus too much on 100% since I also want to go on international travels again I got first mileage in Cyprus and Turkey in September or October this year. I hope that I'll manage to visit Iceland and Kosovo in 2023 where I've never been so far. The last remaining European countries on my list are likely not the places to go in 2023: Moldova and Ukraine


*I was always on the road for minimum two days per weekend this summer from Mid of May to end of August except of one weekend when I was tested positive and had to stay at home - but felt well. I did not only travel by car but also a lot by train since Germany had a nice offer this summer to travel local and regional trains for just 9 € / month because of the energy crisis.


I've been to Poland in September and reduced the missing numbers (0-999) from 11 to 8:

Code: [Select]

767 780 781 900 960 965 976 996
All missing numbers are found in Germany or France but there's no hurry.

Last days saw me on the road trying to travel as many roads for missing numbers as possible. I was in Belgium and western Germany because beln and deunwl have routes up to 998 or 969.
I managed to reduce the missing numbers (0-999) from 93 to 11 My lowest missing number is 767 now:

Code: [Select]

Missing Numbers:
767 780 781 797 799 900 960 965 976 987 996

[froggie]

Today marked the first day in an almost 2-week trip I'm taking down to Florida and back.  Got as far as northern New Jersey, clinching several state routes and route segments in CT, NY, and NJ in the process, though I was thwarted in my attempt to finish CT 10 due to a nasty crash.

[julmac]

Had a bit of an unexpectedly longer and more inconvenient trip than planned on my way home to Edmonton from a music seminar in Powell WY last month.

My route included MT SR306 and 300 plus the 14-mile or so gap between the two on county roads. I wasn't too concerned about getting through despite that there had been rain in the area recently, as my Montana gazetteer showed an all-weather connector route. Well, it turns out that four miles of the road had no gravel whatsoever, which combined with over two inches of rain that had occurred the previous night created a thick layer of mud that was simply not going to let me through in my Prius. On top of that the first sign of the mud patch didn't reveal itself until I was into a 400-ft plus elevation drop, past the point where I could abandon route and turn around. I had my fingers crossed that the gravel would resume at the bottom of the hill - it didn't. I was forced to walk about two miles on to the nearest farmhouse where, fortunately, a nice fellow was home and was able to tow me out and back to his property where the state route (and the gravel) roadway resumed. I thanked him for the tow and for disrupting his Sunday morning. He was happy to help but quite surprised to encounter someone using their road as a through route.

The rest of the day went according to plan, except that for some reason I got sent to secondary screening at customs (perhaps because I failed to declare importing all the mud that the car had collected?  )
I'm accustomed to travelling on unpaved routes throughout the secondary systems of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Montana but so far this is the first time that I've experienced any logistical problems.

[Markkos1992]

My trip to see Froggie in Maryland last Monday got me clinches of MD 117, MD 28, and MD 216.

On Saturday, I headed east to NJ to clinch NJ 35 (kinda a 10-year anniversary of Sandy trip) and other routes before I turn in the rental this week for either a vehicle for my parents or nothing temporarily until that one part comes in...

Clinched: NJ 38, NJ 68, NJ 72, NJ 167 (North-unsigned), NJ 37, NJ 35, NJ 66, NJ 71, NJ 59 (mostly unsigned), NJ 82, NJ 124
New Mileage: US 9 (NJ), US 202 (NJ), NJ 23

[dave1693]

In my near-clinch of NJ 28 (not yet reported) weekend before last, I passed the north end of NJ 59. Saw the blade sign with the 59 on it, even. But it was dark and I was both exhausted and running late so I didn't make the side trip. Some day!

[Markkos1992]

In my near-clinch of NJ 28 (not yet reported) weekend before last, I passed the north end of NJ 59. Saw the blade sign with the 59 on it, even. But it was dark and I was both exhausted and running late so I didn't make the side trip. Some day!

Yeah, I did not know that NJ 59 was a thing until I clinched NJ 28 back in February. 

[froggie]

Clinched: NJ 68

Did you actually go on base?  The zero milepost is inside the gate at Dix-McGuire...

In the meantime, tomorrow is the final day of a 12-day trip for me that took me down to Florida and back to see friends, family, roadgeeks, and the House of the Mouse...including Oscar and Markkos who mentioned it upthread.  Did a goodly bit of clinching on the way down and back as well.  I'm still "stuck" in 12th place, but I've picked up mileage and clinched routes in 11 states on this trip.

[Markkos1992]

Clinched: NJ 68

Did you actually go on base?  The zero milepost is inside the gate at Dix-McGuire...

In the meantime, tomorrow is the final day of a 12-day trip for me that took me down to Florida and back to see friends, family, roadgeeks, and the House of the Mouse...including Oscar and Markkos who mentioned it upthread.  Did a goodly bit of clinching on the way down and back as well.  I'm still "stuck" in 12th place, but I've picked up mileage and clinched routes in 11 states on this trip.

I was not intending to, but I went past the Visitor Center entrance and did not see a turnaround.  Basically, I got to the gate and told them I was going to just turnaround.  They just took my license and gave it back to me on the other side.  I could not even get to the circle because police cars were blocking it as early as I was there (probably between 5-6 AM), but I did see it so close enough.

[Markkos1992]

I am currently borrowing a vehicle from my parents until my car finally gets fixed (hopefully this week).  Anyway getting it over the weekend led to more MD clinching yesterday.

Clinched: MD 6, MD 224, MD 425, MD 344, MD 227, MD 925, MD 382, MD 202, MD 201, MD 212, MD 650

No other routes gained any new mileage.

Chances are that I will be 100% in MD in Travel Mapping by the end of 2023.  Part of the issue is that I missed a segment of MD 575 along US 113 that I will probably do when the US 9 TRUCK realignment in Georgetown, DE, opens.

[Jim]

It was just a short down and back last night to see the Harry Potter Forbidden Forest Experience at FDR State Park near Yorktown Heights, NY.  And mostly on familiar roads.  But there were a couple of small TM accomplishments for me.  Most notably, a little creativity in my routing nudged me over 99,000 miles in active+preview.  I also closed a gap in US 9 between Fishkill and Wappingers Falls, meaning I have all of it north of Tarrytown.  I clinched the Bear Mountain Parkway segment in Peekskill, picked up a few miles of US 202 and NY 35, and traveled my first small segment of NY 118.

[oscar]

I would have taken only four days, except for a deer colliding with my car on the Indiana Toll Road (I-80/90) the evening of day 3. No injuries, and my car was still drive-able once my rear bumper was remounted the following morning. But lots of other body damage on the driver's side of my car, including both doors and the front fender, which will undoubtedly take a fair amount of money (mostly my insurance company's) and time to fix.

My Subaru (what I drove out to Kentucky and Indiana last month) came out of the body shop last week. But while I was out of town for that trip, the catalytic converter was stolen from my Prius (old car, I use only for local travel). Then as soon as that was fixed, I had to return the Prius to the shop, to fix a flaky computer module that controls the instrument panel. Those repairs were also completed last week.

With both of my cars basically out of service for about a month, I had to use a rental, both for local travel and also a short trip to northern Maryland for my niece's wedding (no new mileage for that trip). But I was able to take my Subaru to visit my sister for Thanksgiving dinner. She recently moved to Pennsylvania between Chambersburg and Gettysburg. I gnawed away at some previously untraveled state routes near her new home, and will probably do more of same for Christmas Eve.

I spent Black Friday catching up on overdue mechanical maintenance on my Subaru. While that was underway, I traveled the extension of Metrorail's Silver Line to Ashburn VA via Dulles International Airport. The extension (not mappable on TM, unless and until it expands to rail transit routes) opened earlier this month. On my way back from Ashburn, I got off at the Dulles station. That station, and an adjacent parking garage, are connected to the airport terminal by a long pedestrian tunnel, fortunately with moving walkways. In the gap between the first and second set of walkways, there are interesting maps posted on the tunnel walls, showing the local highway network as it existed in the 1950s and 1960s when the airport was planned and built in what then was the middle of nowhere. The maps showed, among other things, US 211 extending east of the Capital Beltway (later truncated to Warrenton), VA 350 before it was upgraded to I-95/I-395, and US 240 before it was downgraded to MD 355.

[Markkos1992]

It looks like my car now will be fixed by mid-December....

Anyway, drove back yesterday to avoid the rain and continue piece-mealing MD routes.  This one should have completed the signed MD Routes in the DC area in TM.

Clinched: MD 229, MD 223, MD 214, MD 332, MD 704, MD 193, MD 586, MD 182, MD 115

No other routes gained any new mileage.

Interestingly, MD home football games allow for parking along the shoulder of MD 193 in the area.  However, the PCMS made it clear that tailgating is banned along MD 193 itself.  There was also construction further west that had MD 193 four-lane undivided over a bridge.  I think this was east of MD 212.

[jayhawkco]

Had back to back weekends of travels. Went to Wisconsin for a funeral and managed to clinch all of my remaining Wisconsin interstate mileage (I-39, I-41, I-43, and I-894) as well as WI17, WI119, and WI441.

Went down to Albuquerque to visit my brother and sister-in-law for Thanksgiving and clinched NM68, NM240, NM378, NM515, and NM522.