I am a bit late on this, but I finally completed my
Michigan City Meet trip summary.
I still have four more trip summaries to complete.
NY Trip 8/3/2024The purpose of this trip was to attend the Celebration of Life for Mark Sinsabuagh's recently deceased wife.
I started the morning by taking US 22 WB/US 322 WB to US 11 NB/US 15 NB to PA 147 NB to I-180 WB to PA 405 NB to US 220 NB to PA 87 NB in Dushore. I took PA 87 NB (really heading east though) to PA 187 NB where I then realized that I had a conundrum due to part of PA 187 being closed so that an embankment could be fixed. I was able to sight clinch both sides of the closure though it required me to take quadrant routes to Laceyville and backtrack to PA 187 via US 6 and Waylusing-New Albany Road before turning around for good at the north end of the closure area. I clinched PA 187 by taking it north into NY also clinching NY 282 when I turned onto NY 17C WB north of Nichols.
I took NY 17C west to Waverly where I briefly turned south on NY 34 to turn around once I reentered PA on PA 199. I then continued north on NY 34 clinching it after passing through Ithaca, a brief concurrency with NY 34B, and Auburn once I got to NY 104. I turned onto NY 104 EB so I did not continue north onto CR 34 into Hannibal even though the signage tempted me to. I continued east on NY 104 through Oswego (stopping at a Stewart's that I was surprised to see this far west) all the way to NY 69 in Mexico (oddly enough my mom went into the actual country of Mexico last week while visiting my sister in south Texas). I then took NY 69 east to Rome with a loop in Parish to clinch NY 69A and clinching NY 183 along the way. I clinched NY 69 when I reached the west end of the NY 46/NY 49 concurrency on the west side of Rome. From there, I took NY 49 to Utica and then took NY 5 EB to NY 51 SB in Ilion to get to the celebration of life.
After leaving the celebration of life, I took some county routes over to NY 171 and clinched it by heading north to Frankfort before heading back to NY 51 SB in Ilion. I took NY 51 SB all the way to NY 8 clinching the route, and then took NY 8 south to NY 17. At this point, the rain really picked up and I did not get a true break from it again until I got to Carbondale, PA. I took NY 17 WB (and I-86 WB) to I-81 SB and then picked up PA 171 once entering PA ultimately clinching it by taking it all the way to US 6 BUS in Carbondale. I then took US 6 BUS EB to US 6 EB and took PA 296 NB in Waymart to PA 247 (though I did not turn around until I got back to PA 171 in Forest City). I ended up back on PA 296 SB and clinched it by taking it to PA 191 in Lake Ariel, turning around again, and then turning south onto PA 196 clinching that route when I finally got to the odd PA 611/PA 940 intersection at its southern terminus in Mount Pocono (with even
this odd sign as well). I stopped at a Wawa on PA 940 before heading west to I-380 SB and went back to Harrisburg via I-80 WB and I-81 SB.
Clinched: PA 187, NY 282, NY 34, NY 69, NY 69A, NY 183, NY 51, NY 171, PA 171, PA 296, PA 196
New Mileage: NY 17C, NY 96, NY 13, NY 34B, NY 38, NY 104, NY 3, US 11 (NY), NY 5, US 20 (NY), NY 80, NY 23, NY 8, NY 10, NY 17, PA 247
Quad State Road Meet (8/17/2024)On August 17th, myself, oscar, Duke87, and others attended the Quad State Road Meet that included mileage on the meet in VA, WV, MD, and PA. The meet itself included lunch at Buddylou's in Hancock, MD, a renewing of vows by Mr. and Mrs. MDRoads at a nearby bridge over the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal (where Rainey was more into her Charlie Brown phase of throwing rocks than being a flower girl), and stops at the I-68 Sideling Hill Rest Area, the Mason-Dixon line stone at the south end of PA 26 at the MD/PA line, the Hancock toll house, the ongoing construction of the US 522 Berkeley Springs Bypass, and what Google Maps refers to as
The Farnham Colossi along CR 13 (Winchester Grade Road). Many of the others went to spend time at Berkeley Springs State Park in Downtown Berkeley Springs once the meet ended, but myself and a few others decided to pass on that. I was a bit tired so I just took I-70 EB to MD 63 NB (with a Sheetz stop at US 40) to PA 163 EB (reclinch) to US 11 NB to I-81 NB back to Harrisburg.
Before the meet, however, I took US 15 SB to I-270 SB to I-495 Outer to VA 7 WB to view the completed six-lane widening along VA 7 west of VA 267 towards VA 193 in Fairfax County. I continued west on VA 7 all the way to Winchester where I looped around a bit via I-81, US 522, SR 642, SR 847, VA 37 (reclinching in both directions), and US 11 (even finding
circle 11 shields just north of I-81 Exit 317 after a reclinch of SR 1620). I then took VA 7 WB from I-81 Exit 315 into Downtown Winchester to pick up US 522 NB taking it all the way to Hancock for the meet itself as mentioned in the previous paragraph.
PA Trip 8-24-2024I started the morning by taking I-81 SB to PA 114 EB to US 11 SB so I could stop at a Sheetz before getting on the PA Turnpike. It was actually my first ever stop at the Sheetz at the US 11/PA 114 intersection. I took US 11 SB from there to I-76 WB and stayed on I-76 WB all the way to PA 18 (Exit 13) by the Beaver River Bridge construction as there were a couple minor realignments west of Somerset (Exit 110) that I felt necessitated a reclinch. Thankfully my drive was mostly peaceful despite the cost. Once on PA 18 SB, I quickly turned onto PA 551 NB before taking I-376 EB to PA 18 NB through Rochester to close the PA 18 gap I had since the Rochester-Monaca Bridge over the Ohio River had reopened. I then took the Veterans Memorial Bridge to PA 51 NB turning around west of I-376 while trying to get gas. After a GetGo gas stop, I took PA 51 SB to I-376 WB back to PA 551 NB. I stayed on PA 551 NB all the way to Mount Jackson well I detoured briefly to OH so that I could clinch PA 317 and OH 630 by taking it to OH 170 back. Once back at PA 551, I continued north on PA 551 clinching the route once I got to PA 208. I then took PA 208 EB to PA 18 SB and went south to New Castle and took PA 168 NB to PA 388 (so I have a 388 photo now) and turned around there even though PA 168 continues north of PA 388. I backtracked to PA 18 in New Castle except this time I took US 422 BUS (and briefly US 224) back west to I-376 WB and then exited I-376 at Exit 9 onto Mitchell Rd (which I really think should be an extended PA 158) making a Sheetz stop before taking PA 18 NB to PA 158 NB to Mercer ultimately picking up US 62 NB.
The section of US 62 south of Sandy Lake was still closed so I prioritized clinching PA 965 once I got to Jackson Center and picked back up US 62 NB once PA 965 ended to PA 8. Clinching PA 965 was actually very significant as I have now clinched all of the PA 9XX routes. I took PA 8 SB to Old PA 8 SB and then picked up PA 308 SB taking it all the way south to Butler to clinch and then took US 422 EB to Indiana, PA, from there mainly to drive the new alignment that bypasses the Margaret Road intersection to the north on a new very high bridge. Honestly, I felt like I was on a whole new US 422 even though I was easily able to see the new alignment on past trips through the area before it opened. Once east of Indiana, I decided to reclinch PA 553 by taking it east to US 219. Then it was just the usual US 219 SB to US 22 EB to I-99 NB to US 322 EB back to Harrisburg with heavier traffic than normal due to students moving in at Penn State. Even the two-lane section of US 322 moved mostly fine, but we did stop at one point, and I was confused why because there are still no traffic signals along that section.
![Undecided :-\](https://forum.travelmapping.net/Smileys/default/undecided.gif)
Clinched: PA 551, PA 317, OH 630, PA 158, PA 965, PA 308
New Mileage: PA 18, PA 168, PA 351, PA 108, US 62 (PA)
Reclinched due to realignments: I-70 (PA), I-76 (PA), US 422 (PA-west)
Labor Day Trip 9-2-2024As photos were posted from the Quad State Meet, I found out about
WV 243. I was not convinced that I would move forward with this trip due to the Southern 500 the night before, but I moved forward with it.
I started by taking I-81 SB to the area so I could clinch the new WV 243 and loop around to check signage. As I stated in the WV 243 thread, the route is only signed as such on I-81 and its Exit 8 offramps for now. All other references are either CR 32 or CR 81/8. (and I did clinch CR 37 west of CR 30 while looping around) Once done, I stopped at the Sheetz at US 11 at the east end of the new WV 243, and then took US 11 NB all the way to US 40 EB in Hagerstown, MD. I stopped in Falling Waters, WV, to chase
this waterfall, which I passed in both directions while trying to find it, but I felt that TLC was laughing at me as I felt that the waterfall was not anywhere near as impressive as I expected.
I took US 40 EB to MD 64 EB, which turns into PA 997 at the PA line. I took PA 997 NB to PA 16 EB to Jacks Mountain Rd to drive through a
covered bridge to get to PA 116 EB. I took PA 116 EB to Gettysburg, and then took US 30 EB to York where I stopped at Cheddar's for lunch even though Kyle Busch was one position short of free tenders. After lunch, I just took US 30 WB to PA 181 to I-83 NB (at the new Exit 22 onramp) back to Harrisburg.