KC Road Meet & County-Collecting Roadtrip

Good evening all. It has been yet another stormy week in Oklahoma. After the tornadoes last Monday 5/10 and then the hail on Sunday 5/16 (which damaged the hotel I work at), we have had more severe weather in the state tonight. Thankfully, the storms somehow missed Oklahoma City but hit areas just to the north and south. Hopefully the storms are over now and the weather will be great for the Kansas City Road Meet & County-Collecting Roadtrip that I have planned for this weekend. The forecasts seem to indicate that the weather will cooperate this weekend, so I'm hoping that is the case...

I will be leaving Friday morning for Kansas City but will do some county collecting in eastern Kansas & southeast Nebraska before making it to Kansas City. Saturday, I plan on doing some driving in the Kansas City area before and after the road meet. Finally, on Sunday, the plan is to do some more county collecting in eastern Kansas & southeast Nebraska before heading back to Oklahoma City, where I will spend about 36 hours until the Rocky Mountain Roadtrip begins on Tuesday! Overall, I hope to collect a total of 19 new counties during this weekend's trip (17 in Kansas & 2 in Nebraska). The approximate trip route for this weekend is as follows:

Friday:

I-44 East -> U.S. 69 North -> OK 2 North -> U.S. 59 North -> K-47 West -> U.S. 169 North -> U.S. 59 North -> U.S. 56 West -> U.S. 75 North -> U.S. 73 South -> U.S. 159 South -> U.S. 59 South -> U.S. 24 East -> K-7 South -> K-32 East -> I-635 South -> I-35 South

New counties: Labette, Neosho, Allen, Anderson, Jackson, Brown, Nemaha, Richardson (NE), Atchison, Jefferson

Saturday: TBD

Sunday:

K-7 North -> U.S. 73 North -> U.S. 59 North -> I-29 South -> U.S. 36 West -> K-63 North -> NE 50 North -> NE 8 West -> NE 99 South -> K-99 South -> U.S. 36 West -> K-15 South -> U.S. 24 East -> K-99 South -> I-70 West -> K-177 South -> U.S. 56 East -> U.S. 75 South -> U.S. 400 West -> U.S. 77 South -> U.S. 166 West -> U.S. 81 South -> U.S. 60 East -> I-35 South

New counties: Doniphan, Pawnee (NE), Marshall, Washington, Clay, Pottawatomie, Morris, Woodson, Wilson

In other news, we took a last-minute trip to SE Oklahoma last weekend. It was a good thing we did; it saved our cars from being affected by Sunday's hail storm! The U.S. 377/OK 99 West sign goofs in Madill that I photographed in 2006 are still there. I also took some pictures of the Chickasaw Turnpike, thus ending my "boycott" of the turnpike since the only other time I had driven the turnpike in March 2002 (before I even had a digital camera!).

See y'all later, and drive safely.

ES

Upcoming Roadtrips

It's been over a month since I last blogged. In that time, we have been as far away as Tulsa. (ooh aah)

But that is all about to change, because starting on May 21, we will have 10 roadtrip days out of 11 total days. I will be taking a trip to Kansas City for a road meet & county-collecting May 21-23, and then from May 25-31, my wife & I will be taking a trip to the "Mountain Northwest" as we take the Rocky Mountain Roadtrip through Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, Utah, Idaho, Montana, South Dakota, Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas.

I will post the trip route for the KC/County-Collecting Trip in a later blog, as that route is still being worked on. I do have the Rocky Mountain Roadtrip route planned out, and it is stated below. Of course this is subject to change...

Tuesday, May 25:
Oklahoma City, OK to Grand Island, NE
I-35 North -> I-135 North -> U.S. 81 North -> U.S. 136 East -> U.S. 77 North -> I-80 West -> U.S. 281 North

Wednesday, May 26:
Grand Island, NE to Evanston, WY
U.S. 281 South -> I-80 West (sidetrips planned include the eastern section of I-76 & the infamous I-180 in Cheyenne)

Thursday, May 27:
Evanston, WY to Helena, MT
I-80 West -> I-215 South/West -> I-15 South to Provo -> I-15 North

Friday, May 28:
Helena, MT to Billings, MT via Yellowstone
I-15 South -> I-90 East -> U.S. 89 South -> Yellowstone -> U.S. 89 North -> I-90 East

Saturday, May 29:
Billings, MT to Buffalo, WY via Mount Rushmore
I-90 East -> I-190 South -> U.S. 16 West -> U.S. 16A West -> SD 244 West -> U.S. 16 West -> I-90 West -> I-25 South

Sunday, May 30:
Buffalo, WY to Trinidad, CO
I-25 South -> U.S. 36 West to Boulder -> U.S. 36 East -> I-25 South

Monday, May 31:
Trinidad, CO to Oklahoma City, OK
I-25 South -> U.S. 87 South -> I-40 East

ES

New old pictures on Flickr

Earlier this evening, I finished writing captions for the pictures from the Kansas City roadtrip. As I type this, I am uploading some new pictures to Flickr. These are pictures from the first day of the West Texas Roadtrip that I took April 5-7, 2006, when I drove from Oklahoma City to El Paso. After those pictures are uploaded, I will upload the pictures from the other two days of that trip to Flickr. There are pictures from New Mexico & the Texas Panhandle from those two days.

Other than that, and the new iPhone I got yesterday, things have been going as usual for me. I will get to take a short trip to southeast Oklahoma in late October for my one-year wedding anniversary. The next time I am planning to be out of state will be in December when we go to San Diego.

ES

Updates!

It has been 20 days since I last blogged, but I have kept plenty busy in those 20 days. I did the Kansas City roadtrip over Labor Day weekend and the weather cooperated for the most part. It was cloudy for most of the trip but it didn't rain.

Last night, I wrote the captions for the final pictures from the New England roadtrip. Next, I will be writing captions for the pics from the Kansas City trip. I am hoping to have that done by October 15.

After that, my plan is to upload some old pictures from the first half of 2006 onto Flickr, including several trips I made of U.S. highways in Oklahoma & North Texas, and pictures from the West Texas Roadtrip I took back in April 2006, in which I drove through Lawton, Lubbock, El Paso, Las Cruces, Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Clovis, Lubbock again, and Amarillo. Highways I took during that trip include I-44 from OKC to Lawton, U.S. 62 from Lawton to El Paso (with a break in Lubbock when I used Loop 289 to bypass the city), I-10 from El Paso to Las Cruces, I-25 from Las Cruces to near Las Vegas, U.S. 84 from Las Vegas to Lubbock, I-27 from Lubbock to Amarillo, U.S. 60 & TX/OK 152 from Amarillo to Elk City, and I-40 from Elk City to OKC. Whew!

By the time I am done with those pictures, it should be close to the San Diego Roadtrip, still scheduled to take place December 26-January 4.

ES

Kansas City Trip This Weekend

Plans are being firmed up for this weekend's Kansas City roadtrip. The plan is to take a little sidetrip around the area on Saturday afternoon. I plan on photographing the "Alphabet Loop" in downtown Kansas City in both directions, U.S. 169 north of downtown Kansas City, and possibly another highway or two in the area.

This will be the first time I have been in Kansas City, Missouri, since August 2003 (which was two cameras ago!). I have been to a lot of other places since then, but not to KCMO. The last time I was in KCKS was in May 2005. There were a couple times between August 2003 & the present that I did go to Overland Park, but never went any farther north than that. In other words, it's been a long, long time since I got decent coverage of Kansas City!

At this point, the weather looks OK for the trip. There is a chance of rain throughout the trip, but hopefully, it won't rain during the times we are on the road, or during the Royals game we are going to on Sunday afternoon.

Pictures will be uploaded to Flickr each night of the trip, provided that the Internet connection works in each hotel we are staying in. :D

ES

Updates

Good morning all. I have just updated the picture of the week on OKRoads. I apologize for not posting one last week.

On Flickr, I have finished writing captions for all pictures up to the beginning of Day Seven (Northern Maine). I have about 4,000 pictures left to write captions & geotag from the New England trip.

Next Friday, September 4, is the beginning of the Kansas City roadtrip.

Planned route:

Friday, September 4:

Kilpatrick Turnpike East to I-35

I-35 North to Wichita

Saturday, September 5:

I-35 North to U.S. 59

U.S. 59 North to I-70

I-70 East to I-35

I-35 South to Downtown Kansas City

Sunday, September 6:

I-70 East to Kauffman Stadium

I-435 South/West to K-10

K-10 West to Lawrence

Monday, September 7:

K-10 East to I-435

I-435 East to U.S. 69

U.S. 69 South to U.S. 400

U.S. 400 East to I-44

I-44 West to Creek Turnpike

Creek Turnpike West to I-44

I-44 West to I-35

I-35 South to OKC

ES