Rocky Mountain Roadtrip So Far...

Good evening from Billings, Montana, where we are spending the night after a rainy & foggy Day 4 of the Rocky Mountain Roadtrip. It rained about 95% of today's 306 mile trip from Helena to Billings.

We have had to make a couple changes during the trip; one due to time constraints (no sidetrip to Logan, UT, yesterday) and one due to the weather (no trip to Yellowstone today). Other than that, the trip has gone as planned thus far. The weather has cooperated for the most part; it has been cloudy for a good part of the trip but there have also been blue skies for much of the trip. Sometimes there has even been blue sky visible while it's raining! But all in all, it has been a great trip.

Wednesday, we entered our 44th state (Wyoming), and yesterday, we entered our 45th & 46th states (Idaho & Montana, respectively). We've even seen a few sign goofs (Business Loop I-80 signed as I-80 in Wyoming, Business Loop I-15 signed as I-15 in Idaho, and UT 265 signed as U.S. 265 at its eastern terminus).

The pictures for the first 4 days are all uploaded to Flickr, and our county map has been updated as well. Tomorrow, we plan on going to Buffalo, WY, via Rapid City & Mt. Rushmore.

ES

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

"Retro" Sign Goofs

If you have been following this blog & my Flickr lately, you know that I have been on a "2006-kick" lately. In other words, I have been uploading and captioning pictures from 2006 that never got a webpage made for them on OKRoads.com. While doing these pictures, I have been reminded of a couple of sign goofs that I am glad I photographed: (click on picture for larger size)

U.S. 77 South approaching OK 74C, which connects OK 74 & U.S. 77 in Logan County. Notice Crescent is spelled incorrectly. This was taken on July 29, 2006, and I have not been back to this area since then, so the Cresent goof may still be present.

Interstate 35 & OK 77 North assurance shields, as taken on December 9, 2006. These were posted near the end of the reconstruction project that widened Interstate 35 to three lanes in each direction through the Shields interchange in north Moore. This sign goof was corrected a few months later and this shield assembly now displays a correct U.S. 77 shield. There were two other cases where OK 77 shields were posted during this construction project...one on the northbound frontage road at the on-ramp from N. 12th Street, and the other was a shield assembly on Interstate 35/U.S. 77 South. Those have been corrected as well.



Near U.S. 70's eastern junction with U.S. 377 & OK 99, U.S. 377 and/or OK 99 South is signed as West 3 times. These pictures were taken May 29, 2006. I have not been to this area since this day, so I am not sure if these goofs have been fixed.

ES