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
Monday, September 21, 2009
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
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
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
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
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Flickr updates
I have finished writing picture captions from Days Three & Four of the New England trip. Pics from those days have been divided into more specific sets on Flickr. The pictures are dispersed throughout the New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island collections.
I have also started writing captions from Day Five. I have finished placing the New Hampshire pictures from that day into specific highway sets.
A Flickr rant: it seems like every time I create a new collection for a state's road pictures, and I put it into alphabetical order, the alphabetical order of other collections gets messed up. I have tried several times to get it correct but I haven't got it figured out yet. It looks fine in the Organizr when I leave it but when I close the Organizr, the order gets messed up yet again. In summary: I do know how to sort the state collections in alphabetical order, but the Organizr has some issues when I create new collections.
ES
Update: I think I figured out the Organizr...seems like I can only move one collection to a different location at a time. -ES
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Roadtrip announcement
I am glad to announce the next "major" roadtrip for OKRoads! It is currently planned to take place December 26, 2009 through January 3, 2010, and will take us to San Diego, California, or San Diago as Ron Burgundy calls it. :D The trip route has already been planned out, so here goes:
Saturday, December 26:
Oklahoma City, OK - Odessa, TX
I-44 West to U.S. 277
U.S. 277 South to I-20
I-20 West to Odessa
Sunday, December 27:
Odessa, TX - Tucson, AZ
I-20 West to I-10
I-10 West to Tucson
Monday, December 28:
Tucson, AZ - San Diego, CA
I-10 West to I-8
I-8 West to San Diego
Tuesday, December 29, Wednesday, December 30, and Thursday, December 31:
San Diego area activities TBD
Friday, January 1:
San Diego, CA - Tucson, AZ
I-15 North to I-215
I-215 North to CA 60
CA 60 East to I-10
I-10 East to Tucson
Saturday, January 2:
Tucson, AZ - Roswell, NM
I-10 East to U.S. 70
U.S. 70 East to Roswell
Sunday, January 3:
Roswell, NM - Oklahoma City, OK
U.S. 70 East to U.S. 60
U.S. 60 East to I-27
I-27 North to I-40
I-40 East to Oklahoma City
So there you have it! Of course, this is subject to change as it gets closer, but hopefully it won't change too much from this.
27 days until the Kansas City roadtrip! And only 140 days until the San Diego trip. :D
ES
New England Trip Day One & Two Picture Pages
Pictures from the first 2 days of the New England trip have been captioned & geotagged on Flickr. Links to the pages are listed below:
All Day One Pictures:
All Day Two Pictures:
Interstate 44 East - Oklahoma:
Interstate 44 East - Missouri:
Interstate 55 North - Missouri:
Interstate 70 East - Illinois:
Interstate 70 East - Indiana:
Interstate 465 Inner Loop - Indiana:
Sam Jones Expressway East:
Interstate 70 East - Ohio:
Interstate 670 East - Ohio:
Interstate 71 North - Ohio:
Interstate 271 North - Ohio:
Interstate 77 North - Ohio:
Interstate 90 East - Ohio:
Interstate 90 East - Pennsylvania:
Interstate 90 East - New York:
Interstate 290 West - New York:
Interstate 190 North - New York:
U.S. 62 North - New York:
NY 104 West:
Robert Moses State Parkway South:
Interstate 190 South - New York:
Interstate 290 East - New York:
Interstate 490 East - New York:
NY 390 North:
I am over halfway done through Day Three's pictures. Hopefully by the middle of next week I will have those completed.
ES
New England Roadtrip Recap
Finally, 2 1/2 weeks after the trip ended, I am writing a recap of the ESKS New England Extravanagza Roadtrip 2K9! I will briefly recap each day of the trip. This is the first of several blogs I will be making today because I have some other things to cover and a big roadtrip announcement to make.
The trip started at 6:34 AM on Friday, July 10, and ended at 4:32 PM on Tuesday, July 21. In that 11 days, 9 hours, and 58 minutes, my wife & I traveled 6,082.4 miles through 20 different states. This trip allowed me to drive in two new states, Rhode Island & Maine. This was the first time I had been in new states since July 9, 2005, when I was in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, and New Hampshire for the first time. During this trip, I entered each of those states for the 2nd time. Rhode Island became my 42nd state entered on July 12 (which also happened to be my 26th birthday), and Maine became my 43rd state entered on July 15.
The weather was pretty good for the trip as a whole, considering that up to that point, it had been very rainy in New England in recent weeks. We saw sunshine and blue skies at some point on every day of the trip.
Here is a daily recap of the trip:
Day One, Friday, July 10:
Started in: Oklahoma City, OK
Finished in: Indianapolis, IN
Miles: 732.8
States: OK (#1 on the trip), MO (2), IL (3), IN (4)
Weather: Clear skies until Missouri, then cloudy with occasional sprinkles & rain showers until Vandalia, IL, then partly cloudy to Indianapolis
Detours: None
Highlights: "Re-clinched" Interstate 70; it was rerouted around Indianapolis International Airport between the last time I was there in 2003 & the present
Day Two, Saturday, July 11:
Started in: Indianapolis, IN
Finished in: Rochester/Greece, NY
Miles: 625.2
States: IN, OH (5), PA (6), NY (7)
Weather: Mostly cloudy until Richmond, IN, then cloudy until Columbus, OH, showers & thunderstorms from Columbus to Mansfield, Sunny to partly cloudy from Mansfield to Ohio/Pennsylvania state line, cloudy from OH/PA state line to just south of Buffalo, sunny in Buffalo & Niagara Falls, cloudy from Niagara Falls to east of Buffalo, partly cloudy from east of Buffalo to Rochester (the weather was very indecesive on this day)
Detours: Niagara Falls via I-190, I-290 & U.S. 62
Highlights: Saw Niagara Falls for the 2nd time, but the 1st time with my wife
Day Three, Sunday, July 12:
Started in: Greece, NY
Finished in: Worcester, MA
Miles: 508.1
States: NY, MA (8), CT (9), RI (10)
Weather: Clear to partly cloudy skies all day
Detours: Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, MA; Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg; Providence, RI
Highlights: Toured Basketball Hall of Fame, Entered Rhode Island for the first time
Day Four, Monday, July 13:
Sidetrip to Providence, Fall River, Newport, Westerly, Plymouth, and Cape Cod
Miles: 471.4
States: MA, RI, CT
Weather: Clear to partly cloudy skies all day
Detours: None really, just a winding sidetrip to see some of Massachusetts & Rhode Island
Highlights: Saw Plymouth Rock & Cape Cod, including the unremarkable eastern terminus of U.S. 6, clinched all interstate mileage in Rhode Island
Day Five, Tuesday, July 14:
Sidetrip to New Hampshire & Vermont
Miles: 459.3
States: MA, NH (11), VT (12)
Weather: Clear skies at the beginning of the day, then cloudy with occassional showers the rest of the day
Detours: None
Day Six, Wednesday, July 15:
Started in: Worcester, MA
Finished in: Bangor, ME
Miles: 311.4
States: MA, NH, ME (13)
Weather: Clear to partly cloudy skies all day
Detours: Fenway Park
Highlights: Clinched all interstate mileage in New Hampshire, toured Fenway Park, drove northbound on the southbound lanes of I-295 in Maine (southbound traffic was being rerouted to nearby U.S. 201 due to construction)
Day Seven, Thursday, July 16:
Sidetrip to Houlton & Fort Kent, ME
Miles: 423.9
States: ME
Weather: Mostly cloudy almost all day, with some clearing around Houlton; rain showers from Fort Kent to Bangor
Detours: None
Highlights: Saw the northern termini of Interstate 95 & U.S. 1
Day Eight, Friday, July 17:
Sidetrip to Bar Harbor & Acadia National Park
Miles: 224.4
States: ME
Weather: Mostly cloudy & foggy almost all day, with some clearing around Bar Harbor
Detours: None
Highlights: Saw the beautiful Acadia National Park (even though dense fog affected our views of the ocean)
Day Nine, Saturday, July 18:
Started in: Bangor, ME
Finished in: Chambersburg, PA
Miles: 700.7
States: ME, NH, MA, CT, NY, NJ (14), PA
Weather: Showers from Bangor to Portland, then cloudy from Portland to Worcester, then sunny to partly cloudy the rest of the way
Detours: None
Highlights: Clinched the eastern Interstate 84, drove by ESPN Headquarters in Bristol, CT, briefly crossed into New Jersey via I-84's Exit 1 in New York
Day Ten, Sunday, July 19:
Started in: Chambersburg, PA
Ended in: Sevierville, TN
Miles: 566.3
States: PA, MD (15), WV (16), VA (17), NC (18), TN (19)
Weather: Clear to partly cloudy for most of the day, except for the Great Smoky Mountains, where it was cloudy
Detours: I-26 & I-40 through the Great Smoky Mountains
Highlights: Drove I-26 through the Smokies without having to deal with the remnants of a tropical storm (like I did in 2005)
Day Eleven, Monday, July 20:
Started in: Sevierville, TN
Ended in: Hot Springs, AR
Miles: 621.3
States: TN, AR (20)
Weather: Clear to partly cloudy from Sevierville to Memphis, then mostly cloudy from Memphis to Hot Springs
Detours: Sevierville via TN 66
Highlights: Re-entered the Central Time Zone
Day Twelve, Tuesday, July 21:
Started in: Hot Springs, AR
Ended in: Oklahoma City, OK
Miles: 410.8
States: AR, OK
Weather: Heavy rain from Hot Springs to Clarksville, then partly cloudy from Clarksville to Oklahoma City
Detours: None
Highlights: Made it back home safely
That is a quick recap of the ESKS New England Extravaganza Roadtrip 2K9. It was a wonderful trip and it was a great experience.
ES
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