Great Lakes Road Trip Day 1 Part 2; San Francisco to Detroit

Eventually after sitting at the airport in San Francisco for a good solid three and half hours I did get underway towards Detroit.

At first I thought the flight path was going to head directly over CA 108 via Sonora Pass given that I could see the city of Sonora below in the Sierra Foothills. Sonora is the location of CA 108 and CA 49:

Instead the flight path basically took a direct shot east via Yosemite National Park and the Tioga Pass Road:

Before exiting California Nevada the flight took a pass over Mono Lake which is traversed on three sides by; US 395, CA 167, and CA 120:

My flight path followed US 6 through the state of Nevada which meant passing some notable features like the White Mountain Range just over the state line and the Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project near Tonopah:

Entering Utah the flight path followed mostly I-70 which allowed decent views of three National Parks starting with Capitol Reef and the Water Pocket Ford:

The Canyonlands via the Green River:

Along with Arches with US 191 seen traversing the Moab Fault:

Unfortunately there was heavy cloud cover over the Rockies and in particular the Front Range which prevented much from being seen that was noteworthy. Really there wasn't much worth looking at out the window until downtown Chicago and Lake Michigan:

My destination was at Metro Airport in the old terminal building which has had a surprisingly nice remodel since I've visited last. I saw the traffic was bad on I-96 and I-275 so I decided to try US 23 to Brighton instead. US 23 was actually undergoing heavy construction due to a lane expansion project from Ann Arbor to I-96. The US 23 freeway was way busier than I remember it but it has probably been at least 2001 since I've used it to go through Ann Arbor.

Comments

Nick said…

To clarify, you didn't fly into a remodeled terminal in Detroit; it was the new North Terminal that was built in 2008 (assuming you flew on a non-Delta flight). The old terminals (Smith, Berry, and Davey) are no longer used for passengers. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detroit_Metropolitan_Airport#North_Terminal

9:03 AM

Ghost Town Tuesday; Vineland, Florida; the town killed by Disney

Vineland is a small ghost town located in southwest Orange County, Florida near the junction of Florida State Road 535 and Interstate 4. Vineland is somewhat unique due to it largely being squeezed out of existence by Lake Buena Vista which is the company town where Disney World is located. Vineland was founded in the late 1800s as Englewood. The town name of Englewood changed to Orange Center in 1911 before finally assuming the name Vineland in 1924. Much like the rest of Orange County the community of Vineland was centered around Citrus Grove. In the case of Vineland said orange groves were centered around Ruby Lake. The end of Vineland came as the Disney Corporation began purchasing parcels of citrus grove land to build Lake Buena Vista. Vineland fell into a sharp decline in the 1960s but the community managed to continue to exist to modern times. Much of the street grid of Vineland still exists east of FL 535 but most of the original structures are either gone or falle

Old NY 10 and Goodman Mountain in the Adirondacks

Old highway alignments come in all shapes and sizes, as well as taking some different forms after their lifespan of serving cars and trucks has ended. In the case of an old alignment of what was NY 10 south of Tupper Lake, New York, part of the old road was turned into part of a hiking trail to go up Goodman Mountain. At one time, the road passed by Goodman Mountain to the east, or Litchfield Mountain as it was known at the time. As the years passed, sometime around 1960, the part of NY 10 north of Speculator became part of NY 30, and remains that way today from Speculator, past Indian Lake and Tupper Lake and up to the Canadian Border. At one time, the highway was realigned to pass the Goodman Mountain to the west, leaving this stretch of road to be mostly forgotten and to be reclaimed by nature. During the summer of 2014, a 1.6 mile long hiking trail was approved the Adirondack Park Agency to be constructed to the summit of the 2,176 foot high Goodman Mountain. For the first 0.9 mi

Oregon State Highway 58

Also known as the Willamette Highway No. 18, the route of Oregon State Highway 58 (OR 58) stretches some 86 miles between US 97 north of Chemult and I-5 just outside of Eugene, Oregon. A main route between the Willamette Valley region of Oregon with Central Oregon and Crater Lake National Park, the highway follows the Middle Fork Willamette River and Salt Creek for much of its route as it makes its way to and across the Cascades, cresting at 5,138 feet above sea level at Willamette Pass. That is a gain of over 4,500 in elevation from where the highway begins at I-5. The upper reaches of OR 58 are dominated by the principal pinnacle that can sometimes be seen from the highway, Diamond Peak, and three nearby lakes, Crescent, Odell and Waldo (Oregon's second largest lake). OR 58 is chock full of rivers, creeks, mountain views, hot springs and waterfalls within a short distance from the highway. OR 58 was numbered as such by the Oregon State Highway Department in 1940. OR 58 is a del

Gribblenation

Search This Blog