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Showing posts from May, 2024

Dixie Motel & Emporia Travel Center - Emporia, Virginia

All along Interstate 95 in the South, there are interchanges where the services (food, gas, and lodging) haven't kept up with the times.  Some of these old comfort stops dated to before the Interstate or opened when the new highway came through.   The former Emporia Travel Center Long before Buc-ee's, small independent travel centers that mixed a gas station/truck stop, restaurant, and sometimes a motel lined the Interstate.  Just north of Emporia, a long-gone complex consisting of a truck stop, restaurant, and motel greeted travelers as they exited off I-95. In the late 1950s, Virginia built a US 301 bypass west of Emporia that would become Interstate 95.  When the road opened in 1959, a small restaurant sat where the newly opened bypass tied back into Highway 301 - today's Exit 12.  By 1968, a truck stop and motel had been built next to it. By early 2011, the Dixie Motel had long been overrun - its days were numbered.  The old motel was torn down a few weeks later. The mo

Former US Route 101 and California State Route 41 through Paso Robles

Paso Robles is a city located on the Salinas River of San Luis Obispo County, California.  As originally configured the surface alignments of US Route 101 and California State Route 41 converged in downtown Paso Robles.  US Route 101 originally was aligned through Paso Robles via Spring Street.  California State Route 41 entered the City of Paso Robles via Union Road and 13th Street where it intersected US Route 101 at Spring Street.  US Route 101 and California State Route 41 departed Paso Robles southbound via a multiplex which split near Templeton.   Pictured above is the cover of the September/October 1957 California Highways & Public Works which features construction of the Paso Robles Bypass.  Pictured below is the 1935 Division of Highways Map of San Luis Obispo County which depicts US Route 101 and California State Route 41 intersecting in downtown Paso Robles.   Part 1; the history of US Route 101 and California State Route 41 in Paso Robles Paso Robles ("Pass of the