Gribblenation

Now this may seem off topic(or not) for this blog; but I figured it's worth noting. Recently Adam Prince and Billy Riddle made a road trip to Montgomery, AL; clinching highways and counties was the order of the day, as it always is with any East Coast Hive Mind roadtrip; but another objective was to go to Flea Market Montgomery and meet Sammy Stephens: the gent in the video above. Now, not only did they get to meet Sammy, but Sammy graciously took some of his time to shoot a short video with Adam and Billy. Now this might not strike you as a particularly momentous event or anything; but it impresses me. Now we all know somebody like Sammy-a crazy kind of goofy dude who's hard not to like. And we might dismiss such a person, 'Yeah, he's crazy'-and not think much of him. In doing so, you miss something: Now Sammy caught Adam's fancy sometime back, and Adam had been noting him in the Roadgeek IRC chat. That, of course lead to the road trip and so on. Now North Car...

The first construction and renovation projects eligible for funding through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) could be put to bid as early as this week, according to New York Governor David Paterson. Local officials learned last week that transportation projects have been approved in several Upstate New York counties. More will be announced in the coming weeks. This story is according to the Legislative Gazette of New York. Read the article at... http://tinyurl.com/bkmw58

I headed down to Long Island last weekend (Saturday, January 19, 2009 to be exact) from Binghamton, where I recently relocated to, and I have a few field notes that I wanted to mention for the masses. My field notes are for the trip down, as I couldn't think of as much that was noteworthy on the trip back Upstate. NY 17 - I saw that the speed limits at times was posted at 55mph along the future I-86 in sections where I would expect the speed limit to be 65mph. This would be between Hancock and Roscoe, in Monticello and also in Wurtsboro. Understandably, the speed limit is posted as 55mph between Deposit and Hancock, and also in Parksville due to at-grade intersections, driveways and the like. Is the section between Hancock and Roscoe just not up to Interstate standards? It can be a little curvy at times, but to me, it seemed that it would be suitable for 65mph. The other two sections of road I mentioned may be more valid as to having the lower speed limit. In Monticello...

There's another highway and travel blog out there that I think you will enjoy. Joe Babyak has started " Life is a Highway... " Joe will mix in video, photos, and commentaries of the various small towns he's visited. It's an up close and personal perspective of towns bypassed by the Interstate and what we're missing when we're zooming by at over 70 miles an hour.

Took the annual holiday pilgrimage (sorry, wrong holiday?) to Massachusetts and while the weather was not too great for photo taking, I did take a few when leaving which will be scattered among my observations below. 1. The MA 3 Re-signing Project This project is still not complete. MassHighway now lists its completion, which was to be during the Spring of 2008, as Spring 2009. There appears to be only 2 mainline BGSs that need to be replaced. Going north in Braintree the 1 mile Exit 20 I-93 sign (as featured on BostonRoads.com's Pilgrims Highway site) and the 1/2 mile sign going southbound for Exit 17, Union Street. They have put up new signs northbound 1 and 1/2 mile out for Exit 16, MA 18 in Weymouth. These did not replace old signs since, for as long as I can remember, there never was a 1 mile sign. The 1/2 mile sign was knocked down in the early 1980's and never replaced. The only warning of an upcoming exit since then has been a blue business sign. As you can see below, t...

Took a trip into Virginia on Saturday for the first roadtrip of the year. Zigzagged around from Raleigh to Oxford, NC to Boydton, VA to Blackstone, VA ended up in Alberta, (Virginia), and down through Wake Forest. The entire flickr set (51 photos) is here . The first stop is Oxford - which is the Granville County Seat. Zig zagged to US 1 in a small town called Manson, NC. There was this great old gas station there. An old American Oil Company sign. I don't think I have ever seen a gas pump in the United States that was "price in liters" until now! The Pepsi Bottles have to be from around the time NC State won the National Championship in 1983. Now, one of the best surprises of the trip was this old gas and service station on US 1 at the North Carolina/Virginia State Line. Can you imagine driving down US 1, 40 or 50 years ago, on a rainy night and seeing the neon "Virginia" as you ride down the lonely highway? Made it as far north as Burkeville, VA where US 360...

You all may remember the uproar over the lack of sound/noise barriers along parts of the recently opened Greensboro Urban Loop. Now with the opening of more miles to the Interstate 485 Charlotte Loop, it appears that concern over sound barriers (or the lack there of) is showing its ugly head again. This past week, I've received some e-mails asking me if I knew if NCDOT was going to install soundwalls or why they did not. It appears that the complaints are coming from where I-485 runs near Mount Holly-Huntersville Road. I've contacted NCDOT, and hope to have an answer.