Catching Up: August 2011 Florida Trip: Part 1

Catching Up: August 2011 Florida Trip: Part 1 - Tampa

(Editor's Note: While there's some slow time in the few week's before we have a new addition to the family, I'm trying to catch up on blog entries that I wanted to post or started but never completed. This is another one of those entries.)

In August 2011, Joe Babyak, Brian LeBlanc, and I took a road trip to Key West, Florida by way of Tampa.

Route: US 64/264, I-40, I-95, FL A1A, US 301, I-10, FL 121, FL 238, I-75, US 98, FL 589 Toll.

From our hotel on Old Tampa Bay, I was able to see a distant thunderstorm form. For me, it was something pretty neat since we don't have the flat and open space to watch these develop.

For the entire sunset set on flickr, head here.

From there we headed to Ybor City for dinner to the Tampa Bay Brewing Company. The beer and the food is excellent! However, I was actually very surprised to see how empty Ybor City was for a Thursday evening.

From there, Brian suggested we head down I-275 to the Sunshine Skyway Bridge to take in the bridge with some night shots at the fishing pier. Skyway Fishing Pier State Park is open 24 hours - and the piers are the approaches to the original Skyway Bridge. This was really my first attempt at long exposure night photography. It takes a lot of patience but this was a great spot to practice.

For more night shots from the bridge, head here.

Coming Soon: The ride to Key West.

Comments

The case to move Interstate 73 in Southern Ohio onto US 33

Every decade or so, Ohio pushes to revisit the proposed Interstate 73 that would connect Michigan to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. It's been happening since Congress legislated the route in 1991. Within Ohio, Interstate 73 generally follows the US 23 corridor from Portsmouth through Columbus to Toledo, and into Michigan. Since High Priority Corridor Five was created , Ohio has really done nothing to move forward with Interstate 73. Sure, there have been feasibility studies here and there. But actual dollars and construction just haven't occurred. The US 33 Nelsonville Bypass appears to have been built to Interstate standards. However, Ohio has been slowly upgrading US 33 to a full freeway through Southeastern Ohio. Bypasses of Lancaster and Nelsonville opened in 2004 and 2013, respectively. Other sections of two-lane road are being twinned, some to freeway or, at a minimum, to expressway standards. Currently, a $274 million widening project in...

Local Sign Find - The last remnant of Business Interstate 95 between Kenly and Rocky Mount , NC

As you head north on Interstate 95 at Exit 107 for Kenly and US 301, you'll notice something odd about the overhead sign for the exit. Peeling off the sign for all that can see is the word 'NORTH' off-center from the US 301. This old sign (probably close to original from when this section of I-95 opened - more on that in a little bit) gives a hint to a short-lived Business Interstate Route that ran from here to Rocky Mount. The last hint of the Kenly-Wilson-Rocky Mount Business I-95 (Shaun White - August 2020) Interstate 95 in North Carolina has a unique history. But one of the overlooked and forgotten pieces of Interstate 95 in North Carolina is the 38 mile section between Kenly and Rocky Mount. When opened to traffic in late 1978, it was the next to last piece of Interstate 95 in North Carolina to open replacing a four lane US 301 from Battleboro through Rocky Mount and Wilson to eventually tying back into the Interstate in Kenly. Though it was not delayed in l...

Nostalgia fast food with style - Returning to Rax

Nostalgia. It sells. It evokes, and more accurately, warps memories of days gone by. Things were better, simpler, and we eat it up. Nostalgia can make you drive three hours and over a hundred miles out of your way just to reconnect with a dying fast-food restaurant you last enjoyed in the early to mid-90s. That person was me - that restaurant was Rax. I could go on about Rax's history, but in short, Rax was briefly a very popular roast beef fast-food chain. Growing up in the 80s and early 90s in Western PA, Rax was the good fast-food spot. The milkshakes. (Personally, the chocolate chip milkshake was heaven.) Uncle Alligator Kids Meal with the chocolate chip cookie. Take that McDonald's Happy Meal! The fancy salad and hot foods bar. Going to Rax was special. Like so many similar restaurants, various investments, management decisions, etc., led Rax to almost disappear overnight. By the time I graduated college in late 1999, abou...

Gribblenation

Search This Blog