Great Lakes Road Trip Day 5 Part 2; the long road to Houghton

Houghton is about 204 miles from Newberry across the Upper Peninsula on a series of state trunklines and US Routes that never exceed 55 MPH speed limits. I did manage to find some stuff worth looking into along the way starting about 12-13 miles west of Newberry on M-28 in McMillan. McMillan much like Ozark and Allenville I mentioned previously was a railroad town, in this case the Dulth, South Shore, and Atlantic Railroad. As I understand the story McMillan was settled in 1881 and was likely a fairly large place at the turn of the 20th century. While there is homes and people in McMillan most of buildings where people would have worked are long abandoned. I found some interesting buildings on Wetmore Street with an abandoned utilities building and a former Luce County Road Maintenance facility.

Really its just my opinion but M-28 from I-75 west to Marquette ought to be a 65 MPH speed limit zone. Really there is close to nothing in terms of civilization between those two points and M-28 is mowed back far enough to see wildlife coming for the roadway. Most people were completely disregarding the 55 MPH speed limit and the Michigan State Police who were patrolling didn't seem interested in enforcing it.

US 41 meets M-28 south of Marquette and both enter the city but bypass downtown the south. Marquette has a population of about 21,000 the last I checked and is the largest city in the Upper Peninsula. I wasn't interested in taking a modern bypass route so I took the original alignment of M-28/US 41 through downtown on Front Street and Washington Street. I was under the impression the old route was signed as a business loop but didn't see any signage.

Far to the west of Marquette M-28 splits off on US 141 to continue west while US 41 continues northbound towards Houghton. I stopped at the terminus of US 141 to get a quick photo.

In L'Anse US 41 follows the south shore of Keweenaw Bay while is southern edge of the Keweenaw Peninsula and the Michigan Copper County. Houghton was only a short drive north on US 41 from here.

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Deer Isle Bridge in Maine

As graceful a bridge that I ever set my eyes upon, the Deer Isle Bridge (officially known as the Deer Isle-Sedgwick Bridge) surprisingly caught my eye as I was driving around coastal Maine one Saturday afternoon. About 35 miles south of Bangor, Maine , the Deer Isle Bridge connects the Blue Hill Peninsula of Downeast Maine with Little Deer Isle over the Eggemoggin Reach on ME 15 between the towns of Sedgwick and Deer Isle . It should be noted that Little Deer Isle is connected to Deer Isle by way of a boulder lined causeway, and there is a storied regatta that takes place on the Eggemoggin Reach each summer. But the Deer Isle Bridge holds many stories, not just for the vacationers who spend part of their summer on Deer Isle or in nearby Stonington , but for the residents throughout the years and the folks who have had a hand bringing this vital link to life. The Deer Isle Bridge was designed by David Steinman and built by the Phoenix Bridge Company of Phoenixville,

Former US Route 99 through Athlone and the last Wheeler Ridge-Sacramento corridor expressway

Athlone was a siding of the Southern Pacific Railroad located in Merced County on the alignment of what was US Route 99 between the cities of Chowchilla and Merced. The Athlone corridor of US Route 99 was one of the first in San Joaquin Valley to fully upgraded to four lane expressway standards. The Athlone expressway corridor was inherited by California State Route 99 when US Route 99 was truncated to Ashland, Oregon during June 1965. The four-lane expressway through Athlone was the last segment of what had been US Route 99 in the Wheeler Ridge-Sacramento corridor to be bypassed by a freeway. The Athlone expressway corridor was bypassed by the modern California State Route 99 freeway in 2016. Despite being put on a road diet and narrowed what was the Athlone expressway corridor still displays evidence of being part of US Route 99. Above the blog cover photo displays the Athlone expressway corridor of US Route 99 south of Merced as depicted in the July 1939 California Highways &

California State Route 38

California State Route 38 is a fifty-nine-mile State Highway located entirety in San Bernardino County and a component of the Rim of the World Highway. California State Route 38 begins at California State Route 18 at Bear Valley Dam of the San Bernardino Mountains and follows an easterly course on the north shore of Big Bear Lake. California State Route 38 briefly multiplexes California State Route 18 near Baldwin Lake and branches east towards the 8,443-foot-high Onyx Summit. From Onyx Summit the routing of California State Route 38 reverses course following a largely westward path through the San Bernardino Mountains towards a terminus at Interstate 10 in Redlands. Pictured as the blog cover is California State Route 38 at Onyx Summit the day it opened to traffic on August 12th, 1961. Part 1; the history of California State Route 38 California State Route 38 (CA 38) is generally considered to be the back way through the San Bernardino Mountains to Big Bear Lake of Bear Valley

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