Gribblenation

Pittsboro, like the rest of Chatham County, is growing.  As a result, heavier truck traffic along US 15/501 through Downtown Pittsboro has led local leadership to ask NCDOT to move US 15/501 as the North/South route through downtown.   Instead, US 15/501 will be routed along NC 87 North and west of Downtown Pittsboro to the US 64 Bypass.  At the Bypass, 15/501 will head briefly east on US 64 to pick up 15/501's regular route North towards Chapel Hill and Durham. But this is just temporary.  Just east of Downtown Pittsboro, the Chatham Parkway is being completed.  When that road is finished, US 15/501 will move to the new road and serve as an eastern bypass for North/South traffic around Pittsboro. NC 902 has been truncated slightly to end at NC 87.  There is no change to Business US 64, as that will continue to travel through Downtown Pittsboro along West and East Streets. NCDOT has now signed the changes around Pittsboro.  Tracy Snead, a friend o...

Prior to COVID, my family and I would go to the North Carolina Zoo pretty much every month or so.  One of the time-consuming parts of the drive was the traffic lights and traffic on Dixie Drive (US 64) in Asheboro, which would easily add a few extra minutes and near misses to our drive. This would all change on December 18, 2020, when a new 14.4-mile freeway carrying US 64 and bypassing Dixie Drive to the south opened.  The Asheboro Bypass, decades in the making, and the 1.7-mile Zoo Connector will make traffic to the Zoo and also through and around Asheboro better. On December 22nd, on an unrelated trip, I was able to travel the new bypass and take a number of photos.  All of the photos are going west on US 64.  For my entire flickr set, head here . Approaching the eastern terminus of the Asheboro Bypass.  What is interesting is that the old route - now Business US 64 - continues straight while the bypass loops around and over the highway.   The overp...

Another example of a planned but never published item from the old website.  This time it is the second day of my 2007 New Mexico Vacation.  A loop that took me north from Albuquerque into some spectacular scenery and ultimately one of my favorite fall drives of all time. Route: I-25, US 550, NM 4, NM 502, US 84, NM/CO 17, US 285, US 64, NM 68, US 84/285, NM 599, I-25, I-40. For my entire set on flickr - head here . Little did I realize when I booked this vacation that the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta would be taking place while I was in town.  When in Albuquerque everyone would ask me, "If I was in town for the Fiesta?" which I wasn't, but obviously glad I was.   On the morning of this trip, hot air balloons filled the sky and made the Big I and Interstate 25 a little more interesting. After exiting Interstate 25 at US 550 in Bernalillo, I picked up New Mexico 4 in San Ysidro.  Nearly all of NM 4 is part of the Jemez Mountain Tr...

Traveling west from Taos, New Mexico on US 64, you will reach the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge, which is the second highest bridge on the U.S. Highway System. Located 10 miles west of Taos in El Prado, New Mexico, the bridge crosses the deep gorge of the Rio Grande is the only major rift across an otherwise flat expanse of land between the mountains of the Carson National Forest and the Sangre de Cristos. This impressive bridge is a three span steel truss bridge. At one time, the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge was called the “bridge to nowhere”, because while it was being built, funding did not exist to continue the road on the other side of the bridge from Taos. At 650 feet above the historic and scenic Rio Grande, it is the fifth highest bridge in the United States. The bridge is 1280 feet long with two 300 foot long approach spans with a 600 foot long main span. The bridge was dedicated on September 10, 1965, and in 1966, the American Institute of Steel Construction awarded the b...