Gribblenation

There's a new state highway designation in West Virginia, WV 817 . It will replace a former alignment of US 35 as it moves to a new four lane alignment from I-64 in St. Albans to the Ohio River near Point Pleasant. HT: Jennings Starcher. I've also been updating the West Virginia Pages at gribblenation. I've added five photos of my own in my sign gallery . Added three photos to the submitted photos gallery . Thanks to Dan Garnell and Pete Zapadka. WV State Highway Ends includes photos from: WV 12, 16, 31 and 72. Photos from Jeff Turner, Brian Powell, Mike Roberson, and myself. I'm still working on more West Virginia Updates - Including updates for Corridor H, A history of Corridor L (US 19), and information on the King Coal, Tolsia, and Coalfields Highways.

Well the other day, I blogged about how Interstate 485 won't open on Halloween. How about New Year's Eve . Why I am not surprised.

Last Sunday was a great Autumn afternoon, here in Central North Carolina. So I took a small road trip into Granville, Person and Caswell Counties. I also got into Virginia a little bit as well. Route: NC 50, NC 56, I-85, US 15, US 58, VA/NC 49, NC 57, NC/VA 119, US 58/360, VA/NC 62, I-40, I-540. This zig-zag trip picked up some new miles in North Carolina (NC 49, NC 119, NC 62) and Virginia (VA 49 and 119). Over 60 photos on flickr . My first stop was a small town on US 15 north of Oxford...called Stovall. That's the rail sign for Stovall on the abandoned (not sure which line) tracks through town. There are a number of small churches in Stovall...and this one is across the street from the Stovall United Methodist Church...but there's nothing to say what it is. Anyone know? In Virginia, I grabbed the small piece of the US 58 Clarksville Bypass that I hadn't been on. It's 60 mph...but the section west of US 15 does have two at grade intersections. But s...

Don't say I didn't tell ya so . But the recent cold and rainy weather in and around Charlotte has delayed the opening of Interstate 485 . An updated opening date has not been announced. Hey, after 18 months behind schedule...what's another few days...(or weeks).

AASHTO SCOH has posted their responses from their October meeting of the Special Committee on U.S, Route Numbering in Hartford on a single Word document, link below. They have not yet posted the documents with specific responses to each application, however. Hopefully these will be posted soon so a better understanding for the decisions can be deciphered. For NC, the results are mixed. They approved the applications for I-440 (dropping it from the I-40 portion of the Beltline) and the application for the US 17 Windsor Bypass. They approved the I-540 and I-140 applications though conditionally, citing the need for a revised application for both, requesting that I-540 be marked Future and possibly a spur (?) and I-140 be revised to designate that route a spur(?). They conditionally approved the I-73 application but also want the application resubmitted to have the route designated Future I-73 'since it is not complete.' They again disapproved the US 117 move back to its original...

I'm on holiday this week; and since I have no $, it's a stay-at-home holiday. That's fine. It gives me time to do things. Like UPD*TING my new IPOD with all sorts of spiffy music; uploading the snaps from the latest show, housecleaning(better than the usual weekly sweep and swab) and posting road snaps on Gribblenation . Yes, friends, I'm back in the fray-the 'competition' is afoot and all that. I had to step back from it for a bit, mostly to assess my situation: I've decided to be as active as possible in the music end of things; going to and photographing as many shows as I can.That's been working out pretty well for me: translating into tangible benefits, I just love going to shows, anyway. However, even with the addition of videos, posting show photography takes up very little time-I have like maybe a 2 day turnaround on that; even with my average of 500 photos per show. I've been doing some editing on Open Street Map , reading and suchlike; but ...

Bridges BBQ - Shelby, NC Originally uploaded by Adam's Journey This past spring on a small early Sunday roadtrip around Gaston County, NC , Steven Duckworth and I stopped at Bridges BBQ on US 74 in Shelby. We stopped to take photos just as the restaurant was opening. The owners of the restaurant invited us in and gave us a tour of how they make their famous bbq. And of course, I took photos. Well the photo you see above from inside Bridges kitchen has been published on a small write up of the restaurant in Trazzler.com .

On Saturday, October 11th, I had the opportunity to tour the SmartFix40 construction site in Knoxville, TN. The tour was arranged by Billy Riddle and HB Elkins as part of the Fall 2008 Knoxville Road Meet. For all 53 photos from the tour of the project, I have a flickr set (surprised?). The group was able to tour the entire construction site and it was certainly an unbelievable project to see up close and personal. The SmartFix40 project began May 1st and is scheduled to be completed on June 30, 2009. A little over one mile of I-40 in the heart of Knoxville has been completely shut down, as TDOT rebuilds from the ground up the over 40-year-old freeway.     In the photo above, I am looking Eastbound towards I-40 (far left). I am standing on the onramp to I-40 East from James White Parkway. The ramp on the far right is the onramp to I-40 East from Hall of Fame Drive. The entire I-40/James White Parkway interchange has been redesigned and completely rebuilt to modern sa...

We've been waiting for oh...over a year and a half now ...but there's light at the end of the I-485 Construction Tunnel! Yes, the infamous, Charlotte construction project is almost done and ready for traffic. I-485 from NC 16 to I-77/NC 115 in Huntersville might open by the end of this month! Yes, I said that the next segment of I-485 (NC 16 to I-77/NC 115 in Huntersville) could possibly open by the end of the month. I was so shocked I had to type it twice...just to believe it. The contractor has a target date of opening of Halloween (October 31st) for completion of the often delayed, often bungled 5.5 miles of highway. Of course if it decides to rain a bit over the next few weeks...that could be pushed back. (Not like we haven't seen that before .) News Stories: I-485 closer to completion ---News 14 Carolina (Includes video) Another stretch of I-485 close to completion ---Charlotte Observer Commentary: Well, RickMastFan67 picked November 1st . So if it opens the 31s...

I took a trip back to the completely open I-74/US 74 freeway to check out the westbound side, which was closed before, and to see what they had done to solve the exit number problem. I approached the new freeway via I-95. The new Exit 13 signs start out 2 miles in advance. They have completely demolished the former US 74 (Exit 14) ramps as you can see just before the ramps for the new exit begin. The closeness of the 2 ramps shows why they could not keep the old ramp in service... The ramps lead to, depending on your point of view, some of the most unique or most confusing BGSs ever to appear on an interstate. Here are photos from both north and south off ramps... These are taken from the C/D ramps heading southbound on I-95, the only destination I-74 currently goes to is Laurinburg. I took the eastbound ramp to see how close to completion the freeway was east of I-95. Coming back, I did a quick 180 to show the signs from the C/D ramps going northbound for those who may be coming to in...

I originally wanted to do a daytrip today, but decided to do some much needed web work. Obviously, part of it was starting the Carolina Crossroads project. One small update I did was with the help of Adam Moss. Adam is relatively new to the hobby, and a lot of his work has been done on Wikipedia. He's from New Jersey, but lives close enough to Northeastern PA to be a great asset there. And that's what he did. Since I am so behind on updates, I suggested that he create pages for the PA Decommissioned Routes pages. So Adam put together pages for PA 945 and PA 962 . Meanwhile, I am starting on West Virginia updates. hopefully, i'll get to Pennsylvania by the end of the year. Thanks again to Adam for putting together the pages, and also Jeff Kitsko for the map scans.

I am very proud to share with everyone my latest webproject, Carolina Crossroads and Small Towns . This is a project that I have at times rambled about in this blog and also numerous times to my friends. It's a project that I have enjoyed getting together, and hopefully will update with new entries once or twice a week. I definitely have enough material, and instead of waiting who knows how long between updates to add new material, incorporating the project into a blog will make adding new material much faster and won't hit the never ending backlog. So take a look and enjoy...and come back often if you would. --Adam

As I mentioned in yesterday's entry, this past Sunday, Kristy and I went hiking at Hanging Rock State Park. I've been wanting to check out the park for sometime, and it is also in a part of North Carolina that I haven't had a chance to really see. Route: I-540, I-40, NC 68, NC 65, US 311, NC 89, NC 268, US 52, I-40, I-540. If you were looking for road photos, you're out of luck on this post. The entire flickr set (over 135 photos) is here . Hanging Rock State Park has over 18 miles of hiking trails, numerous rock outcroppings and scenic view, and at least five waterfalls. Our first hike was along the Indian Creek Trail to check out Hidden and Window Falls. The Indian Creek Trail is also part of the statewide Mountains-To-Sea Trail which is currently under development. When completed, the Mountains-to-Seat Trail will run nearly 1,000 miles from Clingman's Dome in the Mountains to Jockey's Ridge State Park along the Outer Banks. Hidden Falls: To ...