While radio channel-surfing Memorial Day night, one of the first songs I heard on three different stations in half an hour — KOEL 98.5, KXIA 101.1, and WMT-FM KKSY 96.5 — was Jason Aldean’s “Flyover States.”
I think this means it’s getting enough play, and/or the song is popular in a flyover state.
NOTE 1. Really weird to think of 96.5 as a country station. Or not WMT-FM.
NOTE 2. As for the adult contemporary stations, it does not have to be a REAL GOOD LIFE every 15 minutes.
Rand McNally has been suffering from a form of “Christmas creep” over the past decade. Before a trip to Washington DC in August 2009, I already had the 2010 atlas. Now, before the summer of 2012 has officially started, the 2013 atlas is already over a month old. As such, it won’t even show projects completed in 2012!
One thing added to recent atlases was signage of the Lewis and Clark Trail, the Lincoln Highway, and US 66. However, in this case, something might be worse than nothing. Two US 66 markers in Illinois, for example, are placed directly on I-55 when the old road is clearly marked beside the interstate as a gray line.
In some cases, the roads that make up the actual route are not included. In other cases, the markers are simply wrong. A US 66 marker erroneously placed in northeastern Oklahoma still appears in early 2013 printings despite attempts to correct it.
Iowa, unfortunately, fares no better. Here are the markers in or near Iowa in the 2012 atlas and their degree of accuracy when compared to the recent signing of the route in the state:
So, of the ten Lincoln Highway markers visible on at least one state map near or in Iowa, five are on the right road, two are on the wrong road when the correct one is visible on the RMcN map, two should be on paved roads that aren’t drawn in, and one is supposed to be on a gravel routing.
That’s only a 50% total-success rating on only a fraction of the route, and 80% on a “benefit of the doubt” standard (using only roads visible on the map). While any serious traveler of the Lincoln Highway or US 66 can and should find much more detailed guides, the Rand McNally markers have difficulty passing even a cursory survey.
Pat Forde takes another jab at Ames, this time in the form of a “letter” from West Virginia’s president.
I know many of you fans enjoyed the proximity of the Backyard Brawl relationship with Pitt and the manageable drives to Cincinnati and Louisville for games — but really, who doesn’t have Ames, Stillwater and Lubbock on their college-town Bucket List?
Better or worse than Oklahoma message board posters flat out calling Iowa State “dead weight” in the Big 12 and/or suggesting kicking ISU out? Probably better but that’s obviously not saying much.
UPDATE/EDIT: Yahoo sports writers round up the usual suspects.
Some FSU folks seem almost giddy when pointing out that the Seminoles could play Oklahoma and Texas each season if the school moves. Those would be good games, no doubt. But what about heading to Lubbock? Stillwater? Ames? Lawrence? Manhattan?
Specifically, basketball and volleyball.
(That ISU volleyball would be discussed positively is a huge turnaround from a decade ago.)
That is all.
Because IA 86 north of IA 9 wasn’t state-maintained until 1980, it has a lot of characteristics of a county road, including a lack of shoulders. The road was taken by the state as its importance as a connector to I-90 grew.
Next year the DOT plans to shut down and rebuild the whole road north of IA 9. The Spencer Daily Reporter notes that this will include leaving some of the old road behind to create a straighter connection to Minnesota.
Real, tangible evidence of progress (2011 USDA aerials via Iowa Ortho Server)
Decades in the planning, it’s almost here — parts of it anyway. The final relocation of US 20 (but not the final four-lane paving) is on schedule. The five-year plan is down to the customary last two entries of any such project: pavement rehab and erosion control in 2013. That means that if everything goes well, all of new 20 may be open either by the end of this year or the end of next year. The official plan is to get the part east of County Road N14/extended IA 196 open this fall. There will be an interchange there.
“Pavement rehab” is generally repaving the old alignment the year after the new one opens, taking traffic off the route and enabling the turnover of the road to the county — in this case, old 20 west of IA 4. (Sac, Calhoun, and Webster counties all had to agree to take the old road before the new would be built. No two-decade-old IA 920 here.) Related to that: IA 196 will have about a mile around the current 20 intersection paved in 2014.
The four-lane gap will then be closed from the west. A two-step process will upgrade the road between Moville and Correctionville, with grading in 2014 and 2017 and some paving in 2016 (and then, presumably, 2018, to finish the job). The highway in Correctionville, around the intersection with IA 31, will be upgraded to a five-lane configuration. That will leave the 32 miles between Correctionville and Early.
There are two major projects planned in eastern Iowa on US 20, too: An interchange in Dyersville just west of the Delaware/Dubuque county line with a relocated X49 in 2015, and an interchange with Seippel Road southwest of Dubuque. The latter is interesting because Seippel Road didn’t even intersect US 20 until the 1990s, and there is nothing there right now. However, the Menards to the northeast is the first stoplight on 20 east of Sac City (soon, the first stoplight on 20 since O’Neill NE, period) and Olde Highway Road, the pre-1950s route of 20 that goes to Centralia, intersects in such a way that an interchange there is not feasible.
The North Tama school district is tied for fifth-highest enrollment in grades 9-11 in the new class structure laid out by the IGHSAU effective with softball season. This is a good thing, because it means less competition against larger schools.
The complete list is here (PDF). Notice that the numbers validate what I said earlier: The five-class structure wouldn’t have needed to happen if Valley had split up a decade ago and Des Moines redrew its boundaries; Hoover is now the largest 4A school and North the smallest 5A. The average for the five Des Moines schools is 1245, slightly on the high end of the 5A lineup. Even so, Valley has 324 students more than No. 2 Des Moines Lincoln — which in itself would be the tenth-largest 3A school, right above Humboldt and South Tama.
While the Pac-10 was ready to swallow the Big 12 South minus Baylor plus Colorado, it was as far “west” as its expansion targets allowed. Even then, when the state of Arizona was in Pacific Time, there would have only been Colorado playing Mountain Time games (remember, no Utah in this version).
This time around, if the Big 12 is stable, the West Coast is boxed in.
Draw one line of up and down Wyoming’s western border through the angle in Arizona’s southern border (about 111°W), and then another one through the geographical center of the Lower 48 (98°35’W). (In reality, the University of Arizona is a little east of the west line, but this provides easily spotted reference points.)
Within that expanse are two BCS conference schools: Colorado and Texas Tech. There is literally no university left in the western half of the country for the Pac-12 to take — that the Pac-12 would want. You can imagine that Stanford would be the first and loudest “NO” against Boise State, and Cal — the University of California at Berkeley — would rather go on a diet of deep-fried butter before associating with BYU. (Ed: What about Hawaii? OK, you got me there. But does anyone want a Pac-13?)
No matter who, if anyone, the Big 12 adds, the plane rides will be longer. However, that situation pales when compared to the Pac-12’s geographical predicament.
Today the North Tama Class of 2012 graduates. They were kindergartners when I was a senior, so they were the last students I shared the school with. The Class of 2019, just finishing fifth grade, was born after I graduated.
Where did I put my Metamucil?
P.S. There is nothing that makes you feel older faster than seeing a new addition to the school.
P.P.S. Possible exception: Seeing your school building closed. Lots of Iowa students get that instead.
