December 28, 2009: An unfocused view of I-515 from what is currently the end of I-215 in southeast Las Vegas. This was near the north end of my first travel on US 93, from Las Vegas to its south end in Wickenburg, Arizona. (I wasn’t driving, phew!) However, the Hoover Dam bypass opened after I was there, “de-clinching” the route for me in Arizona. I still have my clinch of I-515 though, my only such route in Nevada.
Austin, Texas, Jan. 24 — The first order of business on this gray day was to get an actual car. The Nissan Altima had less than 1000 miles on it and a “push-button” start.
I spent the short trip to the LBJ Museum getting used to the car and finding a fatal flaw in the GPS — it and frontage roads in Texas do not get along. It said “Keep right onto I-35 South” when I was supposed to take a right onto the I-35 frontage road NORTH a short distance before merging. This happened in both directions with the frontage roads, and would happen later as well.
It hadn’t started raining yet, but the clouds looked mean as I walked to Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium and found a huge addition to the north end zone that wasn’t there when I visited in 2005. It even has a food court. In its own way, it’s a physical manifestation of the expression “We’re Texas, and you’re not.”
What you don’t see: A giant inside view of the floors and floors of presidential documents. Plus, an animatronic re-creation of Lyndon himself.
I spent the rest of the morning inside the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum. The outside is a stark light-colored building every inch its 1968 vintage. The inside was good and informative, encompassing LBJ’s whole life. The Oval Office replica and Lady Bird’s office are at the top. James Naismith’s original rules for “Basket Ball”, written up 120 years ago, were on display in a special exhibit.
I drove to Fran’s Hamburgers on Congress south of the Capitol after seeing it mentioned on a link someone sent me. It was good, but not $8.50 good.
Back north to the Texas State History Museum. Parking was $8. I decided that I would not be going anywhere in the time between museum close and the basketball game.
Photography was prohibited, which was a shame, because there was a lot of good stuff encompassing the entire history of Texas. The 20-minute film has a couple of surprises in it. I also watched the IMAX film “Tornado Alley,” which perhaps I shouldn’t have done because this was the same one in Iowa a while ago. I thought it was fine, and the closest I ever want to be to a tornado. I wrote this as I was sitting in an out-of-season overnight tornado watch, which is scary in its own way.
Two hours to kill. I walked to McDonald’s for some food, then the other way to the Erwin Center. I actually ran into some Iowa State fans! I got a cheap ticket and watched the crowd trickle in. It was just a trickle until right up to game time, and even then the arena may have ended up half full.
It turned out to be a good thing this game was on the Longhorn Network. You’d have better luck finding a Husker who didn’t hate Dan Beebe than a subscriber to LHN.
Cy gets chased by a herd of Longhorns at halftime.
Iowa State got off to a good start and then fell asleep. Royce White not only airballed two free throws and a three-pointer late in the second half, but the second free throw stopped close enough for him to catch it. It was a dreadful outing by both teams. There was no way this team could be competitive against Kansas or Kansas State. (Cue ominous foreshadowing gong.)
May 9, 2007: End of MN 92 southwest of Bemidji and the Headwaters of the Mississippi. Lots of forested area.
Like IA 92, MN 200 is part of a route that crosses multiple states with the same number.
Or: In which I find I am the only person in America without a smartphone
Or: I am NOT tooling around south-central Texas in a minivan!
Austin, Texas, Jan. 23 — I wanted to be sure I had plenty of time to get to the Omaha airport, with the bad weather conditions of the morning. It was a good thing I did. I counted six vehicles in the ditch and two in shoulders before I got to the US 169 exit. Then, near the Adair rest area, another car, a commercial van on its side, and a semi north of the westbound lanes facing east!
In part because I had yet to see it after construction, I took I-80 into Nebraska and I-480 around, doubling back to the Wendy’s just inside the Iowa border. There I was in for a shock with a $1.69 junior bacon cheeseburger!
The GPS directed me to the 14th Street exit for the airport instead of Dodge, which was surprising, but I wasn’t listening anyway. This would be a recurring theme.
I was flying Southwest out of Omaha because I saved $50 for not paying a baggage fee, and tickets were cheaper in general. Plus, this way, my stop in Phoenix would be “blizzard insurance” should winter weather strike Omaha in a week. (It wouldn’t.)
The plane took off into Iowa and the last thing I saw before the plane disappeared above the clouds were the I-680 bridges.
After landing in Phoenix, I had to switch terminals. Although it was a short layover, I appreciated Southwest’s plug outlets at multiple places.
About two hours in Mountain Time, but not my shortest ever in that time zone.
Arrival in Austin was shortly before 9. The instant after wheels down, people fired up their phones. Every single one of them was an iPhone or Android. Not even a BlackBerry to be seen.
There were five people ahead of me at the Hertz counter. When I checked in, there were no full-size cars left, despite my reservation from October. “You can have a Camaro for $10 more a day, or you can have a minivan or Traverse.” I was not pleased. When he said I could trade it in the next day, I felt better. Fortunately, I had already arranged to be in a hotel nearby.
July 19, 2005: Near the IA 160 exit in Ankeny. I had to get creative on this number. I have plenty of mileage signs that say 87, oddly enough.
Phoenix, Arizona — The blog has been silent aside from the “by the numbers” posts because I’ve been in Texas for a week. I decided that I would rather post polished entries with pictures, which I wasn’t particularly interested in doing while ON the trip.
One of these trips, I will be more like George Clooney’s character in “Up in the Air” and smoothly navigate aiport entry and exit with little pause and not bogged down with everything. This was not that trip. (Tip: Once inside the airport, pack the winter coat.)
May 28, 2006: West end of MN 16, where old US 16 diverges from the interstate route. The interstate angles northeastward to get closer to Rochester before La Crosse.
Minnesota and Wisconsin keep state names on their shields, but other Midwestern states don’t.
I have been on I-90 from US 83 in central South Dakota through to Albany, New York, except for the segment through Cleveland, and segments in western South Dakota and eastern Wyoming — about 60% of the route.
December 27, 2009: Just south of I-40, at the Flagstaff airport, former Alt US 89 merges with I-17. US 89 south of Flagstaff was decommissioned 20 years ago, even though the route through Prescott is far enough away from I-17 that there’s no reason it couldn’t have continued to exist.
Notice the three-digit width for the shield and the abstract representation of the Arizona state shape. Notice also the state name on the interstate shields.
This date has been used before, but photos at this interchange are the only 89 shields I have in the country.
September 1, 2009: US 30 (but not the Lincoln Highway) meets I-88 southeast of Rock Falls, Illinois. Lots of Clearview on Illinois interstates now, both toll and free. “Moline-Rock Island” is one hyphenated control city combo among many in Illinois, including “La Salle-Peru,” “Champaign-Urbana,” and “Bloomington-Normal.”
March 19, 2007: South end of WI 87, nearly within shouting distance of the Minnesota state line in St. Croix Falls.
This date has been used before, but again, my options were limited.
