December 27, 2009: North end of I-17 in Flagstaff, Arizona. I clinched I-17 twice in the first decade of the 21st century during trips for the Insight Bowl. I-40 doesn’t go to Los Angeles, but I-15 does and US 66 used to. AZ 89A connects to US 180 to the Grand Canyon in Flagstaff.
Albuquerque-Los Angeles is probably one of the farther-apart pairs of control cities on the interstate system. This is also the only way I’m going to get a mention of New Mexico in this photo collection.
August 9, 2007: North end of I-39 on the south side of Wausau, Wisconsin. The freeway continues northward as US 51 to Merrill and as an expressway all the way up to US 8. I clinched I-39 in 2009.
July 6, 2008: For a short time in 2000-01, this was the only state highway signed with an interstate. The shields are extra-large. This segment of IA 38 went straight from gravel to interstate in 1960.
August 8, 2010: This half-mile route running north from US 62 was my connecting route to touch Barry County, Missouri. I crossed the state line, turned around, and went to Pea Ridge National Military Park.
October 21, 2007: Cameron, Missouri, on US 36. This photo also serves as a 35/36 combination, south of the 34/35 in Osceola (although one number is a US route and the other is an interstate). Business 36 runs very close to the four-lane. Turn around to go back to I-35, and you’ll see the proposed future end of I-72. Why MoDOT would end I-72 at I-35 instead of I-29 is unknown, unless the prospect of grade separations and upgrades to interstate standards farther west are simply not feasible.
I updated the Iowa congressional history maps online soon after they were approved, but had to take some time tweaking the lists.
But now, the color-coded county-by-county chart of Iowa’s districts has been updated for the 2010s. The 5th District is gone. Counties in the north-central part of the state stayed in the 4th. The only county to stay in the numerically 3rd District is Polk, as that changes places completely from central to southwest Iowa. The southeast, historically in the 1st until the 1990s, remained in the 2nd. Some counties around Dubuque will still be in the 1st.
As what might be expected from losing a district, no county is in the same numbered district in the 2010s as it was in the 1990s, when long-time patterns were reworked after losing a district in the 1990 census.
One of the more notable trivia bits of this redistricting: For the first time in Iowa history, Black Hawk and Butler counties are separated. Chuck Grassley’s farm and the nearest large city will now have different U.S. representatives.
As another illustration of how much Iowa’s congressional power has diminished, counties in northwest Iowa that once were in the 10th and 11th Districts are now in the 4th — the highest-numbered district left.
December 25, 2001: Entering Texas on Christmas Day. But I-35 in Texas is long, containing nearly a third of its entire route. The visitors center where this was photographed is closer to downtown Kansas City than I-35’s south end in Laredo.
Yahoo Sports’ Pat Forde manages to be both an SEC apologist and Boise State booster at the same time, while slamming anyone who isn’t (bold below is italics in original):
People say Alabama had its shot? Well, Oklahoma State had its shot, too. All the Cowboys had to do was win their final two games and they were in the title game. Then they went to Ames and were shocked by 29-point underdog Iowa State.
That invoked a little-known BCS bylaw, rule 10.3.1.14, which reads thusly: Any team that loses to Iowa State is automatically ineligible to win the national title.
Alabama lost by three to the undisputed No. 1 team in the land. Oklahoma State lost to a Cyclones team that finished 6-6. There is no comparison.
That is the image the national media has of us. As we saw earlier this year, that image is fatal should the real Conferencepocalypse occur.
June 1, 2002: One of two Business US 34 shields on the route in Chariton. Despite being around for 50 years, Business 34 is nearly unmarked and unknown. Its official route uses IA 14 down to 34 instead of continuing on the old alignment east, but you wouldn’t know that by just looking.
This shield is also a throwback to the time business routes were marked in green either by the color of the shield itself or at least the tab.
