{"id":4631,"date":"2014-03-12T11:00:52","date_gmt":"2014-03-12T16:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/?p=4631"},"modified":"2014-03-09T14:13:32","modified_gmt":"2014-03-09T19:13:32","slug":"lower-midwest-trip-day-9","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/2014\/03\/lower-midwest-trip-day-9\/","title":{"rendered":"Lower Midwest Trip Day 9"},"content":{"rendered":"

Toledo, Ohio, Oct. 4 \u2014<\/strong> I drove in downtown Detroit, and around Detroit, and survived, clinching the entire portion of I-94 east of the Missouri River* along the way.<\/p>\n

Route: I-280, I-75, M-39, I-94, I-75, I-375, (loop Woodward to Michigan-Cass and downtown), M-10, I-75, I-94, BL 94, I-94, I-696, I-275, I-75 to x199 and turn around, I-475, I-75, US 20, OH 420, I-280<\/p>\n

I-75 was six lanes all the way, some parts in better condition than others, and early rain cleared up halfway between Toledo and Detroit. I hopped off the interstate only to cut to I-94 and take that to close to downtown, then looped into downtown. Cadillac Square at noon was bustling, but I made it through. I-375 ends as the freeway turns southwestward into a boulevard, only for the boulevard to re-emerge as a freeway heading northwest. There was no Spur I-375 signage.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nMichigan attempted to conserve space on this sign by putting two cities on one line, but there needs to be a hyphen in there or something. This is on M-39.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nGraphical BGS leaving downtown Detroit.<\/em><\/p>\n

The drive to Port Huron was nice, mostly four lanes. Construction at the west I-69 interchange and AM radio said to tune to AM 1610 for info. A looping message said GPS users might not know that last exit before Canada is now a right turn. This matches new Google Maps. Indeed, there are national flags on the last BGSs before the Blue Water Bridge. Where before a fork to M-25 was the last US exit, now the last exit is much earlier on I-69\/94. However, the on-ramp remains still a short distance north of the freeway, so the business loops still double back.<\/p>\n

\"\"If you keep left, you will have no choice but to enter the land of poutine.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"OLYMPUS
\nInterestingly, this sign set at the intersection of the offramp from WB 69\/94 (the first US exit) and Hancock Street in Port Huron<\/a> directs “TO” the business loops, not the business loops themselves. However, the intersection of Hancock and Pine Grove (M-25), just to the east, signs BL 69\/94 as if they turned onto Hancock and then turned again here to rejoin the interstate.<\/em><\/p>\n

I came back down on BL 94 and took the interstate back to 11 Mile Road, where I-696 started. I-696 and I-275 form the “loop” around Detroit, and arguably the complex interchange at their meeting has I-696 go a bit west to end, but I followed the westbound-to-southbound mainline. I-696, despite its large amount of lanes, was moving quite rapidly.<\/p>\n

After I crossed the state line, button copy and sound walls returned. I went halfway to I-80 in order to close my I-75 gap in Toledo. There was some construction going on at the north 75\/475 interchange, and it needed it; 75 was a pretty rough road.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nHere, at the north beginning of I-280 from I-75, Ohio uses the word “Turnpike” instead of the Ohio Turnpike logo or I-80\/90 shields.<\/em><\/p>\n

Then I-475 co-signs with US 23 (which itself could be an interstate all the way to Ann Arbor), and both the pavement and the signage get markedly newer going south.<\/p>\n

New counties so far: 39 (2 IL, 10 IN, 11 KY, 2 MI<\/strong>, 13 OH, 1 PA)<\/p>\n

*If I had done this on the heels of my first Canada trip in May 2007, I could have said “I-94 in the Central Time Zone,” but Morton County has shifted completely over from Mountain to Central<\/a>, making North Dakota’s time zone map weirder in the process.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Toledo, Ohio, Oct. 4 \u2014 I drove in downtown Detroit, and around Detroit, and survived, clinching the entire portion of I-94 east of the Missouri River* along the way. Route: I-280, I-75, M-39, I-94, I-75, I-375, (loop Woodward to Michigan-Cass … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-trip-reports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4631"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4631\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4639,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4631\/revisions\/4639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}