Category Archives: Trip Reports

Apr 27

Great Plains Trip Day 4

August 5, 2016: View of I-80/US 30 from the Wyoming Welcome Center, the highest point on the interstate. Kimball, Nebraska — From a college football stadium to a tri-state corner, this day had a little bit of everything. The first … Continue reading

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Apr 26

Great Plains Trip Day 3

August 4, 2016: Pioneers literally wore down the stone here. Oregon Trail ruts, Guernsey, Wyoming. Laramie, Wyoming — This would be my first entry into Wyoming in nearly 16 years. But first, some auto work. After that, I stopped at Rebecca … Continue reading

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Apr 25

Great Plains Trip Day 2

August 3, 2016: Entrance to Scotts Bluff National Monument via old NE 92. NE 92 used to end much farther east, at NE 61 in Arthur County, but then was extended across the state and joined WY 92. Scottsbluff, Nebraska — … Continue reading

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Apr 24

Great Plains Trip Day 1

August 2, 2016: The Golden Spike Monument in Council Bluffs marks the east end of the Transcontinental Railroad, as designated by Abraham Lincoln himself. However, the first rail bridge to Omaha didn’t open until March 1872. Broken Bow, Nebraska — … Continue reading

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Apr 14

The thought process of a roadgeek

“Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself, I am large, I contain multitudes.” — Walt Whitman My sister remembered I wanted to see her in Colorado! That’s good! But I have to do it by Memorial Day. That’s less good. Clinching US 34 is … Continue reading

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Mar 20

947. Palmer

March 20, 2003: A Fort Dodge Messenger newsrack in Palmer announces the beginning of U.S. military action in Iraq. Fourteen years and five ISU men’s basketball coaches ago, I took my first solo multi-day trip to photograph Iowa highways. Palmer … Continue reading

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Dec 30

The Final Countdown: 1. Klemme

October 4, 2016: The sign on US 69 at old IA 179, Main Street into Klemme. County Road B55 is a quarter-mile north. Compared to nearly all the rest of my final 50 towns or so, Klemme’s population of 507 … Continue reading

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Dec 28

The Final Countdown: 2. Curlew

October 3, 2016: The Curlew Cannon ranks up with the Coin Overpass in my observations of Iowans’ modest humor. You can see the regularity of railroad stops along the diagonal from the junction west of Fort Dodge: Clare, Pioneer, Gilmore … Continue reading

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Dec 27

The Final Countdown: 3. Greenville

October 3, 2016: The remnants of a baseball diamond on the east end of Greenville, possibly just south of where the school was. I just missed Greenville, pop. 74, on my spring break 2003 trip, the one that I have … Continue reading

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Dec 21

The Final Countdown: 4. Archer

October 3, 2016: Archer, like MANY other hamlets in Iowa, owes its existence to the railroad, but the rails were pulled up when a Cherokee-Sioux Falls line was abandoned in the mid-1980s. Archer, pop. 131, is five miles from US 18 … Continue reading

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