Nov 20

Decade milestone of the week (2)

Posted on Wednesday, November 20, 2019, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Columbia, Missouri, November 21, 2009 — It was entirely a whim. It turned out to be more meaningful than that.

I happened to have the Friday and Saturday the week before Thanksgiving off. Iowa State (6-5, 3-4), under new coach Paul Rhoads, was seeking its sixth seven-win season of the decade. Missouri (6-4, 2-4) was also seeking its seventh win and jockeying with ISU for bowl position.

After finding out Missouri was selling a four-pack in the south end zone for $96, it became a family affair. The game was not televised, so if we wanted to see it we’d have to be there in person. And, of course, Columbia is an easy drive from Traer.

On the way to Columbia for Mom to see the 1986 ISU-Missouri game, I apparently asked one too many times where we were. I was handed a map and told to follow Highway 63. A roadgeek was born. (It was Halloween weekend. I’ve been told we hit sorority row and made out like bandits. ISU then won the Telephone Trophy 37-14.)

The 2009 game was an early afternoon kickoff, allowing time to see campus beforehand, including MU’s famous columns.

The most memorable moment came in the stands, where a fan with a noisemaking device trumpeted the ISU first-down fanfare when appropriate. Security confiscated it despite a spirited “KEEP THE HORN! KEEP THE HORN!” from the entire ISU fanbase in the south end zone. (Eight months later, everyone would learn what a vuvuzela was.)

Iowa State led at halftime but was outscored 24-7 in the second half, for a final of 34-24. ISU finished 6-6. Missouri beat Kansas the following Saturday for its eighth regular-season win.

Tomorrow: The aftermath

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Nov 19

Decade milestone of the week (1)

Posted on Tuesday, November 19, 2019, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

November 18, 2009: Ten years ago, this baby came home. It is, by far, my longest-lived main Mac. In fact, it’s outpaced both the G4 tower and iBook combined. (I am very very hoping this blog post does not jinx it.)

For the most part — the overwhelmingly most part — it still does what I need it to do, even if in some cases mission-critical applications, and support for the computer itself, have been left behind. It’s only been the past couple years that I’ve had to shift some things to a newer laptop.

Going farther back, I should power up the tower and play Unreal Tournament again, just for fun.

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Nov 18

Toledo gets second grocery store

Posted on Monday, November 18, 2019, at 10:10 AM by Jeff

The former Pamida/Shopko store in Toledo has become a “Hy-Vee Dollar Fresh” grocery store — right across the street from Fareway.

The KCRG story says this is the fourth Dollar Fresh store. A quick Google check shows the other three are in Corning, Creston, and Osceola, and KICD reports that another one is coming to Emmetsburg, also in a former Shopko. The video above shows that the concept uses That Mid-2010s Shade of Green as a secondary color to Hy-Vee’s traditional red.

This is definitely a thing that makes me go “hmm.” Can the Tama-Toledo area support two grocery stores? (I’m more worried about Traer being able to hold on to one.)

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Nov 15

Iowa-Minnesota game preview

Posted on Friday, November 15, 2019, at 10:16 AM by Jeff

(I am glad ISU did not hire P.J. Fleck. At least, I think I think so.)

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Nov 14

Yes, we have no information

Posted on Thursday, November 14, 2019, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

The visitor information booth that was visible coming into the Iowa State University campus from the south on Elwood Drive University Boulevard has been demolished, according to this short blurb on the ISU website.

But the growth of mobile-friendly websites and widespread use of smartphone apps diminished the need for a helpful human in the information booth.

So, if you don’t have a smart phone, you can’t get any immediate information and you can’t get a parking pass (that now costs $5).

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Nov 13

North Tama volleyball’s turn in 2019 state tournament

Posted on Wednesday, November 13, 2019, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

For the second time in three years — and by extension, the second time ever — North Tama volleyball is in the state tournament.

The Redhawks will be playing a late quarterfinal tonight against Le Mars Gehlen, one of three private schools in the Class 1A tournament. In 2017, NT lost to Springville, which did not go on to win (Janesville did).

Gehlen is North Tama’s westernmost opponent in any sport ever, surpassing last Friday’s state football opponent, Woodbury Central. Those fans sure must be glad for a finished four-lane US 20 (so this is how I get this Sioux City Journal story linked!). I really have to give props to the IHSAA for protecting the top four seeds even if it didn’t stop the Redhawks from blowing a 17-point second-half lead at home. (Also, was the week of the first round of playoffs really the time to launch a website redesign, IHSAA? Especially since your last one nuked at least a decade of archives?)

Besides North Tama, there are five schools outside the biggest classes with football and volleyball teams in the final eight (* means those football teams made the semifinals):

  • Grundy Center*, FB A/VB 2A
  • West Liberty, FB 2A/VB 3A
  • Western Dubuque*, FB 3A/VB 4A
  • Sergeant Bluff-Luton*, FB 3A/VB 4A
  • North Scott, FB 3A/VB 4A

Five of the largest-class schools are in both (FB 4A/VB 5A): Ankeny, Cedar Falls, Dowling*, Valley*, and Waukee.

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Nov 12

Two diverging diamonds proposed for I-380

Posted on Tuesday, November 12, 2019, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

The plans for last week’s meeting about expanding I-380 to six lanes between US 30 and I-80 are online (south PDF, north PDF, handout). Stories: Gazette, KGAN.

The most notable part of the proposal is diverging diamonds at the County Road F28 and airport exits. These follow two proposed diverging diamonds on the north side of Cedar Rapids.

According to the handout, the study is expected to be finished by the end of next year. That likely means construction wouldn’t happen until the end of the decade at the earliest, and KGAN says it wouldn’t be finished until the 2030s.

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Nov 11

Iowa’s last two Kmarts will close

Posted on Monday, November 11, 2019, at 10:15 AM by Jeff

Weeks ago, USA Today reported that more Sears and Kmart stores would be closing in the future, but did not have information about which ones. Now we know that whatever’s left of the shambles of Sears/Kmart won’t include Iowa.

KCHA radio reported Nov. 6 that the Charles City Kmart will close in February. In a Thomas-Jefferson-still-survives ironic twist, that story said Algona’s store would be the last survivor, but on the same day, KLGA radio reported that Algona’s Kmart will also be closing for good.

Algona’s Kmart is, soon was, the only big-box retailer for dozens of miles in that part of Iowa.

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Nov 08

Iowa-Wisconsin game preview

Posted on Friday, November 8, 2019, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

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Nov 07

IA 333: The hot-potato highway

Posted on Thursday, November 7, 2019, at 10:00 AM by Jeff


October 2, 2015: The beginning of IA 333 as seen from an I-29 offramp. The entire route, along with the town of Hamburg, was underwater in the spring of 2019.

The Great Decommissioning of 1980 was the end result of a process for “functional classification” of all roads in Iowa. Primary roads that didn’t reach a certain level were eligible for being turned over, and a handful that were higher in rank went to the state.

And then there is IA 333, whose history got weird one more time, because it managed to fall under both categories.

An agreement in 1976 resulted in 333 being paved in Page County the second half of 1980 and decommissioned when that project was completed. At the same time that was going on, the part of 333 that had been dropped upon paving in Fremont County in 1964 was on its way back up.

On June 16, 1980, an appeals board in Ames ruled that the DOT had to keep IA 184 and IA 145 but could drop IA 42. The board deadlocked on County Road J64 running from I-29 to US 59, meaning that a lower appeals board ruling stood and the DOT had to take the road.

So it sounds cut-and-dried, right? BZZT. The state had been OK with taking a new road from I-29 to US 275, but east of Hamburg, not so much.

At the October 29 Fremont County Board of Supervisors meeting, whose minutes were printed in the Hamburg Reporter in November, a resolution was passed. Paraphrased summary: “Whereas, the DOT is supposed to take J64 once the county fixed two things on it, and  whereas, the county finished those by October 9, the road is [was!] the DOT’s responsibility on October 10, 1980.” I’m not quite sure how a retroactive commissioning from a county works, but that’s what the resolution said.

So in the fall of 1980, we had 333 in Page County that the state was going to drop, and a disconnected 333 in Fremont County that the state didn’t want to add. (Technically, I suppose there’s no reason it had to be 333, but there was no need to add more confusion.) Unfortunately, without contemporary photographs there’s no way to tell the status of signage at the beginning of 1981, and the map… uh…


Donde está trescientos treinta y tres?

However what went where, the route across the base of Fremont County was 333 until the Second Great Decommissioning of 2003, when through legislative action the DOT was able to unload its remaining spur routes and a handful of significant portions of low-traveled routes.

Today, IA 333, running between I-29 and US 275 in Hamburg, is the shortest Iowa highway east of the Missouri River.

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