Apr 22

A bridge of Madison County

Posted on Friday, April 22, 2016, at 10:00 AM by Jeff


September 19, 2014: The Imes Bridge on the east side of St. Charles is the easiest of the “Bridges of Madison County” to visit from I-35. John Weeks has a lot more for pictures and history of not just the Imes, but of all the bridges.

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Apr 21

North Winneshiek throws in the towel

Posted on Thursday, April 21, 2016, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

The North Winneshiek School District plans to be absorbed by Decorah at the end of the 2018-19 school year. Articles: Decorah Public Opinion, Decorah News, KWWL, KCRG. The school district, whose building is located southeast of Burr Oak, will send junior high students to Decorah starting in 2017.

North Winneshiek, which is in the Driftless Area, has one of the highest per-pupil transportation costs in the state, the superintendent told reporters. It is surrounded on 2½ sides by the Decorah district, which somehow got a 2-mile-wide strip wrapping around the Minnesota border.

I think this is the farthest out (by time) a school district has written its own obituary. It’s also unusual in that I’m pretty sure there has to be a vote on this, but with the school board saying alternatives are nonexistent, I doubt there will be much opposition.

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Apr 20

The wanderlust awakens

Posted on Wednesday, April 20, 2016, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
May 8, 2009: US 138 is an artifact of the early US highway system, when US 38 went across Nebraska instead of US 6. Today, US 138 spends about 11 miles in the Cornhusker State and has its east end at US 30.

I think I want to drive across Nebraska. The slow way. Of course, that would mean I’d have to drive back across Nebraska. Also the slow way. I’d be able to visit famous Oregon Trail and Lincoln Highway landmarks, and could be the first person to travel the entire route of four-state “Highway 92.”

Cabin fever does things to a roadgeek.

UPDATE 1: Well, crud. Part of NE 92 is closed. And it’s right where Nebraska changes from “lots of nothing” to “staggering, copious amounts of nothing.” I am really interested in this, but I can’t help but wonder if I’d ever find reason to close that gap later.

UPDATE 2: Has anyone ever taken the time to post screenshots from all the landmarks on the original Oregon Trail game?

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Apr 19

Geneva gym vandalized

Posted on Tuesday, April 19, 2016, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

Two weeks after WHO-TV had a story about a group hoping to rescue the gymnasium in Geneva before it was too far gone, the building was vandalized. What a sad turn of events.

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Apr 18

P is for Pilot Mound

Posted on Monday, April 18, 2016, at 10:15 AM by Jeff

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAJune 4, 2014: The Pilot Mound school was built in 1920. The middle window says “Garage Sale May 31, 8:00-?”.

A reorganization vote between the Grand (Boxholm/Pilot Mound) and Ogden school districts failed in November 1984. Had the vote succeeded, Grand would have been absorbed into Ogden and the name would have remained Ogden.* Instead, at the end of that school year, Grand High School graduated its last class and became a K-6 district, sending older students to Ogden. The Pilot Mound school was in use until at least that year but likely closed then. Movement was made again toward a merger in 1993-94, this time with the Ogden-Grand name, but it didn’t happen.

In 2000, Grand ended its sharing agreement with Ogden and went in with Southeast Webster instead (the switch is the reason for this open-enrollment case). That courtship was relatively fast, with reorganization five years later. The combined Southeast Webster-Grand started sharing with Prairie Valley in 2014. (The beginning of that whole-grade sharing agreement was the B-plot, if you will, of the Des Moines Register‘s “Lost Schools” series/documentary.)

*”Ogden’s Bernard Lewiston said he felt it would be expensive to change athletic uniforms, signs and other items on which Ogden is written.” Ogden Reporter, Aug. 15, 1984. Details like these matter when a community is faced with losing a school. (It’s weird that the Ogden Reporter has three random years from the 20th century archived, but I’ll take what I can get.)

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Apr 16

It’s not drafty in here at all

Posted on Saturday, April 16, 2016, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

Iowa State’s spring game is today, the first time the public will get a look at what new coach Matt Campbell is doing with the team, and the fourth time the presumptive starting quarterback learns a new system.

A few weeks ago, to remind the world that Iowa State is the toughest job in the college football universe, SB Nation pointed out that Iowa State has by far the longest drought among power-conference teams with a first-round NFL draft pick. George Amundson was drafted by the Houston Oilers in 1973. Amundson went from playing at Clyde Williams Field, which is gone, to the Astrodome, which is decomposing.

I don’t have any idea how the team is going to do in the fall, and neither do you. Start with trying to beat UNI and Kansas and work from there. Oklahoma, as always, is the final boss level.

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Apr 15

Page update: Muscatine-a-palooza

Posted on Friday, April 15, 2016, at 10:01 AM by Jeff


June 8, 2015: New, larger highway shields at the US 61/IA 38 intersection, and their arrows beneath, conform to revised MUTCD guidelines. In my opinion, it’s not an improvement.

I’ve added photos taken in April and June 2015 to the website. The bulk of the pictures are in and south of Muscatine, as I traveled the rerouted IA 92 and also took pictures to the south.

One photo or more has been added to IA 13, 38, 103, 212, 225, 249, 252, 305, 419, and 921. There are lots of new photos on the Lansing and Business 61 (Muscatine) pages.


April 17, 2015: Relocated “End 9” and WI 82 shields at the foot of the Black Hawk Bridge in Lansing.

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Apr 14

Wyoming bumping two-lane roads to 70 mph

Posted on Thursday, April 14, 2016, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

Parts of US 20 and US 30 in the eastern Rockies are getting an upgrade not in lanes, but in limits. The Wyoming Department of Transportation is phasing in 70-mph limits on lightly traveled rural highways this spring. Among the segments are 87 miles of US 20/26 west of Casper and the part of US 30 between Laramie and Rawlins that isn’t on I-80. (Historical note: While the latter is the Lincoln Highway corridor, the road of today is a straighter, safer version of what was there in the 1920s.)

Twenty-one months ago, Wyoming raised the speed limit on rural interstates, allowing drivers to legally do 80 on I-80. The closest 80-mph interstates to Iowa are I-29 between North Sioux City and Sioux Falls and I-90 between Sioux Falls and the Minnesota state line.

In Iowa, a proposal to raise the speed limit on two-lane roads to 60 mph didn’t make it anywhere this legislative session in part because it would cost money.

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Apr 13

Raygun shirts I’d like to see, part two

Posted on Wednesday, April 13, 2016, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

Three more ideas. (They’re images to match Raygun’s style, which is the Helvetica font.)

raygun_waukee

raygun_porkqueen

raygun_audubon

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Apr 12

Raygun shirts I’d like to see, part one

Posted on Tuesday, April 12, 2016, at 10:00 AM by Jeff

Raygun, the cheeky T-shirt store in Des Moines’ hipster central (the East Village), now has a store in Cedar Rapids’ hipster central (NewBo). Although I do not own any Raygun shirts, I think I am familiar enough with the style and sense of humor to make some suggestions.

(If any become reality, I’m demanding royalties.)

(The curveball of the bunch, think of it like an eye chart.)

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