Iowa Highway Ends (etc.)

The last day (or half-day) of vacation was uneventful. I had some time, so I finished a gap on US 6 and angled northwestward to travel from the east end of IL 92 westward to the Quad Cities. IA 927 was closed west of Walcott, so I cut my plans to travel old 6 short.

Route: IL 251, US 6, IL 89, US 34, IL 92, old IL 92, I-88, I-80, I-280, old IA 927, Y40, I-80

West end of I-88 in the Quad Cities, with IL 110 sign on the side.

This I-80 sign gantry was replaced after US 61 was rerouted, but  excludes 61 on the right so as to indicate that only 80 and US 6 are “straight ahead”.

Peru, Illinois, Oct. 6 — If I had to get a day when I spent half the time in pouring rain, this was it. The Ohio Turnpike was under construction, and the rain kept falling with one brief respite at the state line until Elkhart.

Route: I-280, OH 795, I-80, OH 49, US 20, I-94, I-65 to north end and turn around, US 30, I-80, IL 7, US 30, IL 59, US 52, IL 251, I-80, I-39, US 6, I-80

Instead of the Indiana Toll Road, I took US 20 across most of the state. After South Bend, the sky cleared up dramatically.

Beautiful button copy at the OH 49 interchange, very near the state line. The final toll plaza in Ohio is just east of the exit.

One remainder of the Lincoln Highway through Indiana is that although US 20 now has a south bypass of South Bend and Elkhart, it remains north of the four-lane IN 2 between US 31 and I-94. The two routes even “bump” each other. Swapping the routes between the “bump” and South Bend seems like a no-brainer at this point.

I could’ve, and maybe should’ve, taken 20 a few more miles, but this gave me the “easy” part of the route in the state. After getting on I-94, I took I-65 to its north end at US 12/20, then turned around to go to US 30.

Shortly after the exit for I-90, I-65 comes to end at a stoplight.

This part of US 30, between I-65 and I-57, was my last untraveled segment in five states. In Dyer, just east of the state line, is the Ideal Section, a four-lane marvel in the early 1920s that today is just a run-of-the-mill suburban four-lane arterial route. Commemorative markers are still on one side of the road. I stopped for pictures, including my 25,000th photo since June 2001 (see previous blog entry).

The Ideal Section monument is also in memory of Henry Ostermann, who died in a car crash along the Lincoln Highway in Tama County in 1920. I missed this marker nearby, though. The Federal Highway Administration has a lengthy writeup about the Lincoln Highway.

Ideal Section monuments (the arch is a separate piece)

West of I-57, US 30 is now four lanes; the last time I was here it was under construction. I checked out some new LH markers and billboards and got to the 30/80 interchange at 4.

Here’s where I made a major miscalculation. If I had resolved to hop on I-80 and do nothing else, I could’ve (but likely wouldn’t have) ended my vacation this night. Instead, I thought I would try to follow more of the Lincoln Highway in suburban Chicago, only to find out that traffic on a Sunday afternoon was just as bad as any other time. In an hour and a half, I barely covered any ground. I surrendered in Plainfield and fell back on following US 52 west of I-55.

Shortly before darkness, I stopped in Peru, and hit 3500 trip miles.

Ann Arbor, Michigan, Oct. 5 — It’s a cloudy, dreary day in the Midwest, raining early but then warm enough to keep the coat off. In other words, it’s midseason Big Ten football weather. After some early roadgeeking, I was on my way to see the winningest football team of all time on its Homecoming. Michigan and Minnesota were playing for the 100th time with the Little Brown Jug on the line.

The Jug is one of the few things in college football that was around before Iowa State won its last conference championship. The Michigan football program has the most all-time wins in NCAA Division I-A. Michigan Stadium is one of the Cathedrals of Sport that followers of college football have on their bucket lists. I have been to Michigan Stadium once, in 2002, before a renovation that expanded the press boxes and luxury suites and before the stadium was closed to the public on a daily basis. I wanted this day, seeing a football game in the stadium, to be special.

After studying the parking options online, I figured my best bet was to park in the northeast corner of Ann Arbor and take a shuttle bus. Although I was literally on the second bus to leave, I got to the stadium only 45 minutes before game time. It’s on the bus that I heard a Minnesota fan remark that coach Jerry Kill suffered a seizure and will not be at the game.

The gate area and concourse were filled with people. I came in at the entrance beside the Crisler Center and checked out the pillars listing every Michigan championship in every sport. There are many pillars, and many engraved years. Nearly every spectator was decked out in maize or blue.

And no one is wearing a sundress.

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Ann Arbor, Michigan, Oct. 5 — It’s a good day when you can travel the entire length of a US highway before noon. US 223 is only 48 miles long. It is signed north-south (as a branch of US 23) but runs more east-west even if you include an unsigned portion that goes just barely into Ohio.

Route: I-280, I-75, I-475, US 23, US 223, US 127, US 12, I-94, M-14, US 23, I-475, I-75, I-280

One of the very few indicators US 223 is redundantly multiplexed into Ohio, and only to the first exit.

“North” end of US 223 at US 127. More pictures on Dale Sanderson’s site.

Up next: JUG JUG JUG

New counties so far: 41 (2 IL, 10 IN, 11 KY, 2+2 MI, 13 OH, 1 PA). I would get no more new counties on this trip.

Toledo, Ohio, Oct. 4 — 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 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

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.

Michigan 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.

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Toledo, Ohio, Oct. 3 — Although my start and end points were relatively close to each other, I stretched this day out to its maximum and squeezed in a museum visit along the way.

Route: I-271, I-71, US 224, US 42, US 250, I-71, US 30, I-75, US 33 to state line and back, OH 49, US 224, US 24, road east to south end of I-469, I-469, I-69, US 30, turnaround at light on US 33, I-469, US 24, I-475, I-75

I-271 splits off I-71 far enough away from the Cleveland metro area that it has a rest area near the south end. Once I rejoined I-71, I got off it again for some mileage on US 42.

The US 30 four-lane, once again wobbling around the Lincoln Highway, has its own rest areas east of US 23 and mileage signs mentioning Toledo before US 23 joins it. West of 23, I was traveling 30 for the first time, again — in 2007, 30 between US 23 and I-75 was still two lanes and still following the Lincoln Highway. Now, though, it was a full expressway running parallel to the south.

More button copy! OH 309 here, west of Mansfield, is an old part of 30 that connects to the Lincoln Highway. LH routings in Ohio are, to put it mildly, a muddled mashup.

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