July 15, 2013: One of the highlights of my Upper Midwest trip was visiting the north end of “my” highway, US 63. However, construction prevented me from clinching the entire route in Wisconsin.
As 2013 comes to a close, here are some of my state and highway accomplishments from this year:
- Starting on New Year’s Day in Tennessee, I added 77 counties in 11 states, including my last ones in Illinois. The flip side of this, though, is that my nearest unvisited county is six hours away.
- In all, I traveled in 14 states, but in both Michigan’s Upper and Lower Peninsulas.
- Still close, but not quite, on every numbered road in Iowa. A few segments remain elusive for me.
- I traveled the entire signed Lincoln Highway in Iowa (and will put up photo galleries at some point, I hope).
- I went to my first SEC and Big Ten football games.
- I’ve added somewhere in the neighborhood of 2,600 miles of interstate highways in the past four years. I’m still not quite to half of the system, though, because miles keep getting added. (I-22 in the South will knock me down a lot.)
July 6, 2013: 1921 Lincoln Highway bridge near Calamus
I closed some gaps and clinched some states. More details are on my page at Clinched Highway Mapping.
- I’ve traveled every mile of mainline I-35. (I-35E in Dallas is still waiting.)
- I’ve traveled every interstate in Minnesota and Wisconsin (at least until Wisconsin signs I-41), for five total states with that distinction. A change to I-40 in Oklahoma City means I’m five miles short in the Sooner State.
- I’ve traveled all of I-94 east of Bismarck.
- I’ve traveled US 30 from Grand Island NE to Pittsburgh — and in all, I’m just shy of half of the entire transcontinental route.
- I closed my gap on I-90 in Cleveland, giving me that interstate from the middle of South Dakota to Albany, about 60% of the total.
- I’ve traveled I-70 from west of Denver to Frederick MD, after adding the I-55-to-Indianapolis stretch this year, but there will be a new part of that opening across the Mississippi River soon.
- Ohio is now the state with my third-highest interstate mileage — but even unfinished, I have 275 more miles there than in any Midwestern state I’ve clinched because there are more interstates there.
October 1, 2013: The only duplexed 3-digit interstates in the nation, I-271 and I-480 in southeast suburban Cleveland.
There was one other little milestone: I finally filled up the notebook I had been using to keep track of my travels since shortly after my car was stolen in 2003. That was back when gas was under $1.50 and it didn’t routinely cost six bucks to eat at Burger King.
I had two big vacations this year, but at the moment it appears unlikely I’ll repeat such a feat on that scale in 2014. We’ll see.
