Dec 21

Photos by the numbers: 49

Posted on Wednesday, December 21, 2011, at 7:07 AM by Jeff

December 26, 2001: North end of I-49 in Shreveport, Louisiana. One of my earliest digital pictures — and a decade old next week.

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Dec 20

Pinstripe Bowl geography

Posted on Tuesday, December 20, 2011, at 9:14 PM by Jeff

There are 10 days to go, Paul Rhoads is SO PROUD to be here for the next decade (or he gets out of ISU’s pay grade, whichever comes first) and ticket sales are in line with the allotment. (Meanwhile, Rutgers students get their tickets for free.)

It’s worth noting that the bowl game does result in the football team traveling south. Technically. Very technically.

I created a map in 2005 comparing Iowa’s geographic position to that of southern New England and included some New York points of interest including Yankee Stadium. It might not be easily noticeable, depending on what map projection you’re looking at, but the “Northeast” is in the same area of latitude as Iowa. (NOTE: The map shows the location of Old Yankee Stadium, but New Yankee Stadium was built right next door.)

Along the same latitude as the island of Manhattan are State College PA, Canton OH, most of US 30 in Ohio, Peoria IL, Burlington, and the southern tier of Iowa counties. Yankee Stadium is on the west side of the Bronx, in line with 161st Street in Manhattan, and its latitude is equivalent to a point halfway between Clarinda and Villisca.

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Dec 20

Photos by the numbers: 48

Posted on Tuesday, December 20, 2011, at 7:05 AM by Jeff

April 15, 2009: North end of IA 48. Mid-April is about the start of the “driving season” when it comes to picture-taking.

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Dec 19

Photos by the numbers: 47

Posted on Monday, December 19, 2011, at 7:03 AM by Jeff

May 12, 2010: Shawano, Wisconsin, along the WI 29 expressway between Wausau and Green Bay. The unbalanced line at the bottom shows that this sign had the word “EXIT” there before the exits were numbered.

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Dec 18

License plate countdown: YXF

Posted on Sunday, December 18, 2011, at 1:44 PM by Jeff

Following the pattern, there may have been no YU’s or YV’s, although the YW’s have to be out there somewhere. The Z’s are just around the corner.

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Dec 18

Photos by the numbers: 46

Posted on Sunday, December 18, 2011, at 7:01 AM by Jeff

June 26, 2006: Pickstown, South Dakota. West end of SD 46, the road that IA 10 becomes as it crosses the state line. Hometown of Tom Brokaw and location of the Fort Randall Dam.

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Dec 17

Photos by the numbers: 45

Posted on Saturday, December 17, 2011, at 6:58 AM by Jeff

June 29, 2003: North end of IA 45, two days before its demise along with dozens of other short state routes in the Second Great Decommissioning.

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Dec 16

Photos by the numbers: 44

Posted on Friday, December 16, 2011, at 7:00 AM by Jeff

August 1, 2002: Providence, Rhode Island, and the state capitol. My first, last, and only time in the state. (See the 2:23 mark of this video, “Welcome to Rhode Island! Thanks for visiting Rhode Island!”) This is one of the few state capitols that still have a US highway going past its front door.

US 42, 44, and 46 are all very much off the grid as far as numbering goes.

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Dec 15

Updated post office information

Posted on Thursday, December 15, 2011, at 9:06 PM by Jeff

The stays of execution are, in all likelihood, temporary. But it’s something.

In Kilduff, for example, doomsday was going to be in November, until it was moved to January, and now May. Same for Fostoria and Rembrandt.

Unfortunately, the USPS website can be a bit cumbersome to navigate. I found a list of towns that appealed their closures, but some have had their final appeals denied; however, I can’t find that information. Links below are to each town’s notice in the Federal Register:

The Federal Register documents have been issued in the town order listed here. The file for Harris is due out Friday, so it can be expected the rest will follow. Lincoln’s 120-day appeal schedule expires a week from today. The moratorium may only serve to have a glut of closings next spring.

The Federal Register search list has 20 items per page. Only one page going back to July doesn’t have an Iowa town on it. In fact, Iowa appears so often that the Postal Regulatory Commission accidentally wrote “Hoxie, Iowa” instead of “Hoxie, Arkansas” on one notice.

I’ve also updated the maps to reflect what little I know for sure about new closures, based on newspaper articles or the list at iowabackroads.com.

EDIT 12/22: There is a distinction in website navigation between the USPS and the Postal Regulatory Commission. In the interests of integrity I have left the sentence intact but struck through.

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Dec 15

Photos by the numbers: 43

Posted on Thursday, December 15, 2011, at 7:00 AM by Jeff

May 13, 2010: Beloit, Wisconsin, at the south end of I-43, less than a mile from the Illinois state line. Straight ahead is a cloverleaf and the beginning of I-43. This is all one big sign panel.

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