Updates

Listed in reverse chronological order, most recent on top. The dates are done to the best of my recollection. Other dates concerning this page are listed too.

2009

August 2: I've been on a lot of trips in the past three months:

• I went to Denver via I-70 (1000 miles in two days) and came back via I-76 and much of US 34 in central Nebraska, clinching all interstates in Kansas and Nebraska along the way. I also saw "Star Trek" on opening night in downtown Denver.
• I followed that up with a trip to Florida, my first time there since 1994. I had enough time for NASA, Universal Studios, and the capitol in Tallahassee, which isn't much if you're after the classic style of government building. (It's a skyscraper.)
• I followed THAT up with a trip to Washington, DC, with a side trip to Maryland and Delaware, coming back through Pennsylvania. I added Delaware to my states-visited list and photographed four new capitals - Columbus, Annapolis, Dover (exterior only), and Harrisburg. I also clinched I-66 and I-68 and the 40% mark on the interstate system. The camera I have had since 2005 has taken at least one picture of 17 state capitols (not including Iowa!), three provincial capitols, and two national capitols in three time zones, plus US routes from 2 to 98 and 1 to 85. (Well, US 13 to 85 if you consider 1 a special case.)
• After all that, I haven't had much time for Iowa. I did one cabin-fever outing in April to the southwest, and then another one to the northwest in July. Pictures from the former have just now been added to 42, 48, 145, 173, and 184.

January 15: Assorted odd fall pictures are now up on IA 149, 82, 198, and 13, plus 428. All I have left is the Sageville intersection and IA/MO 27. This is the last update during the Bush administration, this site having started when it was ten months old. This also means the state and federal executive branches are completing their turnover from my college days, not to mention certain coaches - another sign of getting older, I guess.

January 3: Pictures from both ends of the state on my double-sided Labor Day weekend road trip: IA 183, 110, 977, 7, 197, and 15 in the west, and IA 187, 410, 38, and 32 in the east with 428 to follow at some point.

2008

December 22: The Safari/Angelfire problem appears to be fixed. But ads seem to be more numerous...

• Added a couple of May and July pictures to the Mount Pleasant and Ottumwa business routes.
• As I mention on the Business 34 Mount Pleasant page, on the way to a wedding in October the family van hit a deer. I was driving ahead, and before we left I had suggested that we put someone with a cell phone in each car. How eerily prescient of me. This incident, combined with an incessant scam company that doesn't know the meaning of the phrase "Do Not Call List," may break down my previously unshakable attitude against cell phones. The vehicle was totaled, and for the first time in the family's history, we bought [ominous voice] a foreign car. [/ominous voice] (Well, van.)
• Speaking of other transportation-related issues, as I type this, gas has fallen below $1.50 a gallon, the lowest in five years. Suddenly the inability to take trips this year has a silver lining. At least, aside from the fact that the big vacation was right at the price peak.
• I updated the TV maps and listings page with the current Mason City/Rochester maps, plus some notes about the digital conversion. KDLT's website has an actual map now (the nine in the northwest corner, plus Cherry County NE!) and KCCI has dropped Grundy and Tama counties (again).
• I modified the 2008 four-lane completion map as projected in 2006 into the actual result.
• End-of-year-notes: New clinched highways in Iowa for the year are IA 70, 183, 39, 110, and US 61. I have clinched every child of I-90 west of Buffalo. Midwest-wise for US routes, I also clinched US 34, 36, 54, and 67 in Illinois, and US 36 in Missouri, plus significant progress on US 50 there. But I lost US 35 in West Virginia thanks to construction there. As of the end of the year, I've been in Oklahoma (10/7/08) more recently than Minnesota (9/16/07).

August 17: If you're using Safari 3, you can't read this, or 3/4 or my site. Obviously not the best way to say it, but that's what I've found out. All you get is the Angelfire code stuff at the top of the page and then something happens in a "NOSCRIPT" code line that makes the browser choke. The only advice I can offer: Use Firefox or some other browser. (It would be ironic if Netscape 4 still worked.)

• I took a vacation to Virginia in early July (right when gas prices were peaking, it appears) and clinched many 3-digit interstates, including all branches of I-64, and I-64 east of Illinois. I also clinched I-74. With this trip, I have traveled more than 35% of the interstate system.
• Finally put April photos from Western Iowa up on pages in and around Pottawattamie County, including work on the new bridge. Both IA 165 shields are gone.
• By the way, the old updates page (ha!) is still available at updates07.html.

And then it started to rain.

The past eight months or so haven't been a picnic for Iowans. We've endured snow, cold, blizzards, rain, tornadoes, flooding, presidential candidates, and gas prices so out of control that "skyrocketing" is an understatement. (On New Year's Eve, after looking at my records, I predicted $3.75 on Memorial Day. Sometimes I hate it when I'm right.)

What does this have to do with highways? Plenty. Melting snow led to potholes. Rising waters washed away roadbeds to the point where the asphalt disintegrated (IA 150 near Vinton) or concrete slabs fell straight down (IA 22 near Muscatine, IA 1 near Solon). Crude oil is a major component of asphalt, not to mention the diesel powering the equipment. More relevant to this site, rainy days and closed roads mean a decreased ability to take trips, which themselves cost much more.

All that said, I have managed to do a few trips. Two of them have been to "roadgeek meets" in St. Louis and Chicago. Pictures coming back from St. Louis are on IA 81 and 103. More from the other trips will be put up eventually.

January 28: New photos from fall.

• September trip photos added to IA 15, 36, 175 (both ends), 217, 196, Business US 75 Sioux City, Business 169 Fort Dodge, and the IA 12/Business 20 end. Additional photos were added to IA 28 and 301.
• Finished up August with photos at the US 61/IA 38 intersection, including Business 61, which for whatever reason I didn't add my pictures from 2006. A couple were also added to IA 956.
• Business IA 60 in Sheldon has a page with Jason Hancock's photos. Business US 75 in Le Mars has pictures from both Jason and myself.
• I did travel the Ottumwa bypass the day it opened, and created a page for the new Business 63. I also added a few photos to IA 149, though it still needs shots of its new south end, and also IA 181 and 389.
• US 63 and 75 have also had state-line photos added. The potential original US 18 end near Hull has photos now.
• After minimal experience for about a year and a half, the end of 2007 marked my 10th year of really working on HTML pages.