Mike Natale finds a Pennsylvania Sign Relic

Mike Natale, who hosted one of the first Abandoned Pennsylvania Turnpike pages and his discovery of a 1963 Pittsburgh Freeway Planning map sent Jeff Kitsko and I to the libraries in the early 2000s researching dead Pittsburgh Expressway plans, recently sent me some PA Keystone Town Markers.

But he also sent me the sign photo below from West Mayfield, PA.

This is the first I have seen of this type of decorative geographical sign in blue on white. These signs were typically Yellow on Blue, as this example for the Village of Huntington Mills from Doug Kerr shows.

I believe these signs were phased out sometime in the 60s. But the discovery on a blue on white decorative geographical sign may mean they were posted into the 1970s

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The story of the Boy Scout Ramps on Interstate 79 North in NW Pennsylvania

If you are traveling on Interstate 79 North of Pittsburgh, you may notice the remnants of a set of off and on ramps at mile 100 just north of Exit 99 (US 422). There's a story behind these ramps. Forty years ago, these ramps were built specifically for two Boy Scout Jamboree's that were held at Moraine State Park - 1973 and 1977. The ramps purpose were to provide access to the north shore of Lake Arthur where the bulk of the festivities and campsite for the Jamboree were located. (Lawrence County Memories has a great write up and map of the festivities on its site.)

Not long after the Jamboree ended the ramps were abandoned. There are still remnants of the Boy Scout Ramps today.

Above: Sattelite view of the Boy Scout Jamboree Ramps.
Below: A view of the ramps from I-79 South.

The google street view image above gives a view along West Park Road of where the set of ramps intersected the highway. The ramps provided direct access to North Shore Drive (which is the right tur…

2017 Midwest Vacation - St. Louis Roads and Busch Stadium

During our two days in St. Louis, much of our driving would take placeon Missouri Route 364, Interstate 270, 170, 64 and Page Avenue (County Route D). For photos from the road in St. Louis, head here on flickr.

Missouri 364:

Maggie's cousins live off of Missouri 364 so we were on this road the most. Though, our exposure was of the highway from Harvester Road east to Interstate 270, I was impressed at what I saw of the route.
From what I saw, Missouri 364 certainly appears to be Interstate standard, and there seems to be some inclination that it will or can become Interstate 364 whenever MODOT petitions for it. The MO 364 freeway was built over three phases from the early-2000s to 2014. The route runs just over 21 miles from Interstate 64 in Lake St. Louis to Interstate 270 in Maryland Heights. East of I-270, it continues as Page Avenue.

Page Avenue (County Road D):

Missouri 364 continues east towards Interstate 170 and eventually St. Louis as Page Avenue/County Road D. Just e…

2017 Midwest Vacation Road Trip - Day 1 - Raleigh to Lexington

Our family vacation this year was a week long roadtrip adventure from Raleigh to St. Louis to Pittsburgh with stops in Lexington, Louisville, and Indianapolis planned. Day 1 saw us go from Raleigh to Lexington, Kentucky with an unplanned stop and detour. More on that in a moment.

Route: US 64 (I-495, I-87), I-440, I-40, Business I-40, US 52, I-74, I-77, Charleston city streets, I-64, WV 25, US 60, WV 817, I-64, I-75, then double back to KY 922 and KY 4.

Counties gained: 5 (Carter, Rowan, Bath, Montgomery & Clark - All in Kentucky)

For the entire flickr set from the roadtrip please head here and here for the Kentucky Horse Farm set.

When you have two kids and are about to head out a long day of driving you sometimes have to figure out when you wish to leave. Every family is different, but for our family we try to leave between three and five in the morning. The reason - the boys will both still be sleeping and we can at least get two to four (if we are lucky) hours of driving i…

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