The long-ago road trips I’m sharing here on Fridays are a copy and paste from my old Roads site, which I started about a year before I started this blog. I want to repurpose that domain as a landing page for my various sites, and possibly as a photography portfolio. But before I can do that, I want to bring the existing content over to this site.
I’ve now brought over all of my road trips from 2006-2008. I have 2009-2012 to go. But I’m more than half done, because I took a lot of road trips in those first few years, and then my pace slowed.
That pace slowed to almost a stop about five years ago. Life just got in the way. I’ve made a few quick road trips, all of which I’ve written about on this site. But they are almost all along roads I’ve traveled before.
I’m itching to explore some new roads. I know of several with lots of juicy old alignments! I intend to start Indiana’s State Road 67 from Indianapolis to Vincennes this year, and with luck I’ll finish it this year, too. I’m also interested in exploring US 41 from Terre Haute south to Evansville. Further down my list are State Road 46 and both Indiana alignments of the Lincoln Highway.
One day I will also explore the Mauck’s Ferry Road, also known as the Mauxferry Road. This 1824 road begins at Mauckport on the Ohio River and goes to Indianapolis. Some of its original routing is unclear to me and might even be lost.
Next Friday we’ll revisit the Dandy Trail, a 1920s pleasure drive around Indianapolis — I have fresh photos of an abandoned bridge along that route. Then I’ll return to grinding away at bringing my long-ago road trips over here. Starting the following Friday I’ll share a quick trip I made with my old friend Michael along US 50 in Illinois and then my detailed tour of US 50 across Indiana. After that we’ll revisit my epic three-day trip on the National Road all the way across Ohio. I’ll finish with my trip along the Chicago mainline of the Dixie Highway in Indiana, from the Illinois state line to Indianapolis.
If you’ve followed my blog for a long time, some of that material might be familiar to you. I wrote a little about those road trips when they were fresh. But the trip reports on my Roads site are far more comprehensive.
To get Down the Road in your inbox or reader six days a week, click here to subscribe!
To get my newsletter with previews of what I’m working on, click here to subscribe!
