Category: Roads
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X to Nowhere
There are many places that have been labeled a “[Name You Favorite Transportation Infrastructure] to Nowhere”. Sometimes they exist to reference an abandoned site. Other times they focus on an improvement that seemed to benefit an unusually small constituency. I’ll mention two rather well-known instances briefly today. Naturally I will ignore the political issues involved…
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Journey Through Hallowed Ground
The article is a bit self-indulgent today. A particular National Scenic Byway fascinated me for quite awhile. Aficionados call it the “Journey Through Hallowed Ground“. Much of my life centered on places along this 180-mile line. I’ve driven portions of it literally hundreds of times. I’ve also visited many but not all of the sites…
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That Initial Spark
Recently I got to thinking about what may have sparked my original interest in geo-oddities. I’m not sure what caused me to suddenly ponder this topic but I do have a ready answer. Like many of you, I recall numerous childhood hours spent happily pouring over maps, fascinated by the overlay of abstract lines upon…
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Cut the Corner
Longtime reader James S.[1] has an interesting experience every time he drives along Interstate 75 between Georgia and Florida. There is a spot along that highway where one can observe two county entrance markers simultaneously. Take a close look at the Google Street View image and the signs can be seen pretty easily, one nearby…
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Farm to Market Roads
I realized I might give away the secret for today’s topic when I released my recent article, Farm to Market. Sure enough, loyal and very observant reader Benjamin Lukoff noticed the foreshadowing and mentioned something familiar in his comment.[1] Another article also figures into the triad although it’s not nearly as intuitive. The strangely popular…
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Farm to Market
I have food on my mind. It’s Thanksgiving morning here in the United States and food is a big part of that. I image we’ll have very few U.S. readers today. Most of them will be feasting on turkey, watching the American version of “football,” and getting mentally prepared to hit the shopping malls tomorrow…
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More Oddities in Washington, DC
It was great to be offered an opportunity to submit a guest post on Google Sightseeing, following in the footsteps of Kyle Kusch of The Basement Geographer. Google Sightseeing is one of my all-time favorite blogs and I read it often. So it was a pleasure working with its principal authors, Alex and James Turnbull.…
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Why THIS Spot?
What does this mean to you? n 45°55.145′ w 090°05.011′ That’s what the query said when I spotted it in my blog access logs. What an oddly precise item to drop into a search engine. The visitor came to Twelve Mile Circle by following a Google link, one of only five in existence. You know…
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W Towns Outside Boston
Reader “HH” brought an interesting situation outside of Boston, Massachusetts, to my attention this week. He discovered this many years ago and has been wondering about it every since. On the surface it doesn’t seem like much, just a ride along U.S. Route 20. It has a bit of historic importance in its own right,…
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Think of the Children
Regular readers should feel free to skip today’s article. It’s intended to help out a very specific segment of one-time visitors. It’s time for another installment of “Help the Kids with their Homework.”™ The question I keep seeing likely derives from a mathematics assignment, but it also has a nice geography twist. It’s been all-the-rage…