Roads Obsession

[mark from maine]

Was wondering if there is anyone else out there with a similar affliction. Read on and perhaps you will be able to identify with some of the symtoms. Let's see, where shall I start? Hmmm, OK, I'll try here.

A little over twenty two years ago I purchased a Delorme Atlas Gazetter of my home State of Maine. I started keeping track of any of the roads I travelled with a Yellow Highlighter. Always had the atlas with me when out for a ride or drive. I would find myself going out of my way just for the purpose of going down a road I had never travelled before. I wonder what it looks like down this road? Of course I already new where the road would lead because of the Delorme Maps. But what would it look like? Farm or forest? Did the road come close enough to the river for a scenic view? Here is one named Ridge road, I wonder if there will be a long view from the top? Bog road? Yes let's try that one. What is that map symbol? Oh, a fire tower. Let's check it out. An old suspension bridge out in the woods? Let's go. And so on and so on. Many a Sunday I would find myself, my maps, my BMW, and my Yellow Highlighter out for an afternoon of going down roads I had never been on before. Sometimes with company, sometimes by myself. It did not matter. As long as I had my Yellow Highlighter I was all set.

The years sped by and about six years ago while spending an evening gazing at the map pages,( beats the heck out of TV) I noticed not only had I travelled all over the State but also on a fairly large percentage of Maine's State numbered roads. There are about two hundred of them totalling about seventy five hundred miles. I began to wonder what it would be like to travel all of Maine's State numbered roads. Many a trip to anywhere would now include detours so that another State numbered road or a section of it could be Highlighted off. Destinations for our vacation time, at least as often as I thought I could get away with it, was now determined by an area on one of the Delorme Map Pages that did not have enough Yellow Highlighter . How often did I hear from the vincinity of the passenger seat when off on another detour on our way to or from somewhere, "Is this another one of your roads?"

To make a twenty-two year story short, I have three State numbered roads left. Total mileage for two of the roads and a small section of the third one that did not get done previously equals about fifty miles. They are somewhat grouped together. The closest one is a little over one hundred fifty miles from home and the furthest is a little over two hundred miles from home. To complete the three roads will require about a five hundred mile ride, not a bad thing by the way.

Between two thirds and three quarters of the roads were done on the varius BMW motorcylces I have owned. The remainder in pickup trucks. The roads obsession has taken me, and for the last six years us, to many a small Maine town that we otherwise would not have had any reason to go to. We have discovered that Maine is truly a beautiful State. From the western mountains and lakes to the rugged shoreline of DownEast. From the sandy beaches in the South to the spectacular farm country in Aroostook county, simply known as, THE COUNTY, at the top of the State. We love Maine and would not want to live anywhere else. Hope you feel the same about the State you call home.

Ayeh, I'll keep you posted of the progress.

RIDE SAFE,

Mark S.

 

[pffog]

I have a road and map obsession, but not to ride them all, but to find the twistiest pieces of pavement that exist in any given area.

I guess I do alright, as many times I have told locals of roads they never knew existed, even in states 600 miles away.

 

[Rudyjo]

Country Roads

All my riding is done on two lane country roads within 75 miles of home. I've ridden
just about all of them over the last 1 1/2 years that I have owned my K75RT.
Has anyone else noticed that you just can't pinpoint why you really enjoy some
roads more than others, even though they are all pretty much the same? Some
of these roads I really like doing from north to south, but not south to north, or
west to east more than east to west. I've never gotten over all the things you
see on a bike that you would miss in a car.

 

[Rinty]

Mark:

It sounds like you're the Maine equivalent of John Beeson, in Oregon.

I have an extensive map collection, and spend hours poring over them.

At one time I had all the aeronautical charts for western North America, between the Arctic Circle and the Mexican border.

 

[lkchris]

Some corollary to this can be interest in genealogy and honoring gone parents.

My parents would both be over 100 now, and when they were first driving there were of course only the "blue" roads.

Plus, my Dad was a traveling district representative for John Deere, and it's fun to traverse roads he surely did back in the day as well.

Besides family history, there's plenty of general history, too.

And, I can show you a building (maybe just the former location) that in the 1970s was a "Coast to Coast" hardware store that sold BMW motorcycles.

A LOT of blue roads have a Wikipedia entry and it could be fun to read up first.

 

[ted]

A little over twenty two years ago I purchased a Delorme Atlas Gazetter of my home State of Maine. I started keeping track of any of the roads I travelled with a Yellow Highlighter. Always had the atlas with me when out for a ride or drive.

You've just exactly described me, but with West Virginia. My old WV DeLorme may no longer be terribly current and (quite!) a bit ratty around the edges but it, and its years of notes and thoughts, is something I cherish and I carry it with me whenever I head for the mountains

 

[criminaldesign]

Hey Ted
i'm using the Delorme WV map with the same intention. Marking stuff off and seeing what probably needs to be seen.

 

[Visian]

marking stuff off... now why didn't *i* think about that?

i am deeply addicted to maps, but in addition to delorme gazetteers, i got hooked on computer maps & GPS very early in life. (ted knows... he's read my rants!)

google earth was like manna from heaven for me.

now, if i could only figure out how to work it all (that's the best thing about gazetteers... they have the most intuitive interface)

ian

 

[Visian]

And, I can show you a building (maybe just the former location) that in the 1970s was a "Coast to Coast" hardware store that sold BMW motorcycles.

Coast to Coast, a defunct chain of hardware stores in the United States, now part of True Value.

this sounds interesting.... got a waypoint?

 

[criminaldesign]

google earth was like manna from heaven for me.

I also use google maps to follow up with and check other roads that may not be in the gazetteer when I get home. It's a handy tool. I like maps, gives you a reason to take breaks and something to look at.

 

[texanrt]

I have an old Texas road map that's been folded and unfolded hundreds of times. It's worn, torn and all marked up, highlighted and noted with previous rides. I was about to replace it with a newer version, but my smarter half said I'd regret it. She was right. That map's a great source of memories.

I like MapSource, Streets & Trips, and Google Earth and all the newest mapping and routing tools but I still like to keep a hard copy in the tank bag. Like Houston said, it's something interesting to look at when you take a break or at the end of the day when you're running over the day's ride in your mind.

 

[mark from maine]

For those of you who have been following along, we headed out last weekend and rode the last three Maine state numbered roads that I had previously never been on. One that we rode was actually just a twenty mile or so stretch of Rt. six that I had not done yet. The rest of Rt six had been done in previous years. Turns out the section that we had to complete between Topsfield and Vanceboro is a wonderful motorcyle road. Good surface, linked turns, a few sweepers and many hills. Almost no traffic. I have now ridden or driven the entire length of all state numbered roads in Maine.

When we completed the final one my better half asked "what next?" I suggested doing them all again in the opposite direction. It is a week later and I am still waiting for her to get back to me on it.

Ride Safe,
mark

 

[ted]

Congrats Mark! Just got back from a week in Maine myself, though the only riding I did was on a Bicycle

 

[MAYLETT]

It seems there are several of us here who like maps.

I rarely, if ever, take a map with me, and I never mark them up, but it's not because I don't like maps and studying maps — I actually love maps to the point of an obsession.

Before heading out on a new stretch of highway, I'll spend hours studying it — both from paper maps on on the Internet. I'll use Google Earth to get satellite views, I'll follow the entire course of the highway in 3-D view, noting the turns, the stops, the vegetation and the landscape changes. I'll hop onto Google Maps for the street view and literally memorize the houses, the intersections, the signs, the trees, the stores, the gas stations and nearly every bit of trivia I can glean from it. By the time I actually ride the road, I pretty much know it like I've already been there a dozen times.

This even extends to places where I have no intention of going. Yesterday, for example, I spent at least two hours studying an obscure an weird section of the Sahara Desert in southeastern Algeria. Using Google Earth I must have zoomed into every nook and cranny of that barren, sand-and-rock-filled corner of the world. I'll never go there, but if I do, I'll know my way around.

 

[ted]

Every once in a while I will take Google Earth for a spin - literally. Give the globe a good spin, close your eyes and stop it, then zoom all the way down. When GE first came out I was completely infatuated with it and spent hours and hours a week over several months doing this, now I pace myself

I will say it is really odd what you will find in really out of the way places, things like huge houses overlooking the beach in Alaska without a road or airstrip within 50 miles, a shipwreck on a small, desolate island closer to Antarctica than any other land mass, a single bright red tree in the middle of a massive Amazonian jungle, the list goes on and on. It really is quite addictive.

And though I take your post a bit tongue in cheek, I do use Google Street View quite often, among other uses, to check road conditions (aka, is it tar or gravel?)

 

[franze]

hey Mark from Maine. That is incredible that you've got all that data in one place, only a couple miles of mystery left. That is very, very impressive!!! S'pose you're already drooling over that New Hampshire gazeteer !!

I am a Maphead. I can't even throw a map away, no matter how old it is, how outdated it is, how many duplicate maps of the exact same area I have, or how much of it is intact.

I've highlighted a bunch of maps from trips I've taken. Couldn't say I could ever tell anyone what that particular part of the country would look like, or who I was with.........hell, I've recently been looking at a map, with a highlighted road ( northern Nevada) and I have no clue about it.........maybe I drove through there at night

uh, I also keep pamphlets from every state Park, Nat'l Park, and ski resort................

Also have a thing for globes. I have one with East Pakistan on it.

 

[criminaldesign]

Whoo hoo, an Ohio Gazetteer was just scored for $5.

Mind you it's from '95 and I know of one road off the bat that wont be listed (33).

Picked up at a junk store outside of Ravenswood.

Time for some Ohio Podunks. I may leave some of Meigs County out, I've had friends receive warning shots for being down the wrong roads for the obvious reasons.