1 year anniversary mega-trip
The r-dub site has been online one year as of 5/12/06, and I thought it best to celebrate with another roadtrip. I planned this one out before leaving home, and just kept going until the batteries in my camera were dead and the memory card in my camera almost full. What I was left with was a ton of pictures and a car with an additional 720 miles on it. Okay, maybe this trip was a little too long...
Are we there yet? No. Are we there yet? No.
Well, unbelieveably, I made it down to the Front Range before I lost all of my sunlight. Yes, I'm fighting with some massive cloud cover, but I think we'll continue. Anyone up for another trip to Wyoming? I have some things to show ya.
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Turning north on 25 after SH 1. There's a whole lotta nothing between here and the border.
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Colorado has placed a buffalo silhouette on the ridge closest to Wyoming. Is this in retaliation for their cowboy on a bucking bronco symbol?
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Colorado has stringent billboard laws. Wyoming does not.
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The northenrn END! (#18) of I-25/US 87 in Colorado. Check out the mile marker on the right. Snazzy.
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And I welcome Wyoming's lower gas prices. The r-dub-mobile will need a filling soon.
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Wyoming does sign US routes when they're cosigned with Interstate routes.
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No, this isn't an ad for the X-Files or anything of the like. What does it mean? I'll let you think about that one for a while...
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Besides the light pole in the way, remember this sign: I'll be asking a question about it laterz.
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The cloverleaf (one of two in the state, I believe. The second one is two miles ahead) of I-80 and I-25/US 87. Cloverleafs in Wyoming follow the ABCD philosophy for exit numbers: NW corner is A, NE corner is B, SW corner is C, SE corner is D.
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Interesting diagrammatic sign in the median.
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Looks like the overhead highway signs are made out of scrap plywood up here! Classy!
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Remember that I-25 Closed Ahead sign a few pics back? Here's where it's talking about. What makes this interesting to me is this: Why close the interstate 3-5 miles out of town and force everyone to turn back? Why not close the I in town? (I-80 does this too in both directions from Cheyenne)
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When you know you're out in the boondocks. Yep, that's a yield sign you see at the end of the offramp. No need to come to a full stop here, since you won't be stopping for any other vehicles. Sorry about the smudge. That'll be fixed at the next gas stop.
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Heading back south on I-25. US 85 joins the party from the left.
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For a while, traffic from 85 wanting to head north (or SB 25 traffic wanting to head north on 85) was given a loop back to the NB lanes here. There was no accel lane on the NB side, and I bet that lead to a few accidents. The loop ramp was closed ...
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... and traffic directed to turn around at the next interchange.
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After filling up the r-dub-mobile again (at 25¢ less than anywhere in Colorado, thank you very much), we head into Cheyenne via Bus 25/Bus 87/US 85. Remember, kiddies: Cheyenne is Wyoming's largest city, at 53,011.
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The Wyoming Air National Guard base lies just to the east of Bus 25.
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Approaching downtown Cheyenne.
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Now in fabulous downtown Cheyenne. The only thing I've done in downtown Cheyenne is eat at a Subway.
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Alright, you roadgeeks out there: a little treat. We're about to enter Wyoming's Interstate 180. You can read all about the tumultous history of this "freeway" at rockymountainroads.com, but let me just say this is not a freeway. You'll see what I mean.
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The first sign assembly we see. Sorry about the blurriness.
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At the crest of a steep grade. No, that's not a guard tower, it's the control tower for the very busy railyard we're traveling over right now.
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This railyard, to be exact.
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Coming down off the viaduct, we encounter a traffic light. On an interstate?!? Wow.
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How the cross streets see the highway we're on.
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I love how the camera gets pissy at an improper time.
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Look closely at the fence. It shrunk. What's the point of this?
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The final "exit" is a diamond interchange with I-80. We've just traveled the entire length of I-180. Don't we feel proud!
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Heading back towards Colorado now.
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Yeah, that's what you want to see on an interstate to interstate ramp.
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You know, reading this sign literally means that 25 is Closed. You're only allowed to return to Cheyenne when the lights are flashing.
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The control gates for the potential closure of I-25.
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Remember that "Look Twice" VMS from earlier? This is what it's referring to. Didja guess right?
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Back into Colorado. Here's the BEGIN!nig of 25 and US 87 in Colorado.
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Wow, that's a pretty high-tech buffalo!
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Back at SH 1 now. I'll add this to the already-counted end of this interchange.
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I may be running out of daylight, but it doesn't mean I can't get a couple more ends. Here's #19. This interchange desperately needs to be upgraded to handle all the traffic. The timeline says maybe in 5 years. Ouch.
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One last end. #20. Not too shabby, eh?
At this point, I have three issues. First, all the rechargable batteries I brought for the camera are dead, the camera's media card is 10 picts away from being full, and the sun is getting too low to take any more pictures. From here, I simply took I-25 south to Colorado Springs. I got home at 9:00pm, exactly 14 hours after I left. This is the problem with photographing in the western states: it's so spread out it takes forever to get anywhere. Oh, well: it's the roadtrip that counts.
See you for the next trip!
- Where to next?
- Page 10
- This trip's Index
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Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with any of the orginizations listed within this site. I'm just a bored roadgeek with way too much time on his hands. All of the picts in this page are mine and mine alone unless otherwise noted. Remember, kids: stealing is bad, mmmm-k? I get quite pissy if things are taken without telling me. I don't like to be pissy. You won't like it either. If you want to link to this page, that's fine. Please shoot me an email beforehand so I can link to your page as well. K? Thanks. --Ryan
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