SOUTH CENTRAL U.S. trip
Nov. 29-Dec. 2 2013
PART 1
This road trip focused on Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi, and this 6-part photo shoot has 5 other states too. (I'm counting Missouri even though my I-155 bridge pic is from Tennessee.) You're gonna view every single photo until you have the RGB values of each pixel memorized...
The ramp from I-65 south to the Western Kentucky Parkway in Elizabethtown, Ky., is rather odd in that it sprouts this additional ramp to US 31W.
The yellow sign on the Julian M. Carroll Purchase Parkway in Mayfield, Ky., says, "PARKWAY TRAFFIC MUST EXIT." You have to exit the parkway to stay on the parkway, for the road to US 45 is straight ahead. Since the parkway used to be toll, this blemish must have cost the state a lot of money from people continuing straight instead of taking the parkway. (Happened to me once.)
On the Purchase Parkway near Wingo, Ky., we saw two idiots drag-racing each other. I attempted to capture the perilous scene in this video, but I couldn't do it.
Now we've gained US 51, and we lose the Purchase Parkway designation as we enter Tennessee. This is supposed to become I-69.
This unusual building along US 51 in Union City, Tenn., is part of something called Discovery Park of America. Also, it's ironic that a work-for-less state would have a prominent town called Union City.
I-155/US 412 near Dyersburg, Tenn. Just above the horizon near the center of the photo, the 1976 bridge over the Mississippi River starts to wink into view from miles away.
A view of the I-155 bridge, which will take us to Missouri.
Probably either CR 286 in Blytheville, Ark., or Sandy Bayou Road in Osceola, Ark. I-55 has several interchanges in the area like this, where the frontage road has a ramp to the freeway. Despite paralleling I-55, neither CR 286 nor Sandy Bayou Road appear to be an old U.S. route, and seem to have been built at the same time as I-55.
South on US 49 in Brinkley, Ark. The road straight ahead (behind the traffic island) is Charlyne Avenue but isn't directly accessible from here.
Southwest on either US 70 or AR 302. I don't know why the road has a moat off to the side. I almost expect to see alligators or otyughs in it.
Very narrow bridge over the White River on US 79 in Clarendon, Ark.
From the US 79 bridge, this is a view of an old rail bridge off to our left.
The bridge railing continues on US 79 at White River National Wildlife Refuge, a strip of land that follows the river for tens of miles.
As US 63/79 crosses the Arkansas River using the Lawrence Blackwell Bridge near Pine Bluff, Ark., we're looking upstream towards a rail bridge. It's called the Rob Roy Bridge. The vertical lift on that bridge is remotely controlled by a Union Pacific operator in Omaha.
This boat up on columns is a sign for the Port of Pine Bluff.
I'm not sure where this video is. Why would we turn right onto anything called Smackover Highway? It could be going west from Norphlet, Ark. Not noflet (like Ronald Reagan's hairstyle), but Norphlet. If so, why did it take 2 hours to get there from Pine Bluff?
A video going west on Hillsboro Street in El Dorado, Ark. We cross a viaduct that goes over a set of railroad tracks.
AR 15 becomes LA 161 as we enter Louisiana.
LA 2 uses Sherman Street in Haynesville, La. Haynesville is widely blamed for being the town where the extended I-69 was conceived.
Probably southwest on LA 534.
A brick-paved U.S. route?! This is southwest on US 79 (Main Street) in Minden, La. That sign for Minden Medical Pavilion uses the Sesame Street font.
From I-20 west of Minden, this is looking north on US 371. A rail bridge goes over US 371.
Topps! Like the bubble gum! This is I-20 in Bossier City, La. The name is pronounced "boh-zhur."
As we continue through Bossier City, we can see Shreveport peeping into view.
I-20 in Bossier City again. Why is Michael Bolton's mouth lopsided?