TEXAS trip
Apr. 30-May 6 2015
PART 1
Weakened by permanent, devastating nerve damage, I embarked (arf arf!) on a fact-finding mission that focused on several presidential museums and other bippage. Peep it until your face falls off and a waterfall emerges (like in the Cars video)...
I started our trip in Kentucky. (Imagine that!) To evade a Louisville area traffic jam, we slunk onto this road through Crestwood, Ky. This is southeast on Byp KY 329 at KY 146. A rail overpass lurks up ahead. Byp KY 329 is strange in that it only meets KY 329 at one end.
Southwest on KY 146 at KY 22 in Crestwood.
Beep this sign on the east side of Louisville. They had to add the "THIS SIDE OF ROAD" part because some people are dumb.
Southwest on I-264 at KY 1932 in Louisville. The building is evocative of the one in Springfield, Mo.
Nashville! At night! This is our usual I-65 approach.
I guess it's a brand new day after all, and here we're on I-40 near Lobelville, Tenn. The fact that there's something called the Loretta Lynn Dude Ranch made me burst out laughing.
Degrees aren't awarded. They're earned. Except at Brossart, of course. This is on I-40 in Memphis.
I-40 in Memphis goes high-tech! This is approaching the point where I-40 begins its northern loop. I-40 on the east of Memphis is also labeled as Isaac Hayes Memorial Highway.
As I-40 loops to the north, notice they were building a new ramp here.
On I-40 in Memphis, the truck up ahead was poorly balanced by the items it was hauling and appeared ready to tip over. Surely it must have by now.
Are they trying to cause more?
I-40 pibs through Memphis.
It's a shame what they've done to the Memphis Pyramid. After a Bass Pro Shops megastore replaced the short-lived basketball court, the exterior of this building was ruined by a giant Bass Pro Shops logo.
On I-40 at the AR 147 exit near West Memphis, Ark., a truck hauling a house was parked on the merge lane for this ramp. That's right: parked! And there were people walking around in the road.
Yellow diaper pails are taking over Little Rock! This has to be where a ramp from I-30 to Cumberland Street splits and forms a curved ramp to 2nd.
This is in Little Rock where Mahlon Martin Street (formerly Collins Street) meets President Clinton Avenue (formerly Markham Street). In the background is the former Rock Island Bridge - renamed the Clinton Presidential Park Bridge in 2010.
The Clinton School of Public Service, a branch of the University of Arkansas. The building used to be a railroad station. As of this writing, Bill Clinton still regularly meets with students.
The Clinton Presidential Park Bridge is a former rail span over the Arkansas River that has been converted to pedestrian use.
Bill Clinton's official presidential library and museum.
From inside the museum, this is looking up President Clinton Avenue towards downtown. You can see the I-30 bridge over the Arkansas River.
A better view of the I-30 span. Near the middle of the bridge, there's 2 empty piers in the river. I don't know what those were for. Behind this bridge, you can also see the framework of the Junction Bridge.
This sign has an interesting window to the Clinton Presidential Park Bridge. It's a window to the past! Ol' Bill himself might say that they've built a bridge to the 19th century!
The sign gives a fairly detailed history of the 1,614-foot-long bridge.