Dayton meet trip summary
H.B. Elkins
The route up and back was nothing unusual -- I-75 from Lexington, where I'd had
a work-related conference on Friday, to I-675 to the meet site in Fairborn and
my motel in Riverside/Beavercreek.
All of I-75 between the existing 6-lane sections in Kentucky is under
construction now as the widening project continues. Various sections of the
route are in various states of construction. In some most of the grade and drain
is already done and it's just waiting for the final surface, in others
structures have to be completed, and one section looks to have had earthmoving
just starting recently.
When done, I-75 in Kentucky will be at least six lanes all the way from the Ohio
state line to a point south of Berea in Rockcastle County, with spotty widening
at points further south.
A lot of the old Ohio button copy signage has been replaced, particularly
between I-74 and the state line. North of I-74 there is a mixture of old and new
signage. I got a nice closeup view of the button copy north of I-74, starting
about the Mitchell avenue exit, because traffic was bumper to bumper and moving
very slowly -- and this around 4:30 on a Friday afternoon. Traffic thinned out
north of the America's Greatest President of the 20th Century Highway (aka OH
126) and through the area where the interstate splits into two separate
alignments, but stacked back up near the GE plant all the way to north of I-275.
There are a few construction zones between Cincinnati and Dayton that had
traffic slowed but not majorly congested.
I noticed several areas where truck stops and gas stations are advertising two
different prices for diesel, cash and credit. I'm sure the truckers, who
probably use credit cards for their fuel purchases, are loving paying nearly a
dime a gallon more when diesel is already around the $4.25 or higher mark.
Saturday morning I went exploring to collect as many counties as I could in the
area. From Dayton I took US 35 west into Indiana, then turned around and took
I-70 back into Ohio and then US 127 north, OH 722 east, OH 49 south, I-70 west
and I-675 to the meet site. This got me Preble and Darke counties in Ohio and
Wayne in Indiana.
US 35 changes direction from E-W in Ohio to N-S in Indiana.
The interchange of I-70 and US 27 in Richmond is under construction. The
westbound exit and eastbound entrance are closed for construction now and it
appears that the interchange is being converted to a SPUI.
As for the meet itself, we had a small but enthusiastic crowd. We had one
no-show and I got to meet one new roadgeek, Chris Lokken from Wisconsin.
On the tour we saw the work to improve the interchange of I-75 and OH 4, the
work at the Freedom Veterans Crossroad (I-70 and I-75) and the original
"Crossroads of America," US 40 (National Road) and the former US 25 (Dixie
Highway). We also checked out that odd-looking dip US 40 takes east of I-75, and
Dan Garnell got to photograph a few Ohio ends.
As for me, I will have an UPD*TE of 380-something photos from KY, OH and IN in
the near future, as well as plenty of videos.
Besides three new counties, accomplishments for this trip include clinching
I-675 in its entirety as well as a significant portion of US 35 in Ohio (all I
need now is the stretch from I-675 east to I-71, and from Chillicothe east to
the WV line) as well as chunks of I-70, US 40 and US 127.
All in all it was a good meet with good fellowship, an interesting tour, perfect
weather and an overall enjoyable exprience. Thanks go to Mr. Ruffner for putting
the meet together and I'll be looking forward to the next Dayton meet in about
three years or so.
--
To reply by e-mail, remove the "restrictor plate"