Many of you have my sympathy for the rat race in which you spend much of your time. Earlier today I was whining to myself and realized that many of you put up with what I was putting up with every day That is, attempting to drive through an urban setting.
Living in the wide open spaces as I do, miles and minutes required for traveling are generally close to the same number. If I need to go 20 miles, I allow about 20 minutes. If I need to go 50 miles, I allow about 50 minutes.
The first 7 miles of today's journey required 20 minutes. A later chunk of the trip resulted in 60 minutes achieving 73 miles of progress. The first six miles of the seven miles of torture was from where Douglas Avenue in Wichita meets the Arkansas (Are-Kanzus) River then heads east to its terminus at the west side of major aircraft industry buildings. Cutting di-do's through what is labeled Eastborough, with a supposed 20 MPH limit, did not help my attitude. BTW, Douglas Avenue is the major east-west route through the core of the business district. But, this was Sunday morning, not 5:10 p.m. The normal route, US 400/US 54/Kellogg Ave., only a few blocks further to the south is unavailable due to significant reconstruction. The normal speed along that route is closer to 70 MPH and exciting most days.
A comment on the wondrous Arkansas River. A quick measure on Google Earth suggests the entire width of the river in downtown Wichita is about 230 feet. This is after traveling a kajillion miles from its origin a bit north of Buena (Byoo-nuh) Vista, Colorado (a place where they celebrate the departure of the Cash tribe to this day) and merging with several other rivers. Apparently, rainfall is required to form rivers. There is a severe lack of such precipitation for the first three-fourths of that journey to Wichita. In places there is more water traveling underground below the river bed than can be seen in the river bed.
Here's a view very close to the Colorado/Kansas border in a wet year. The stream is about 20 feet wide. Good luck finding a high bank/low bank/any bank. Many years there would be no visible water in this reach through the summer months.
River boundary between states are usually the thalweg or thread of the stream.
Holy Cow, post: 402352, member: 50 wrote: A comment on the wondrous Arkansas River. A quick measure on Google Earth suggests the entire width of the river in downtown Wichita is about 230 feet. This is after traveling a kajillion miles from its origin a bit north of Buena (Byoo-nuh) Vista, Colorado (a place where they celebrate the departure of the Cash tribe to this day) and merging with several other rivers. Apparently, rainfall is required to form rivers. There is a severe lack of such precipitation for the first three-fourths of that journey to Wichita. In places there is more water traveling underground below the river bed than can be seen in the river bed.
Here's a view very close to the Colorado/Kansas border in a wet year. The stream is about 20 feet wide. Good luck finding a high bank/low bank/any bank. Many years there would be no visible water in this reach through the summer months.
One of the many wonders in Wichita that I enjoy (as I speed through there as fast as I can) is "Hydraulic Av." . I've always felt the name is a good testament to the fact you should never allow civil engineers to name streets.
As a child in "Byoo-nah" Vista I used to wade across the entire 15 feet of the Arkansas "River". It ran next to the city dump. Warm days would find us kids and our .177 Benjamin Air Rifle down there plinking rodents. It was very cold water even in August.
And as the Arkansas heads south it grows. A few miles away on what we use to call the "canyon" highway was a wide spot in the road named Cotapaxi, a mail stop for the train. If we could get someone to drive us down there it had the best Arkansas River July whitewater an inner tube has ever been on.
My oldest son sent me pictures not long ago of his white water rafting at Cotapaxi...it has been commercialized....sigh..I knew it way back when....
My wife and I drove from Huntington Beach, CA to our home in Davis, CA the Saturday after Thanksgiving. The 435-mile trip takes about 7 hours under normal conditions (including 1 stop for gas and iced tea and 2 rest-area stops to drop off iced tea), but on Saturday it took 9-1/2 hours. We were at a dead stop on Interstate 5 at least half a dozen times.
paden cash, post: 402376, member: 20 wrote: One of the many wonders in Wichita that I enjoy (as I speed through there as fast as I can) is "Hydraulic Av." . I've always felt the name is a good testament to the fact you should never allow civil engineers to name streets.
As a child in "Byoo-nah" Vista I used to wade across the entire 15 feet of the Arkansas "River". It ran next to the city dump. Warm days would find us kids and our .177 Benjamin Air Rifle down there plinking rodents. It was very cold water even in August.
And as the Arkansas heads south it grows. A few miles away on what we use to call the "canyon" highway was a wide spot in the road named Cotapaxi, a mail stop for the train. If we could get someone to drive us down there it had the best Arkansas River July whitewater an inner tube has ever been on.
My oldest son sent me pictures not long ago of his white water rafting at Cotapaxi...it has been commercialized....sigh..I knew it way back when....
A Land Surveyor must've named "7th Standard Road" in Kern County and "Grant Line Road" in Sacramento County. Also we have the Town of Meridian in Sutter County.
Rock Road is another good one in Wichita. Check out this one. But, first, add the words Sixth Principal to verify how this road got its name.
That really does run along the 6th P.M near the west side of Wichita. The Fed Ex truck appears to be a one-of-a-kind melting variety truck.
Dave Karoly, post: 402379, member: 94 wrote: A Land Surveyor must've named "7th Standard Road" in Kern County and "Grant Line Road" in Sacramento County. Also we have the Town of Meridian in Sutter County.
Meridian Road in Solano County also runs along the Mount Diablo Meridian.
Holy Cow, post: 402351, member: 50 wrote: Many of you have my sympathy for the rat race in which you spend much of your time
Thank you.
Part of our daily repertoire is figuring out traffic logistics. The crews are out of the office at 7:00am but before that we have to analyze current traffic conditions to avoid sitting in traffic all day. The ÛÏusualÛ wrecks start around 7:00am and last until around 7:00pm. We do have an excellent traffic system available to us on the web.
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Hey, that's not fair! We usually only have one real road to chose from. The alternatives cannot compare. I hear there are places with three, four, five and six lanes all going the same way.
Kennesaw, Georgia has an intersection where Due West Road goes in 4 directions. None of them is east to west!
Holy Cow, post: 402397, member: 50 wrote: Hey, that's not fair! We usually only have one real road to chose from. The alternatives cannot compare. I hear there are places with three, four, five and six lanes all going the same way.
Conversely, with a good 4 wheel drive and all that open land, who the heck needs 6 lanes going anywhere? Make your own roads with that much open space!
Steve Gilbert, post: 402403, member: 111 wrote: Kennesaw, Georgia has an intersection where Due West Road goes in 4 directions. None of them is east to west!
West Glebe Road is south of South Glebe Road in Alexandria, Virginia.
Locally I've been at the intersection of Otis Road and Otis Road according to the signs.
Actually, it just takes a bend but a long driveway almost looks like a continuation of the street so makes you do a double take.
I live near the intersection of A and B Streets. For most of their lengths they're parallel, but then A curves around to intersect B.
Steve Gilbert, post: 402403, member: 111 wrote: Kennesaw, Georgia has an intersection where Due West Road goes in 4 directions. None of them is east to west!
The object is to confuse the Alabama recruiters.
Steve Gilbert, post: 402403, member: 111 wrote: Kennesaw, Georgia has an intersection where Due West Road goes in 4 directions. None of them is east to west!
I just left the intersection of Due West, Due West, Acworth Due West and Kennesaw Due West. I dropped off a computer for diagnostics and cleanup. At one time there was a community there called "Due West".
Andy
I lived for a couple of years outside of Flagstaff, Arizona on a road called West Park. Of course, adjacent to it was South Park ...
Just yesterday I was at the corner of Walk and Don't Walk streets!!!!!
An ancient local story dating to the 1930's according to my mother. An inebriated fellow entered a corner phone booth to call a taxi. When asked where he was he said, "1896 and 1908". The taxi showed up a few minutes later at the intersection of Main and Central to pick him up.
Locals refer to that location as "the bank corner". For many years there was a bank on all four corners. Two had their date of formation chiseled into the stone above the entranceway.
