"Just Jeepin'" (macintux)
07/29/2020 at 18:50 • Filed to: None
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"Just Jeepin'" (macintux)
07/29/2020 at 18:50 • Filed to: None | 1
| 19 |
I drove past something unexpected while I was visiting northern Indiana last weekend: a state-run rest area that wasn’t on an interstate highway. The “INDOT Thornhope Rest Park”, an undocumented parcel in an unincorporated hamlet in a township with no incorporated towns and a population of fewer than 1000 people.
No restrooms or other facilities, just a pull-off that allows free overnight camping.
What I find particularly curious is that, as far as INDOT’s website is concerned, it doesn’t exist. The only reference I’ve found to it is !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .
One of the great things about the Internet is that we have this vast library of information about what currently exists, but the gaps of information about what used to exist are even more vast.
Probably Indiana funded rest areas statewide before interstate highways existed, but good luck finding information about them. Perhaps this is the last of its breed. Maybe there are a dozen still lurking in hamlets around the state, but as someone who has spent countless hours roaming the back roads and highways, I doubt it.
Anyone else find any rest areas that aren’t on interstates in your neck of the woods?
facw
> Just Jeepin'
07/29/2020 at 19:03 |
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None that I know of. Indeed I have sort of the reverse weirdness, service plazas on Interstate where you wouldn’t expect them: I-95 where it runs concurrently with MA 128, forming Boston’s innermost ring road (not actually a beltway because it doesn’t run out into the bay to enclose the harbor). The area is way denser than where you normally would see highway rest stops, but I assume amenities were less available when they were built . Also a bit weird because the northbound and southbound service plazas are quite far apart, on opposite sides of I-90:
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Just Jeepin'
> facw
07/29/2020 at 19:06 |
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I lived in Somerville for a year, but because I was a 5 minute walk from the Red Line I parked my car and learned almost nothing about the local highways and freeways.
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facw
> Just Jeepin'
07/29/2020 at 19:19 |
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Well kinja ate my more detailed reply, but briefly I’ll say that I find the most interesting highways in Boston are the one’s that weren’t built. There are a ton of interchanges that were to support a new inner loop highway through Boston, Cambridge and Somerville and the new highways to feed it. All those new highways were cancelled when it became clear what a bad idea running highways through urban cores was. Here’s where the inner loop was to have broken off from I-93 in Somerville:
wafflesnfalafel
> Just Jeepin'
07/29/2020 at 19:22 |
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interesting - I remember growing up there used to be a few older ones on two lane state routes up here. I’m sure those were built long before all the main interstates went in . A gravel lot , a couple picnic tables and an outhouse kind of set up but all those closed some time ago. One in particular I remember having a swing set I enjoyed as a tot in the early 70's at some point...
SBA Thanks You For All The Fish
> Just Jeepin'
07/29/2020 at 19:28 |
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C’mon. The IN Highway Patrol clearly needed someplace “off the grid” to go for a quiet hummer, enjoyed in peace.
Milky
> Just Jeepin'
07/29/2020 at 19:40 |
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Off interstate? Certainly , can think of a few right off the bat.
Grew up by this one in Michigan:
But there is this pretty one in the UP:
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Just Jeepin'
> Milky
07/29/2020 at 19:45 |
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Given the near-total absence of interstate highways in the U.P. t hat makes a lot of sense.
TheJWT
> facw
07/29/2020 at 19:53 |
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I’ve always found traces of unbuilt highways interesting. We’ve got a few here in Cleveland-
This spur off of I-71 was supposed to connect with I-90 to the north.
I-490 was originally planned to extend east to I-271 but got cancelled due to (justified) local opposition. It would’ve gone right past my apartment though.
I lived in Portland for one summer and there were a bunch there as well
gmporschenut also a fan of hondas
> facw
07/29/2020 at 20:03 |
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Why melbea cass makes that odd quarter circle
onlytwowheels
> Just Jeepin'
07/29/2020 at 20:04 |
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There are many throughout New England. Nearly 3 dozen in Maine alone.
This one was closed in recent years. A developer purchased the 14 acre parcel.
ranwhenparked
> Just Jeepin'
07/29/2020 at 20:07 |
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There’s only two highway rest stops in my whole state, one of them on I-95 (the appropriately named Biden Welcome Center), one of them on a state highway. Pretty sure that’s it, there were probably more in the old days when speed limits were lower and people were more in the habit of stopping for a picnic instead of pulling through the nearest McDonalds drive-in.
SmugAardvark
> Just Jeepin'
07/29/2020 at 20:44 |
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There’s quite a few in California, generally along the very long and very winding roads. Sometimes marked as vista points, but sometimes just unmarked on the side of the road to give drivers a brief respite.
SiennaMan
> Just Jeepin'
07/29/2020 at 21:03 |
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There’s this one somewhere like that in rural North Central Ohio, but I can’t remember where now.
There's also one on US-30 just east of Upper Sandusky, but that part of 30 is only a half step down from interstate highway.. (70 mph limit, ramps at major crossroads, take away the intersections for county roads and the only difference is designations)
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SiennaMan
> SiennaMan
07/29/2020 at 21:11 |
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Now I remember, its on the east (right) side of SR 13 at the intersection with US 250 in Fitchville, Ohio.
Kiltedpadre
> TheJWT
07/29/2020 at 21:20 |
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We have a similar situation in Dayton. I-675 was originally planned to be a Dayton bypass, but it just stops at I-70.
barnie
> Just Jeepin'
07/29/2020 at 21:22 |
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I knew of a couple of these along Hwy 421 in NC in my youth (70s) . Just a turn out under the trees with a couple picnic tables off to the side. That highway started in Wilmington NC and went all the way up into northern Indiana at leas t. We used ‘em for drinkin’ and neckin’.
smobgirl
> Just Jeepin'
07/29/2020 at 21:53 |
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Texas has a bunch on the...ports to plains (?) route. And there’s one lifesaving rest area in the middle of effing nowhere between Cheyenne and Rapid City. Like right at the point where your kidneys are about to explode. Fields fields fields fields fields fields BATHROOM!
i86hotdogs
> Milky
07/30/2020 at 07:50 |
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If that UP one is the same one I’m thinking of, we used to stop at that rest stop whenever we traveled north for football games. It’s a little past the bridge, and provides amazing views.
PS-Michigan Tech is so freaking up there, it’s basically Canada
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Milky
> i86hotdogs
07/30/2020 at 09:28 |
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US- 2 just has amazing views by itself, so stopping for a bathroom break on it doesn’ t hurt.