Road Trip 2015 Toll Roads

We traveled on numerous toll roads on this trip. In our entire trip which was
6665 miles, we estimate that we paid well over $100+ dollars in tolls. Toll roads differed depending on the state we were traveling through; on some toll roads, you paid to get on, at others you paid each time you exited; and in Colorado on our way home, a camera took a picture of our license plate and a bill will be mailed to our home address (we were on that toll road in late September almost 4 weeks ago; and, have not received a bill yet).

Notice the landscape behind the sign; this is in Massachusetts (sorry about the bug smears - taken through the windshield).

This is a small fee area in Mass. Depending on the amount of traffic, there could be as many as 10 to 12 lanes. If you had one of the electronic pay devices, you could just slow down to 5 to 10 mph and drive through the designated lane(s). As we were paying cash, we had to stop, get a ticket, then proceed on our way and stop in a similar fee area when we exited to pay the required fee (so we had to look for CASH lanes).

This wasn't our first experience traveling on toll roads. But, it was our first experience with the Service Areas associated with the toll roads. This Service Area was in Ohio.

Service Areas like the one pictured above were located about every 40 to 50 miles on the toll roads we traveled (I 80 and I 90 both have toll sections). These were great as we didn't have to find an exit, and pay a toll to get off; then fine an entrance back to the toll road. We just pulled in ate, used the rest rooms, shopped, got tourist information and were on the road again. We did get gas at one of the Service Areas but had to pay about $0.30 a gallon more than we had paid at the last non-toll road gas station. So we made sure we had plenty of gas before getting on the next toll road.

Most of the Service Areas where we stopped had at least three fast food places. This on was one of the bigger ones with over six places to eat.

Everything you could ask for when on the road.

Information was always available for the asking. This came in very useful when we were looking for the Amish Country.

Comments

Early Mining on Mackay Peak

Early Mining on Mackay Peak Mackay Peak (10273 ft ) Ore was first discovered in what is called the Alder Creek mining district in 1879. However the prospectors who discovered the ore were too poor to develop their claims. In 1884, additional discoveries, including one in the area of what would become the Darlington Shaft of the Empire mine, created a boom in the area. NOTE: The Darlington Shaft (700 feet in depth) is located at the top of the the current open pit mine. . A 50-ton smelter was built at Cliff City on Cliff Creek This smelter was build by Wayne Darlington as an experiment to see if it would be economically feasible to recover copper from the ore by smelting. Wayne Darlington NOTE: I t could be said that Wayne Darlington was the visionary who saw the potential for the mining of copper in the Alder Creek Mining District. The Office of State Engineer was established by the Idaho legislature in 1895. The State Engineer was respo

Jesse McCaleb

Jesse McCaleb Jesse was born on Christmas Day, (December 25) 1837 in Roane County, Tennessee (west of present day Knoxville) to James Newton McCaleb and Susannah Hope. Jesse was one of 7 children. There is not much information about his childhood except for census records showing that the children may have been deserted by their parents and their being raised by close family members. Jesse left Tennessee (at the age of 20) in 1857/8 going to Camden County, Missouri (southeast of present day Kansas City). The 1860 census records list Jesse as living with the James Vernon family (James' wife Harriet was Jesse's first cousin). It was here that Jesse met his second cousin and future bride, Anna Boyd Vernon (Harriet's daughter, who in 1860 was 13 years old). Jesse was working as a clerk in the mercantile owned by James W. Vernon, but when the Civil War broke out, he enlisted in the Confederate Army at Camden County, Missouri and went away to

Hole In The Wall

I am a long time history buff. Especially when it comes to history of the Western United States. Parker When reading about Robert LeRoy Parker (Butch Cassidy) and Harry Alonzo Longabaugh (Sundance Kid) and the Wild Bunch; and, numerous fictional western histories describing the gangs hide-out called the Hole In The Wall which is located in north central Wyoming; Shirley and I decided to take a trip with her brother and sister-in -law and see the hide-out for ourselves. Since my wife Shirley was born and grew up in central Wyoming, I am always asking her if she knows where such and such a town is; or if she knows about a ranch, lake, etc. Parker and Longabaugh along with their gang, the Wild Bunch, performed the longest string of successful train and bank robberies in American history. Longabaugh So on September 7, 2014, the four of us along with Shirley's sister left Riverton, Wyoming, where Shirley's brother lives, and headed for Kaycee, Wyoming. West o

Wayne's Reflections