Actually there were three stretches of road, on two different road trips. I don’t have pics of the vette on the road, just pics from the cabin looking forward, but you’ll get the gist.
The first was an underpass going under I-40 on Historic Route 66 between Tucumcari NM and Newkirk NM. In a number of instances, the original routing has been turned into service roads beside the Interstates, sometimes called ‘Frontage Road’. The Interstates often bisect the original routing, so you need to switch from one side of the Interstate to the other. Mostly, there are overpasses to do this. Mostly. This was an exception. There was a short stretch of dirt (not gravel) and warnings about not taking RV’s through there and the usual warnings about standing water. Didn’t look too bad, so I pressed on.
View from above:
View from the cockpit:
The second stretch was the Dixie Highway road trip, on 1 SW Federal Highway in FL, which was documented to be part of the original routing. The road surface quickly became pure sand, but it seemed pretty hard packed and once again not gravel, which I avoid like the plague. So, I pressed on, but things became increasingly hazardous, what with numerous ruts left by trucks when the sand was wet. There was no real place to turn around, and I was concerned that I might get stuck if I stopped, so I kept going. I did have some idea of how long the stretch was. I wasn’t going all that fast, but I did nail a few of the higher ridges with the splitter. Nothing got damaged, and nothing got caked with sand, except for a bit on the splitter which I attended to at the first self-serve car wash. Now I’ve gotten a bit smarter, and even though it takes some time, I traverse my road trips first with Google Earth to make sure the routing is paved in some fashion.
1 SW Federal Highway from the cockpit.
The 'Sand Plow'
The above experience convinced me not continue on the Dixie Highway north out of Espanola Fl. At one point, the entire stretch there was paved with bricks, so I drove to the point the bricks ended, turned around and found another route to continue on.
If you look closely, you can see the bricks.
The first was an underpass going under I-40 on Historic Route 66 between Tucumcari NM and Newkirk NM. In a number of instances, the original routing has been turned into service roads beside the Interstates, sometimes called ‘Frontage Road’. The Interstates often bisect the original routing, so you need to switch from one side of the Interstate to the other. Mostly, there are overpasses to do this. Mostly. This was an exception. There was a short stretch of dirt (not gravel) and warnings about not taking RV’s through there and the usual warnings about standing water. Didn’t look too bad, so I pressed on.
View from above:
View from the cockpit:
The second stretch was the Dixie Highway road trip, on 1 SW Federal Highway in FL, which was documented to be part of the original routing. The road surface quickly became pure sand, but it seemed pretty hard packed and once again not gravel, which I avoid like the plague. So, I pressed on, but things became increasingly hazardous, what with numerous ruts left by trucks when the sand was wet. There was no real place to turn around, and I was concerned that I might get stuck if I stopped, so I kept going. I did have some idea of how long the stretch was. I wasn’t going all that fast, but I did nail a few of the higher ridges with the splitter. Nothing got damaged, and nothing got caked with sand, except for a bit on the splitter which I attended to at the first self-serve car wash. Now I’ve gotten a bit smarter, and even though it takes some time, I traverse my road trips first with Google Earth to make sure the routing is paved in some fashion.
1 SW Federal Highway from the cockpit.
The 'Sand Plow'
The above experience convinced me not continue on the Dixie Highway north out of Espanola Fl. At one point, the entire stretch there was paved with bricks, so I drove to the point the bricks ended, turned around and found another route to continue on.
If you look closely, you can see the bricks.
