(first posted 4/14/2017) As my regular readers know, I take pictures. Lots of pictures. I take pictures of my cars. I take pictures of my rental cars. For this dive into my photo collection, I am posting some of the more interesting road signs I’ve encountered and photographed over the past 30 years. These are all actual road signs photographed by me: No Google images or meme generator images here.
First up, Stinking Creek, from a 1992 road trip. I believe I photographed this on I-75 in Tennessee, but it was 25 years ago, so I could be wrong. Thanks to the power of the Internet, I found this interesting article of how Stinking Creek got its name (TL;DR; version – it stank).
On this same trip, I spied these speed limit signs in Texas. At the time, the speed limit read like the iTunes agreement, and was so long it had to be spread out over two signs. I don’t know if this is still the case or not – perhaps one of our Texas readers can comment.
Another well-known sign, from a 1994 road trip. I believe it is on I-90 in North Dakota, but I could totally be wrong on this.
Next up: A Road sign in New Mexico, from a 1995 road trip. Remembering to watch for animals for the next 157 miles would challenge the short-term memory of even the most attentive person.
Here is a picture of New Mexico’s famous Devil’s Highway, shot on the same 1995 road trip. Route 666 no longer exists: It was renumbered to Route 491 in 2003.
In 1996, I went on a road trip to Mexico (Partially covered in my Rental COAL post). Speed bumps are all over the place (called topes in Spanish). I found the sign amusing, since it resembles something else that I can quite put my fingers on.
In 2008, my wife Kristen and I went to Sedona, Arizona to celebrate my 40th Birthday. For those unfamiliar with Sedona, it is famous for its Martian red rocks. If you look closely at the sign above, someone modified the wording to reflect this.
The time: Summer 2009. The place: The summit of Mount Evans, Colorado. At an elevation of 14,240 ft., this is the highest paved road in North America. If you are suffering from altitude sickness or hypothermia, it is doubtful that you will be able to read a sign this long.
Speaking of dangerous places, we have this trail in Hawaii. As opposed to a single long and wordy sign, we have a plethora of signs with incredibly amusing icons.
Also from Hawaii: As if all the threats from the previous picture weren’t enough, apparently I have to watch out for bees as well.
Lastly from Hawaii, is this gem. Apparently Aloha doesn’t just mean hello and goodbye in Hawaiiian, it also means signal before merging.
I don’t have a pic handy, but the nearest intersection to the apartment where I lived 10 years ago had, printed on the road where it ends and meets another road that is perpendicular to it (T shaped with you driving upward), RIGHT TURN ONLY with an arrow pointing right. Across the road was a sign reading ONE WAY with an arrow pointing *left*.
(the road with the printed arrow actually had an unlabelled left/main lane where you were forced to turn left; the street you were turning onto didn’t become one-way until the left side of the perpendicular road. The one-way sign should have been further to the left.
I haven’t been there in years but someone must have a pic of the vague sounding “A Street Downtown” exit sign on the 880 in Hayward CA.
When that exit was on my daily commute for many years it never occurred to me there was anything unusual about it. Thanks for pointing it out – 45 years later.
And then there’s this one, in case you don’t know where to go.
https://goo.gl/maps/pZWnCRzZFMVVhasU9
Until the mid 1990s, there was a ‘Bastard Township’ in Southeastern Ontario.
Leftover from segregation? I-65 southbound near Lebanon, Indiana.
Thought you’d enjoy the attached photo. I took the picture outside of Rexburg, ID on the way back from Alaska in 2010. It’s a real park! Look it up!
It’s a beautiful and exactly right sign in every way and explaining the name at every opportunity is a good idea in this case.
ZZYZX has been done. There’s hundreds if not thousands of pics of signs from or to Maidenhead in England, there’s one which I have yet to shoot with a grade warning of 37% or something absurd on 108 in the Sierras, but I was always fond of this one, Zero Visibility Possible.
Hmm, didn’t seem to work, Too big? I’ll try again.
And this, which isn’t technically a road sign, but like a road sign. You might not want to dawdle here.