OTBR: A Rapeseed Field In Germany

Latitude: 48.295399° N
Longitude: 11.999700° E

A child on a road trip with his family asks, "Where are we?" and the father answers, "Let's check the map. We're off the blue roads [the Interstate Highways marked in blue on the road atlas]. We're off the red roads [the US and state highways]. We're off the black roads [the county highways]. I think we're off the map altogether." It was always my dream to be off the map altogether.

After the jump, a few of the random places (and I mean random literally) that I visited vicariously last month that are "off the blue roads".

Twitter Tracks: Baseball, Local Election, Oil Spill

Twitter tracks from May, 2010:

• 2010 05 01 - Congrats to Berkner and Richardson HS baseball teams, co-champs of District 9-5A. One game playoff today to determine top seed in playoffs.
• 2010 05 01 - Play In May! That's the goal of every high school baseball team in Texas. Two RISD co-champions went at it today. http://goo.gl/miKc
• 2010 05 01 - Thanks to the entire DMN team for coverage of today's rally for immigration rights. Add "si se puede" to the great American rallying cries.
• 2010 05 01 - I'm just going to enjoy the spectacle of the Kentucky Derby and all its excesses and not once think of Sen. Mitch McConnell. ... Drats.
• 2010 05 01 - The best thing about the Kentucky Derby and all other big betting events??? Despite the fact that my pick loses, I never lose any money. :-)
• 2010 05 01 - I was for Richardson's bond election before, but now I've learned that my alley will likely get replaced if the bond passes. Woot!
• 2010 05 01 - The Blind Side: good feel-good movie, more a family movie than a football movie. Sandra Bullock was good, not great. Compare with Precious.
• 2010 05 02 - Richardson Echo letter to the editor: "Don't let Richardson become Bedford, Texas all over again." Ouch! http://goo.gl/etdD
• 2010 05 02 - Catch Conan on "60 Minutes?" You know how long that show has been on the air? It uses a mechanical stopwatch and a magazine as brand symbols
• 2010 05 02 - RT @WalkableDFW: "Funny that my iPhone always uses it's and its incorrectly and imposes its will upon me." Yeah, that's my story, too.
• 2010 05 02 - Headline: "Pope all but endorses authenticity of Turin Shroud." I detect a man desperate to change subject, even at cost of sounding silly.

After the jump, more Twitter tracks.

Route 66 And US 75 - ctd

Texola, Oklahoma

Yesterday, I blogged about old Route 66 and the small towns along it that withered and died when the new Interstate Highway bypassed them. I suggested that the towns may have been doomed in any case, but the freeways played their role. I suggested that fear of the same thing happening again is what keeps city fathers worshipping at the feet of freeways today. No one wants to be the next Texola, Oklahoma.

I quoted Patrick Kennedy as claiming that freeways are sucking the lifeblood out of cities and are a lifeline for suburbs that the suburbs would be better off severing to enable much needed reinvention. I said there was something that didn't seem quite right about that argument, but I never did get around to saying what it was. That's because I wasn't sure myself.

After the jump, my rambling attempt to understand just what it is that bothers me about Kennedy's argument.

Route 66 And US 75

Texola, Oklahoma

Recently, I've been thinking about how US 75, which bisects Richardson, is a blessing and a curse. Texas Instruments, a huge economic engine in Richardson's history, wouldn't be where it is without US 75 being where it is. More recently, Telecom Corridor wouldn't be here either without US 75. And yet those benefits come with a price.

Significantly, US 75 is also known as Central Expressway. The name has nothing to do with Richardson, but the name is fitting for what it does to Richardson, slicing it in two down the middle. In the past, I've argued that we need to punch holes in Central Expressway to knit east and west Richardson together again and make it whole. Patrick Kennedy, who runs the most excellent WalkableDFW blog, has been even more ambitious in his thinking. Rather than punch holes in the freeways, he wants to narrow the highways or rip them up altogether.

After the jump, where he and I talk to each other or through each other, I can't decide which.

Preservation Richardson

US Census of 1860

"Time it was, and what a time it was, it was
A time of innocence, a time of confidences
Long ago, it must be, I have a photograph
Preserve your memories; they're all that's left you."
-- Paul Simon

That history project that Richardson City Council member Amir Omar has been teasing us with turns out to be an effort to collect and preserve our collective memories of Richardson, Texas. After the jump, Preservation Richardson.

Sports Roundup: Belton, Rice, Northwestern

Time to catch up on some sports stories I've been following. First up, it's high school baseball. Berkner lost to Belton. Then Lake Highlands lost to Belton. By that time, I was a firm believer in the Belton Tigers, winners of 11 straight games and unbeaten in their three rounds of the Texas UIL tournament. So, even though I had never heard of Belton High School before this year's baseball season, I was disappointed to learn that Klein Collins eliminated Belton in their three game playoff last weekend. I guess I should now cheer for Klein Collins, in turn. Never having seen Klein Collins play, it's kind of hard to work up much enthusiasm.

Next up, it's college baseball. We found in ourselves in Houston the day that the Conference USA baseball tournament was hosting its championship game at the University of Houston's Cougar Stadium and, coming as no surprise, Rice University was in it. So, off we went to hopefully watch Rice win the conference crown. For the last fifteen years, Rice has won either the regular season or conference tournament championship. Given that Rice won the regular season this year, maybe I shouldn't have been greedy and expected a tournament win as well. As it turned out, the University of Southern Mississippi took advantage of some critical Rice miscues and largely silenced Rice's big bats that had been so hot in the early games of the tournament. Rice fell behind 4-0 in the top of the first and never did quite catch up, losing 7-4. Now, it's on to the NCAA tournament, where Rice draws a big challenge in the regionals, facing four teams that include the University of Texas, #1 seed in the regional and #2 seed overall.

Finally, it's nice to see women's sports get some attention. The big NCAA tournament story this past weekend was the women's lacrosse championship game, played before a record crowd of over 9,000 fans. It was #1 Maryland facing the five time defending NCAA champions and this year's #2 ranked Northwestern University. Maryland ended Northwestern's streak 13-11. Every loss is a tough loss and every streak has to end sometime. Northwestern, not accustomed to athletic success, has had more than its share the last half decade thanks to the women's lacrosse team alone. Northwestern still has much to be proud of.

Gulf, Here We Come, Oil Or Not

From 2010 05 Houston - Galveston

We hadn't been to Galveston since before Hurricane Ike. Given that another hurricane season is upon us and the BP oil spill is threatening to change life around the Gulf forever, we decided not to wait any longer to make another visit to Galveston.

After the jump, our trip to Houston and Galveston over the Memorial Day weekend.