Category: Roads
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Driving on the Opposite Side
I noticed an anomaly recently as I pondered a map of Interstate 5 covering California. Generally speaking, the custom in the United States is to drive on the right side of the road.(1) Just north of Santa Clarita near Castaic Lake, however, I-5 splits and switches that order. Vehicles driving steadily along on the right…
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Maintenance Update
Recently I mentioned that Google Maps changed the script for embedding Street View images within blogs. Unfortunately it rendered the previous format as useless blank spots on the page. However I’ve uncovered an unexpected silver lining as I’ve reviewed and edited each file. I can now find Street View images that did not exist when…
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The Visual Genius of Dave Oswald
Dave Oswald isn’t a household name but he should be for aficionados of larger-than-life roadside sculptures. Mr. Oswald is the owner and proprietor of DWO Fiberglass of Sparta, Wisconsin (formerly of F.A.S.T Korp of the same town). He has been constructing these masterpieces along highways and byways since 1962, bringing joy to viewers across the…
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Chugwater
There’s no telling what might register on my mind when I examine a map closely. Anything out-of-the-ordinary will jump to the forefront. It may be an odd shape like the perfect circle of Corona, a stranded bit of land like Carter Lake or a strange town name like Yeehaw Junction. It doesn’t matter. If it…
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Llivia & Ile des Faisans
Today marks a special occasion on Twelve Mile Circle, with its first ever guest blogger, Matthias Gries from France. He has researched a couple of French geo-anomalies that fit in well with the spirit and content of this blog and has written a lively narrative to accompany it. I hope you enjoy his effort —…
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The Stranded Airport
Twelve Mile Circle has a fascination with little chunks of land stranded on the “wrong” sides of rivers that occur when waterways change course. Usually this happens when severe flooding digs a new channel through a gradually sloping area of relatively soft soil. I noticed just such a spot in St. Joseph, Missouri awhile ago…
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An Extreme Definition of “Southern”
An acquaintance of mine and I once got into a friendly discussion about what should count as a “southern” state within the United States. I thought, well, the list should start at least with the eleven that formed the Confederate States of America at the onset of the Civil War. From there we could talk…
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Reverberations of a Doomed Expedition
What possibly could the tattooed mayor of a small rustbelt town, a subway station in an urbanized corridor and the towering historical legacy of George Washington all have in common? If you guessed a failed 1755 British military expedition then you would be correct. I imagine many of you probably guessed wrong. Twelve Mile Circle…
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Enclaves within Dhekelia
Cyprus. One island split so many different ways. There’s the de facto partitioning between Greek and Turkish Cypriots. And there’s the United Nations buffer zone created along the ceasefire line. Finally, there’s the British Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia. This isn’t about any of those divisions. Rather the three, well actually four, tiny…