I attended my fourth Road Meet on Saturday, and I still can’t quite explain what they are. I believe they started back in the days of Usenet, flourished when Yahoo groups were big, and continue today via Facebook groups. To be honest, though, they could, for all I know, predate Usenet and have seen significant MySpace history. The actual meets are informal gatherings of like-minded individuals to visit road related points of interest in a specific area under the guidance of one or a few volunteer organizers. All of the Road Meets I’ve attended have been in Ohio but they can be found through much of the eastern U.S. I’ve heard of meets in Michigan, Tennessee, New Jersey, and Missouri and I know there have been others.
The opening photo was taken as I drove east to the Road Meet on OH-32, a.k.a, the Appalachian Highway. The three at left were taken after I turned on the two-lane OH-73.
A meal is an important part of every Road Meet. The setting for this one was the Portsmouth Brewing Company which I’ve visited several times in the past. I knew maybe half the attendees from previous meets but I won’t attempt to identify anyone other than this meet’s host, Sandor Gulyas at the table’s far end on the picture’s left. Nice Job. The first two of those previous meets had included at least one person within a generation or two of my age. That wasn’t true of the Cincinnati meet and clearly wasn’t true of this one. I think I can take credit for single-handedly raising the group’s average age by at least half a decade.
Before taking to our cars, we walked to nearby Alexandria Point Park which allowed us to see both of Portsmouth’s Ohio River bridges. The cantilevered Carl D. Perkins bridge is to the west. The cable-stayed U.S. Grant bridge is to the east.
Our big drive began by crossing the Perkins Bridge into Kentucky, pausing at an overlook to study the Grant Bridge, then crossing it to return to Ohio. The Grant Bridge is indeed named for the Ohio born 18th president. The Perkins Bridge is not named for the blue suede shoe wairing rockabilly star but for a Kentucky politician. I’m still disappointed by that.
This is Ohio’s newest highway and the primary reason for having the meet here. Officially named Southern Ohio Veterans Memorial Highway, OH-823 was dedicated and opened in December. All three pictures were taken while driving OH-823 southbound after reaching the highway’s northern end using US-23.
After driving all sixteen miles of OH-823, we started working our way back north primarily on OH-335 We slipped off to pass through a railroad underpass on Stout Hollow Road and paused to photograph a collection of signs near the Portsmouth Regional Airport. We then returned to OH-823 and drove roughly ten miles of it northbound.
Near OH-823’s northern end, we picked up OH-348 and followed it through the town of Otway to the covered bridge just west of town. A sign near the bridge tells its story. It was decided that a group photo should be taken here and I won the job by having the only tripod present. Although I tried blaming it on the equipment, the problem was really with the operator. In order to assure that the whole bridge was in the picture, I placed the camera too far away and I believe the distance and bright sun combined kept the infrared remote from working properly. Then, when I got a good look at what I did manage, I saw that the focus kind of sucked, too.
We all returned to Portsmouth on OH-73 which I had arrived on earlier. We said our goodbyes and I headed home along the Ohio River on US-52. The Road Meet was over and I wasn’t looking for any more photo-ops but near Manchester I spotted an old friend. For years, the Showboat Majestic was an important part of Cincinnati’s riverfront but she was moved upriver in March after being sold. I don’t know when she’ll be back in action but now I know exactly where she is.
Apparently I did not document that first Road Meet in Columbus but here are entries for Dayton and Cincinnati.