And so it begins..... road signs are going up

I had to go into the new 212 corridor. I believe I counted 7 new Coleman 08 signs form Eden Prairie until a bit west of Chaska. I think I counted 7 of them in the 15mi stretch or so, mostly in farm fields.

Is there any chance the Hennepin County and Carver County DFL can get some Franken signs on the stretch? I know that is not Franken territory. Or maybe the Franken campaign? They were the really large ones 5-6ft high.

I went out to my aunt's (in Bird Island) a couple weeks ago and on the way back 212 suddenly turned into a 4 lane highway I no longer recognized. As I passed the exit for Hwy 41, I figured out that was probably where I wanted to go but it was too late. I thought I'd get off at Pioneer Trail, but there's not exit there and I finally wound up at Prairie Center Drive and zig zagging all around to get back to Bloomington.

I've been traveling that road all my life and I never thought I'd get lost on it - where did I go wrong?

If you are coming east from Bird Island, just before you would go down into the Minnesota River valley by Chaska, you are shifted to the left (last bridge and entry ramps are still under construction), and onto a four lane freeway, that is the new 212 (this segment is finally finished). Stay on it and you go past 41, Dell Road, etc... Eventually (7-10mi) you meet up with Highway 5 and then have Prairie Center Drive and the 494 exits (North and East). If you get off at 41 and go into Chaska you can still take the old way down through the valley towards Flying Cloud and Eden Prairie Center. I believe they are going to renumber that stretch if they have not already. It is so much easier than the old two lane way with lots of lights.

Just kidding. That's what 212 was called before it was given a number back in the 1920s or thereabouts. It's an odd little road in the Twin Cities metro now and doesn't even link up anymore to its progenitor, Highway 12, but once upon a time it was how everyone got to Yellowstone National Park.

When I was a kid I was thrilled that the Yellowstone Trail ran near our home in upstate New York - it made me feel closer to my grandparents in Hector, MN.

http://www.yellowstonetrail.org/id2.htm

"The Yellowstone Trail was the first transcontinental automobile highway in the United States through the northern tier of states from Washington through Massachusetts. Yet too few people are aware of its existence or its social, political and economic effects on either the local communities or the nation.


This transcontinental route was conceived by J.W. Parmley of Ipswitch, SD, in 1912. The automobile was just becoming popular but intercity roads were plagued with sand, potholes and mud. Bicyclists of the previous decade, organized as the Wheelmen and counting thousands as members, had been pushing state and federal governments for years for roads. Yet, in 1912, there were few good, all weather roads, no useful long distant roads and no government marked routes. Railroads had been the dominant, almost sole, method of travel. But railroads were losing their allure because of their monopolistic freight rate-setting and the inconvenience of their schedules. The privacy and autonomy of the automobile was not to be denied.


The Yellowstone Trail developed in parallel with the nationwide effort to improve roads. The burden of financing roads gradually moved from the local landowner and township up the levels of government until the federal government, the states, the counties and the townships shared the cost. The burgeoning number of autos resulted in a demand for roads to drive them on, first for pleasure and then for crucial societal purposes: for doctors to get to patients, for farm products to get to the railroads, and for military purposes."

until after the primaries, with that Lord lady running against him.

Put up some "is a liar" right next to them. :applause: