The Miller Treks: May 2021

This year's Grand Tour is American Byways. Almost every state has a scenic byway program that operates under the guidance of the fed's American Scenic Byways Act. These routes are usually not interstates, but the older, more historic routes. There are 184 National Scenic Byways located in 48 states [none in Hawaii and Texas] as well as thousands of state designated scenic byways. This website serves as good reference for the entire program:
|https://scenicbyways.info/

Maryland has 19 alone; I figured, how hard could it be to just start down one of these designated byways and find a sign? If I have learned anything from watching BBC's Top Gear is to never ask that question. Turns out, they are not well marked, even in Maryland. I went looking for three and came up with only this one: The Star Spangled Banner Byway which by the way has a terminus at Fort McHenry, about 5 miles from the house. To be fair, I did just do a short section of the Religious Freedom Byway, but I rode the Booth's Escape Trail from Brandywine to the district line and other than the historic markers related to his escape saw nothing, no signs, nada.

1- Star Spangled Banner Byway- MD

Now, I have to do research. Apparently, you cant just pick up these byways and expect to find designator signs.

Having done some extensive digging, I now have a base of operations for several excursions, this first of which is to and from the greater Twin Cities area, home to the Minnesota 1000. I will keep this updated in Garmin's BaseMap software as I go updating the Google version as needed.

Before we go any further, Ohio...... frigging Ohio, has an interesting way to mark scenic byways: just a "byway" sign adorned with the buckeye flower. GRRRRRRR. The good news is that none of the route numbers appear to overlap, so each Scenic Byway is assigned to specific highway route numbers.

so off we go. Minnesota bound.

2- Accommodations Byway- OH [according to their website]