Travels Through Kanneberg County

pickled_pig · August 6, 2009

Well, I've not constructed a city journal in ages, namely due to getting a new computer - preloaded with that great pleasure we have come to know as Windows Vista - and henceforth starting my plugins folder from scratch and dealing with the infamous Crash To Desktop bug that plagues seemingly most modern dual-core or quad-core machines.

Now that the CTD bug is seemingly out of the way, it's time to get started on a new City Journal. I believe this is my sixth of these, following the Northern-themed Jackson County, the Mid-Atlantic inspired Winston County, and the Southern-fried Travels Down I-85, and two others that were so rudimentary in playing style they aren't worth mentioning. This journal, Kanneberg County, will follow in the legacy of Travels Down I-85, examining the urban, suburban, and rural sprawl that has shown up on a stretch of an Interstate highway - namely, here, a fictional I-77. The real I-77 travels from Columbia, South Carolina up to Ohio via North Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia. In this journal, we are going to be considering a fictional slab of I-77 somewhere in the center of North Carolina.

It should be noted that there will be a major deviation from reality in this journal that I have made is every one of my other journals. Despite the handy 50-feet-per-tile metric, my city journals don't follow the United States convention of mileage-based exit numbering, instead using the simpler sequential exit numbering that I believe only exists as of now in Connecticut, Massachussetts, and Rhode Island. Thus exit 46 on I-77 doesn't mean we are 46 miles from the southernmost point of the Interstate, but we are 46 exits (and thusly closer to, say, a hundred miles) from the southernmost point.

Unlike previous journals I've made, I'm not entering this one with a master plan. I've built two small rural towns that are fueled by agriculture and manufacturing, and plan to improvise the region as I build it. We'll still see a lot of roadgeekery - just not all those elaborate planning maps that were most of my last CJ.

We're going to start in Watford. A town of about twenty thousand people, it is in a very difficult economic time. Potatoes and hardware products have been its major economic contribution, but with threats of factories moving to China and Indonesia, this town's stability is in question.

The Watford Bypass (NC-198) snakes around the city proper, about a mile and a half from the city center. The vast majority of it is limited-access, but after four exits and about two miles, it suddenly becomes a two-lane highway with at-grade intersections. But that's for later. For now, let's prepare to go on a tour of Watford itself.

We'll have a real update in due time.

Keegan V50 · August 6, 2009

Nice start there!!,really looking forward on your next updates!

all the best

vv

dfnva · August 7, 2009

Wow, could it be??!? The triumphant return of Aaron? I'm excited to see this.

-Dan

pickled_pig · August 7, 2009

Dan, yes, it's the long-awaited return. It'll be tough, especially not having played SC4 in ages, but I'm watching the City Journals to see what kinds of trendy things people like to City Journal about now.

Victor Valdes, Cool. Welcome to Kanneberg County, and thanks for posting.

This update will also mark the beginning of Kanneberg County's presence on the new City Journals section [link to appear soon]. Watch out, as we're entering the modern Web 2.0 world. Word.

We will be headed in a general northerly direction towards the center of Watford over the next two updates. Loki Road does not sport a North Carolina highway shield, and Watford is served by exactly three North Carolina highways. First off, we have NC-198, which we've seen already as the bypass that surrounds the town at a distance. The other roads are NC-112 and NC-67, which we will see in due time, as both of them are multiplexed throughout the center of town on a thin two-lane street.

Once we leave the off-ramp, we are greeted with a low speed limit, a beacon of nearby civilization.

In the next update, we'll head to the olde centre of towne, via a right turn onto Flat Rock Road and through the remnants of the waterfront industrial district. Until then, comments are excellent. Searing criticism is excellent as well. No problem with some high praise either. But it's your opinion, not mine.

dfnva · August 7, 2009

Great stuff... I like the perspective of the drive-through, but maybe I'm selfish as that's my favorite way to present my cj. Nice bats and I like the realistically non-straight alignments of Loki Rd and Flat Rock Rd.

John Kirby · August 8, 2009

I'm from North Carolina and I've NEVER seen cole slaw on a taco.

But aside from that, good looking so far, keep up the good work!

Hawkeye9 · August 9, 2009

Wow I am very happy to see a journal from you again!!! I was a lurker in your older journals and I am very excited for this one!!! Awsome start and I will be lookin out for more!!!

Abc987 · August 9, 2009

It's very exciting to see another journal from you, Aaron.

pickled_pig · August 14, 2009

So, sorry for taking a long time. I put together the second update early in the week and then the family went to South Carolina, which took a day longer than anticipated. What was meant as a Thursday night return was really a Friday morning return.

However, seeing this is a City Journal of central North Carolina - the piedmont, I would say, if I didn't claim that for my last City Journal - there's a lot of both of the Carolinas to be observed in driving from Charlotte to Myrtle Beach and back. Even if there were no signs to inform you that you just switched from being in North Carolina to South Carolina, distinguishing between one and the other is fairly trivial. It seems that on every road in South Carolina, there are millions of roadside fireworks stalls, long-forgotten tourist traps, and antiquated so-called "gentlemen's clubs" that don't attack the North Carolina countryside.

If you've ever seen the sombreros and ponchos of the "Old Mexico" themed South Of The Border...

South_of_the_Border_sign_10_-_You_never_

(no, I did not take this photo... nor any on this trip. Bad idea, in retrospect)

...that's an exaggerated, but still on-the-right-track rendition of the tacky tourist-like stuff you see in South Carolina. If you want to get lost in cultureless nothingness, you are in the right place. If you want to part with your beloved money over tchotchkes, you are in the right place. If you want to hunt for a good restaurant and enjoy trying ten crappy places first, you are in the right place.

Dan: I'm stealing one from you here with the drive-by format. I'm not concerned about the "history" of the region so much as what it's like now - so I want to show the "completed" (for the most part) project, so the frive-by format was really appealing.

John Kirby: Thanks for visiting. There are at least two Mexican places here in Charlotte that have slaw on their tacos. The first one is a really old-school place called Azteca, and the second is a trendy, yuppie-infested place called Cabo Fish Taco. I've never seen it anywhere else.

Hawkeye9 - Cool. Thanks for the comment.

Jhrnemo - Hey. I remember you from back in the day as well. Thanks for commenting.

Anyway, the second update is fairly brief, and brings us up to the 'downtown' area of Watford.

Next time, we can either make a left or a right onto NC-112. Just for the record, there's more good stuff (my opinion here) if we make a right onto NC-112, but if we make a left, we can make a closed circuit around Watford via the NC-198 bypass.

As for where this journal is going, here's a shoddy-quality map of Watford so far that was a fifteen-minute Photoshop job. Absolutely no street names, minor streets, route numbers, or landmarks here - that's all for later on. As you can see, the left side of the tile is still undeveloped.

See you next update.

-Aaron

Hawkeye9 · August 15, 2009

Very nice update Aaron!!! Watford is really starting to look very nice as more medium wealth homes are developing!!! I also like that map and while its not the highest quality it was still enjoyable to view so great job!!! Awsome work and I will be looking out for more!!!

jacqulina · August 15, 2009

excellent updates my friend,wonderfull work

dfnva · August 15, 2009

I like the lack of major buildings in downtown Watford which is about right for a town this size. I think sometimes I overdo the number of commercial buildings I put in smaller towns. Nice map too, as always.

-Dan

packersfan · August 15, 2009

I love transportation roadgeekry based CJs...I can't remember if I viewed Travels down I-85 when it was active, but it brings back good memories, haha. Something interesting I never realized is that we both have I-85s and "US" 17s!!! And I know I picked those just randomly...wow, (in reference to Travels Down I-85.)

shaylan221 · August 15, 2009

What sign maker program are you using there? Looks fantastic, love to see some signs in my CJ!

TmiguelT · August 15, 2009

Great start and a very interesting CJ to watch... Rural/Suburban Life for the win

bluemoose · August 20, 2009

Nice Work.. ill be watching

crazychickensc12 · August 20, 2009

Very Nice Start so far it's looking great. I love the layout of the res communities very nice and realistic, keep it up lookin forward to more!!

pickled_pig · August 21, 2009

Currently moved into college, so the slow trickle of updates through the cliched pipeline will narrow and narrow. But they will still be here - there's enough stuff for five or six more as-is without doing any more building in SC4.

But the whole point of this CJ is to take some travels through Kanneberg County - so staying only in the Northeast part of the region will defeat the point.

Hawkeye9 - Good to see you agreeing about the map quality. I've fired up Adobe Illustrator and am redoing the map using vector graphics. We'll se it soon enough - it's missing route numbers, town names, the like as of yet.

Jacquilina - Hey there. Long time, no see. Hope your visit to Kanneberg County went well.

Dan - You kinda sorta do - but then, the simulator is based on the notion of "stages", so after a certain population the simulator is prone to constructing higher density buildings. So I don't blame you, especially if you like to grow your cities.

Packersfan - I remember you & your CJs from the olden days. Good roadgeek-oriented stuff, I remember. When doing Travels, I picked 85 and 17 because, well, those were real routes in the NC piedmont. This time around, I'm not going for that sort of parallel to reality.

Shaylan221 - I'm using Kurumi Signmaker, which is a wonderful Java app for building US-style signage in seconds. A quick search on the Intertubes should give you the program. Don't forget, that some people also build their signage by hand; for the seemingly limitless possiblities that gives, you might want to check out dfnva's journals, which are based on some gorgeous custom-built signage.

TmiguelT - for the win, indeed. Thanks for the visit.

bluemoose - Looks like we got another roadgeek in our midst. Thanks for visiting!

crazychickensc12 - I also remember you from way back when. Thanks for the comment!

Anyway, we're going to take a left onto the multiplexed NC-67/112, and use the highways to do some more exploring after that. Hopefully all this ends with a nice stay at one of the motels in either Watford or its neighbor city, Hastings.

I hope to have one more update before Monday, but no promises.

-Aaron

pickled_pig · August 21, 2009

Currently moved into college, so the slow trickle of updates through the cliched pipeline will narrow and narrow. But they will still be here - there's enough stuff for five or six more as-is without doing any more building in SC4.

But the whole point of this CJ is to take some travels through Kanneberg County - so staying only in the Northeast part of the region will defeat the point.

Hawkeye9 - Good to see you agreeing about the map quality. I've fired up Adobe Illustrator and am redoing the map using vector graphics. We'll se it soon enough - it's missing route numbers, town names, the like as of yet.

Jacquilina - Hey there. Long time, no see. Hope your visit to Kanneberg County went well.

Dan - You kinda sorta do - but then, the simulator is based on the notion of "stages", so after a certain population the simulator is prone to constructing higher density buildings. So I don't blame you, especially if you like to grow your cities.

Packersfan - I remember you & your CJs from the olden days. Good roadgeek-oriented stuff, I remember. When doing Travels, I picked 85 and 17 because, well, those were real routes in the NC piedmont. This time around, I'm not going for that sort of parallel to reality.

Shaylan221 - I'm using Kurumi Signmaker, which is a wonderful Java app for building US-style signage in seconds. A quick search on the Intertubes should give you the program. Don't forget, that some people also build their signage by hand; for the seemingly limitless possiblities that gives, you might want to check out dfnva's journals, which are based on some gorgeous custom-built signage.

TmiguelT - for the win, indeed. Thanks for the visit.

bluemoose - Looks like we got another roadgeek in our midst. Thanks for visiting!

crazychickensc12 - I also remember you from way back when. Thanks for the comment!

Anyway, we're going to take a left onto the multiplexed NC-67/112, and use the highways to do some more exploring after that. Hopefully all this ends with a nice stay at one of the motels in either Watford or its neighbor city, Hastings.

I hope to have one more update before Monday, but no promises.

-Aaron

pickled_pig · August 21, 2009

Currently moved into college, so the slow trickle of updates through the cliched pipeline will narrow and narrow. But they will still be here - there's enough stuff for five or six more as-is without doing any more building in SC4.

But the whole point of this CJ is to take some travels through Kanneberg County - so staying only in the Northeast part of the region will defeat the point.

Hawkeye9 - Good to see you agreeing about the map quality. I've fired up Adobe Illustrator and am redoing the map using vector graphics. We'll se it soon enough - it's missing route numbers, town names, the like as of yet.

Jacquilina - Hey there. Long time, no see. Hope your visit to Kanneberg County went well.

Dan - You kinda sorta do - but then, the simulator is based on the notion of "stages", so after a certain population the simulator is prone to constructing higher density buildings. So I don't blame you, especially if you like to grow your cities.

Packersfan - I remember you & your CJs from the olden days. Good roadgeek-oriented stuff, I remember. When doing Travels, I picked 85 and 17 because, well, those were real routes in the NC piedmont. This time around, I'm not going for that sort of parallel to reality.

Shaylan221 - I'm using Kurumi Signmaker, which is a wonderful Java app for building US-style signage in seconds. A quick search on the Intertubes should give you the program. Don't forget, that some people also build their signage by hand; for the seemingly limitless possiblities that gives, you might want to check out dfnva's journals, which are based on some gorgeous custom-built signage.

TmiguelT - for the win, indeed. Thanks for the visit.

bluemoose - Looks like we got another roadgeek in our midst. Thanks for visiting!

crazychickensc12 - I also remember you from way back when. Thanks for the comment!

Anyway, we're going to take a left onto the multiplexed NC-67/112, and use the highways to do some more exploring after that. Hopefully all this ends with a nice stay at one of the motels in either Watford or its neighbor city, Hastings.

I hope to have one more update before Monday, but no promises.

-Aaron

bluemoose · August 21, 2009

Nice Idustrial park and historic buildingns!

bluemoose · August 21, 2009

Nice Idustrial park and historic buildingns!

bluemoose · August 21, 2009

Nice Idustrial park and historic buildingns!

dfnva · August 22, 2009