The Massopax River Valley

josefmayor · June 27, 2006

Wow, you are amazing. this is like the most impressive CJ i've seen.

I can't wait til I finish my city for you to look at.

dfnva · June 29, 2006

Welcome to Page 5!!

Pickled Pig: I don't like Walmart, that's why you won't see any Walmarts in my region, though you'll see a K-Mart below. I think it's interesting how downtowns and shopping centers, even neighborhoods, grow and decay, and I often try to think about that as I play the game.

Equilibria: I haven't drawn up a close-up map of Middleton yet, maybe I should, but the map of the previous page will keep you from getting lost, what we've done (and will finish doing below) is go South on I-73, we got off on South US 19, took US 19 into downtown Middleton, then turned South on MP 141 and then South on I-73 again.

Yoman: Thanks, glad you've enjoyed what you've seen, hopefully you'll like the "fancy" signals below!

David: I'm going to sound dumb saying this, as I've lived in No Va all my life, but I didn't know about how when you put the names of those rivers together it spelled Mattaponi, though I've noticed them when I've gone on I-95. Glad you like the interchanges, the nam certainly does allow a lot of creativity and allows me to craft roads more the way I want them to look and function, yet in other ways it doesn't, for example I vision US 19/Middleton Blvd. being 3 lanes in each direction.

Josef: As I haven't bumped the thread yet, I can't see what you've written, but thanks for your visit.

Ok, here we go... I'm actually updating again....

Here we are in downtown Middleton. Downtown Middleton is in a renaissance, of sorts. The town council, along with the Prince William County Board of Supervisors, are trying to make downtown Middleton and the surrounding area into a destination, not just a place to live. While some abandoned buildings remain, in the past few years, two popular restaurants have opened, O’Finnigan’s Irish Pub and Seafood Restaurant, which has a spectacular view of the Middleton Creek, and the Conrad's Brew Pub pictured below is popular as well. Also, an outdoor food court opened downtown and is a popular place for outdoor events and bands. The historic Middleton Town Hall, which dates back to the early 1800s, has seen renovations, as well. The Conrad's Brew Pub sponsors a regional microbrewery festival every August as well called the MicroBrew Fest, featuring microbrews from around the state as well as other breweries and restaurants in the Massopax River Valley. As for our driving, the two major roads through downtown, US 19 and MP 141, split into one-way streets. Also, you can see we’re going to turn left to go onto South MP 141.

As with any town’s makeover, the signals and signs are made up to look fancy, and a sort-of historical motif has been used here. Here’s the intersection with MP 141 North.

And here’s where we’ll turn left, onto MP 141 South.

Here’s the view on MP 141 South (aka Alban Road) as we leave downtown. A lot of homes have been built near the Middleton Creek as well as some new homes waiting to be built. The one-ways merge into a two lane road for a few miles, though proposals have come up to widen the road out to I-73.

Further along, MP 141 crosses SR 639/Horner Rd here.

Here’s the signal at SR 639. Notice the trail blazer for the Pegasus Park. I wonder who that’s named after!

Finally our last screenshot shows a whole lot! There’s the Pegasus Park, possibly the finest work I’ve done to date on a pond and park using puzzle pieces I’ve downloaded, though not the finest I’ve seen in the CJ’s, but I’m working on it.

The last intersection before crossing I-73 is with SR 641/Old Ridge Rd, which we crossed earlier on US 19. Originally SR 641 crossed MP 141 in the exact location where I-73 crosses MP 141, so when I-73 was built, SR 641 is diverted onto South MP 141 where it reconnects with the other part of SR 641, leaving behind a couple stubs, as you can see.

We’re going to go South on I-73 at this point.

Here’s the signal at SR 641, which stated above, multiplexes shortly with MP 141.

And here’s the signal for the ramp onto I-73. Notice the U-turn signal, so people coming out of K-mart can turn around.

Next time, we’ll try to get down to the even smaller town of Stafford.

Thanks for visiting!

Dan

dfnva · June 29, 2006

Josef: Now that I can see your post, thanks, though I'm going to be modest and not say it's the best CJ I've seen. Though, As I've downloaded more stuff off the STEX, I think my region has looked better, plus the ideas I've gotten from looking at other CJ's.

Equilibria · June 29, 2006

Yet another beautiful batch of custom signage here. I like the historical motif on the signs, which I figure must have taken some time, and I like the placement of directional arrows and shields within them. It is quite realistic, at least from my experience. As always, nice job.

AspieGamer13 · July 5, 2006

I love you CJ...

All the signs and maps and um... signs...

dfnva · July 7, 2006

Equilibria and John: Glad you liked the signs in the last update, I've enjoyed the signs in your respective updates in New Boston and Ashur County, as well!

Speaking of signs...We’re back on I-73 South, here’s a reassurance marker, mileage sign, and speed limit sign… up to 70mph woohoo! The I-73 marker is an older incarnation with the state name (Massopax) on the shield.

I-73 narrows to two lanes, as we’re not in the city or suburbs anymore. The Massopax DOT is experimenting with various formations of trees around the highway lanes. Farms begin to line the sides of the highway, as well. The look I'm trying to go for is that of I-95 south of Washington with the trees in the median and along the side.

Here’s a sign for the next exit, which is Exit 58, for SR 636/Hooes Rd. This appears as SR 639 on the map on the previous page, a goof on my part.

Here’s the interchange, nothing special, a diamond. Turning left off the ramp will take you toward Elkwood where SR 636 crosses MP 141. Turning right will go take you to US 19. At the intersection of one of the ramps, two trucks are driving through each other... uh oh.... maybe a stoplight needs to go it.

There’s also a Mobil gas station at this exit, the only service that’s here at this exit. Lots of trucks coming from farms, don't usually see that, eh?

And we keep on trucking along I-73 South. Eventually frontage roads line the highway as I-73 cut through the alignments of some rural roads.

Here’s a sign for Exit 56, for MP 29 / Sully Rd. Glendale is a fairly major suburb to the northeast of where we are, about the size of Middleton, and Stafford is a small town.

And here we’re going to exit off onto MP 29 and turn right toward Stafford. Soon after this point, I-73 exits the region.

Some signs for the exit…. this one’s at the gore point on I-73.

This one is along the ramp, pretty standard for most rural interchanges. Luckily I didn’t use the clearview one I drew up.

Here’s the view along MP 29, there’s a Days Inn hotel. I’ve changed the angle so you can see the hotel better, we’re driving in the direction of the arrow.

Standard MP 29 reassurance sign with mileage and sign for the frontage road to the Days Inn and farms beyond.

Our last screenshot shows the JCT of MP 29 and SR 626 at night. While the Ames (which looks like a 24-hour location in this pic) has been here a while, the Food Lion is only a year or two old, so a signal was put in at this intersection to facilitate drivers going in and out of the centers.

Next time (and hopefully I'll get this up before I move on Tuesday), we’ll continue on to downtown Stafford, and take US 19 South out of the region for an appropriate season finale!

Dan

pickled_pig · July 8, 2006

Ames went out of business a couple years back - I used to live a mile away from an Ames before it closed down to no big fanfare, so I'm quite surprised to see so many cars in front of that one.

Other than that, I really like your update - you can certainly see that you're towards the end of the region with all that open space.

Let's hope we can leave the region before you put the CJ on hiatus, as it would make an appropriate ending.

oroen · July 8, 2006

Greetings, stranger! It's been a while for me, so I had to play a bit of catch up here. Last weekend I took I-95 down to the Triangle, so I see the similarity of rural I-73 to I-95 in Virginia, especially with the farm frontage roads which you see so prominently south of Petersburg. So I see that SR-29 is Sully Rd here, not SR-28. I liked the historical redoing of the traffic lights in Middleton from the previous update; I noticed when I was in NoVA last weekend that in addition to Alexandria, Fairfax was doing this as well; some of their newer ones haven't yet been activated yet, so there are still two sets up lights up. And I guess in a fantasy world, Ames can still be doing good business.

Speaking of trees on both sides, signs in Clearview, and SR-639, this picture that I took last weekend is the only instance of Clearview on I-95 South in Virginia, as far as I was able to spot (and I was pretty much spotting everything). As a special present to you, to make up for my recent absense from here:

dfnva · July 26, 2006

Hi!

Well I've now moved into an apartment and finally have internet access.... and have one more update for Massopax waiting before it goes on hiatus... maybe I'll put together a SC3000 CJ as that's all that this computer is capable of.

Pickled Pig: In NoVa, we used to have a stores called Zayre and Bradley's that became Ame's. I'm gradually figuring out what to do in rural areas... either filling them up with farms, or leaving them "wild."

Oroen: Thanks for the clearview sign pic.... I had passed that on I-95 back in April, but wish I had a camera with me, so now I'm glad to have a pic of it. There is some clearview on blue service signs along I-95 South near Fredericksburg... and it's beginning to pop up other places... like at the JCT of US 1 and Prince William Pkwy in Woodbridge. I originally was going to have Sully Rd by MP 28, but decided on 29 since it's N-S. I noticed the new signals in downtown Fairfax, it looks like VA 236 won't be one way either anymore.

So later this week I should have the season finale up featuring Stafford.

Dan

Equilibria · July 26, 2006

Whoops, forgot to reply to this sooner.

Everything looks great, including the signs, of course. One of my favorite elements of your signage is that way that you use different shading and font to really give the impression that the signs were changed and corrected over time.

Also, might I suggest the no one-way arrows mod, at least for the sections you use as interstate. I avoided it for a long time because I was woried about construction, but it wasn't as hard without the arrows as I'd anticipated. Even if you have problems, you can always remove it when you're not taking pictures.

Just a thought for after the hiatus. Nice work as ever.

Syth37 · August 12, 2006