I often have a collection of things I take note of during my road trips, or when putting content on this website, that don’t often make it to a collection, or the final edit of a post.

They get scattered in a catch-all drawer in my road trip mind, perhaps waiting for one day to be put to use or fleshed out for a separate post. Eventually this “drawer” gets too full, and the post writes itself as a grab bag of loose bits and pieces.

I am writing posts like these to empty it out.

These musing come in three categories:
1) Road trip observations
2) Website content updates and complications
3) Future road trips

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If you’re an avid visitor of Cody’s Road Trips, you’ll know that the title of this post is similar to a photo feature we have here called “Road Trip Random.” These are unique sights that I discover on my travels that don’t have a place in my dedicated photo albums of what I’m featuring along the way. For example, perhaps there’s a large Halloween decoration along the side of the road. Or some weird historic marker. Or an old propane tank repurposed as art of a pig. That album is where they go. I probably could flesh out the interesting sight into a separate post, but there’s not time or background to make it happen – but I wanted to show them to you anyway.

I haven’t updated the Road Trip Random album in a while – until now. These photos appear first in the album when clicking HERE.

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Speaking of photos … I have a different setup than usual when they are featured on this website. I use a website different from the one you’re looking at right now to host them. I am on the Flickr Pro plan, where I can upload an unlimited number of pictures for a yearly fee (just less than $100). This is actually a better deal than uploading onto WordPress (used here) and upgrading plans. You see, I’m kind of cheap when it comes to this – Cody’s Road Trips isn’t my primary job. Yet.

In early August, I had complications uploading photos of my Pontiac trips onto the albums, and that was became of a bad internet connection at the time. If you read my post about my Pontiac trips, and didn’t see the photo album, it’ll be up soon. Note that I have limited photos of my visit to the Illinois Route 66 Hall of Fame Museum – That trip was taken 6 months before the post was made, and I had lost the memory card I used. That just means that I’ll need to visit again when I return.

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When uploading photos … I am finding that it is taking me more time than I would like to provide caption information. It’s easy for me to write a post, but many of the pictures require their own delicate explanations. Then there’s providing links to the original posts, and I’m spending more time doing photo work than I am writing work. I simply gave up for recent posts, and they’re unnamed and undescribed – but they are there.

This makes me want to rethink how I present photos. I have a goal to narrow each feature down to the 20 best photos. When you think everything is interesting, however, this becomes a hard thing to do. What do you think? If you go through the photos, are you being informed? Do you even care? Let me know. It may make my time on here a little more streamlined.

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Update to #Shabbona250 … I have added pictures of the Shabbona School arch in Ottawa’s south side to my photo album on the subject. I came upon this only recently. Pottawatomie chief Shabbona was born in 1775, 1776 or 1777 along the Kankakee River somewhere along its path – we don’t know for sure. I wrote my road trip themed around Shabbona last year with related stops throughout DeKalb, La Salle, Grundy and Will counties in Illinois. Last year could have been Shabbona’s 250th birthday. This year might. Next year might? At any rate, my road trip last year is in tribute of him. I also have noticed that the story has not appeared on my road trip Alpha List; this has been fixed.

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Night photography is always a work in progress … Apertures. ISOes. Lighting. These are things that one needs to be mindful of when wanting to capture unique night photography. I’m only learning at this point, but I have tried to capture certain things on my travels, especially in Chicago (see top pic) and Peoria. I only recently learned about how manual focus might make a difference in night photography. I’ll need to try this sometime soon.

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New news on my post about alternative ways to get to Chicago from the west … In July, the Illinois Tollway Authority announced new rate hikes to take place in February 2027. I recently wrote how I personally enjoy driving parallel to Interstate 88 from Sterling to Chicago. Perhaps this news makes it a little more worth it? Ask yourself if the timing versus investment is worth it.

Currently (2026), for those who do not have I-Pass, the drive from Dixon to I-290 on Interstate 88 costs a standard vehicle $10.20 going one-way ($20.40 going two ways); I-Pass rates are $5.10 one-way and $10.20 both. Whether you believe having an I-Pass is worth it depends on the frequency of travel on the tollways. Rates do not include individual exits.

The proposed rates show an increase to $12.30 one-way and $24.60 both ways without I-Pass, and $8.20 one-way and $16.40 both ways with an I-Pass. The discount for I-Pass users becomes less than the longstanding half-off. Go HERE for more information.

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Road construction season means detours … and if you’re a passenger car, sometimes those detours take a long time to take. If you know the back roads, you can go around at your own risk. My work travels to Lena in Stephenson County have felt this, as construction on a small, new four-lane stretch on U.S. 20 and its intersection with state Route 73 keeps making me go on the nearby gravel roads to get around. Or, you can take the posted detour from Lake Carroll to Freeport and back around, which adds about a half-hour to the drive. Ugh!

Another situation that I found in August, but wound up going the opposite direction, is the closure of state Route 40 at the Hennepin Canal bridge south of Interstate 80 in Bureau County. While this was not on my path, it did present an interesting scenario for those traveling southbound. The detour takes travelers on Interstate 80 to Princeton, and then back on U.S. 6/34 going west of Princeton back to Route 40. It’s essentially a half-hour “paperclip” shaped detour. Or … if you can turn east on Backbone Road near Manilus and Bureau Valley High School and follow that winding path to Princeton, it is an “a² + b² = c²” situation where it looks like a short cut. Only, you won’t find any evidence of a road closure at this intersection. But the locals know how to get around.

If you haven’t traveled on Backbone Road in 25 years, that tough curve by Big Bureau Creek before heading into Princeton has been smoothed out.

Some motorists ask themselves why do the detours take you SO out of the way. This is because of vehicle weight restrictions and large vehicle safety. Big semis that are unaware aren’t going to take the little back roads and become lost.

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Traveling isn’t my only interest, baseball cards are too … A previous incarnation of this website was centered around my baseball card collection, and all of the interesting stories throughout my years of collecting. When going on road trips and sharing them on this website became more fun for me than writing about baseball cards, I retooled the website into the Cody’s Road Trips you see today. Turns out, my interest in baseball cards never died. I have sometimes even gone on baseball card road trips, or stop at card shops during my travels.

When I have time, or when the itch is great, if there’s a baseball card thing I want to write about, this remains the platform to do it. However, I don’t publish these on the email newsletter or on this website’s front page; they are linked directly on my social media pages. That section of the website, which includes topics and my “want list” is linked HERE. More on my baseball card travels later in this post.

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No more annual fall road trips, for now … Due to a work scheduling rearrangement in content for 2026, my annual multi-day fall road trip week in mid-October has been eliminated. We added an edition to one of our magazines, and it pushed the release schedule into the week where I usually take off from work. Even if, miraculously, off days are carved out, there are still personal commitments to make me not go on these longer trips during that time of year.

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I have updated a couple of posts to reflect closures of places featured: the Beef-a-Roo in Roscoe, which resembles a vintage train station; and the Pine Creek Historic Wooden Bridge Park in Mount Morris.

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Future road trips that are on my immediate bucket list:
• Peoria (particularly Wheels O’Time in Dunlap, and the Peoria Heights Water Tower)
• A Springfield stretch spanning from Beardstown (historic courthouse) to Nokomis (Bottomley-Ruffing-Schalk baseball museum); may include the American Giants Museum in Atlanta.
• A return to Dubuque for a ride on the Fenelon Elevator at night, and a walk through the Mines of Spain (postponed recently due to heat)
• Wandering around Chicago’s south suburbs: all sorts of places in mind
• Things between Sterling and Quincy (possible family friend visit and nephew’s football game), which may include my first visit to McDonough County, or even the Spoon River Drive flea market festival in Fulton County the following day. Still TBD.
• One more trip to the monthly Madison Card Show in Madison, Wisc. (plus maybe a couple of other spots in town)
• A Norwegian cruise.

As of this post, there are two future posts pending writing of my visits to two places in Waterloo: the Tragos-Thesz Wrestling Hall of Fame, and the John Deere Tractor and Engine Museum.

After I take on these trips above, I plan on taking an extended break from going on trips. The focus would turn, at least for the time being, on sharing memories from past trips I have taken. The stop in Madison is meant to be my final baseball card trip, as I plan to cut back on acquiring new cards and limit them to “List” cards. I have long intended to “semi-retire” from the baseball card hobby and divert that commitment to more necessary things in life. The same applies to the interest in traveling.

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Lastly, I want to thank you for your interest in my travels and this website … I truly enjoy sharing my visits and interesting history and places with you. Apparently, more people are taking an interest.

As a professional journalist, one of the challenges we’re facing about making people aware of our stories is their placement on social media platforms. This is no different for what I do with Cody’s Road Trips. Social media algorithms have complicated media’s efforts to post links to stories on feeds. Facebook, X and Instagram don’t want you to leave their feeds and run off into something else (like here), so the visibility of such links are buried among posts that do get people’s attention to make them stay on those feeds. Simply posting a URL and a brief description into a post doesn’t do it anymore. So we need to be creative.

I have looked into finding runarounds to averting algorithmic red flags for Cody’s Road Trips content, and the personal postings of my professional work. This has resulted in the format on Facebook being 2-3 paragraphs of information, followed by something to the tune of “link in comments,” a single picture, and the first comment having the URL to the post. On Facebook, this has worked well, and it has increased the number of “likes” on those posts – and I hope more readers.

Posting on X has been another story. Because the posts are limited to 280 characters, it’s tougher to summarize the content and include the #CodysRoadTrips hashtag. The hashtag is necessary to distinguish Cody’s Road Trips content from my professional content (#SaukValleyLiving). The URLs are posted in the first reply to the X post. Still not sure how this is going, as X’s popularity isn’t what it used to be. While Facebook is more personal, several people use X as a means of self-promotion, especially in high school sports. With my X account is still centered around sports, there isn’t enough evidence (other than the few loyal readers I know of) that it’s working on X.

I tested out a personal video on my social media accounts not too long ago. I was surprised that it received the attention it did, as it was simply a well-wishing for high school sports teams and athletes this season. I heard from people who I hadn’t heard from in a while. They must like to see me head move or hear my voice. I have tried to incorporate videos into my road trip content, but the video quality of my phone isn’t the best – and balancing a selfie stick hasn’t quite done it yet. My front-facing lens also has been damaged somehow, so it’s hard to see exactly what I’m doing as I’m recording. We’ll see what happens.

Cody Cutter