Road to the Battle of the Vowels, Part V: Making It To Charm City

In the last part of this entry, we finally make it to Baltimore. But first, we have to get off the Capital Beltway.

Ugh, Clearview numbers.

Here's our exit.

The A is missing.

Crap, we're in the wrong lane...

Traffic.

Let's try this again...

There we go. This part of the Baltimore-Washington Parkway is maintained by the National Park Service.

Faded signs.

Transitioning to the SHA-maintained part of the Parkway, where MD 295 shields appear.

The alignment of "Blvd" on this sign gets me every time.

Older-style I-195 and I-95 shields.

Temporary-looking signs for West Nursery Road.

Approaching I-695, the Baltimore Beltway.

I'm guessing this will be part of a flyover.

So if you have hazmats, you should take I-695.

I-695 changes from North-South to East-West here. Just do what NCDOT does and make it Inner-Outer.

Just after I-695 is I-895, which, as always, had work being done on it.

Baltimore city limits.

Old, but not quite button copy.

Here's some button copy for you.

Finally. Only 2 hours later than we should have been there.

Now on foot, outside M&T Bank Stadium.

The MD 40 shield should be US 40.

The view from the upper deck of Oriole Park at Camden Yards. You can see a lot of I-395 from here.

I'll save the game itself for a future entry. Here's the same spot after the game.

On the way back to the van.

Took a wrong turn trying to get back onto MD 295, so we ended up heading into town. I don't normally keep photos like this, but I like the double exposure effect this one had.

The trip home was much quicker, lasting about three hours. I made a few videos, but only one short one was any good. I was disappointed I couldn't walk around town to find some other old signs there, but there's always next time.