More horizontal signals!
VA 143 is now on Jefferson Avenue, which is pretty much 20 miles of traffic lights, with only one slight curve the whole way.
Charlie Chan's.
Meeting back up with US 258. US 17 also joins VA 143 here, although it isn't posted as continuing north/westbound.
Jefferson moves more and more upscale as it heads northwest.
Meeting I-64 and lots of traffic.
I really like the old-style shields Newport News uses.
It's temporary, but still hideous. VA 105 connects to Fort Eustis.
This is where VA 143's original purpose begins to show, in the northwesternmost point of Newport News. It was created (as VA 168) as a surface-level bypass of US 60 before the Interstate system was conceived. Between VA 105 and Williamsburg, it runs parallel to I-64 and US 60 without much access. Here I'm looking southwest at I-64, between VA 105 and 238.
The speed limit goes up to 55 after VA 238. For comparison, the fastest speed limit on US 60 east of Williamsburg is 45.
Entering James City County, whereupon VA 143 becomes Merrimac Trail and uses that name for the rest of its route.
Without much of anything noteworthy, VA 143 enters York County. There was an offramp of I-64 and one access road from Naval Weapons Station Yorktown, but that's it. Very little traffic, too.
It gets a bit busier in York County, and straddles the border between James City and York once or twice more.
I left VA 143 for VA 162. I covered VA 143's last few miles back in the 2012 trip.
From VA 162, I headed for the Colonial Parkway via old VA 163, Parkway Drive. VA 163 was decommissioned in 1994, at the same time VA 162 was truncated to its hilariously short length.
The Colonial Parkway.
I departed the Parkway at the VA 132/199 exit and took VA 199 west to VA 5 to head home.
So that's it. It took me well over a month to post this trip, but I haven't taken one since, due to preparation for my project car later this year. The next one will probably be another Hampton Roads excursion for the planned road meet there in March.
