Old Highway Notes began as a curious thought. Searching the net led me nowhere. That gave me an idea.
Music and road travel are two of my biggest passions. Curious about how music styles changed from region to region around the world, I tried Radio Garden as a tool to exploration. Sadly, it didn't quite work as I hoped. Radio Garden is a great tool. The tool just didn't quite fit the job. A lot of radio is controlled by a relatively small group of corporations. As a result most radio is more global, or at least national than the locally oriented programming I hoped to find.
I wanted a map based music catalog. Since I couldn't find what I was looking for online. I realized I would have to DIY something myself. My first attempt was a blog with the plan of building a map by writing stories about music from along a specific highway. That quickly expanded into other "Old Highway Notes" related to the highways. Here it is:
I learned a lot blogging. The research and writing got to be too much to keep up with. In the end, I let the blog grind to a stop. The blog wasn't the site I imagined. Blogging wasnt the right design and it never really matched my vision.
Even before blogging, I used YouTube to watch as wallpaper on my tv while listening to music. After I stopped posting and with time to spare, my passion for video exploration blossomed. I began to build playlists and map my finds on google maps.
I had accidentally created a really interesting way of armchair exploring!
Eventually, my catalog of YouTube playlists and the maps to go with them had gotten so big they needed a real home online. This is that home. I have moved my maps from Googles My Maps to an open source provider. I am building this website. The plan is to continue to expand resources for map waypoints using other materials from the web. I will slowly replace the points in my old maps. They are in rough shape and need updating and sorting by topic.
Over the years, I refined my searches and methods to create what I think is a very interesting travel journal, perfect for someone whose mobility or time restraints prevent actual travel to the places I map.
