Covington - Update 61 "Chestnut Hills and South River Bend"

[thundercrack83]

What a tour!

You sure weren't kidding about the size of that update, Jon! These smalls towns you've presented look absolutely amazing. Even though you've based your work around North Carolina, it really serves a microcosm of small-town America everywhere. I see places that I know around here in Pennsylvania that are exactly like this, and that's what makes your MD so fascinating!

Excellent job, as always, my friend! Keep it up!

Dustin

[Pat]

Jon a very fantastic tour and don't worry being a true Wisconsinite I remember to grab some cheese and sausage on my way out of Boone!!! Hey the road maps are looking grand and so is the Ariel maps keep it up and you might in OSITM permanently lol.....

[Diggis]

Jon,  I have to say I have started visiting the MD's of people who visited mine.  I've never been a big follower as they always made me feel inferior.  So I'm sad to say this is my first visit and happy to say now I will have to go back and read from the start.

Any who... Nice work.  I loved the small rural communities.  Am curious to know if the germans in Boone made their cheese a nice natural yellow, or that lovely Amerincan Orange?

[Ennedi]

I love such tours!
Not only your maps are fantastic, you make also great closeups!
I'm very interested in small towns showed by you, and look carefully at all these buildings. Personally I don't use many of them, because I simply don't know how to use them, I am more familiar with Euro cities and villages. But I can feel a specific atmosphere of these places and it is an ultimate test of your skills   Thank you for sharing it!

Adam

[EDGE4194]

Hi Jon- I haven't commented much but i have been keeping up. The last update was really fantastic. I am really enjoying this, especially your narration 

[threestooges]

Jon,
A big update you promised and a big one you delivered. Your map is excellent. Clean, readable, and showing more details than previous versions. The tour was a nice way of presenting the area. You have to love the stubbornness of the people living there... I guess the phrase "come heck or high water" takes on a new meaning here (or perhaps is where it was coined). I can't recall seeing that church before (or at least I haven't used it in one of my cities yet). 13.04 is a nice pic. You don't often see as much open space like that out here in CA as there had been though. I'm not sure if you have mentioned it before, but where did the name for Bear Lick Creek come from?  13.08 is a good pic, and don't worry, that guy who owns the house still has to put up with jealous people driving by all day, so perhaps it balances out... or we could grab some tp and... no that wouldn't be right. If a wrong turn is what it takes for you to show pics lie 13.09, then throw the map out the window. Something about that little area looks so peaceful, especially with the leaves starting to turn. It'll be interesting to see where this trip ends up, but until then, the overview pic looks stunning. Plenty of hilly undeveloped space, and everything seems to be developing well. No worries about the hotel. I'm sure you'll be on your way soon enough, I hope. Anyway, great update and I'll look forward to the next one (hopefully before the end of the month to really close out the OSITM with a bang, but even if not, I'm happy to wait).
-Matt

[TopCliff]

Great bunch of small towns there. One thing though: Walnut Grove on Walnut Creek? Interesting place names. Keep up the great work dude.

[nerdly_dood]

WHOA, HEY STOP, WHAT AM I SEEING?? Do I see what I think I'm seeing?  No, wait... US 311 comes in a northwesterly direction out of Roanoke, Virginia... US 220 comes north out of a truck stop thing near a small town called Troutville northeast of the city of Roanoke, and goes north on its way to Hot Springs.  On the way there, it passes through a smallish town that smells of sulfur from its large paper mill, the town is called COVINGTON.  (I think US 311 goes through New Castle in Craig County)

Even without the connections to my locality, it's a pretty cool CJ. sorry, MD.

[sebes]

It has been a few days since I last read this MD - and man what great updates did you post in those days. How do you do that - how do you find the time.

The updates are all great. It's too much now to start commenting on details, so I just say that all details, especially the layout of the road/streets and farms, are VERY impressive. This MD deserves all awards that are out there I guess... So let me start with this pink one:

[TheTeaCat]

Just had the chance to catch up on the last updates and superb ones they were too

Devils wash I think is my favourite spot so far as I know a place just it like back home. So many details but done oh so well

And your regions views are just ...... 

Till the next time
enjoy this


regards
Derry

[JBSimio]

Bat:  Thank you, my friend!

Robin:  Thank you!  Sometimes I think I may put in a few too many farms as well and that maybe I should leave some more wooded areas.  My tendency is to put farms just about everywhere the terrain is flat enough.  I think I just like the patchwork look too much to cut back though!   

Bernhard:  Thank you!  I would be very intersted to try out the FAR system for something like this as well.  I may have to see if I can't get my hands on a test version and take it for a spin...

Paul:  Thank you!  I've been enjoying your transit maps very much as well.  13.04 is primarily made up of CP's 19th centruy houses, which is probably why they go together so well.     13.08 was a picture I mainly took because it's probably the tallest bridge in the whole region... then I saw that house and decided to make that the story.  13.13 was one that I just loved the look of from the start.  I wasn't sure I liked the windmill at first (in general, not just in 13.14)... but it has really grown on me.  And speaking of trademarks...

Joan:  Thank you so much!  I've never been one for too much terraforming... I prefer to let the map dictate how things will grow.  I'm always very impressed with the people who can build on slopes and terrace them, but it's just not something I really do much of.  My biggest tip for the power grid is to use those smaller ploppable wooded lots.  SBFT, Jeronij, and Peg's all come immediately to mind for the 1x1 or 2x2 seasonal tree lots.  I've mainly been using Jeronij's because they blend in so well with the tree controllers I have.  They carry the power without anyone being any wiser.

Dustin:  Thanks!  I've found that many smaller towns in the US look a lot alike anyway, so I suppose interchanging them wouldn't be too tough.  Although, I must admit my small town travels are fairly limited to the midwest and south east (with a few spots in New England thrown in for good measure), so I could be completely wrong about that!

Pat:  Thank you!  I knew if anyone would appreciate the factory tours, it would be you!  I was going to put something in there about cheese curds, but I really didn't want to have to explain them to everybody.     (Of course, now that I've mentioned them, I'll probably have to do that after all.)

Shaun:  Thank you and welcome to Covington!  I have the same troubles visiting other MD's no matter what other people around here seem to think.  (I pay good money for all these compliments...  )  I hate to admit it, but you're right... the cheese is indeed that fabulous color that only comes from a healthy dose of ingredients God never intended. 

Adam:  Thank you!  By the same token, I wouldn't have the faintest idea about trying to create a European themed town.  There are so many great looking BATs out there which I am really not familiar with just for that reason.  Either way, I'm glad you like the results.

Edge:  Thank you!  I try to keep the narrations mildly entertaining anyway... 

Matt:  Thanks!  The people of Devil's Wash are certainly a determined bunch... but I guess that's why so many country songs are about hard working people.  (Or maybe that has nothing to do with it... who knows?)  I honestly don't remember where I got that church.  I know I've had it for a long time, so it's probably from the STEX... but that's all I can really say at this point.  I don't really have a story behind Bear Lick Creek at all... it just popped into my head when I was trying to come up with names that would invoke a rural feel.  I'm not sure it would be wise to mess with that guy's house... it's a pretty good drop into the creek right there!  I'm glad you enjoyed the hill top view... it was one of my favorites too.

Leo:  Thank you!  I name a lot of things after trees, actually... don't ask why.  It just seemed like a good way to go. 

Nerdly_dood:  Thanks and welcome to Covington!  You're a bit further north than I had in mind... and I didn't realize there even was a Covington up there.  Most of the highways are found somewhere in or fairly near Greensboro, NC... which was my inspiration for this one.  Many of the numbers are off a bit though.  US 311 should really be further west as it connects High Point with Winston-Salem... US 220 is pretty accurate in the southern half of my region, but not in the north (US 29 is what really goes past Riedsville)... and the list could go on forever, really.  I'm glad you like the MD!

Sebes:  Thank you!  Frankly, there isn't much else for me to do when I'm not at work right now... it's much easier to find time when living on the road, I guess.    Thanks for the pink award!

Derry:  Thank you!  I'm glad you liked it and it's good to see you around.  I hope that means things are going better on your end.


I don't know if I would really call this an update or not.  Perhaps "Progress Report" would be a better term?  I don't really know... and I suppose it doesn't really matter that much anyway.  The next update will include the conclusion of our little country drive, but it's not quite ready yet.  In the mean time, I was looking through older pictures the other day just out of curiousity.  I thought it might be kind of cool to see how Covington has grown over time.  So I took a bunch of region shots and cropped them to roughly the same area (as close as I could get in some cases anyway) and put them all together.  There isn't really a whole lot to say about them... so I'll just let you take a look:

14.01


14.02


14.03


14.04


14.05


14.06


14.07


Thanks for stopping in!
JB

[threestooges]

That's certainly a nice look back. It's really come a long way, but certainly has plenty more to go I hope. I think Bear Lick beats Cow Hug for that rural feel to the name; story behind it or not. I've never been that good at coming up with names, I always like to hear the stories behind some of the more interesting ones I come across. One of these times you'll have to show us Covington's airport so we can see where these great regional shots come from.
-Matt

[thundercrack83]

Boy, you're region sure has grown, my friend! And the picture-by-picture view of that growth is absolutely phenomenal!

The "progress report" was great, and I look forward to the conclusion of the country drive!

Dustin

[Jmouse]

I have to say this is one of the simplest but most informative and effective updates I've ever seen! I love backtracking to check progress and have actually brought forward early photos in a few MDs. You are doing a fine job, JB, and I continue to admire your re-creation of both rural and urban America.

Until next time...
Joan

[paroch]

Looking good there Jon.

I wish I remembered to take photos of such development.  When you look back on them in sequence like that it really shows what a great job you've done.  In fact the town looks like it has grown "organically".  I would tend to build one section and then move onto the next.  That looks like you've been constantly going back and filling bits in - WOW, that really is some achievement.

Paul

[TopCliff]

Fantastic transit map. It's not the walnut part, it's just . . . those are both cities nearby. Anyways, can't wait for more dude. Keep it up, and maybe, just maybe, show off that giant Little Italy you've secretly been working on.

[TheTeaCat]

What a lovely little recap and its great to to see the progress.

It is a great achievement to get the natural look you do and its done so well. I dont think the you have overdone it with the farms
in fact i think you got the balance just about right and it looks fab from region view.

All in all a superb update

and I just love that last pic with the plane

and yes Jon thanks for asking. I'm  feeling much better - just trying to catch up with everything

OOH is that the kettle I hear boiling - I'll be back with yours


TTC

[sebes]

excellent idea to have these pictures posted - It's nice to see how the town has grown and developped.

[bat]

Fantastic "show" there! Great progress on the development on that region/ city!

[Simpson]

I'm sorry for not posting to the last update I wasn't here
It's a beautiful update
Your region is magnifical and realistic very good