Well the 20 goes to Old Faithful and thru Moon Crater Park, the Sand Hills and the Bad Lands; dozens more incredible places.

I'll take that road trip, 30 days of wandering across the continent with Melon's sounds like quite the recipe for relaxation at this point.

Last edited by Emmeran (2016-12-08 22:40:48)

I ran into Wm Least Heat Moon not long after he published "Blue Highways" in the early 80s and suggested he title his next book, "Booze Highways". Moon wasn't impressed, but his next book did focus on micro breweries.

I've done the Pacific Coast Highway drive however I didn't really get to take my time.  It's still a very nice drive with tons to see and do.  Highly recommend it.

Look for an old historical roadmap from before the interstates rerouted roads like Rt 1. Overlay that and you can find some worthwhile byways. In RI the highway bridges are scenic and all, but the roads between the ferry landings and narrows are interesting.

I used to have a colassal refference book called Indian Paths and Trails of PA. Many hours I spent motoring back roads seeking the overlays and intersections.

Baywolfe wrote:

We thought about doing the Fort Kent, Maine to Key West, Florida US-1 trip but not sure about driving through NYC.  Although, I suspect it's mostly Interstate through the big cities.  I know it's a highway in South Carolina as we lived in Columbia and it came right through.

I would suggest against that. US-1 is mostly stoplights and strip malls from Boston to Petersburg, VA. US-301 is a much better route from Wilmington, DE all the way to the end of Florida, servicing mostly rural counties. Sorry, but north of Wilmington to Boston is shite, no matter how you slice it. I recommend rolling up your windows and getting through it as fast as possible unless you are willing to detour West at least to Corning, NY before turning South. There is *nothing* magical about Rt 1 through the Megalopolis.

But that Route 20 looks a hoot, except maybe the Detroit/Chicago area and Iowa looks like a bit of a snoozefest.

Johnny_Rotten wrote:

It all changed via the addition of a turbocharger, a 6 speed and a stiff suspension. Nothing even exotic.  Every curvey corner seemed like it offered unforseen possibilities and even on ramps to I5 became ramps to new places. And this was all accomplished mostly under 70 mph, mostly.

Shut it down as you top out third gear, at our age cops will grant us a little buffer.  But once you pass the century mark they aren't quite as easily amused.  I live my little turbo neon but if I drop into fourth at WOT it is definitely beyond forgivable.

Emmeran wrote:

Baywolfe wrote:

We thought about doing the Fort Kent, Maine to Key West, Florida US-1 trip but not sure about driving through NYC.  Although, I suspect it's mostly Interstate through the big cities.  I know it's a highway in South Carolina as we lived in Columbia and it came right through.

For the record - numbering starts on the West Coast so the official US-1 is the PCH.  Highway numbering is very efficiently done left to right and oddly bottom to top, I believe the renumbering happened with the implementation of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Defense Interstate Highway System.  Which as we all know was copied from the Autobahn and was one of the key components of the extension of the post-war boom.

There was a large Terex plant by my house that built nothing but the giant dump trucks and earth movers designed to landscape for the Interstates.  Somewhere there is a photo of me as a kid, standing inside the front wheel of a dump truck and I can't even touch the top.

Also, for the record, New Jersey doesn't not give a shit about the numbering system.


And neither does Florida.


Auto-edited on 2020-08-02 to update URLs

I stand corrected.