Favorite roads/road trips

So the Pa. Turnpike is scenic and boring at the same time, and the 401 from Detroit to London is cool? That stretch is enough to make me put a bullet in my head, particularly the first 30 miles or so east of Windsor.

(Although instead of shooting myself on that stretch, I can just wait to be slammed into by a truck going 95 mph.)

 

I-91 on the east fringes of vermont is a perfectly engineered road to devastate.

 

Yeah, pretty much.

 

101 from Washington, through Oregon, into California. The majesty of the coastal Pee-In-Dubbya on full display.

 

The best:
Highway 1 from Monterey to SLO
U.S. 1 in the Keys
Las Vegas Blvd., at night (it's gotta be late, around 3:30 a.m. or so, or there's too much traffic), convertible top down. The lights are amazing.

The worst:

Interstate 10, El Paso to San Antonio.

 

The road to Hana. As good as it gets.

 

I'll combine buck and dixiehack's suggestions and vote I-10 from Lafayette to Pensacola. The Atchafalaya River Basin is amazing, as is getting to cross the Mississippi at Baton Rouge with Death Valley rising above the PMAC and the hardwoods. The view of Ponchartrain on its southwest and southeast corners rules. Then you get to Gulfport, Biloxi, and the Mobile tunnel. It's all good.

Shorter stretches ...
- Texas 21 from Nacogdoches to Crockett, cutting through the Davy Crockett National Forest. For everyone who thinks Texas is nothing but dry, treeless, windy scrub, get you some of this.
- Louisiana 169 north at Greenwood, left at Blanchard-LaTex Road and continue as it turns into TX County Road 1999. At Leigh, turn north at Texas 134 to Karnack. From there, drive directly into Caddo Lake State Park. The state line splits Caddo Lake, the only natural lake in Texas.

City ...
- Royal Street in the Quarter, turning into St. Charles Avenue at Canal, then navigating Lee Circle straight back onto St. Charles Avenue as it plunges into Uptown New Orleans with the streetcar line separating each side of the road.
- US 59 south going into the heart of Houston. For somebody who grew up in a rural small town, it was overwhelmingly glorious the first time I drove it.

 

the road home/the road to work

 

Vermont is pretty. I would submit a vote for the Merritt Parkway in CT. Its on the national register as a landmark, two lanes and every bridge is different. Heading into NY in the fall is a good ride.

I'll echo Route 1 in Key West.

I-80 in Pennsylvania makes me want to give a b-j to a baretta.

 

Blue Ridge Parkway/Skyline Drive is pretty awesome

Not so awesome: U.S. 17 from Norfolk to Greensboro and pretty much any east-west road between Norfolk and Bristol or Roanoke

 

Joe is wise.

— Hwy 101

 

I'll second that. Also I-45 going south into downtown; tremendous view of the city.

I drove the loops around H-town more than I care to admit. Saw every angle of downtown there is to see. Those two were the best.