Favorite roads/road trips

Yes, nice call.

 

Driving through the mountains in TN, and WVA.

 

Some drives I've enjoyed ...

-- U.S. 2 along the bottom of the UP along the northern shore of Lake Michigan is really beautiful. You don't even feel like you're in the U.S., you feel like you're looking down on the U.S. from this desolate, gorgeous bizarro world.

-- Not as desolate, but similarly beautiful is old U.S. 61 along Minnesota's North Shore. The mammoth industrial buildings of the iron ore docks contrasts oddly with the natural beauty and absolute remoteness of Lake Superior and the northwoods.

-- Since I only do it once or twice a year, I actually enjoy driving through the Flint Hills in Kansas. If you live east, the wide-open spaces and remoteness make it seem grand, especially at sunset. However, I have a feeling that the appeal would diminish the more I drove it.

-- Also remote is I-64 through southern Indiana. From Corydon to Huntingburg, there is nothing but hills and very few cars. Always enjoyed that drive, though its been years since I've done it. Many of Indiana's state roads in that area are scenic too.

-- The West Virginia turnpike is very pretty and harrowing to drive in the rain.

-- I still get a charge about going through the Ft. Pitt Tunnel from the west, emerging on a bridge over the confluence going right into downtown Pittsburgh. When I was young, we went on a family vacation to D.C. and decided to drive through Pittsburgh on a whim. None of us had any idea that the city just emerged out of the tunnel like that, it was really cool.

-- Crimson mentioned I-26 going into Asheville. I drove that route a year or two before they built the interstate from the north. The switchbacks were dizzying after a while.

Worst:

-- U.S. 41/Indiana 63 from the Region in Indiana to Evansville is the stuff suicides are made of. Dreadfully boring and desolate from St. John to Terre Haute, then, a bazillion stoplights litter the route to Evansville on a road that's slightly less boring than the northern stage, but boring nonetheless.

I have to travel this route frequently for my job, and though I have far, far longer drives, my annual trip down U.S. 41 could be my least favorite.

-- I-44 through Missouri is dangerous. Nothing quite like driving southwest into the sunset over a road that was engineered by someone who had to be a sociopath. Heading north, I was nearly a goner a few years ago when I emerged over one of the many blind hills and there was a tire tread off a truck in the middle of the road. Had the other lane not been available to swerve into, I was in big trouble. Not even the myriad adult book stores can save this road.

-- The Illinois interstate system... all of them ... I-39, I-57, I-80, I-90, I-88, I-64, I-70, I-94, I-74, I-55, I-24. Either they're dreadfully boring or littered with tolls and too much traffic. I-74 gets a bonus point for extreme right-wing Burma Shave signs, but gets it taken away for the stretch between Peoria and the Quad Cities, a slice of road so boring you might just invent your own religion with yourself as the deity just to get yourself through.

-- I've never been to Russia, but I-80 and I-380 in Iowa are what I imagine the Russian steppe is like.

-- The turnpike system from Chicago to Cleveland is bad. They should pay me to drive it.

 

Big ups (so to speak) on U.S. 2, which my family took for years when we came south from Muskegon to see relatives in the Gladstone-Escanaba area. There are a lot of beautiful drives in the U.P., all of which feel like your destination is the end of the earth.

In the similar part of the country, the worst drive is U.S. 41 from Marinette to Green Bay, and vice versa. Marinette, Peshtigo and Oconto all have ridiculously low speed limits that drop from 55 to 25 as soon as you enter town, providing what appears to be the bulk of their revenue, because it appears these cities all have 100 cops doing nothing but pulling people over. Watch your speed, especially if you have out-of-state plates.

 

Check

And check.

 

C'ville west to 81 isn't so bad on 64, especially when leaves are turning.

Plus, you can stop at the Cheese Shop in Stuart's Draft.

 

Good to see Upper Michigan getting some love.

Brockway Mountain Drive in the Keewenaw, south of Copper Harbor. Doesn't get any better than that.

 

You want desolate? Kingsville to Raymondville, through the King Ranch. Good luck if you run out of gas or break down in that stretch!

 

Thumbs up: I-80 from Cheyenne to Laramie. The contrast of landscapes is striking beyond belief. Once you get past Buford and the contour starts, it's amazing. First time I went down the hill into Laramie, it was storming on the mountain but the sun lit up the valley like Eden.

I-80 from Evanston to Salt Lake City. Same thing. You're on a high-altitude savannah until the switchbacks begin. And then, all of a sudden, as BY himsels said, this is the place.

U.S. 14/16, Worland to Buffalo. The switchbacks on this road through the Bighorn Mountains reminded me of some of the alpine routes on the Tour de France. Just amazing scenery.

U.S. 64, Raton to Santa Fe. If you luck out with a sunny winter day the sun reflects off the snow in a non-blinding, non-threatening way. Again, lots of twists and turns so take your time. Don't try to set any land-speed records.

Peak to Peak highway (Colorado 93 to Colorado 72), Golden to Estes Park. Do me a favor and watch out for bikes. Slow as they're going, they get the best look at things.

Thumbs down: I-80 across... well, all of it until you get to the Mountain Time Zone (see above). Haven't been west of Reno, however.

I-15 from Vegas to San Diego and back. South of San Berdoo it gets somewhat scenic but it still looks like the moon. Hunter S. needed drugs to get through this and I wish I'd had some. Still, when it rains on sagebrush it smells like cinnamon.

I-whatever in Illinois. That's been covered already. Yawn.

 

ServeItUp,

The drive through Wyoming, even in the back of a Greyhound, is breathtaking. One of the craziest moments of my life was in Laramie at the bus station.

And the higher-desert roads from the Central Coast to Vegas are great fun.

 

I see a lot of hatred for Illinois I-XX. I guess that's why I have no entry for this thread.

I'm very interested in driving the mountains in Colorado when it's not snowing though.

 

Mrs. Huggy, Huggy Jr. and I just spent three-plus days driving the PCH from San Fran to Laguna Beach. Outside of the shitty LA inland route it was pretty fucking spectacular.

Can't believe someone mentioned the 40-fucking-1 from Detroit to London. There's a reason they call it Carnage Alley. I've never been on it but I hear the drive from Calgary to Vancouver is pretty awesome.