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Location: northern Vermont - previously NM, WA, & MA
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Have you ever done a road trip across the country? What was the primary interstate highway that got you across, or what interstate were you on when going across the Rockies? (I-90, I-80, I-70, I-40, I-10). What did you see along the way? What were your favorite stopovers? Did you have fun? Would you do it again?
Have you ever done a road trip across the country? What was the primary interstate highway that got you across, or what interstate were you on when going across the Rockies? (I-90, I-80, I-70, I-40, I-10). What did you see along the way? What were your favorite stopovers? Did you have fun? Would you do it again?
Nope. I did drive up the west coast from Los Angeles to Canada and back though.
From Georgia, I have driven no further South than Key West, Florida and no further North than Fairbanks, Alaska. I have driven in all of the states except Hawaii and I have camped in most of the states. Most of my driving, I am a shunpiker, unless I am in a big hurry.
I drove from Massachusetts to Tennessee and then all the way to California. This was 12 years ago when I moved to CA. It took me a week to do so because I had the truck loaded up with stuff. I took I-40 all the way as it was winter.
If I'd had more time I would have not taken the freeway. Almost 90% of the time was spent looking at nothing. It seemed like the states of Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Texas ( at least the parts I drove through) were full of nothing. Sort of depressing. Getting past TX it was really amazing. Arizona and New Mexico were amazing with weird landscapes. California was pretty spectacular too.
That said- I wouldn't mind doing ot again, but next time spending more time. The first time I did it I was rushing to get moved out here. Its a big country out there with lots to see.
Quite a few times. The most enjoyable trip was the one where I took my time, stayed off the interstates as much as possible, had meals at the little mom and pop shops, and stopped when ever I saw something the may be interesting.
Make a playlist for each state you plan on going through. Get Kerouac's "On the road" as an audiobook.
Have you ever done a road trip across the country?
Yes, several times.
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What was the primary interstate highway that got you across, or what interstate were you on when going across the Rockies? (I-90, I-80, I-70, I-40, I-10).
Yes to all of these routes.
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What did you see along the way?
America from an Interstate at 60+... in other words, not a whole lot taking those routes. Once I learned to slow down and enjoy the journey as well as the final destination I really got to see interesting stuff.
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What were your favorite stopovers?
Mom and Pop places along the old state highway systems and not the Interstate systems. Countless small motels, watering holes, restaurants, gas stations, small town chamber of commerce's, small town "tourist attractions", Natural vistas that are amazing, etc....
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Did you have fun?
On the smaller State routes I had a blast and developed a real appreciation for the different parts of the Country. I got to see a lot of places that most travelers just blow by in a rush to get from point "A" to point "B" and no desire to see what is in between those points. I got to develop a sense of the "real" America, and how people are people, no matter where they live or were born.
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Would you do it again?
In a heartbeat. Both on the Interstate if I had to get cross-country in a hurry, and by the old state routes if I had more time.
My family drove from WA to MA across the North and around the Great Lakes on the US side, and then when I moved from MA to CA when I was 18, I took the Mass Pike to the NY Pike, though NYC, then picked up the 80 and took it to Chicago. From Chicago, I took Route 66 as far as I could - I don't know if they've repaired those stretches, but at the time (2002) there were areas where the roads were destroyed, even a bridge out IIRC. Those stretches, I took the I-40. I also took the I-40 the final stretch from around Flagstaff, AZ to Barstow, CA because the fan relay in my embattled '86 Saab 900 Turbo had gone out maybe 50 miles south of Chicago. I used the skills I learned in Electronics 1 to get it working again, but it kept blowing out; I decided to take a main, well-travelled freeway the rest of the way, just in case the unthinkable happened and my crap-car took a **** and died, so I wouldn't be stuck on a lonely stretch of highway.
From Barstow, I took the 15 to the 10, and then exited into the barrio that my Hispanist-wannabe girlfriend had gotten us an apartment in. She told me it was "in a really nice neighborhood filled with families," but when I got there, there were two cholos sitting on a cushionless couch in the grassless lawn across the street, drinking out of 40's (this was around maybe 11am), and stinkeyeing me something awful. It was like something out of a movie
I would do it again in a heartbeat - this time, in a car that runs properly I wouldn't want to use my current, convertible sports car... I've driven it from SF to Seattle and back, and also from SF to LA/OC, and though it is indeed the most awesome car ever made, it's got stiff suspension and no trunk space.
I loved every stretch we took - from getting stuck in NYC traffic, to getting lost in Chicago and inadvertently ending up near the Cabrini projects in an ill-advised attempt to find some real Chicago deep-dish, to getting some nasty looks from some neo Nazis in Oklahoma, chatting with some bored kids my age at a 24-hour taco place outside Kansas City, driving through small towns in the Southwest and spending the night camping on the Navajo reservation... the whole thing was basically a six-day-long adventure, and certainly one of the most cherished experiences of my life.
I'd say that probably the single most amazing two moments on the trip were one where I was driving down a rural route in New Mexico and suddenly had this extreme deja vu - I came to this abandoned, white barn with a rusting grain silo that was in a dream I'd had maybe two or three months before! I couldn't believe it - it was exactly as it was in the dream, down to the scrub around the fenceposts and the wild grass and the yellow-white flowers that were growing. I was out of film and couldn't take pictures, and later lost the map I'd marked it on, but would love to try to find it again.
The other was on the final leg of the trip; I had been driving all through the night and saw sunrise coming up over the mesas in Arizona. The sky was blue and orange and red and pink and fuscia and turquoise... although I'd lived in the high desert in Oregon before, I'd simply never seen anything like it. It was phenomenal.
Between that and my trips up and down the West Coast, I feel quite blessed to have had the experiences, and wouldn't discourage anyone from doing the same! It's really fun, and really gives you an appreciation for all that America is.
Location: northern Vermont - previously NM, WA, & MA
10,755 posts, read 23,836,665 times
Reputation: 14671
I I drove from Seattle to Boston, took a dip south and took I-70 from eastern Utah to St. Louis through back roads in Kentucky and West Virginia, to Maryland and up I-95 again. I left Seattle heading Portland and headed east on I-84 through Boise onto Salt Lake City. Driving straight ahead towards the Wasatch Range in Utah is spectacular. The most scenic part was through Utah and Colorado. Interstates are boring but through Western Colorado it was awesome scenery. I stopped in Denver for a couple. I bee lined it through Kansas and drove from Denver-St. Louis. I would never do such an exhausting 800 mile stretch in one day again. If you ever want to take a chance at doing a buck ten, Kansas would be the place to pull it off. I had my cruise control set to 80 and people were flying past me.
I spent a week in St. Louis, hanging out with a friend, exploring the city better than a usual tourist would without a local, so that was great fun. I even saw the Red Sox play the Cardinals at the old Bush Stadium (2005). I felt like St. Louis was genuinely the east/west divide.
I came through Illinois, and southern Indiana was surprisingly hilly (like an extension of Kentucky). I cruised around the bluegrass country around Lexington, KY and the back roads past the coal mines and beautiful mountains of West Virginia. WV when you get off the highways is a very beautiful state. It was the first place I saw dense greenery since I left the Pacific Northwest. I drove into the Appalachian hills of Western Maryland, also very scenic and over to Washington DC. White knuckle driving on I-95 to Philly, NYC, into Boston.
This is long but it was the adventure of a lifetime, period.
I did Baltimore to Los Angeles and back, 14 days with 2 friends. We followed Interstate 70 (with some off the freeway driving on US 40 which paralleled I-70) from Baltimore to its end in Utah, then took Interstate 15 into San Bernardino and I-10 west into Los Angeles. Coming east it was I-40 from California to East Tennessee (with detours on Historic 66 in Arizona), then I-81 up through the Shenandoah Valley, then I-66 east to Washignton DC and back home to Baltimore! We saw a mix of small town, tourist areas, and some pop culture stuff, especially cause so many of our favorite singers hometowns were on the way!
First day we drove through southwest PA (visited the Flight 93 memorial, a very moving experience) and the West Virgnia northern panhandle via Wheeling into Ohio and spent a night. 2nd day was from eastern Ohio. The next day took us across Ohio via Columbus (went to White Castle for the first time) and Indianapolis (speedway was closed for tours). We spent a night in Pocahontas, Illinois, home of Gretchen Wilson, where there's a park named after her. We went out that night to a country bar in town (pop. 800) and had a great time with an authentic rural Midwest experience. Also went to an all night diner by the highway there where some of the menu items were named after Grethen's songs (including the "redneck woman omlette"). We stayed at a place called the Tahoe Motel, one of those small roadside motels you see in CMT videos. The restaurant was called the Powhattan Restaurant, named after the father of the real Pocahontas (the Virginian princess that is).
The following day we went to St. Louis and went to the top of the Gateway Arch, had lunch downtown, then drove across Missouri with a detour into New Franklin/Booneville where Sara Evans grew up. This was very lovely with great small town hospitality though nothing here was dedicated to Sara Evans (this was a bigger town than Pocahontas, Illinois, and Sara doesn't come back as much as Gretchen does). That night we stopped in Kansas City for bbq at Arthur Bryants. Our friend from Kansas swears its the best and it was amazing with generous portions and they give you 5 sauces to choose from. Since we arrived late on a Sunday we had to go to the one in the Ameristar Casino, a riverboat casino in the Missouri River on the Missouri side. We stopped that night in Junction City, Kansas (drove through Lawrence, Kansas City KS and Topeka in the dark). Junction City is home of a large military base and is a sizable town amid the beautiful Flint Hills of Kansas.
We had lunch at a cute country diner called Stacys Restaurant and went on a random unplanned stop to Lake Wilson, a surprising gem in the green hills that a housekeeper at our motel told us about. It was very quiet and was nice and relaxing, the water seriously was as pretty at that you find in Florida or the Bahamas. We also passed through Ellsworth, KS which Rascal Flatts sang about in a song, this was a classic Midwest town with a water tower and a few main streets, the kind of place that just screams "all-American". We continued on I-70 to Oakley, Kansas, where we visited a prarie dog farm/private zoo with a large selection of Great Plains wildlife (definitely recommend) and stopped at a statue that commemorated the famous hunt where Buffalo Bill got his name. We left the interstate and took small state highways into Colorado. This was majestic open sky country, we saw one car on the road, a county sheriff who pretended to pull us over (imaging you were this guy, seeing a Jeep with Maryland tags in the middle of the Colorado high plains). We stopped in Cheyenne Wells, Colorado at a diner/bar called the "Waterin' Hole". The locals had not seen visitors for a long time but they very friendly once we started talking to them. This was a town of 1000 with desolation in all directions, just grain elevators and cattle ranches. They served some wonderful ribeye steak served on a cutting board since it could not have fit on most plates
Then it was one hour of pitch black driving, not a single other car, only a few tiny towns then we see the lights of Colorado Springs, where we spent a night. The next day we took the train up to the top of Pikes Peak, where America the Beautiful was written. We got on Interstate 25 north to Denver and got back on I-70. We visited the first Chitpole (and was honored with a tour of the secret basement, and our names will live on forever on the wall along with visitors from across America), and toured the Coors brewery, where you get free beers on a free tour! (3 free beers that is.) This tour is only offered on certain days and may be seasonal, they hire local college kids for this. Afterward we drove across the continental divide via the Eisenhower tunnel and spent a night in Grand Junction, hit up a local bar, this was a summer college crowd from Mesa State College cause the girl at our motel who went to school there said thats the place she knows that was still really fun on a weekday night. She couldn't go out cause she was working the next day but we told her how fun it was and maybe convinced her there were plenty of cool people at her school.
We went to Arches National Park in Utah and went swimming in the Colorado River in the area around Moab (actually DO NOT do this, we later found out some parts have dangerous currents that drag you under.). A lot of old westerns and scienfic fiction movies were filmed in this area, and Arches had some otherwordly landscape (part of the pod race in Star Wars-Phantom Menance was filmed here to stand in for the planet Tatooine). We went on a couple hikes in the park which had some very amazing natural formations and should not be missed. In Moab we ate at a lodge-themed restaurant where we had duck bacon and bison meatloaf, and a local Utah beer called the Watasch Devastor, very aptly named. (note - liquor stores close at 9pm in Utah due to Mormon laws made in SLC which we didn't visit.)
From there we drove to Las Vegas and spent two nights at the Stratosphere. This drive includes the longest distance, 100 miles, on the Interstate highway system with no services except some porta potties on the side. Be sure to get the view from the top of the Stratosphere Tower over the Vegas Strip at night!!!! We had a friend who lives in the area and she took us to a club in Imperial Palace called Rockhouse where her friend was bartending, it was very fun. Drove down the Strip at night, next day went out to Red Rock canyon west of Las Vegas with some nice desert hiking. We went back to the casino and gambled (I made back all the money I lost in Missouri but my friends didn't.....play roulette, not slots fi you want to win...though slots are fun in that you get free drinks....its a good deal if you just want to hang out and drink cause you choose the penny clots with $1-2 tip per drink compared to buying a drink plus tip at a bar.) At night our local friend took us out to Lake Mohave on the Arizona border we had a campfire, some beer and saw the sunrise over the desert and drove back into Las Vegas at dawn and slept for 4 hours then hit the road for California.
Stopped at Peggy Sue's Diner in Barstow, CA, halfway, a 1950 themed diner where the waitresses wear those old costumes, Great food, they do the time travel feel VERY well, plus a massive kitchy gift shop. We spent two nights in LA County with friends who live there. Went to Beverly Hills, Hollywood, Venice Beach, Santa Monica, the Pacific COast highway, the Century City mall and Griffith observatory. Going back was more of a rush due to time contraints, less sightseeing.
Drove down Route 66 in Arizona and New Mexico. Winslow AZ has the street corner that inspired the Eagles song Take it Easy and has a mural commemorating it. Overnight in Kingman, AZ and Tucumcari, NM in old Route 66 motels. In Amarillo, Texas got food at the Big Texan Steak Ranch, a very famous restaurant often featured on TV where they hold the "72 ounce steak challenge" where its free if you can finish a 72 ounce steak in one sitting! Groom, Texas has 2nd largest Christian cross in the world (#1 is in Spain) and a very touching memorial to the victims of abortion. Had dinner in Checotah, Oklahoma, home of Carrie Underwood (that famous sign with her name is now moved to the middle of town vs the freeway, we had to ask around to find it). People who remember her say she was stuck up in high school (ppl who knew Taylor Swift in person back in PA before she was famous also didn't like her however people who knew Kellie Pickler love her.)
From there a stop in Brinkley, Arkansas where I know a friend, had a great fried catfish lunch in a traditional southern family-style restaurant. Stopped in Memphis and took the Mud Island monorail to the middle of the Mississippi River, passed through Nashville and into mountainous East Tennessee. The sunset in the misty mountains was amazing. Last day was up the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia and back into Maryland. (we didn't get to stop, but Robert E. Lee's grave in Lexington VA is on the way, also things dedicated to Stonewall Jackson, one of the southern heroes of the Civil War. Some people also like the Roanoke Star in Virginia).
Places we wished we had time to visit were the Missouri State Fair, the Indy speedway, Canyonlands national park, Rocky Mountain National Park, more of Route 66, and more of Nashville including the Grand Ole Opry and the Country Music Hall of Fame.
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I wouldn't want to use my current, convertible sports car... I've driven it from SF to Seattle and back, and also from SF to LA/OC, and though it is indeed the most awesome car ever made, it's got stiff suspension and no trunk space.
