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Author Topic: Aimlessly driving  (Read 2602 times)

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Aimlessly driving
« on: April 03, 2022, 10:40:27 PM »

Apologize if there is a thread on this. I did some searching and combing with a few different terms for this. If there is, lock/merge.

This weekend I did a random, aimless drive and found myself in Paintsville, KY. I started off by taking US 421 into Tennessee, then taking 67 to 321 to 19E to Bluff City. From there, I took 19W south to Johnson City, clinching both forks of US 19 (I had previously traveled other parts). From that point, I just decided to drive and see where I ended up, but wound up committing to following a straight line starting from I-26 in Johnson City, headed north.

This ended up putting me in Pikeville, KY. I stopped, looked around for a bit, headed north to Paintsville, then slept in my car. The next morning, I drove to Chapmanville, WV via US 119/Pikeville. I did a few things there, then headed back to Boone.

I've been aimlessly driving a lot lately. It's pretty much the only way I know how to take my mind off of stuff.
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Max Rockatansky

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Re: Aimlessly driving
« Reply #1 on: April 03, 2022, 10:44:27 PM »

I did a lot of aimless driving in High School around Lansing.  I mostly did it out of boredom and wanting see different parts of the area I would otherwise would never go. 

The last time I really recall driving aimlessly on purpose was when I was I trying to break the engine in on my Challenger.  I was moving to California and wanted to break the engine in on my Challenger before it shipped to my brother’s in Phoenix given I was going to drive it from there to California via some choice roads.  I spent an entire morning driving a couple hundred miles east of Orlando to make over the 500 mile mark on the engine.
« Last Edit: April 03, 2022, 11:07:18 PM by Max Rockatansky »
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webny99

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Re: Aimlessly driving
« Reply #2 on: April 03, 2022, 10:50:55 PM »

My "aimless drives" are rarely truly aimless; I tend to have a purpose of some sort, whether it be to see a new area (such as my binge of trying to visit every Dunkin in the area a few years ago), check on a construction project (such as the recently completed I-390/I-490/NY 31) or clinch a new road (now that I finally have my Travel Mapping up).

I do sometimes wish I could just drive for hours and hours, but I'm usually pretty limited with how much time I have to spend on the road, so it ends up being local trips of maybe an hour at most.
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Re: Aimlessly driving
« Reply #3 on: April 03, 2022, 11:04:05 PM »

When trying to get the 50 hours of driving I needed for my license, I did a lot of aimless driving to get those hours faster. Some of the notable "aimless" driving for me includes:

- Clinching I-275 in one run, going clockwise, starting and ending at I-71 (exit 49). Also my first clinch of I-275, as I've never been on the segment between exits 4 and 11 before that.
- Clinching OH 126 in one run
- Getting to downtown via arterial roads instead of the freeways.
- Driving all the way north to I-70 in Dayton just to see my dad's reaction of how far I drove from the house (he wasn't paying attention to the road signs otherwise). Also clinched I-675 on the way back.
- Driving on OH 32 EB for as long as my parents can handle. I eventually turned back at US 68, which wasn't that far.
- Driving on US 27 SB south of I-471 to see how long I can go. Made it to Falmonth before getting lost trying to find a way to get to I-75.

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Re: Aimlessly driving
« Reply #4 on: April 03, 2022, 11:17:17 PM »

I occasionally drive around aimlessly* on Mondays and Thursdays. Why those two days? I don't have to be at school until almost 1 PM as a result of my open schedule (man, being a senior in HS is great). On the other days I can't afford to do such aimless driving, for I have to arrive at school extremely early: at 7:30 AM.

*My drives aren't 100% aimless, as I usually come up with my driving plan for the two hours I have between dropping my brother off at the school and arriving there myself the night or morning before.

What I have done so far is: Grab lunch and drive along a county road parallel to the James River, which leads to a riverside park where I ate my lunch. This first drive was 100% aimless. During my two hour "open block", I stopped at the local flag store to collect some historic flags before it was too late (such as Mississippi and Afghanistan) then grab lunch. Turns out, I still had an hour and a half to kill. So, I drove down the arterial the store is located along until I crossed the James River.
A week later, I checked up on the Buc-ee's construction. Ground has not broken yet, nor has the house in the way of the development been demolished.

For tomorrow (or Thursday, when it is less likely to storm while I'm driving), is to clinch MO-125 between US-65 and Sunshine Street/Route D. Once that section is clinched, I just need to clinch the section between US-160 and Peel Ferry to have MO-125 100% clinched.
« Last Edit: April 03, 2022, 11:24:54 PM by ozarkman417 »
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Rothman

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Re: Aimlessly driving
« Reply #5 on: April 03, 2022, 11:26:01 PM »

When I got my first car, I drove aimlessly around Massachusetts.

One night, the water pump blew and my father had to come about 20 miles from our home to push the car with his minivan to a shop.
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Bruce

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Re: Aimlessly driving
« Reply #6 on: April 03, 2022, 11:26:06 PM »

If the weather is nice, I'll drive around to various scenic viewpoints (both marked and unofficial) to get some pictures. I've drifted as far south as Tacoma and Bonney Lake to get good pictures, which is nice when there's light traffic.
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Re: Aimlessly driving
« Reply #7 on: April 04, 2022, 01:26:01 AM »

Aimless driving is the best kind of driving, though its rare that you have that kind of time/money/etc. in life to do it for very long. But with the right car its practically therapeutic.
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bulldog1979

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Re: Aimlessly driving
« Reply #8 on: April 04, 2022, 02:56:44 AM »

I remember one day a few years ago that I woke up to discover that our Internet was offline on an otherwise beautiful day, so I hopped into the car and took off. I did a big loop through the western UP on US 41 north to Baraga, then west on M-38 to M-26. There, I turned northeasterly to Twin Lakes before turning around and taking M-26 southwesterly to US 45. That ensured that I clinched M-26. Then I turned north on US 45 up to Ontonagon and then drove end-to-end on M-64 to the Wisconsin state line. I continued south on CTH-B to the little town of Presque Isle before heading back to US 2. From there, I took US 45 up to Paulding and make the side trip to Bond Falls before following M-28 back home. It was just great to get out and drive, and while I had a rough idea on where to go in mind, I make a few spur-of-the-moment decisions, like looping back to catch Bond Falls. The upside is that I finished clinching a few highways I needed to get the Western UP done.
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Rothman

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Re: Aimlessly driving
« Reply #9 on: April 04, 2022, 09:05:36 AM »



Aimless driving is the best kind of driving, though its rare that you have that kind of time/money/etc. in life to do it for very long. But with the right car its practically therapeutic.

:D. Here we go again...
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WillWeaverRVA

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Re: Aimlessly driving
« Reply #10 on: April 04, 2022, 10:08:15 AM »

I used to do that a lot. I got a car just after I finished college, and it was a stressful time, so I spent a lot of my spare time driving around exploring the Richmond area and beyond since I'm not a native. High gas prices kind of limited that after a while, but not before I put over 10,000 miles on my car in less than 6 months.
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Re: Aimlessly driving
« Reply #11 on: April 04, 2022, 10:18:20 AM »

My wife and I used to do this in Illinois before we were married.  I lived in Wheaton and she lived in Naperville, and we'd spend the weekends together.  Sometimes, we'd get in the car, drive west until we were out of the suburbs, and then just make a turn wherever and in whatever direction we felt like, until we decided to head back home again.  I distinctly remember having to turn around once because the road we were on dead-ended at I-39.

Before that, when I had first moved to the Chicago area, I lived on campus near Harlem & Augusta in River Forest.  I would occasionally get in the car and start exploring Chicago streets.  My favorite such drive was when I drove underneath the Green Line tracks for as long as I could before continuing my more-or-less eastward journey;  I turned around when I got to Lake Michigan.
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Re: Aimlessly driving
« Reply #12 on: April 04, 2022, 10:20:38 AM »

Every time I've moved somewhere new, I've done a fair bit of wandering around the area to familiarize myself with my surroundings.

I've never done any long-distance random driving.
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hbelkins

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Re: Aimlessly driving
« Reply #13 on: April 04, 2022, 11:18:36 AM »

Haven't done this for awhile. Usually if I head out I have a destination in mind, but often after I reach that destination, I'll just take whatever route back home.

Probably the most recent instance where I did this was when I went to see the Dingess Tunnel in West Virginia last year. Once I got to Dingess, I didn't have any particular route home in mind. Ended up going north on the county route to WV 152 and took it all the way to Huntington. Sheetz was calling my name.
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Re: Aimlessly driving
« Reply #14 on: April 04, 2022, 12:22:44 PM »

When our kids were little, we lived in a second story flat in Milwaukee with no air conditioning. During the hottest part of summer, when my wife worked in the evening, I would load the kids up in the car and took little drives all around the area because the car had air conditioning.  That's why I know the Milwaukee area pretty much like the back of my hand.
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Re: Aimlessly driving
« Reply #15 on: April 04, 2022, 12:23:33 PM »

Aimless driving is the best kind of driving, though its rare that you have that kind of time/money/etc. in life to do it for very long. But with the right car its practically therapeutic.

I agree. When I'm up in the mountains with my Jeep, I love aimlessly driving up random trails, never knowing where I'll end up. I've found some pretty awesome campsites that way. That's why I love having my SUV.
« Last Edit: April 04, 2022, 02:02:14 PM by JayhawkCO »
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Re: Aimlessly driving
« Reply #16 on: April 04, 2022, 01:58:18 PM »

I like to do this in the summer - because I'm retired and it's really hot in Palm Springs in the summer and it's easy to drive to places where the temp is 20°-40°F lower fairly quickly. I'll get in the car early in the morning and drive towards LA. I may end up anywhere from the OC to Santa Barbara to Big Bear (though I usually take the back way into Big Bear). I'll usually take a walk then go somewhere and shop for a while. My favorite walks are Point Vicente, Newport Bay, and Griffith Park. I do random drives all year round, but I definitely drive more in summer.

I do random drives less in the winter because I like the weather here in winter. But I'll sometimes drive down to the Salton Sea and check out the weirdness like Salvation Mountain and the mud volcanos.
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Re: Aimlessly driving
« Reply #17 on: April 04, 2022, 02:48:07 PM »

I can't believe I've never seen a thread like this before on here!

"Aimless drives" are the best sometimes. I had a former friend who called it "bumming". Once I finally got my car up at college, I've gone on several trips with friends and just on my own as well.

The farthest I've reached is the little town of Dike, IA, a little bit west of Waterloo from Platteville, WI. I detoured off US-20 onto I-380 into downtown Waterloo before circling back and choosing to head a bit farther west. In total, the drive was over 4 hours and that's staying on US-20 almost the entire way. I could've used that time to drive home or drive to Minnesota (a state I have yet to visit).

I've done the "Prairie du Chien circle" a couple times. Drive to Dubuque, head north on IA-3 to US-52 and then back over the Mississippi and south on WI-35.

More recently, I've been exploring some of the local roads in the area. They are more fun to drive, and easier to get to since they're closer. I'm running out of interesting state roads to see within a reasonable distance. I haven't clinched the short WI-126 yet, and I only need a short section of WI-81 east of Darlington to clinch that (plus the new section east of I-90). Now that I'm on Travel Mapping, I'm going to try and find roads I haven't been on so I can add them to my log.

As for back home, I've gone on some lengthy ones. I made it to Racine from where I live, which was a decent distance for me at the time. And I've also driven out to beyond the western suburbs of Chicago before. I much prefer bumming up here in Wisconsin though. It just takes so long to get out of the suburbs.

Overall, these kinds of drives are very enjoyable. Living at university, it's almost impossible to find a space that's completely on your own. Driving in my own car ends up being the only place I can do that. I get to drive the roads I want to see, listening to music I want to listen to. And I can usually actually focus on the road and scenery because I don't have anyone else to talk to. Though if I had a special girlfriend with me, I don't think I'd complain.  :-D
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paulthemapguy

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Re: Aimlessly driving
« Reply #18 on: April 04, 2022, 03:03:44 PM »

Aimless drives are great...but when I have so many goals including route-marker photos, county clinching, and highway clinching, I almost always orient my road trips to include those goals.  I don't like retreading the same ground or backtracking, when I can explore someplace new.  Exploring new ground in your vicinity becomes more difficult when you've seen nearly everything within a given range of your home--this is true for everyone up to a certain range. It's harder for me to embark on an aimless drive that gets me new mileage or shows me something new, so covering new ground has to become a intentional, rather than aimless, at a certain point.

Going wherever you want serendipitously, making no decisions until the spur of the moment, might be the ultimate expression of freedom.  I loved pursuing that expression of freedom in my late teens and early twenties (though I didn't have access to a car during my eight semesters of college).  Usually my impromptu trips would be short-term, taking me to a locale just an hour or two away.  My main objective has always been to snap photos of route markers.  For example, I remember trying to photograph county pentagons in LaSalle County, the state highways in Lake County (why are there so many??), or something like that.  One time, I left my job in Joliet and noticed a sky full of dark storm clouds and peeks of sunshine--recognizing this as a perfect scenario for rainbow formation, I used radar to find where I was sure the western evening sun would generate a rainbow. This random drive did successfully lead me to a rainbow--I found it all the way in Millington. (This is a safer storm-chasing scenario, than say, chasing a tornado!)  As the storm kept changing, I had to keep changing course- I didn't know where the drive would take me!

Since 2014, I have had a bunch of road trips loaded in the chamber, and these road trips are planned to efficiently provide me with route marker photo ops or county clinches.  When I get the chance to, I will determine which pre-planned road trip to execute, based on weather forecasts and the amount of time available to me.  Despite the fact that these trips are planned in advance, they still feel freeing and fulfilling to embark on them.  Though they aren't truly aimless, I'm still making a dream of mine come true, and that feels comparable to a truly aimless drive, I think.
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Re: Aimlessly driving
« Reply #19 on: April 05, 2022, 06:03:42 PM »

I do this sometimes. It’s a leisurely way to kill time. With me being in school now, I don’t do it nearly as often, so mostly during the summer. I usually end up in New Hampshire during those aimless driving sessions. There was also a time when I ended up in Maine unexpectedly.
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hbelkins

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Re: Aimlessly driving
« Reply #20 on: April 06, 2022, 12:18:23 PM »

My first cousins grew up down near Louisville. One of them went to college at the University of Kentucky, which is in Lexington. One afternoon she decided to drive out for an ice cream, and ended up visiting my family and her grandmother (who lived a mile away from us). And we're about 90 minutes southeast of Lexington.

I don't remember if she got her ice cream that day or not.
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Re: Aimlessly driving
« Reply #21 on: April 07, 2022, 06:43:45 AM »

I did a ton of road-clinching trips a few years ago, but the one that was truly aimless was when I ended up in Pennsylvania and taking I-78 to I-287 in New Jersey.
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Re: Aimlessly driving
« Reply #22 on: April 07, 2022, 03:27:41 PM »

I’m unique in that, with the exception of very quiet two-lane roads, I love aimless driving on freeways and interstates. Most people get bored and prefer surface roads instead, but I’ve always loved to just set the cruise and watch the scenery go by, not having to worry about intersections, turns, traffic lights, or any of that. It’s also much easier to find your way back. Used to do it all the time in high school and college on the weekends. Man those were the days.
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Re: Aimlessly driving
« Reply #23 on: April 07, 2022, 05:07:39 PM »

I've not had as many opportunities to aimlessly get out as my non-roadgeek brother, since most of my permit drive time was able to be spent on long trips rather than short drives. I would ride with my brother whenever he did his permit hours, and since this was during peak COVID we didn't have many long trips to delegate multiple interstate hours to. Spent a lot of my brother's hours on state routes in northern IN/OH and got to drive through several small towns. I intentionally tried routing near RR tracks often (as I'm a railfan too, and the Chicago line parallels US-6 and is highly active).
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Re: Aimlessly driving
« Reply #24 on: April 07, 2022, 05:18:31 PM »

I’m unique in that, with the exception of very quiet two-lane roads, I love aimless driving on freeways and interstates. Most people get bored and prefer surface roads instead, but I’ve always loved to just set the cruise and watch the scenery go by, not having to worry about intersections, turns, traffic lights, or any of that. It’s also much easier to find your way back. Used to do it all the time in high school and college on the weekends. Man those were the days.

I also enjoy aimless driving on highways. The trouble is that I've already driven on most of the ones nearby dozens of times. Exploring different surface roads ends up more interesting.
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