AARoads Forum

There's been threads like this for 2022/2023, and possibly more years, so I'll make a thread for next year.

For me, I have a trip planned for Luray Caverns, VA on January 1, for my New Years Trip. That could get me deeper into Rappahannock County and Page County. Other possible trips for me in 2024 include:

Cape Charles, VA (spring)
Hinesville/Savannah, GA
Ocean City, MD (summer)
Washington, DC
Virginia Beach, VA (summertime)

Just a Las Vegas weekend trip and a Placer County bridge hunt (both in January) for me so far.

For the April eclipse, I plan to drive down to Dallas, since it also coincides with a Sounders away game there. Currently weighing options, but I definitely want to see Glenwood Canyon and clinch a few states on the way to and from Texas. This will be my first time crossing that far across the Continental Divide on a road trip that starts at home.

Sounding like Texas is going to be quite crowded for the eclipse.  Given that people seem to be heading to the spot of greatest magnitude/length of totality along the border in the U.S., I'd imagine that traffic flowing back to San Antonio, Austin and other cities is going to be horrendous along the likes of US 90.

As of now, I plan to pick up a friend from college in June so I'll be going to Charlotte and stay a night there and then we will drive down to the Tampa/St. Petersburg area in Florida. Possibly stop and visit Tallahassee as well as Charleston and Savannah. I also want to possibly include St. Augustine, but that might be a bit expensive.

Having successfully completed the bucket list item of visiting all 50 states in 2022, I've started considering the next challenge of visiting all 13 provinces and territories of Canada.

I'm debating whether to take a road trip up to NB/NS/PE in the summer, or to fly and drive to get BC/AB/SK/MB, or to take a train from Vancouver to Winnipeg.

(The western Canada road trip option is least likely.  Initially I was just going to drive between Vancouver and Winnipeg, but then I saw how expensive that one-way rental would be.  Not sure I want to invest the additional vacation days to do a round-trip drive....plus, I like trains....)

Quote from: MikeTheActuary on December 27, 2023, 11:00:09 AM
Having successfully completed the bucket list item of visiting all 50 states in 2022, I've started considering the next challenge of visiting all 13 provinces and territories of Canada.

I'm debating whether to take a road trip up to NB/NS/PE in the summer, or to fly and drive to get BC/AB/SK/MB, or to take a train from Vancouver to Winnipeg.

(The western Canada road trip option is least likely.  Initially I was just going to drive between Vancouver and Winnipeg, but then I saw how expensive that one-way rental would be.  Not sure I want to invest the additional vacation days to do a round-trip drive....plus, I like trains....)

In all seriousness, whatever tips you have from visiting Nunavut, please post/share when all's done.

Quote from: Rothman on December 27, 2023, 11:02:07 AM
In all seriousness, whatever tips you have from visiting Nunavut, please post/share when all's done.

Get a credit card with Air Canada as a transfer partner and use Aeroplan miles to fly on Canadian North.

Quote from: Rothman on December 27, 2023, 11:02:07 AM

Quote from: MikeTheActuary on December 27, 2023, 11:00:09 AM
Having successfully completed the bucket list item of visiting all 50 states in 2022, I've started considering the next challenge of visiting all 13 provinces and territories of Canada.

In all seriousness, whatever tips you have from visiting Nunavut, please post/share when all's done.

https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=13406.msg2005014#msg2005014

Nunavut is a super-expensive destination. But if you're willing to settle for just one place in Nunavut (I suggest territorial capital Iqaluit), watch airline websites for occasional fare sales and tour packages.

A friend and I are planning to go to Texas in April and maybe see what happens from there. I don't have any solo trips planned yet, which I'm sure will come, but I'm still mentally reeling from the police incident that marred the end of my last roadtrip and I'm struggling to recover the appetite for more solo adventures.

Quote from: TheHighwayMan394 on December 27, 2023, 06:19:18 PM
A friend and I are planning to go to Texas in April and maybe see what happens from there. I don't have any solo trips planned yet, which I'm sure will come, but I'm still mentally reeling from the police incident that marred the end of my last roadtrip and I'm struggling to recover the appetite for more solo adventures.

You post about the incident on the forum somewhere?

Quote from: Rothman on December 27, 2023, 11:20:47 PM

Quote from: TheHighwayMan394 on December 27, 2023, 06:19:18 PM
A friend and I are planning to go to Texas in April and maybe see what happens from there. I don't have any solo trips planned yet, which I'm sure will come, but I'm still mentally reeling from the police incident that marred the end of my last roadtrip and I'm struggling to recover the appetite for more solo adventures.

You post about the incident on the forum somewhere?

Never the whole story as there was no need for me to share/didn't want the political arguments about such activities/whatever, but I have mentioned it in passing a handful of times.

I was driving east on I-80 about halfway between Lincoln and Omaha, with the cruise set at 75 as I passed some trucks in the left lane. A cop in the median pulled out after me apparently thinking I may have something of interest to investigate. He caught up to me about two miles down and took up a position waiting for a traffic violation, which it was a windy day as it often is in Nebraska and it probably blew me onto the white line so he pulled me over at that point for a "sobriety check". He wasted no time in ordering me out of the car to his cruiser and (my assumption) used computer issues to stall for time to create a fake "reasonable suspicion" narrative.

He asked to search the car and I refused, but he believed he had cause not to take no for an answer and called for backup. The drug dog got a fake hit giving them access to my car. I was released after nothing was found. But I have struggled a lot with the personal violation as well as the fear it will probably happen again especially in the Plains states where this activity has become naitonally infamous with numerous lawsuits filed in Kansas regarding this kind of pretext stop policing.

Really wonder what benefit there is to the police to harass people like that when they come up empty.  Why spend time essentially making stuff up when there probably are real law breakers out there?

The last pretext stop that happened to me was on I-20 west of Abilene when I was moving back to the west coast during January 2016.  I had an out of state (Florida plate) and was deemed to be on the road at a "suspicious time" of 6 AM.  The highway patrol man followed me for about 20 miles before finding a reason to pull me over.  I handed him my military travel order and told him I wasn't stopping at Carlsbad Caverns during the day.  That seemingly put everything at ease, he told me his district was having issues with out of state drug running due to people avoiding I-10. 

I used to get stopped every once in a while when I was younger.  A younger guy by himself with an out of state tag seems to a popular pretext stop. 

Quote from: Max Rockatansky on December 28, 2023, 07:58:43 AM
The last pretext stop that happened to me was on I-20 west of Abilene when I was moving back to the west coast during January 2016.  I had an out of state (Florida plate) and was deemed to be on the road at a "suspicious time" of 6 AM.  The highway patrol man followed me for about 20 miles before finding a reason to pull me over.  I handed him my military travel order and told him I wasn't stopping at Carlsbad Caverns during the day.  That seemingly put everything at ease, he told me his district was having issues with out of state drug running due to people avoiding I-10. 

I used to get stopped every once in a while when I was younger.  A younger guy by himself with an out of state tag seems to a popular pretext stop. 

I haven't been subject to a pretext stop, but when I was 24 years old I thought I was going to be. I worked in Montgomery that summer and I was driving down to Alabama the day after Memorial Day to begin my job. Right after I merged onto I-59 in Georgia, my Valentine One picked up a chirp of instant-on radar from behind me. In my rearview mirror, I saw that a cop had just pulled out into traffic. I set my cruise control at 68 mph (speed limit was 70). He proceeded to follow me, frequently hitting me with further bursts of instant-on radar, but he finally took the last exit in Georgia. Not sure why he didn't figure out sooner that I was obviously wise to his presence, but perhaps he was looking for some other excuse to stop a young out-of-stater.

The only weird stop I had was in west Texas.  My then-fiancee and I were driving a loaded Versa hatchback with out-of-state plates somewhere around Loving County.  Texas State Trooper pulled us over, ostensibly for speeding.  Asked where we were headed and I said Dallas.  He made a remark that we were off the beaten path and my then-fiancee semi-explained county clinching (:D).  He never told us how fast he caught us going and when I inquired for more specifics about why he pulled us over, he just said something like, "Oh, I can go back to my car and bring back how fast you were going" quite pointedly.  I dropped it and we were sent on our way.

Regarding 2024 road trip plans, aside from my usual fairly regular business travel to New York (via Amtrak), we have a trip to Florida planned to visit relatives for which we will fly down to Fort Lauderdale and rent a Tesla (this year a Model 3 instead of the Model Y we tried last year). Then in the summer our anniversary falls on a weekend, so we're considering a trip to the Omni Bedford Springs in Pennsylvania. That trip would present the typical conundrum of finding a new route through very familiar territory. I think I might use some sort of route involving US-30, as I have never taken said road from Breezewood west to Bedford. Our next-door neighbor regularly travels up to State College to visit relatives; she says she always uses US-30 there to avoid the toll and that it's a decent road, so all the more reason to check it out.

Likely to do a 3-day trip in late March that will be one of these three:

MI/OH: US 24, US 127, US 223, BL I-75 Pontiac, BL I-96 Howell, I-77, I-270, I-271, I-480, Ohio counties-Seneca, Huron, Knox, Holmes, Coshocton

IL/KY: US 40, US 45, US 50, US 51, I-69, I-165, Kentucky counties-Carlisle, Hickman, Fulton, Graves, Calloway, McLean, Tood, Logan, Allen, Monroe

IL/IA/MO: US 54, US 67, US 136, US 150, I-55, I-64, I-270, Iowa counties-Keokuk, Wapello, Davis, Missouri counties-Ralls, Pike, Lincoln, Jefferson, Ste Genevieve, Perry, Cape Girardeau

Quote from: 1995hoo on December 28, 2023, 09:23:57 AM
I think I might use some sort of route involving US-30, as I have never taken said road from Breezewood west to Bedford. Our next-door neighbor regularly travels up to State College to visit relatives; she says she always uses US-30 there to avoid the toll and that it's a decent road, so all the more reason to check it out.

Besides being free, I think US 30 is actually faster if connecting from Breezewood/I-70 to Bedford/I-99/US 220 because of the indirect Turnpike connections at either end. I did use this stretch of US 30 once when making that exact connection, and it was a nice drive - at least 4 lanes throughout, and only a handful of lights. After the light at S Breezewood Rd immediately west of I-70, there's only 4 lights, all past Everett closer to Bedford, before reaching the US 220 interchange. The turnpike, FWIW, is also visible from US 30 at the couple locations where the routes squeeze together on either side of the Raystown Branch Juniata River to pass thru water gaps.

Quote from: jmacswimmer on December 28, 2023, 11:06:00 AM

Quote from: 1995hoo on December 28, 2023, 09:23:57 AM
I think I might use some sort of route involving US-30, as I have never taken said road from Breezewood west to Bedford. Our next-door neighbor regularly travels up to State College to visit relatives; she says she always uses US-30 there to avoid the toll and that it's a decent road, so all the more reason to check it out.

Besides being free, I think US 30 is actually faster if connecting from Breezewood/I-70 to Bedford/I-99/US 220 because of the indirect Turnpike connections at either end. I did use this stretch of US 30 once when making that exact connection, and it was a nice drive - at least 4 lanes throughout, and only a handful of lights. After the light at S Breezewood Rd immediately west of I-70, there's only 4 lights, all past Everett closer to Bedford, before reaching the US 220 interchange. The turnpike, FWIW, is also visible from US 30 at the couple locations where the routes squeeze together on either side of the Raystown Branch Juniata River to pass thru water gaps.

Thanks. I note the Omni Bedford Springs is south of town, too, so the US-30 route cuts off the redundancy of going north to the Bedford exit on the Turnpike and then having to come back south again. You just exit where the sign says "Bedford Business District" and connect through there.

In the past we've used US-220 several times between I-68 and Bedford either to go to the resort or when passing through to or from somewhere else (most recently on the way home from Toronto when I just didn't want to use I-70 south of Breezewood).

For me, I already have multiple likely trips planned.

February 2024: Trips from West Lafayette to Columbus, Ohio and Madison, Wisconsin.
Summer 2024: I have some trips I plan on taking from Morris County to go deeper into Sussex County and Warren County. I also am considering taking a trip to clinch CR 511 and NY 210 in Greenwood Lake. I also plan on taking trips from North to South Jersey (and back again). Those ones are still unknown, though.

Quote from: MikeTheActuary on December 27, 2023, 11:00:09 AM
Having successfully completed the bucket list item of visiting all 50 states in 2022, I've started considering the next challenge of visiting all 13 provinces and territories of Canada.

I'm debating whether to take a road trip up to NB/NS/PE in the summer, or to fly and drive to get BC/AB/SK/MB, or to take a train from Vancouver to Winnipeg.

(The western Canada road trip option is least likely.  Initially I was just going to drive between Vancouver and Winnipeg, but then I saw how expensive that one-way rental would be.  Not sure I want to invest the additional vacation days to do a round-trip drive....plus, I like trains....)

Just blocked off time on my calendar and made the appropriate reservations.

I'm going to go visit New Brunswick, PEI, and Nova Scotia -- collecting a few counties, and maybe playing ham radio from a park or two.  (I'll be in PEI on Canada Day, when the Canada Day contest is held on HF.)

I second the recommendation of US 30 over the turnpike between Bedford and Breezewood. I stayed at Breezewood for the Sideling Hill tunnel meet a few years ago and never put a tire on the turnpike. I came up US 220 from Cumberland and stayed on US 30, and then drove 30 back to the meet point in Bedford, back to my motel in Breezewood for the second night, and back across 30 to 220 for the trip home.

Likely driving to Arkansas and back in May, hopefully including Texas and Oklahoma. Other than that, just some more clinching in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic most likely.

Here are my 2024 plans (domestic and interstate):

Winter I
No plans so far

Spring
Gunnison/Crested Butte

Summer
College Tours

• Many Colorado Universities
• Wyoming
• Montana State
• South Dakota Mines
• TBD

SoCal Wedding Pt. 2 (likely by plane)

Fall
No plans so far

Winter II
SoCal again (probably)

I will update this as time goes on.

South Dakota...Mines?

Quote from: Rothman on December 31, 2023, 01:29:35 PM
South Dakota...Mines?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Dakota_School_of_Mines_and_Technology (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Dakota_School_of_Mines_and_Technology)

The usual. Day trips to various parts of Florida (St. Augustine, the Big Bend, Ocala National Forest and surrounding communities, and others), as well as Folkson, Georgia and vicinity, and hopefully one to the New York Tri-State area without the need to anticipate a death in the family.

Quote from: BlueOutback7 on December 27, 2023, 09:00:37 AM
As of now, I plan to pick up a friend from college in June so I'll be going to Charlotte and stay a night there and then we will drive down to the Tampa/St. Petersburg area in Florida. Possibly stop and visit Tallahassee as well as Charleston and Savannah. I also want to possibly include St. Augustine, but that might be a bit expensive.

Well looks like this trip is a bit out of our budget, so we've opted to take a road trip to Kentucky instead, so we'll instead go from Charlotte to either Lexington or Frankfort. This will be my first visit to the Bluegrass State and I'll be doing some county clinching there.

Heading to Louisiana next month for the New Orleans Roadmeet and birthday party up in Baton Rouge for my uncle.
Assuming there is no ice & snow on the "backroads" of Kentucky, I plan to go back to work on my consecutive route number list, then go through Eastern Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi before reaching Louisiana.

If my budget will allow for it, I want to combine traveling Skyline Dr/Blue Ridge Parkway with attending A.J.'s City meet in Charlotte.

Otherwise, I'll memorize I-70 between Columbus and Indy as I plot out my roadmeet for Indianapolis.

-Ouachita Mountains, AR to see the total solar eclipse.

-GA/NC Blue Ridge Mountains + Atlanta after school is over. This will be the first time I have entered North Carolina (state #33).

-Kansas City to see the Phillies (one of my friends is a native to Philly) in late August.

-Pending the release of the NFL schedule, a road trip to see the Eagles. This would most likely be to Dallas, knowing they have to play an away game against the Cowboys at some point. Much like with NC, I have not yet been to Texas.

Or you could've driven to KC this past year to see the Eagles beat the Chiefs at Arrowhead the Monday night before Thanksgiving. Your next chance will be in 2031.

Quote from: Road Hog on January 06, 2024, 02:10:15 AM
Or you could've driven to KC this past year to see the Eagles beat the Chiefs at Arrowhead the Monday night before Thanksgiving. Your next chance will be in 2031.

2025 (https://fbschedules.com/2025-philadelphia-eagles-schedule/)

Quote from: jlam on January 06, 2024, 03:16:53 PM

Quote from: Road Hog on January 06, 2024, 02:10:15 AM
Or you could've driven to KC this past year to see the Eagles beat the Chiefs at Arrowhead the Monday night before Thanksgiving. Your next chance will be in 2031.

2025 (https://fbschedules.com/2025-philadelphia-eagles-schedule/)

Ah, but see, the Chiefs are going to win that one, so it doesn't count.  ;-)

My Luray Caverns trip has been postponed to an unknown date.

On the brighter side, I have a possible trip to Manassas planned on the 20th.

A road trip this summer is in the works for me. It'll be a massive loop in the Northwestern United States. I'll visit the University of Wyoming and Montana State. After touring the latter, I will head west to Portland, Oregon, see family, and return home via I-84 and I-80. Remember that this trip is very preliminary and might not happen at all.

My next medium-distance road trip will be downstate to Crested Butte and Mt. Princeton this spring. No new terrain there.

So, this year...

At least two trips to Atlanta - one to visit my parents and some family friends, another for a friend's wedding. I've done these drives so many times that I basically have driven every possible route, but I'll see if I can find some new mileage in Georgia's massive state highway system somewhere.

Solar eclipse trip in April. Still figuring out details of how this is going to look, but I have a hotel in Shreveport the night before.

There's the possibility of a long road trip to Boston and Maine this summer, which I of course would love to do, but I might fly instead because I don't know if I'll have the time for that kind of drive...

Also have a possible drive to Oklahoma in the works too, if I have enough money and my July is free enough otherwise...

Quote from: US 89 on January 11, 2024, 01:17:47 AM
There's the possibility of a long road trip to Boston and Maine this summer, which I of course would love to do, but I might fly instead because I don't know if I'll have the time for that kind of drive...

Maine is a grand and somewhat unique location for a road trip within the US. Would certainly recommend, even if you fly into somewhere nearby (such as Boston) and drive from there.

I plan on driving every road on Adak Island, and then we're stopping in Washington on the way back home and going to do the Cascade Loop.

Quote from: Road Hog on January 06, 2024, 02:10:15 AM
Or you could've driven to KC this past year to see the Eagles beat the Chiefs at Arrowhead the Monday night before Thanksgiving. Your next chance will be in 2031.

Technically true, however... this was a Super Bowl "rematch" game. Tickets were going for some $350 a piece IIRC. Having done a trip to see the Cardinals face the Phillies not to long beforehand... I just didn't have the money for that.

The only significant road trip I have planned for this year is a trip to Long Island for my niece's wedding in September.

I am still debating my route.  The wedding is at the eastern end of Long Island (Shelter Island, to be exact), so one of the options I am looking at is driving to either Bridgeport or New London and taking the ferry, to avoid the NYC area.  It looks like the ferry toll is about $70-80, but I'm willing to pay a little more to be more relaxed.

Because of the timing of certain family events, and the fact that I'm not as young as I used to be (and will be driving solo), I am planning to make the trip in 2 days (it's over750 miles), with a stop somewhere in central to eastern PA.  I will probably take 80 even though its a little longer than 70/76/81/78. 

Would be interested in others' thoughts re the ferry option.

Quote from: frankenroad on January 12, 2024, 04:19:08 PM
The only significant road trip I have planned for this year is a trip to Long Island for my niece's wedding in September.

I am still debating my route.  The wedding is at the eastern end of Long Island (Shelter Island, to be exact), so one of the options I am looking at is driving to either Bridgeport or New London and taking the ferry, to avoid the NYC area.  It looks like the ferry toll is about $70-80, but I'm willing to pay a little more to be more relaxed.

Because of the timing of certain family events, and the fact that I'm not as young as I used to be (and will be driving solo), I am planning to make the trip in 2 days (it's over750 miles), with a stop somewhere in central to eastern PA.  I will probably take 80 even though its a little longer than 70/76/81/78. 

Would be interested in others' thoughts re the ferry option.

Southern CT along the I-95 corridor can be as bad or arguably worse than Long Island for congestion. If you want to avoid that, the New London ferry option would make sense as you could take I-84 to avoid the NYC and environs entirely and then drop south via CT 9. The New London ferry would also get you considerably closer to Shelter Island once you reach LI. The Bridgeport ferry would put you past the worst congestion on LI but you'd still have to drive almost 2 hours on a good day, and most of it on backroads since you'd be too far north to take I-495.

I can't comment on either of the ferries specifically, but probably worth a shot if you have already been to Long Island and/or want to try something different.

Quote from: webny99 on January 13, 2024, 12:17:33 PM

Quote from: frankenroad on January 12, 2024, 04:19:08 PM
The only significant road trip I have planned for this year is a trip to Long Island for my niece's wedding in September.

I am still debating my route.  The wedding is at the eastern end of Long Island (Shelter Island, to be exact), so one of the options I am looking at is driving to either Bridgeport or New London and taking the ferry, to avoid the NYC area.  It looks like the ferry toll is about $70-80, but I'm willing to pay a little more to be more relaxed.

Because of the timing of certain family events, and the fact that I'm not as young as I used to be (and will be driving solo), I am planning to make the trip in 2 days (it's over750 miles), with a stop somewhere in central to eastern PA.  I will probably take 80 even though its a little longer than 70/76/81/78. 

Would be interested in others' thoughts re the ferry option.

Southern CT along the I-95 corridor can be as bad or arguably worse than Long Island for congestion. If you want to avoid that, the New London ferry option would make sense as you could take I-84 to avoid the NYC and environs entirely and then drop south via CT 9. The New London ferry would also get you considerably closer to Shelter Island once you reach LI. The Bridgeport ferry would put you past the worst congestion on LI but you'd still have to drive almost 2 hours on a good day, and most of it on backroads since you'd be too far north to take I-495.

I can't comment on either of the ferries specifically, but probably worth a shot if you have already been to Long Island and/or want to try something different.

The trouble is you have to get to LI.  NYC traffic is no picnic, even outside of rush hour.  And I-84 can have its fair share of congestion too; there really isn't a way through this part of the country that is always good, just stuff that can be bad at varying times, so it's a question of what things will be like when you're traveling and picking your poison.  Would you rather deal with stop and go in the city followed by faster moving in LI, or congested but mostly moving in CT?  Are you traveling morning, midday, PM rush, weekday, weekend?  Checking the Google Maps "typical traffic" data and doing some mock driving directions for varying routes at a similar time/day of week to when you would leave can inform planning a lot.

Quote from: vdeane on January 13, 2024, 03:22:46 PM
The trouble is you have to get to LI.  NYC traffic is no picnic, even outside of rush hour.  And I-84 can have its fair share of congestion too; there really isn't a way through this part of the country that is always good, just stuff that can be bad at varying times, so it's a question of what things will be like when you're traveling and picking your poison.  Would you rather deal with stop and go in the city followed by faster moving in LI, or congested but mostly moving in CT?  Are you traveling morning, midday, PM rush, weekday, weekend?  Checking the Google Maps "typical traffic" data and doing some mock driving directions for varying routes at a similar time/day of week to when you would leave can inform planning a lot.

Right, that's why I suggested I-84 as an option that largely avoids the NYC area. I-84 in eastern western CT is basically NYC/Hartford exurbia and can be slow at times, but congestion-wise I would still way rather that than have to deal with NYC proper and then slog all the way down LI - as long as one is OK with the ferry component.

Quote from: webny99 on January 13, 2024, 06:01:11 PM

Quote from: vdeane on January 13, 2024, 03:22:46 PM
The trouble is you have to get to LI.  NYC traffic is no picnic, even outside of rush hour.  And I-84 can have its fair share of congestion too; there really isn't a way through this part of the country that is always good, just stuff that can be bad at varying times, so it's a question of what things will be like when you're traveling and picking your poison.  Would you rather deal with stop and go in the city followed by faster moving in LI, or congested but mostly moving in CT?  Are you traveling morning, midday, PM rush, weekday, weekend?  Checking the Google Maps "typical traffic" data and doing some mock driving directions for varying routes at a similar time/day of week to when you would leave can inform planning a lot.

Right, that's why I suggested I-84 as an option that largely avoids the NYC area. I-84 in eastern CT is basically NYC/Hartford exurbia and can be slow at times, but congestion-wise I would still way rather that than have to deal with NYC proper and then slog all the way down LI - as long as one is OK with the ferry component.

Wasn't talking about eastern CT.  The stretch from the NY/CT line to I-691 is no fun on Friday afternoons.  Going to Newburgh is also a ton of extra miles, though I-684 can help with that (depending on when you get there, of course).

Quote from: vdeane on January 13, 2024, 08:04:34 PM

Quote from: webny99 on January 13, 2024, 06:01:11 PM

Quote from: vdeane on January 13, 2024, 03:22:46 PM
The trouble is you have to get to LI.  NYC traffic is no picnic, even outside of rush hour.  And I-84 can have its fair share of congestion too; there really isn't a way through this part of the country that is always good, just stuff that can be bad at varying times, so it's a question of what things will be like when you're traveling and picking your poison.  Would you rather deal with stop and go in the city followed by faster moving in LI, or congested but mostly moving in CT?  Are you traveling morning, midday, PM rush, weekday, weekend?  Checking the Google Maps "typical traffic" data and doing some mock driving directions for varying routes at a similar time/day of week to when you would leave can inform planning a lot.

Right, that's why I suggested I-84 as an option that largely avoids the NYC area. I-84 in eastern CT is basically NYC/Hartford exurbia and can be slow at times, but congestion-wise I would still way rather that than have to deal with NYC proper and then slog all the way down LI - as long as one is OK with the ferry component.

Wasn't talking about eastern CT.  The stretch from the NY/CT line to I-691 is no fun on Friday afternoons.  Going to Newburgh is also a ton of extra miles, though I-684 can help with that (depending on when you get there, of course).

Whoops, my brain auto-associated CT with east but I meant western CT.

Quote from: webny99 on January 13, 2024, 12:17:33 PM

Quote from: frankenroad on January 12, 2024, 04:19:08 PM
The only significant road trip I have planned for this year is a trip to Long Island for my niece's wedding in September.

I am still debating my route.  The wedding is at the eastern end of Long Island (Shelter Island, to be exact), so one of the options I am looking at is driving to either Bridgeport or New London and taking the ferry, to avoid the NYC area.  It looks like the ferry toll is about $70-80, but I'm willing to pay a little more to be more relaxed.

Because of the timing of certain family events, and the fact that I'm not as young as I used to be (and will be driving solo), I am planning to make the trip in 2 days (it's over750 miles), with a stop somewhere in central to eastern PA.  I will probably take 80 even though its a little longer than 70/76/81/78. 

Would be interested in others' thoughts re the ferry option.

Southern CT along the I-95 corridor can be as bad or arguably worse than Long Island for congestion. If you want to avoid that, the New London ferry option would make sense as you could take I-84 to avoid the NYC and environs entirely and then drop south via CT 9. The New London ferry would also get you considerably closer to Shelter Island once you reach LI. The Bridgeport ferry would put you past the worst congestion on LI but you'd still have to drive almost 2 hours on a good day, and most of it on backroads since you'd be too far north to take I-495.

I can't comment on either of the ferries specifically, but probably worth a shot if you have already been to Long Island and/or want to try something different.

I was actually thinking about the 84 option.  I was not worried so much about congestion on LI as going through the city.  FWIW, this trip will be on Thursday, Sept 12 with the return on Monday the 16th or Tuesday the 17th.

Checking Google Maps on a similar Thursday is a good idea, too.

Quote from: 1995hoo on December 28, 2023, 09:23:57 AM
Regarding 2024 road trip plans, aside from my usual fairly regular business travel to New York (via Amtrak), we have a trip to Florida planned to visit relatives for which we will fly down to Fort Lauderdale and rent a Tesla (this year a Model 3 instead of the Model Y we tried last year). Then in the summer our anniversary falls on a weekend, so we're considering a trip to the Omni Bedford Springs in Pennsylvania. That trip would present the typical conundrum of finding a new route through very familiar territory. I think I might use some sort of route involving US-30, as I have never taken said road from Breezewood west to Bedford. Our next-door neighbor regularly travels up to State College to visit relatives; she says she always uses US-30 there to avoid the toll and that it's a decent road, so all the more reason to check it out.

We got back from our Florida trip this past Saturday night. Flew down on January 6, flew back January 13. We drove the Tesla some 506 miles, including a drive down to the Keys because I had not been there before. We didn't go all the way to Key West (just too far for a single day's roundtrip), so we'll have to go back sometime. Electricity for the EV came to about $53 for the week, which compares favorably to gas at around $3 a gallon.

In terms of things of roadgeek interest, I covered the final segment of Florida's Turnpike that I was missing (two pieces of the Homestead Extension). I noted there are some places where the signs refer to a "Thru Lane" available to SunPass users only (meaning no toll-by-plate in those lanes). I had recalled reading that there was a possibility of express lanes being constructed on the Turnpike, so I wasn't 100% clear on what the "Thru Lanes" were. I therefore avoided them because I was using a SunPass we borrowed from our relatives and I didn't want to incur an additional toll (my brother-in-law strongly dislikes express toll lanes). When we stopped at the Supercharger in Florida City just north of the Turnpike's southern end, I did a Google search and found that there is no additional toll for those lanes, they're just intended for longer-distance drivers. Oh well, now I know for next time. I thought the signage could have been a little clearer as to what the concept was.

In the Keys, we made it down as far as Bahia Honda State Park before turning around. Traffic through Key Largo was heavy on the way back, so I took the Card Sound Bridge instead of staying on US-1. Then I opted for Krome Avenue instead of the Turnpike so as to clinch FL-997. I must say that road is immensely improved since the last time I was on it (it was still a two-lane road then). I was somewhat nonplussed to see that the big yellow sign at the south end of FL-997 said there had been five fatalities on that road so far this year—I couldn't help but wonder whether that actually meant in 2024 (which would be somewhat troubling, seeing as how we were driving it on January 9) or whether it was stale data. A look at Google Street View strongly suggests it's stale data because it said the same thing in July 2022. (https://maps.app.goo.gl/nDKPf67SxghjLiMb8)

Regarding the Tesla, I liked driving it, but my wife and I both decided we preferred the Model Y we drove last year. Normally we would both prefer a sedan over an SUV, but we both found the Model 3 a little hard to get in and out of because the roofline was low enough that we both hit our heads multiple times. I also bumped the inside of the B-pillar with my shoulder and the piece that covers the area where the seatbelt mechanism is popped loose (I jammed it back into place). A Google search reveals this is a common problem with the Model 3.

We may be back down there this spring for our niece's high school graduation. My wife wants me to rent a gas car for that trip just to save time when it comes time to return the vehicle. When we picked up the car this time, they had it charged to 96%, so we stopped at a 250 kW Supercharger in Davie and charged it up to that level. It took 50 minutes to reach that level because charging slows above 80%. For regular daily driving that didn't matter because I let it stop at 80%, but for returning it they treat it like a gas car where you return it at approximately the same level (it was at 93% when we dropped it off).

Quote from: JayhawkCO on January 11, 2024, 12:32:32 PM
I plan on driving every road on Adak Island, and then we're stopping in Washington on the way back home and going to do the Cascade Loop.

Minor change of plans. Still going to Adak, but instead of spending a couple of days in WA, decided to do a little mini trip to Juneau and Ketchikan, so I'll get two of the four legs of AK7 clinched.

Still writing up plans to go see the eclipse in Dallas with a long round trip from Seattle. If anyone wants to tell me my schedule is unreasonable, now is the time:

Day 1 - Seattle to Boise (long drive day, almost no stops)
Day 2 - Boise to SLC area
Day 3 - SLC to Moab area
Day 4 - Moab area to Denver
Day 5 - Denver and Colorado Springs
Day 6 - Colorado Springs to Santa Fe and Albuquerque
Day 7 - Albuquerque to Oklahoma City
Day 8 - Oklahoma City to Dallas
Day 9 - Eclipse Day (roughly)
Day 10 - Dallas to San Antonio
Day 11 - San Antonio and Austin
Day 12 - Stay in Austin
Day 13 - Austin to Dallas
Day 14 - Dallas again
Day 15 - Dallas to Bentonville via Little Rock
Day 16 - Bentonville to Kansas City via Jefferson
Day 17 - Kansas City to Sioux Falls via Lincoln
Day 18 - Sioux Falls to Rapid City via Pierre
Day 19 - Rapid City to Bozeman
Day 20 - Bozeman to Spokane
Day 21 - Spokane to Seattle

Quote from: Bruce on January 25, 2024, 03:04:08 AM
Still writing up plans to go see the eclipse in Dallas with a long round trip from Seattle. If anyone wants to tell me my schedule is unreasonable, now is the time:

Day 1 - Seattle to Boise (long drive day, almost no stops)
Day 2 - Boise to SLC area
Day 3 - SLC to Moab area
Day 4 - Moab area to Denver
Day 5 - Denver and Colorado Springs
Day 6 - Colorado Springs to Santa Fe and Albuquerque
Day 7 - Albuquerque to Oklahoma City
Day 8 - Oklahoma City to Dallas
Day 9 - Eclipse Day (roughly)
Day 10 - Dallas to San Antonio
Day 11 - San Antonio and Austin
Day 12 - Stay in Austin
Day 13 - Austin to Dallas
Day 14 - Dallas again
Day 15 - Dallas to Bentonville via Little Rock
Day 16 - Bentonville to Kansas City via Jefferson
Day 17 - Kansas City to Sioux Falls via Lincoln
Day 18 - Sioux Falls to Rapid City via Pierre
Day 19 - Rapid City to Bozeman
Day 20 - Bozeman to Spokane
Day 21 - Spokane to Seattle

You're a little late to the party for planning to get down there.  Will you be staying with friends or paying for lodging?  Might want to check prices in the area.  San Antonio and Austin have hiked rates, anyway.

Must be seeing a lot of stuff on the way to take 8 days to get from Seattle to Dallas.

Quote from: Bruce on January 25, 2024, 03:04:08 AM
Day 1 - Seattle to Boise (long drive day, almost no stops)
Day 2 - Boise to SLC area
Day 3 - SLC to Moab area
Day 4 - Moab area to Denver
Day 5 - Denver and Colorado Springs
Day 6 - Colorado Springs to Santa Fe and Albuquerque
Day 7 - Albuquerque to Oklahoma City
Day 8 - Oklahoma City to Dallas
Day 9 - Eclipse Day (roughly)
Day 10 - Dallas to San Antonio
Day 11 - San Antonio and Austin
Day 12 - Stay in Austin
Day 13 - Austin to Dallas
Day 14 - Dallas again
Day 15 - Dallas to Bentonville via Little Rock
Day 16 - Bentonville to Kansas City via Jefferson
Day 17 - Kansas City to Sioux Falls via Lincoln
Day 18 - Sioux Falls to Rapid City via Pierre
Day 19 - Rapid City to Bozeman
Day 20 - Bozeman to Spokane
Day 21 - Spokane to Seattle

Now that's a real road trip!   :clap:

If the timing works out and you want to get a beer when you're in Denver, let me know!

Quote from: Rothman on January 25, 2024, 07:18:42 AM

Quote from: Bruce on January 25, 2024, 03:04:08 AM
Still writing up plans to go see the eclipse in Dallas with a long round trip from Seattle. If anyone wants to tell me my schedule is unreasonable, now is the time:

Day 1 - Seattle to Boise (long drive day, almost no stops)
Day 2 - Boise to SLC area
Day 3 - SLC to Moab area
Day 4 - Moab area to Denver
Day 5 - Denver and Colorado Springs
Day 6 - Colorado Springs to Santa Fe and Albuquerque
Day 7 - Albuquerque to Oklahoma City
Day 8 - Oklahoma City to Dallas
Day 9 - Eclipse Day (roughly)
Day 10 - Dallas to San Antonio
Day 11 - San Antonio and Austin
Day 12 - Stay in Austin
Day 13 - Austin to Dallas
Day 14 - Dallas again
Day 15 - Dallas to Bentonville via Little Rock
Day 16 - Bentonville to Kansas City via Jefferson
Day 17 - Kansas City to Sioux Falls via Lincoln
Day 18 - Sioux Falls to Rapid City via Pierre
Day 19 - Rapid City to Bozeman
Day 20 - Bozeman to Spokane
Day 21 - Spokane to Seattle

You're a little late to the party for planning to get down there.  Will you be staying with friends or paying for lodging?  Might want to check prices in the area.  San Antonio and Austin have hiked rates, anyway.

Must be seeing a lot of stuff on the way to take 8 days to get from Seattle to Dallas.

Staying with friends and family while in Texas, but the rest is going to be a mix of car camping and day-of reservations. Can't be certain about the conditions across the mountains and I have to give myself plenty of float time. Worse case I'll be arriving on the night before the eclipse, but that's better than missing it entirely.

Quote from: JayhawkCO on January 25, 2024, 10:50:35 AM
If the timing works out and you want to get a beer when you're in Denver, let me know!

Very open to meeting up, but I think I'll pass on the booze.

Quote from: boilerup25 on December 28, 2023, 05:06:37 PM
For me, I already have multiple likely trips planned.

February 2024: Trips from West Lafayette to Columbus, Ohio and Madison, Wisconsin.
Summer 2024: I have some trips I plan on taking from Morris County to go deeper into Sussex County and Warren County. I also am considering taking a trip to clinch CR 511 and NY 210 in Greenwood Lake. I also plan on taking trips from North to South Jersey (and back again). Those ones are still unknown, though.

Update for my planned 2024 road trips:

My trip to Columbus, OH to watch a Purdue basketball road game against the Buckeyes was canceled.
I could be taking a long road trip from West Lafayette, IN to the Richmond/Petersburg area in VA in April 2024.
There is a possibility I could be taking a road trip this fall from West Lafayette to either Champaign, IL; Madison, WI; or East Lansing, MI to watch a Purdue football road game. I'm hoping it'll be a trip to East Lansing.

So here's what I have so far (still subject to change):

February 2024: Trip from West Lafayette to Madison, Wisconsin.

April 2024: Trip from West Lafayette to Richmond/Petersburg, Virginia.

Summer 2024: I have some trips I plan on taking from Morris County to go deeper into Sussex County and Warren County. I also am considering taking a trip to clinch CR 511 and NY 210 in Greenwood Lake. I also plan on taking trips from North to South Jersey (and back again). Those ones are still unknown, though.

October 2024: Still a grey area. Trip from West Lafayette to Champaign, IL or Madison, WI.

November 2024: Still a grey area. If approved, trip from West Lafayette to East Lansing, MI.

I'm going to try to go to Mexico and Canada this year and add some more states (central Mexico) and provinces (Manitoba, Saskatchewan) to my list. Right now my plan is to fly into Monterrey and Grand Forks, ND (I want to explore ND too) and then just go wherever the road ends up taking me. I'd make more solid plans, but I never really follow my plans anyways, so what's the point? As long as I make it back to the airport in time for my return flight, all will be good.  :bigass:

Quote from: US 41 on January 28, 2024, 10:21:12 PM
Right now my plan is to fly into Monterrey ... and then just go wherever the road ends up taking me.

On last year's church mission trip, we rented a vehicle at the Monterrey airport.  In recent years, they have moved the rental offices out of the airport itself, to an area just south of the access road.  There is a shuttle bus going to/from the rental offices.  I don't have any personal experience with the shuttle bus, as our half of the group drove down from Wichita and then met up with the others at the rental office.

I only point this out because some of the GSV at the airport is out of date and incorrectly shows the offices right there by the terminal.  More recent GSV is correct.

Quote from: US 89 on January 11, 2024, 01:17:47 AM
There's the possibility of a long road trip to Boston and Maine this summer, which I of course would love to do, but I might fly instead because I don't know if I'll have the time for that kind of drive...

If you decide to range in this direction from Boston, holler...


As for me, I only have one on the books right now, in mid-March for a wedding in Florida that my wife is a part of.  Will have a marathon drive back right afterwards but am taking several days on the way down to visit friends and family and "dilly dally" (my wife's term for when I do route clinching).

My brother is floating a trip to Canyonlands NP in Utah to drive the White Rim Road in early March. Would probably be an out-and-back on I-64 and I-70 and US 191 to Moab. Maybe I can talk him into returning via US 666 491, I-40, and I-44, especially if there's bad wintry weather across Colorado and Kansas.

Quote from: kphoger on January 29, 2024, 02:05:32 PM

Quote from: US 41 on January 28, 2024, 10:21:12 PM
Right now my plan is to fly into Monterrey ... and then just go wherever the road ends up taking me.

On last year's church mission trip, we rented a vehicle at the Monterrey airport.  In recent years, they have moved the rental offices out of the airport itself, to an area just south of the access road.  There is a shuttle bus going to/from the rental offices.  I don't have any personal experience with the shuttle bus, as our half of the group drove down from Wichita and then met up with the others at the rental office.

I only point this out because some of the GSV at the airport is out of date and incorrectly shows the offices right there by the terminal.  More recent GSV is correct.

Thanks for the info. Sounds about the same as how Las Vegas does it.

Quote from: jlam on January 11, 2024, 12:39:34 AM
A road trip this summer is in the works for me. It'll be a massive loop in the Northwestern United States. I'll visit the University of Wyoming and Montana State. After touring the latter, I will head west to Portland, Oregon, see family, and return home via I-84 and I-80. Remember that this trip is very preliminary and might not happen at all.

This changed. I'm no longer driving to Portland. It will essentially be a there-and-back trip to Montana. I might get all three of my missing Wyoming counties (Johnson, Sheridan, and Sublette) or at least two. My Spring Break trip down to Salida is still firmly in place. I may fly to Portland instead sometime this year.

It's February now, with no real trips yet. I'll keep on waiting for the perfect time to get out of Greene/Albemarle Counties, and list many road trips I could possibly take this year from most likely to least likely:

Richmond Area, VA (90%)
Virginia Beach, VA (80%)
Luray, VA (70%)
Hinesville-Savannah, GA (65%)
Yorktown, VA (60%)
Cape Charles, VA (55%)
Lynchburg, VA (50%)
Ocean City, MD (50%)
Hilton Head, SC (40%)
Fayetteville, NC (35%)
Myrtle Beach, SC (35%)
Washington, DC (35%)
Rehoboth Beach, DE (30%)
Doswell, VA (25%)
Massanutten, VA (20%)
Wildwood, NJ (20%)
Dallas-Fort Worth, TX (15%)
Bristol, VA-TN (15%)
Outside of the US (10%) (cruise)
Ocala, FL (10%)
Louisiana (5%)

A lot of these trips listed are ones I took in 2023, plus some new ones and ones I took before 2023.

Some point after I get my oil changed, I'm going to take another Folkston run. I'm actually thinking of taking FL-GA 121 all the way up again, so I can capture the weigh station and agricultural inspection stations near the border. And this time I'm going to use a camera that runs on AA batteries.

I don't have a lot of set ones planned yet, but I have a few right now for the next couple months, and I've already been on a couple trips this year

Already been:
Clintwood, VA (First week of January)
Skyline Drive and the Parkway (Front Royal to Roanoke, Last Weekend)

Ones I know roughly when:
Ithaca, NY (next weekend, hopefully the snow won't be too bad then)
Kingston, RI and Durham, NH (early March)
Blue Ridge Parkway (Roanoke to Floyd, late March. Also that'll complete the whole Virginia segment of the Blue Ridge Parkway for me)
Surf City, NC (big maybe, but if so then late April)

Ones I don't really know when:
Southwestern WV/Eastern KY (Not 100% when but I'll do a WV trip at some point in the next couple months or so)
I know at some point I'll be going up to Califon, NJ in June or July if I haven't already been there by then
My parents keep telling me that we're gonna do a cross-country trip this summer as I'll be graduating HS this year, and so far all I know planning wise is some of the places I wanna see, which includes Denver, Wyoming, Seattle, and the Canadian Rockies

Quote from: boilerup25 on January 27, 2024, 03:14:35 PM

February 2024: Trip from West Lafayette to Madison, Wisconsin.

April 2024: Trip from West Lafayette to Richmond/Petersburg, Virginia.

Summer 2024: I have some trips I plan on taking from Morris County to go deeper into Sussex County and Warren County. I also am considering taking a trip to clinch CR 511 and NY 210 in Greenwood Lake. I also plan on taking trips from North to South Jersey (and back again). Those ones are still unknown, though.

October 2024: Still a grey area. Trip from West Lafayette to Champaign, IL or Madison, WI.

November 2024: Still a grey area. If approved, trip from West Lafayette to East Lansing, MI.

Updates: I might be doing a trip to see the eclipse on April 8th (great birthday gift for my 21st birthday!), but that will be directly after my massive road trip from West Lafayette to Richmond/Petersburg, VA and back. I am doing the Virginia trip from April 5 to April 7, and will return to Indiana by April 8th. But I don't know if this is a definite.

Here's what I know (still subject to change):

February 2024:
2/4 - Trip from West Lafayette to Madison, Wisconsin. [Completed]

April 2024:
4/5 to 4/7 - Trip from West Lafayette to Richmond/Petersburg, Virginia with a Purdue student organization.
4/8 - Grey area. Solar eclipse trip could be done from West Lafayette to either Indianapolis area or Crawfordsville.
4/11 to 4/13 - Trip to Purdue Northwest (Hammond, IN and Westville, IN) for a civil engineering student conference. (Yes, this is basically most of the regular Chicago trip I use to go to O'Hare, but this trip will let me get some new miles of road)

Summer 2024: I have some trips I plan on taking from Morris County to go deeper into Sussex County and Warren County. I also am considering taking a trip to clinch CR 511 and NY 210 in Greenwood Lake. I also plan on taking trips from North to South Jersey (and back again). Those ones are still unknown, though.

October 2024: Still a grey area. Trip from West Lafayette to Champaign, IL or Madison, WI.

November 2024: Still a grey area. If approved, trip from West Lafayette to East Lansing, MI.

I have nothing, if going to the Dover and Pocono NASCAR races don't count. I'm going to Florida, but flying there.

Just scheduled a camping/climbing trip with a buddy for Wetterhorn Peak. I think we might do the whole Alpine Loop while we're down there.

Quote from: boilerup25 on February 14, 2024, 10:49:26 AM

February 2024:
2/4 - Trip from West Lafayette to Madison, Wisconsin. [Completed]

April 2024:
4/5 to 4/7 - Trip from West Lafayette to Richmond/Petersburg, Virginia with a Purdue student organization.
4/8 - Grey area. Solar eclipse trip could be done from West Lafayette to either Indianapolis area or Crawfordsville.
4/11 to 4/13 - Trip to Purdue Northwest (Hammond, IN and Westville, IN) for a civil engineering student conference. (Yes, this is basically most of the regular Chicago trip I use to go to O'Hare, but this trip will let me get some new miles of road)

Summer 2024: I have some trips I plan on taking from Morris County to go deeper into Sussex County and Warren County. I also am considering taking a trip to clinch CR 511 and NY 210 in Greenwood Lake. I also plan on taking trips from North to South Jersey (and back again). Those ones are still unknown, though.

October 2024: Still a grey area. Trip from West Lafayette to Champaign, IL or Madison, WI.

November 2024: Still a grey area. If approved, trip from West Lafayette to East Lansing, MI.

Update: With the release of the Purdue volleyball conference opponents (but not the schedule yet) and all of the conference away games, this opens up two or three road trip opportunities in Fall 2024. The possible trips are to these road games: IU in Bloomington, IN; Northwestern in Evanston, IL; and Iowa in Iowa City, IA. I have a gut feeling that I can go with the Purdue student section to Bloomington or Evanston, but Iowa City might be a stretch. I'd be willing to go to Iowa for my first time just to add another Big Ten School and another state to my list.

My road trips (still subject to change):

February 2024:
2/4 - Trip from West Lafayette to Madison, Wisconsin. [Completed]

April 2024:
4/5 to 4/7 - Trip from West Lafayette to Richmond/Petersburg, Virginia with a Purdue student organization.
4/8 - Grey area. Solar eclipse trip could be done from West Lafayette to either Indianapolis area or Crawfordsville.
4/11 to 4/13 - Trip to Purdue Northwest (Hammond, IN and Westville, IN) for a civil engineering student conference. (Yes, this is basically most of the regular Chicago trip I use to go to O'Hare, but this trip will let me get some new miles of road)

Summer 2024: I have some trips I plan on taking from Morris County to go deeper into Sussex County and Warren County. I also am considering taking a trip to clinch CR 511 and NY 210 in Greenwood Lake. I also plan on taking trips from North to South Jersey (and back again). Those ones are still unknown, though.

Fall 2024: Grey area. Trip from West Lafayette to Bloomington, IN; Evanston, IL; or Iowa City, IA.

October 2024: Still a grey area. If approved, trip from West Lafayette to Champaign, IL or Madison, WI.

November 2024: Still a grey area. If approved, trip from West Lafayette to East Lansing, MI.

I'm planning a two-week loop from my home in the San Diego area, probably in June, which will go basically up US-93 to Canada, then back through WA, OR, and CA. It will clinch:

• US-91 and US-93
• BC-95 and BC-99
• All 22 bridges over water in the Vancouver BC area
• All state routes 99 that replaced US-99
• All interstates in WA and UT, all in OR and ID except I-84 from Pendleton to Twin Falls
• All signed business and historic routes in CA
• All CA county sign routes not in the flat boring part of the Central Valley
• All CA state routes except 45, 82, and 113
• A few dozen other state routes here and there

This is only possible because I've done most of the roads in those categories already. I particularly look forward to the northern part of US-93, Glacier NP, the Canadian Rockies, Vancouver BC, WA-14 along the Columbia River, the Crater Lake loop, and Mendocino Pass Rd in CA.

I've been  on an impromptu visit to family in Jalisco, Mexico this entire week.  Things weren't really "road trip-like" until today given we took a drive out to Santa Ana de Guadalupe.  Ended up clinching Autopista GUA 10D and had some significant new miles on Autopista 80D in addition to Jalisco Route 317.

Looping back to CNY from Troy, NY through NJ and PA tomorrow (Saturday).

Might be taking a trip to Colorado in June. Would be flying into Denver and drive to Durango. There's also the possibility that I maybe cross into Wyoming.

Quote from: BlueOutback7 on February 24, 2024, 11:32:38 AM
Might be taking a trip to Colorado in June. Would be flying into Denver and drive to Durango. There's also the possibility that I maybe cross into Wyoming.

Sounds like a good opportunity to drive US-550 over the mountains. I doubt the side roads (Black Bear, Imogene) will be passable, but the highway should be clear.

Quote from: AABattery on February 11, 2024, 02:16:02 PM
I don't have a lot of set ones planned yet, but I have a few right now for the next couple months, and I've already been on a couple trips this year

Already been:
Clintwood, VA (First week of January)
Skyline Drive and the Parkway (Front Royal to Roanoke, Last Weekend)

Ones I know roughly when:
Ithaca, NY (next weekend, hopefully the snow won't be too bad then)
Kingston, RI and Durham, NH (early March)
Blue Ridge Parkway (Roanoke to Floyd, late March. Also that'll complete the whole Virginia segment of the Blue Ridge Parkway for me)
Surf City, NC (big maybe, but if so then late April)

Ones I don't really know when:
Southwestern WV/Eastern KY (Not 100% when but I'll do a WV trip at some point in the next couple months or so)
I know at some point I'll be going up to Califon, NJ in June or July if I haven't already been there by then
My parents keep telling me that we're gonna do a cross-country trip this summer as I'll be graduating HS this year, and so far all I know planning wise is some of the places I wanna see, which includes Denver, Wyoming, Seattle, and the Canadian Rockies

Update:
So the NC trip got cancelled, but now I'm thinking sometime in March or April I'll try to go up to DC since I've still somehow never been there.

Quote from: pderocco on February 24, 2024, 09:13:15 PM

Quote from: BlueOutback7 on February 24, 2024, 11:32:38 AM
Might be taking a trip to Colorado in June. Would be flying into Denver and drive to Durango. There's also the possibility that I maybe cross into Wyoming.

Sounds like a good opportunity to drive US-550 over the mountains. I doubt the side roads (Black Bear, Imogene) will be passable, but the highway should be clear.

I've been on US 550 before between Durango and Ouray when I was last there 7 years ago. Absolutely beautiful drive and would absolutely do it again.

My Folkston trip is scheduled for Wednesday. That's two days from now.

The next day trip I take will include Florida's Big Bend region. I also want to capture US 27 west of US 19, and more of I-10 between Jefferson and Columbia Counties, especially the rest areas, weigh stations in Madison County and agricultural inspection stations in Suwannee County.

Quote from: BlueOutback7 on February 25, 2024, 10:45:30 AM

Quote from: pderocco on February 24, 2024, 09:13:15 PM

Quote from: BlueOutback7 on February 24, 2024, 11:32:38 AM
Might be taking a trip to Colorado in June. Would be flying into Denver and drive to Durango. There's also the possibility that I maybe cross into Wyoming.

Sounds like a good opportunity to drive US-550 over the mountains. I doubt the side roads (Black Bear, Imogene) will be passable, but the highway should be clear.

I've been on US 550 before between Durango and Ouray when I was last there 7 years ago. Absolutely beautiful drive and would absolutely do it again.

Looking to go the quickest way? Or are you venturing out a bit.

Planning out a 2-week trip for early May: We'll fly in/out of PHX, then do a big looping roadtrip mainly via I-17, US 89, UT 9, I-15, & US 93 to cover Sedona, Grand Canyon NP, Horseshoe Bend, Glen Canyon Dam, Bryce Canyon NP, Zion NP, Las Vegas (might even jump over to Death Valley NP from Vegas if time allows), and finally Hoover Dam on the way back to Phoenix.

Peeking around on streetview makes it seem like much of the driving will be spectacular - in particular I'm excited for I-17 beyond Phoenix, US 89 between Cameron & Page, the Glen Canyon Dam Bridge, the UT 9 tunnel within Zion, the Virgin River Gorge on I-15, and of course the O'Callaghan-Tillman Bridge on I-11/US 93.

Quote from: jmacswimmer on February 27, 2024, 10:05:05 AM
Planning out a 2-week trip for early May: We'll fly in/out of PHX, then do a big looping roadtrip mainly via I-17, US 89, UT 9, I-15, & US 93 to cover Sedona, Grand Canyon NP, Horseshoe Bend, Glen Canyon Dam, Bryce Canyon NP, Zion NP, Las Vegas (might even jump over to Death Valley NP from Vegas if time allows), and finally Hoover Dam on the way back to Phoenix.

Peeking around on streetview makes it seem like much of the driving will be spectacular - in particular I'm excited for I-17 beyond Phoenix, US 89 between Cameron & Page, the Glen Canyon Dam Bridge, the UT 9 tunnel within Zion, the Virgin River Gorge on I-15, and of course the O'Callaghan-Tillman Bridge on I-11/US 93.

The main thing I found interesting about I-17 is how the terrain and countryside changed as we descended from Flagstaff to Phoenix. The northern part of the road felt a lot like driving on I-87 in Upstate New York in terms of the types of trees and the overall look of the area, but as we descended southbound it turned to desert. "Desert," in turn, didn't look anything like my mental image of what a desert was, which I think came mostly from TV and movies where you see this endless expanse of sand.

Unless something happens, I'm heading out with my brother Saturday morning for Utah. Looks like the route will be I-64 and I-70 to UT 128, and taking that to Moab. We're overnighting in Monticello, then doing the White Rim Road in Canyonlands National Park. He wants to see Goblin Valley State Park, which will probably entail another night of camping (yuck) but he also wants to drive UT 12 while we're there.

I'm actually rooting for another big snowfall like they had yesterday in the Colorado mountains so we'll be forced to take I-44 and I-40 through Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico to get to Monticello. Otherwise, it will probably be out and back the same route, and there's no fun in that.

I'm thinking about a week-long road trip from Detroit to Minneapolis in late April or early May.  Mrs. wanderer wants to see the Mall of America.

Suggestions for good sign photo ops are appreciated.

Flying up to Helena and renting a car to drive to Missoula. Not sure all of my roadgeeking opportunities, but will at least try to go a different way each direction. Thinking about taking Flesher Pass Road (MT Secondary 297)->MT200 on the outbound as it looks like a pretty drive.

Nothing for us this year, we're still paying for the 2022 trip we bought a van and trailer for.  I hope all of you have fun.

Trying to work out the details of a possible Charlotte trip in April but it may end up being a plane trip.

I might do a possible multi-day Richmond, VA Area trip Part 3 next week. That would be my first real road trip of 2024, and my first time leaving Greene/Albemarle/City of Charlottesville this year as well.

Got a big boy road trip planned for August. First road trip I've ever done beyond the west coast or mountain west (see my county map or travel mapping). Rough outline:

1. Starting Boise
2. Drive to Grand Junction, CO
3. Drive to Denver. Will be checking out Glenwood Caverns that day.
4. Drive to Dodge City, KS, along US-400. Have a few stops planned in Denver and Colorado Springs too.
5. Finish clinch of US-400 and drive to Branson, MO.
6. Silver Dollar City.
7. Drive to Kansas City, spend a couple days there.
8. Drive to Minneapolis, spending a few days there. Concerts and Mall of America on the agenda.
9. Starting the drive home, to Dickinson, ND.
10. Drive to Dillon, MT.
11. Drive home.

I thought about trying to fit in Beartooth Pass or some sightseeing around Yellowstone on the way back, but I think we'll save that for another trip. By the end of the trip we'll probably just want to get home, and I don't want to take too many days off work.

Some of the days will be heavy on the driving (but never more than 9 hours or so), but we'll have enough time to settle down in Branson, Kansas City, and Minneapolis so I think it works out. Originally hoped for an extra day in Colorado to check out Mt Evans or something, but Silver Dollar City's operating schedule put a bit of a wrench in that (so I moved that extra day to KC).

Other than the big one, we'll take a couple road trips to the greater Portland area, in May and September. We'll likely be taking a "triangle" plane trip in late September to Los Angeles, then Portland, then back home, but no driving involved there (Uber and public transit). Yeah, the August+September time frame is super busy, just how it worked out with events.

*contemplates driving beyond the West Coast*

...

*sploosh*

Surprise trip alert!!

I am going on a trip to Buckingham County (VA) tomorrow. That will be my first time in the county since November 5, 2022.

My first Folkston day trip for 2024 was way better than the previous one. Not perfect by a long shot, but still better the ordeal I had in November 2023.

As I mentioned, my next trip will be the Big Bend and vicinity quest.


I was going to say the next time I go to Folkston, I won't need to take FL 121 to the Georgia Line, but I was wrong. There are places up there I realize I still want to capture, like the intersection with Baker CR 23D (I already did, 23A, 23B and 23C), as well as the Agricultural Inspection Stations on Nassau CR 2.

The only road trips I've taken this year were short weekend excursions to Morro Bay and then Monterey Bay. I had plans to do two weeks in the Redwood Curtain but was unable to due to work issues. Once it warms up, will probably do another drive to the Mono Lake area.

Have another Alaska trip planned for September or October. I like going there in the fall, I view the glaciers when in Anchorage and aurora viewing peaks around the fall equinox when in the Fairbanks area.

Trying to head to ann arbor MI in the summer to visit my grandparents

I might do a trip to one of these places tomorrow:

— Farmville, VA (5%)
— Front Royal, VA (10%)
— Harrisonburg, VA (40%)
— Leesburg, VA (10%)
— Lynchburg, VA (20%)
— Winchester, VA (15%)

Not much of a road trip, but here is the approximate route I took during my week-long spring break ski trip, clinching some new terrain:

(https://i.postimg.cc/1tb8NPmJ/Ski-Trip2024.png)

Quote from: BlueOutback7 on February 24, 2024, 11:32:38 AM
Might be taking a trip to Colorado in June. Would be flying into Denver and drive to Durango. There's also the possibility that I maybe cross into Wyoming.

We've officially got the flight booked to Denver for June 15-22. However we've decided to not go to Durango instead maybe staying closer to the Denver areas as well as Rocky Mountain National Park.

Quote from: Hunty2022 on March 17, 2024, 10:26:20 PM
I might do a trip to one of these places tomorrow:

— Farmville, VA (5%)
— Front Royal, VA (10%)
— Harrisonburg, VA (40%)
— Leesburg, VA (10%)
— Lynchburg, VA (20%)
— Winchester, VA (15%)

I chose Winchester. I'm here right now, just arriving about 15 minutes ago.

Just finished what is likely to be my only major roadtrip of 2024 (unless I rent a vehicle...my current vehicle is leased).  My wife was a bridesmaid for a college BFF, and the wedding was down at Disney World, so I took the opportunity to visit friends and family on the way down and clinch some mileage along the way.  12 days, about 4500 miles, and new mileage clinched in 8 states.  My main coups were I-4, the FL 417/429 beltway around Orlando, and US 17 in Georgia.

Well, tentatively, I have my Summer plans narrowed down to 2 trips.
Option 1:
Drive to New Orleans. Never been to Louisiana and just been to Tupelo in Mississippi. Going down would probably be I-55 the whole way. Coming back  considering either US 61 or US 51.

Option 2 (which I am leaning more towards):
Drive to Key West. While I have been to Florida a few times and have driven a good chunk of the state, I have never made it all the way to Key West. Going down via US 41, I-69, I-169, I-24, I-65, US 231, US 84, US 27, US 41, US 1 roughly. Coming back US 1, US 441, I-75, I-24, I-57.

I'm hoping this is the year I finally drive over Westgard Pass. Problem is I just don't know how to turn it into a meaningful trip. I was thinking of maybe then going south into Death Valley, or loop back around to the Mono Lake area.

Have a lot of stuff planned over the next few months:

In April, will be driving up to the Finger Lakes to view the eclipse, then will spend a couple days in Ontario to see Niagara Falls and Toronto. Going up probably through Delmarva, Harrisburg, and Williamsport. Will probably stop off somewhere on the way back to break up the drive.

Early June, will drive down to Charlotte for a weekend trip.

Later June into July, flying out to the UK to spend a few days in London, then renting a car to drive to York and then Edinburgh for a few days each, then flying to Dublin and doing a circular tour of Ireland in another rental.

Rest of the year more up in the air, nothing planned yet aside from a few potential business trips.

I'm very likely to head out on a trip to Waynesboro and/or Harrisonburg today.

The last 2 weeks or so in August I plan to drive down to Florida before starting college back up in September.

I have a couple of in-state work-related trips coming up in May. First will be to Bowling Green, which will involve KY 30, KY 80, the Cumberland Parkway, and I-65 on the way down (probably will take the BG Parkway back to Lexington on the return trip). The second one is in northern Kentucky (Campbell County) so I will probably take US 27 north from Paris to avoid the I-75 mess. Return trip likely to be KY 9 (AA Highway) to KY 11.

Oh, so I just found out I have a flight booked to Boston this Sunday so we can drive up to Vermont to view the eclipse. I guess it will be a 3-5 hour drive. Originally it was going to be Dallas but now it's almost certain it won't be viewable there.

I'd be nice if the people who organized the trip told me a little earlier.

Quote from: Quillz on April 02, 2024, 05:41:26 PMOh, so I just found out I have a flight booked to Boston this Sunday so we can drive up to Vermont to view the eclipse. I guess it will be a 3-5 hour drive. Originally it was going to be Dallas but now it's almost certain it won't be viewable there.

I'd be nice if the people who organized the trip told me a little earlier.

They organized it without you?

Told you what, exactly?

Quote from: Rothman on April 02, 2024, 06:07:21 PM

Quote from: Quillz on April 02, 2024, 05:41:26 PMOh, so I just found out I have a flight booked to Boston this Sunday so we can drive up to Vermont to view the eclipse. I guess it will be a 3-5 hour drive. Originally it was going to be Dallas but now it's almost certain it won't be viewable there.

I'd be nice if the people who organized the trip told me a little earlier.

They organized it without you?

Told you what, exactly?

It was a trip to Dallas originally. Told me last night "oh it's now going to be Vermont." They changed it like a week ago and forgot to mention it.

You only have a limited window to get a refund/credit for a flight you aren't taking. And I had to cancel a car reservation.

Quote from: Quillz on April 02, 2024, 07:20:14 PM

Quote from: Rothman on April 02, 2024, 06:07:21 PM

Quote from: Quillz on April 02, 2024, 05:41:26 PMOh, so I just found out I have a flight booked to Boston this Sunday so we can drive up to Vermont to view the eclipse. I guess it will be a 3-5 hour drive. Originally it was going to be Dallas but now it's almost certain it won't be viewable there.

I'd be nice if the people who organized the trip told me a little earlier.

They organized it without you?

Told you what, exactly?

It was a trip to Dallas originally. Told me last night "oh it's now going to be Vermont." They changed it like a week ago and forgot to mention it.

You only have a limited window to get a refund/credit for a flight you aren't taking. And I had to cancel a car reservation.

Who are these people to you?  If they're just friends, why aren't you involved in the organizing of the trip?

Some family members. I originally had no intention of going, then figured why not, might not get another chance to see an eclipse. So they just sort of planned it and added me last minute. All is sorted now, just would have liked some earlier notice they changed plans.

Quote from: Quillz on April 03, 2024, 05:24:54 AMSome family members. I originally had no intention of going, then figured why not, might not get another chance to see an eclipse. So they just sort of planned it and added me last minute. All is sorted now, just would have liked some earlier notice they changed plans.

Wonder if it was simply due to weather and therefore earlier notice was not possible.

Quite a good move to changing the travel plans, though, given forecasts which are pretty good this close in.

Cross-posting this from the eclipse thread since it fits better here and I don't want to derail that thread:
 

Quote from: CtrlAltDel on February 22, 2024, 12:20:52 PM

Quote

Quote

Quote...
TX 130 is your friend.

+1

No need to use I-35 south of Georgetown.  As long as you can use a toll tag or pay-by-plate.

On eclipse day, it will likely not be free-flowing, though.

I'm not sure what the toll rates are like on TX 130, but if they're prohibitive for some non-zero number of drivers, and considering that typical traffic on TX 130 is probably pretty light and moves at 80+ mph, you'd be surprised what it could take to cause significant congestion.

I have to walk back this statement after experiencing Austin traffic for the first time last week. Driving from Waco to north of San Antonio, I had wanted to take I-35 straight through downtown Austin since it was my first time in the area, but it was going to cost upwards of 25 minutes (and this was after 7PM on a Thursday!), so we took TX130 to TX45 instead. That route was mostly free-flowing, although I can see a need for six lanes on the northernmost leg of TX130.

I foolishly thought that were past the worst of it after rejoining I-35, but I could not have been more wrong. That stretch of I-35 between TX45 near Buda and Loop 1604 quickly skyrocketed to my least-favorite interstates of all time (it actually reminded me quite a bit of the QEW between Burlington and Grimsby, which is not a compliment). The first few miles were stop and go, then it opened up a bit but there was absolutely no chance for cruise setting - just one heavy wolf pack of traffic after another with swarms of slow traffic in the left lane. And then there was an incident near Selma that turned out to be the most insane case of groupthink I've ever encountered. I-35 SB was reduced to a single lane and there seemed to be a moving construction zone up ahead that no one could get past, but as the construction vehicles moved past Exit 173, some drivers must not have realized the left lane was still open, so they started exiting to the service road and everyone behind them followed. By that point, the construction work must have closed the next on-ramp from the service road, so traffic, which was already crawling, came to a dead stop and did not move an inch for close to five minutes. When it finally started moving and we got to Exit 173, a few cars behind us realized that the left lane of I-35 was open and started sailing by the ensuing mess on the service road. Figures. I'm sure it cleared up behind us, but that still ranks very high on my list of "most frustrating traffic jams".

It's too bad that section sticks out in my memory because the rest of the trip was quite pleasant, and I found driving in Texas to be a pretty good experience overall. There is a bit of truth to the stereotype that Texans either speed excessively or drive very slowly, but everyone seems to respect others on the road and there was hardly any left lane camping aside from the aforementioned section of I-35 - and even that wouldn't have been so bad if this New Yorkers' patience wasn't wearing thin after a long day of traveling.

My proposed second Florida Big Bend day trip is happening this Wednesday. If I wait until Thursday, it'll rain, and if I wait until Friday, the roads will still be wet from Thursday.

The next one, might be the Plant City-Lakeland area, and possibly even the USF Library in Tampa. From one of the previous times I was there, it was the only place besides the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts where I could look up the schedules for TV Guides in NYC.

Flying back from Boston. My eclipse trip changed from Vermont to Maine. Houlton, just west of the Canadian border. Amazing day and visibility, absolutely perfect view of the corona!

I wouldn't call it a plan, but I had a good trip for the eclipse yesterday, although it was one more suited for someone a bit younger. To avoid clouds in the totality zone, I drove 325 miles or so to southwestern Arkansas, another 100 or so to avoid clouds when I was there, and then another 325 miles back home.

I left at 10 pm the night before, once I finished the work I needed to have done before I got back. While pretty late, I experienced almost no traffic after the first hour or so of the drive, which was nice. Restaurants open 24 hours though are in shorter supply than they used to be, so I made do with various different kinds of M&Ms. The crunchy cookie ones are not all that good.

I arrived at about 4 am or so, and decided to sleep in the parking lot of a Walmart, fearing that all hotels would have no vacancies. That said, I saw some half-empty parking lots, so who knows. At about 7 or so, I warmed up a bit in the store, and went to McDonald's for food and wifi to figure out where I should end up going, using the cloud map I found. I then went to that place, only to leave when the forecast changed. I was actually between places when the eclipse was really starting to get going, when I decided to pull off onto a logging road and hope for the best. And while there were some clouds at the start, they faded by totality.

Then, after watching the ending of the eclipse a bit, I headed back home, which went fairly well. Although, at this point, with only three hours of car sleep, I was pretty tired. The drive went smoothly, until I got to Tyler when I hit one hell of a storm. After only five minutes of rain, the streets were flooded. I was debating stopping for the day, but I saw online that if I could get ahead of that bit of storm, I could head off the rest of them that were approaching, which is what I did, arriving back in College Station at about 9:30, with 786.1 more miles under my belt.

We just made airline reservations for a trip to Florida for our niece's high school graduation in Broward County and to visit some other relatives and friends. Main thing I'm trying to figure out now is some new routes to pass through some very familiar territory. Our second stop is in Fort Myers. We've never taken US-41 all the way across the Everglades (the only time we've gone out that way was to visit Shark Valley), so maybe I'll use that instead of I-75. Or perhaps we could take I-75 partway, then cut north through Immokalee to FL-82 into Fort Myers. Not going to do the longer way around through South Bay and Clewiston because we've been that way before and it takes substantially longer.

Our third stop is in Venice and I'm at a loss for any new routes to get there from Fort Myers, though. (We fly home from Sarasota after flying into Fort Lauderdale. In a way, that's too bad because it would have allowed for taking some of the back roads across the state if we had to go back across, but it's certainly far more convenient.)

Returned from Texas yesterday. While I had to compromise with a non-roadgeek, I did get a few things done. I clinched I-35W and I-410 in Texas, but a bid to clinch US 57 was thwarted due to a major crash that had the road closed down about halfway to Eagle Pass.

Quote from: TheHighwayMan3561 on April 09, 2024, 05:47:18 PMReturned from Texas yesterday. While I had to compromise with a non-roadgeek, I did get a few things done. I clinched I-35W and I-410 in Texas, but a bid to clinch US 57 was thwarted due to a major crash that had the road closed down about halfway to Eagle Pass.

One thing I like about taking long road trips by myself is that I don't have to compromise with any non-roadgeeks. One thing I don't like is that I get massive leg cramps in the night once they're over.

Anyway, my Big Bend trip is done. Plant City should be next. I also want to start adding a Williston-area trip to my list of trips.

Quote from: D-Dey65 on April 11, 2024, 08:31:09 AM

Quote from: TheHighwayMan3561 on April 09, 2024, 05:47:18 PMReturned from Texas yesterday. While I had to compromise with a non-roadgeek, I did get a few things done. I clinched I-35W and I-410 in Texas, but a bid to clinch US 57 was thwarted due to a major crash that had the road closed down about halfway to Eagle Pass.

One thing I like about taking long road trips by myself is that I don't have to compromise with any non-roadgeeks. One thing I don't like is that I get massive leg cramps in the night once they're over.

I agree. I don't road trip with other people much but this friend had been pushing for a few years so we finally did it.

Quote from: D-Dey65 on April 11, 2024, 08:31:09 AMOne thing I like about taking long road trips by myself is that I don't have to compromise with any non-roadgeeks. One thing I don't like is that I get massive leg cramps in the night once they're over.

I'm with you there. I lost out on a chance to get a full clinch of I-70 from Cove Fort to Baltimore* because I couldn't convince my brother to jump over to I-15 from US 89 north of Panguitch to be in a position to drive the westernmost miles of I-70.

*Of course I-70 doesn't actually serve Baltimore, according to one forum member

Well, the only thing worse than missing clinching opportunities due to traveling with others, is missing them due to poor planning or not realizing you had the chance. I've missed I-790, MN 62, MN 371B, and TX Loop 2 this way and it is intensely frustrating.

My quick trip to Maine for the eclipse has inspired me to return and drive the entirety of US-1. Having been to Maine back in 2005, it always reminded me as the east coast version of Oregon: rocky coasts, lighthouses. I mainly used I-95 but was on US-1 in a few spots here and there. Looked at a map, it will be a pretty long drive, but I think it will be nice. Probably won't do it this year, though, although we'll see. I did visit Acadia National Park last time I was there, but I had always wanted to return.

Quote from: webny99 on April 12, 2024, 11:51:16 PMWell, the only thing worse than missing clinching opportunities due to traveling with others, is missing them due to poor planning or not realizing you had the chance. I've missed I-790, MN 62, MN 371B, and TX Loop 2 this way and it is intensely frustrating.

On the way back from the eclipse, I asked if we could drive just a single mile to the Canadian border so we could at least see the "END I-95" sign, but they didn't want to do it.

I've got a trip to the nation's capital city tomorrow!!