Upstate New York

[TonyTrafficLight]

Taking Rt 46 North out of Rome you could see the beginning of the Black River Canal also.
Along the roadside there are a good number of the locks still there and visible next to the road just north of
Rome up to around Boonville.

[1995hoo]

Black River Canal, that was it. The historical marker gave the name and I wasn't positive I remembered correctly.

Edited to add: The lead photo in the Wikipedia article about that canal appears to have been taken at the same place where we stopped.

[1995hoo]

Thanks again to all for the tips. We're on our way home, but I'm not focused on the clinches and stuff–going for the most direct option because of an emergency at home. US-219 in western New York is quite nice so far, though I gather it won't stay this way!

[kevinb1994]

Thanks again to all for the tips. We're on our way home, but I'm not focused on the clinches and stuff–going for the most direct option because of an emergency at home. US-219 in western New York is quite nice so far, though I gather it won't stay this way!

Hope everything will turn out alright when y'all get back!

[webny99]

US-219 in western New York is quite nice so far, though I gather it won't stay this way!

Indeed - safe travels, and enjoy NY while it lasts! 

If the fastest route involves cutting over to I-99 at some point, make sure you cut the corner by taking PA 153 to I-80, instead of 219 all the way. That not only saves on mileage, but avoids a slow stretch of US 219, and (at the moment) bypasses some construction related slowdowns on the stretch of I-80 you'll miss.

[1995hoo]

Hope everything will turn out alright when y'all get back!

Thanks, but unfortunately that's not going to be the case. My mom called this morning to say my dad isn't going to make it much longer. The roads will still be there later..... 

US-219 in western New York is quite nice so far, though I gather it won't stay this way!

Indeed - safe travels, and enjoy NY while it lasts! 

If the fastest route involves cutting over to I-99 at some point, make sure you cut the corner by taking PA 153 to I-80, instead of 219 all the way. That not only saves on mileage, but avoids a slow stretch of US 219, and (at the moment) bypasses some construction related slowdowns on the stretch of I-80 you'll miss.

Only saw this later, but the sat-nav did indeed send us that way. Quite a descent on that road!!!!

[kevinb1994]

Black River Canal, that was it. The historical marker gave the name and I wasn't positive I remembered correctly.

Edited to add: The lead photo in the Wikipedia article about that canal appears to have been taken at the same place where we stopped.

What a coinkydink!

[kevinb1994]

Hope everything will turn out alright when y'all get back!

Thanks, but unfortunately that's not going to be the case. My mom called this morning to say my dad isn't going to make it much longer. The roads will still be there later..... 

US-219 in western New York is quite nice so far, though I gather it won't stay this way!

Indeed - safe travels, and enjoy NY while it lasts! 

If the fastest route involves cutting over to I-99 at some point, make sure you cut the corner by taking PA 153 to I-80, instead of 219 all the way. That not only saves on mileage, but avoids a slow stretch of US 219, and (at the moment) bypasses some construction related slowdowns on the stretch of I-80 you'll miss.

Only saw this later, but the sat-nav did indeed send us that way. Quite a descent on that road!!!!

I'm sorry to hear that!

[1995hoo]

Thanks. We left Toronto at about 10:40 AM and got home at 10:00 PM. I'll follow up later on the roads and such.....very easy drive on the whole, but mentally draining when your thoughts are consumed with thinking about your father and feeling like your eyes are tearing up a few times an hour.

[1995hoo]

Following up because my mom asked us to wait until this afternoon to come see my father. Toronto to here is a very easy drive, even with the two-lane road segments. I put on the sat-nav as the easiest thing and it largely mirrored what I'd already guessed. Took the QEW around out of Toronto but exited at Route 24 (Victoria Avenue) to stop at a winery to buy some wine we'd had in Toronto. Unfortunately we didn't have time for a tasting. From there, the sat-nav took us south to a left turn at Route 20. Just after crossing over 406 there were warning signs that the bridge over the Welland Canal was closed for construction, so we wound up turning around and going up 406 to Route 58, which uses a tunnel under the canal (and the tunnel was down to one tube for construction). Route 58 becomes Route 57, Thorold Stone Road, and takes you back to the QEW just north of the exit for Route 420 for Niagara Falls. Given our family circumstances, we opted to skip both Niagara Falls and the Rainbow Bridge crossing and instead continued down to the Peace Bridge.

Pulled up to the Customs line at about 1:20. Quick line. The guy in front of us almost got in trouble. You know how the signs tell you to wait fairly far back until the lane clears? He ignored them. Pulled right up behind the guy in front of him as though he were at a tollbooth. Bad move. They want you to stay back because of all the cameras they have trained on your car. The CBP agent was yelling at him (couldn't hear what was said) and he backed up some distance, though not all that far. I'd love to have heard that exchange. We were through Customs within maybe 7 minutes of getting on line. Then down I-190 to I-90 to US-219.

webny99's description of US-219 is pretty spot-on. It starts out as a nice empty freeway posted at 65 mph. Reminded me a little bit of Corridor H in terms of the lack of traffic. Stopped for gas and lunch in Springville and then got back on the highway to find that the nice freeway abruptly ends just south of there. The end looks kind of like the old end near Somerset, PA, where it clearly looks like there are plans to extend the road someday but there's no hint of when. I thought the end might be fairly new, though, because at the nearby T-intersection there was a privately-placed small billboard railing against the new US-219 "bridge to nowhere" courtesy of the US Army Corps of Engineers and the New York DOT. From there south to I-86 it's a two-lane road, but it moved pretty well and went through a couple of scenic towns, Ellicottville being the main one in terms of being scenic.

Quick hop down I-86 to continue south on US-219. 219 is again a four-lane freeway for a little while when you exit, but it's a terrible road until the state line. It's a washboard and not remotely smooth. I know vdeane likes the "clopping" noise concrete highways cause your car to make. This road didn't cause that because the bumps were much bigger. Badly needs resurfacing. Once you hit Pennsylvania it's in pretty good shape. It narrows to two lanes after you're south of Bradford and that's when we wound up behind three tractor-trailers. Not much you can do about that but wait for a climbing lane. We got one just north of Mount Jewett and then the idiot in an SUV who was in the middle of the three trucks seemed not to care about passing them. The trucks got in the right lane, we tried to go up the left lane, and this guy was going about the same speed they were. Eventually I had just enough of a gap to whip around him on the right and get ahead of the trucks. From there down to Ridgway was uneventful other than the lights at Johnsonburg being timed to make you stop at both of them.

I can certainly see why Truck 219 at Ridgway exists AND why it doesn't extend north of the town. US-219 south of town is a very steep grade whose bottom has a curve, houses, and an intersection. Having big trucks come down the hill into that wouldn't work. Too dangerous. But north of town the road is essentially in a gorge, so trying to connect the truck route to that is impractical. Interesting area.

As webny99 suggests, the sat-nav had us turn on PA-153. We made a toilet/snack stop in Penfield (had we not found a gas station, I was going to stop on the shoulder). South of there the road goes up a steep grade and then there's a mandatory brake check for trucks, followed by a long steep downhill. Quite the descent with no runaway truck ramps. The SUV driver ahead of us was trying to ride his brakes and I eventually wound up punching it up to 80+ mph to pass him. Then a brief and unpleasant short nine-mile run down I-80 (unpleasant due to WAY too many trucks) to PA-879 to cut the corner down to I-99 via US-322 and PA-350. PA-350 had another mandatory truck brake check and another steep descent down to Bald Eagle.

From there, down I-99 to Bedford and a stop for dinner at a Wendy's. We had no desire to deal with the Turnpike and Breezewood, so we continued down US-220 to I-68. Been that way before. It's a good two-lane road, set the cruise control at 60 mph and didn't encounter anyone else going in our direction except right at the beginning when we passed some guy who was going 40. I-68 was largely empty and even I-70 wasn't bad....until just east of Hagerstown, when there was a lane closure. Everyone panicked to merge early and I used the ending lane up to the merge point, got over without incident, and immediately exited to MD-66. Took a right down to US-40, took a left, and when we crossed over I-70 it was completely empty. So we got back on via MD-17 just in time to cut between an escort vehicle and an oversized load. Of course I accelerated out of the way ASAP, and at the next hill I could see in the rearview that a ton of traffic had piled up behind the trailing escort vehicles. I wonder if taking the alternate route got us out of that clump.

I-270 was about as uneventful as it's ever been, surprisingly. One doofus from New York in an SUV who didn't have his taillights on (just DRLs), and I was rather annoyed that the cop who saw it didn't pull him over.

All in all a very easy drive and a good route to use. The two-lane roads all moved pretty well for the most part, except for the period when the three tractor-trailers were ahead of us, and for most of the drive it was possible to use the adaptive cruise control. Makes a big difference in allowing you to travel 11+ hours.

Thanks again for the routing advice and comments. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures from the way home yesterday. We were in my wife's car and she doesn't like me taking pictures while I'm driving, and to be fair her car is definitely heavier than mine. Given the reason for heading home early, I didn't want to stop to take pictures anywhere either. I think she took some of the BGSs listing "USA" ahead as we approached the Peace Bridge.

[webny99]

Took the QEW around out of Toronto but exited at Route 24 (Victoria Avenue) to stop at a winery to buy some wine we'd had in Toronto. Unfortunately we didn't have time for a tasting. From there, the sat-nav took us south to a right turn at Route 20. Just after crossing over 406 there were warning signs that the bridge over the Welland Canal was closed for construction, so we wound up turning around and going up 406 to Route 58, which uses a tunnel under the canal (and the tunnel was down to one tube for construction). Route 58 becomes Route 57, Thorold Stone Road, and takes you back to the QEW just north of the exit for Route 420 for Niagara Falls.

That routing must've either been due to traffic, or the location of the winery, as QEW all the way is usually far and away the fastest route to the Peace Bridge. I've done the Route 58 tunnel a few times; it's fairly slow, but a nice change of scenery and not a bad option if you're far enough south of the QEW.

Pulled up to the Customs line at about 1:20. Quick line. The guy in front of us almost got in trouble. You know how the signs tell you to wait fairly far back until the lane clears? He ignored them. Pulled right up behind the guy in front of him as though he were at a tollbooth. Bad move. They want you to stay back because of all the cameras they have trained on your car. The CBP agent was yelling at him (couldn't hear what was said) and he backed up some distance, though not all that far. I'd love to have heard that exchange.

Yeah, some people are unbelievably inattentive, not only to the signs but as to what is happening in general and the SOP for how to proceed. I've seen that exact thing happen on several occasions and it always culminates with the CBP agent yelling at the person!

The end looks kind of like the old end near Somerset, PA, where it clearly looks like there are plans to extend the road someday but there's no hint of when. I thought the end might be fairly new, though, because at the nearby T-intersection there was a privately-placed small billboard railing against the new US-219 "bridge to nowhere" courtesy of the US Army Corps of Engineers and the New York DOT.

Indeed - the stub end used to be at NY 39 (the Springville exit). Others will confirm, but I believe the three-mile extension across the creek and into Cattaraugus County was completed in 2012. The long term plan is to extend the freeway all the way to I-86 at Salamanca, effectively creating an expressway-grade or better route from Buffalo to Bradford, PA.
https://www.dot.ny.gov/regional-offices/region5/projects/us-route-219/repository/appendix_u.pdf

From there south to I-86 it's a two-lane road, but it moved pretty well and went through a couple of scenic towns, Ellicottville being the main one in terms of being scenic.

Yup, it is quite a scenic route and especially so in the fall. Ellicottville is Western New York's largest (or at least most well-known) ski resort town.

[1995hoo]

That routing must've either been due to traffic, or the location of the winery, as QEW all the way is usually far and away the fastest route to the Peace Bridge. I've done the Route 58 tunnel a few times; it's fairly slow, but a nice change of scenery and not a bad option if you're far enough south of the QEW.

Yes, it was because of where the winery is.

Edited to add: See Google Maps link below. The middle route via RR-20 is what our sat-nav suggested too, but as I noted, the RR-20 bridge over the canal was closed. Ms1995hoo didn't like its proposed detour via another rural road, so we took 406 up to 58 and you can see on the map why that seemed as logical as anything else. The sat-nav didn't suggest that way initially; rather, most of the Ontario-plated cars were going that way, so Ms1995hoo said we may as well do the same and then let the sat-nav recalculate.

https://goo.gl/maps/mt9AnLefs2V8TVqw9