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Longest driven off interstate or freeway

Started by Sykotyk, December 10, 2013, 10:12:18 PM

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Sykotyk

Well, after seeing the 'longest period' question regarding interstates, it had me thinking. What's the longer distance, in one trip (not just around town, for instance) that you drove off an interstate (or a freeway, if you want to go that route, as well).

I've driven from I-94 in Miles City, MT to I-29 on US12. Also, US83 from Brownsville (not counting the stretches now an interstate) north through Laredo, to US277, to US90 and west through Alpine to Van Horn, TX (I-10). I've driven several times across Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Kansas without driving on an interstate (or Freeway, as well).

There's also I-35W near Fort Worth on US287, cut north to Borger, then west back to US287 and up to I-70 near Limon. I avoided I-40 because I was hitting some counties in northwest Texas.

Any other long stretches of purposeful off-interstate driving?


hotdogPi

Clinched

Traveled, plus
US 13, 50
MA 22, 35, 40, 53, 79, 107, 109, 126, 138, 141, 159
NH 27, 78, 111A(E); CA 90; NY 366; GA 42, 140; FL A1A, 7; CT 32, 320; VT 2A, 5A; PA 3, 51, 60, WA 202; QC 162, 165, 263; 🇬🇧A100, A3211, A3213, A3215, A4222; 🇫🇷95 D316

Lowest untraveled: 36

roadman65

#2
I drove US 71 from Kansas City to Bella Vista, AR before it was converted to I-49.  With the exception of its overlap with I-44 it is over 200 miles.

Then I drove it from Fort Smith, AR to Shreveport, LA later on which was a long distance as well.

Also I drove US 54 from I-35 at Wichita to I-40 at Tucumcari, NM. Even with a short detour to Dodge, it was still off interstate though.

A few years back I did all of US 31 from the I-465 Beltway around Indy to its northern terminus in Michigan.  True it is some freeway with an overlap with both I-94 and I-196, but it still has a long distance between Indy and Benton Harbor, MI and from Holland, MI to Mackinac, MI as well.  So I would mention both segments of this route.

Then in 1991 I went from Orlando to New Orleans on US 441, US 27, US 27 Alternate, US 19, US 98, and US 90.  Took over a day and a half, but had a moment to see the NAS in Pensacola.
Every day is a winding road, you just got to get used to it.

Sheryl Crowe

Kacie Jane

I've probably done a few worth mentioning -- I'll try to take the time to think of them later -- but the longest was certainly Bellingham, WA to Missoula, MT via WA 20 and ID/MT 200.

Alps

Outside this country - thousands of miles :P
Inside this country - well over 1,000 miles (US 2 from ND to WA, and a lot of other roads, between I-194 and I-82)

akotchi

Arizona and Utah, from I-40 in Flagstaff, up U.S. 89 and various local roadways to Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks.  About 290 miles, give or take.
Opinions here attributed to me are mine alone and do not reflect those of my employer or the agencies for which I am contracted to do work.

SD Mapman

If it's just one-way mileage, I got a 709-miler from Longview, WA, to Ontario, OR (using a VERY roundabout way).
If it's two-way, I routinely do 750 and 800 mile round trips to visit family.
The traveler sees what he sees, the tourist sees what he has come to see. - G.K. Chesterton

pianocello

US-69 and 75 in Oklahoma and Texas en route from KC to Dallas: 280 miles

A youth mission trip I went on a few summers ago involved going to KI Sawyer, MI (near Marquette), stopping along the way in Kaukauna, WI and a camp near Eagle River. The non-interstate stretch was around 400 miles. (map)
Davenport, IA -> Valparaiso, IN -> Ames, IA -> Orlando, FL -> Gainesville, FL -> Evansville, IN

The High Plains Traveler

I've driven much further than this on numbered routes, but I drove 125 miles continuously on a road that wasn't an interstate or state highway at all: from Baker CA to 29 Palms on Kelbaker Road, National Trails Road, and Amboy Road.
"Tongue-tied and twisted; just an earth-bound misfit, I."

Dr Frankenstein

Without getting on any expressway or freeway, 558 km / 347 mi, from my home to Toronto (the start of the Gardiner Expressway), which took 13 hours with a few short stops.

1995hoo

Probably a segment over the course of about a week totalling around 550 to 700 miles from the western end of the freeway near Ottawa out to North Bay, up to Greenwater Provincial Park near Cochrane, then back south through Timmins to Sudbury. I don't have an old map handy to tell me whether the Trans-Canada Highway near Sudbury used a freeway alignment at the time, so the distance may have been somewhat longer down the eastern side of Georgian Bay, but I just don't remember.

In recent memory, there was a drive of around 230 miles from Laramie, Wyoming, down to I-70 where US-40 meets it west of Denver. This was a screw-up. I meant to stay off the Interstate, but I wanted to go to Estes Park and then take the scenic road down to Denver along the mountains. We had taken US-287 on the way up to Laramie, so I planned to turn onto Colorado Route 14, then take a left to connect down to US-34, basically just so we could go via a different route than the one we took going north. But I missed a turn (there was no sign with the road number and the rented sat-nav missed the turn) and wound up going over the mountains, then down a dirt road to Rand and on down through Granby and Winter Park, total of some 125 miles out of the way. My wife was not amused. At least the rental car was appropriate for a dirt road (a Dodge Charger).

If you're willing to allow for portions of "Interstate look-alike" freeway on otherwise non-Interstate roads, two weeks ago I had a 259-mile drive down US-29 between I-66 at Gainesville, Virginia, and I-40 at Greensboro, North Carolina. There's a fairly new segment near Lynchburg that is Interstate-grade with a 70-mph speed limit, a couple of other segments that probably qualify as Interstate look-alikes, and a couple of other freeway segments that don't rise to Interstate-quality, so I'm not sure this would count. The drive down from Laramie mentioned above was all non-freeway.
"You know, you never have a guaranteed spot until you have a spot guaranteed."
—Olaf Kolzig, as quoted in the Washington Times on March 28, 2003,
commenting on the Capitals clinching a playoff spot.

"That sounded stupid, didn't it?"
—Kolzig, to the same reporter a few seconds later.

NWI_Irish96

Drove the entire Lake Michigan Circle Tour, most of which is not interstate.

I routinely drive 200+ miles within Indiana off interstates for the sole purpose of clinching segments of US and state highways.
Indiana: counties 100%, highways 100%
Illinois: counties 100%, highways 61%
Michigan: counties 100%, highways 56%
Wisconsin: counties 86%, highways 23%

hbelkins

It would be hard to go through my memory and come up with every specific instance, but I do have several lengthy such trips under my belt.

I guess my most recent long-distance trips were from Mt. Vernon, Ky. to Chattanooga, Tenn. (The fact that I opted to drive from home to Somerset via Richmond and Berea instead of via Tyner and London considerably shortened the qualifying mileage on that trip) and from Wichita, Kan. to Springfield, Mo., by way of Ada, Okla.
Government would be tolerable if not for politicians and bureaucrats.

Duke87

Not counting trips to Canada (or at least assuming Autoroutes and Ontario 400-series routes are interstate-equivalent)...

About 472 miles.
If you always take the same road, you will never see anything new.

corco

Ignoring several route clinching trips in Arizona and Wyoming that would have gone several hundred miles off interstate, but whose exact routes I can't possibly remember...I think http://goo.gl/maps/YmJZC (585)? maybe?

Actually, wait, no, it's almost definitely this 812 mile drive http://tinyurl.com/mnupl2p taken en route to the Wichita meet this summer.

If it weren't for five stinking miles on I-29 in Iowa, it'd have been 1,375 miles http://tinyurl.com/oxeahxj (I actually used I-29 on that along its US 275 concurrency, but ran out of route pins and had to use "Avoid Highways").

Scott5114

Dafter Twp, MI to Duluth, MN, 404 miles, using M-28 and US-2.

Close second is North Platte, NE to Custer, SD, 350 miles, using US-83, US-20, and US-385.
uncontrollable freak sardine salad chef

Thing 342

Great Cacapon, WV to Newport News, VA via WV-9, US-340, US-15, and US-17.


cpzilliacus

#17
Quote from: Sykotyk on December 10, 2013, 10:12:18 PM
Well, after seeing the 'longest period' question regarding interstates, it had me thinking. What's the longer distance, in one trip (not just around town, for instance) that you drove off an interstate (or a freeway, if you want to go that route, as well).

U.S. 340 south from I-66 in Front Royal, Va. to Skyline Drive to the Blue Ridge Parkway all the way to U.S. 441 at Cherokee, N.C.

About 550 miles. Not including going back to I-40 by way of U.S. 19 and U.S. 74, which adds about 30 miles.
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roadman65

Actually I forgot to mention that I drove US 1 from Titusville, FL to Fort Lee, NJ in one sitting!  That only overlaps one interstate in particular at the VA-DC border on the 14th Street Bridge with I-395.

That one is noteworthy very much as it is for me when I used US 52 from Cincinnati to Huntington, WB twice in both 89 and 94.
Every day is a winding road, you just got to get used to it.

Sheryl Crowe

NE2

Quote from: roadman65 on December 12, 2013, 11:58:31 AM
Actually I forgot to mention that I drove US 1 from Titusville, FL to Fort Lee, NJ in one sitting!
Holy fucking bladder control. (PS: it also overlaps I-440 in Raleigh.)
pre-1945 Florida route log

I accept and respect your identity as long as it's not dumb shit like "identifying as a vaccinated attack helicopter".

1995hoo

Quote from: NE2 on December 12, 2013, 12:05:41 PM
Quote from: roadman65 on December 12, 2013, 11:58:31 AM
Actually I forgot to mention that I drove US 1 from Titusville, FL to Fort Lee, NJ in one sitting!
Holy fucking bladder control. (PS: it also overlaps I-440 in Raleigh.)

Not to mention that's one heck of a fuel tank to go that distance.
"You know, you never have a guaranteed spot until you have a spot guaranteed."
—Olaf Kolzig, as quoted in the Washington Times on March 28, 2003,
commenting on the Capitals clinching a playoff spot.

"That sounded stupid, didn't it?"
—Kolzig, to the same reporter a few seconds later.

roadman65

Quote from: NE2 on December 12, 2013, 12:05:41 PM
Quote from: roadman65 on December 12, 2013, 11:58:31 AM
Actually I forgot to mention that I drove US 1 from Titusville, FL to Fort Lee, NJ in one sitting!
Holy fucking bladder control. (PS: it also overlaps I-440 in Raleigh.)
I forgot that one, so sue me!  It not like we all have not made any mistakes before.
Every day is a winding road, you just got to get used to it.

Sheryl Crowe

roadman65

Quote from: 1995hoo on December 12, 2013, 12:07:27 PM
Quote from: NE2 on December 12, 2013, 12:05:41 PM
Quote from: roadman65 on December 12, 2013, 11:58:31 AM
Actually I forgot to mention that I drove US 1 from Titusville, FL to Fort Lee, NJ in one sitting!
Holy fucking bladder control. (PS: it also overlaps I-440 in Raleigh.)

Not to mention that's one heck of a fuel tank to go that distance.
LOL, I did not mean it that way, but did not leave the road except for the necessities along the way.
Every day is a winding road, you just got to get used to it.

Sheryl Crowe

JCinSummerfield

Findlay, OH to Parkersburg, WV on a regular basis.  OH-15 to US-23 to US-33 to US-50.  You can do the math on the miles.

kkt

Kamloops, B.C., where freeway-like road ends to Yellowknife, N.T., and back.  2000 km each way.  But that might be contrary to the spirit of the question, because I wasn't deliberately avoiding freeways...



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