Deceptively large states

[Scott5114]

Arkansas isn't that big of a state, but many of the major roads cross the state diagonally, and not always in a straight line. The distance between Gravette in the NW corner to Eudora in the SE is 373 miles. The other diagonal, from Fouke (near Texarkana) to Piggott is 342 miles.

If we're going to quote diagonals, if one follows the path of Oklahoma's SH-3, which goes from the Colorado border north of Boise City down to the Arkansas border east of Idabel, you're looking at a 615-mile journey.

Of course, nobody but a roadgeek would have any reason to take SH-3, but it's there if you wanted to.

[Flint1979]

I-87 also drops more south in NY than I-81 does. Where I-87 ends in the Bronx is on the same line as I-81 is halfway between Wilkes-Barre and Harrisburg. I-81 drops into PA about where I-87 is passing Kingston.

That difference also applies to the north segments of both routes; the same latitude where I-81 terminates in the Thousand Islands is near exit #32 on I-87; that line extending a bit north of Lake Placid.  I-87 still has some 50+ miles to go until it crosses into Quebec.

That too.

[dgolub]

How about Maryland?  It's a pretty long drive from Ocean City out to Appalachia.

[Beltway]

How about Maryland?  It's a pretty long drive from Ocean City out to Appalachia.

Pocomoke City, MD to Oakland, MD
324 miles
5:25 hours drive time

Google Maps uses an all-MD routing (US-13, US-50, I-97, MD-100, I-70, I-68, US-219).

[hbelkins]

I can't see exchanging I-81 for I-95. I-81 is two lanes of congestion with lots of trucks that move slowly on the hills (well, there's a long climbing lane as you approach Christiansburg, that helps a lot). I'm not a fan of I-95 between Washington and Richmond because it's three lanes of heavy traffic, but the micropassing trucks on I-81 aren't fun to deal with.

[1995hoo]

North Carolina doesn't seem like much, and even going the width of it on I-40 its about 6 hours from New Bern to the TN Border. But I-40 cheats by exiting stage right after getting past Waynesville.

TN state line on US-64 near Wolf Creek to NC-12 intersection on US-64 near Manteo-now that is a ridiculously long trip, about 567 miles according to Google

The sign at the state line says it's 563 miles to Manteo: https://www.google.com/maps/@35.0216575,-84.3173359,3a,75y,144.12h,90t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1spKOba0X-HNrqTrvOXVNhGQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

Add in another 85 miles (that will take two and a half hours) if you want to continue from Manteo on down the Outer Banks to Ocracoke.

[fillup420]

I-40 across Tennessee was an extremely long drive. I was driving back to NC from Moab, Utah, so Tennessee was the last state to cross. From Memphis to I-81 took almost 7 hours. It wasn't boring, and its quite scenic for parts of it, but damn if that wasn't deceptive then I dont know what is.

[Beltway]

I can't see exchanging I-81 for I-95. I-81 is two lanes of congestion with lots of trucks that move slowly on the hills (well, there's a long climbing lane as you approach Christiansburg, that helps a lot). I'm not a fan of I-95 between Washington and Richmond because it's three lanes of heavy traffic, but the micropassing trucks on I-81 aren't fun to deal with.

I certainly wouldn't trade I-95 for 100 to 150 extra miles of driving.

[adventurernumber1]

I-40 across Tennessee was an extremely long drive. I was driving back to NC from Moab, Utah, so Tennessee was the last state to cross. From Memphis to I-81 took almost 7 hours. It wasn't boring, and its quite scenic for parts of it, but damn if that wasn't deceptive then I dont know what is.

Tennessee is a very long state east-west, but not at all north-south, so I bet it was very deceptive driving all the way across it horizontally (east to west). I'd imagine it would be a very similar deceptive experience driving on Interstate 40 through the entirety of North Carolina as well.

[US 81]

Texas.

If this thread was "Large states" , yes. But "deceptively large" ....I'd have to say no. If anything, Texas's size is probably oversold....

I agree mostly. That said, I run between the big cities in ~central Texas fairly frequently: Houston, Dallas-Ft. Worth, San Antonio-Austin, occ Corpus Christi or Brownsville-McAllen. When something takes me by ground to El Paso, I am always surprised to re-learn how bloody far it is from the 'rest of Texas.' (El Paso-San Antonio = 550 mi)

*edited to correct formatting error*

[webny99]

It's probably mostly states east of the Mississippi that qualify, because of the general (and mostly correct) perception that Western states are comparatively vast.

I don't know how big New York is generally percieved to be, but I can see how a cross-state trip on the thruway could be substantially longer and more boring than expected. FWIW, Georgia is the largest eastern state in land area, beating out NY, PA, and Florida.

This was relevant when I posted it in Reply #7, and its still relevant. Very hard to make a case for any western state

[Chris19001]

The only state I can say has gotten me repeatedly is Kansas.  For some reason it never looks that long E-W on the map..  It doesn't look that big in comparison to its neighbors either, but damn that's a long boring drive on I-70.

[intelati49]

The only state I can say has gotten me repeatedly is Kansas.  For some reason it never looks that long E-W on the map..  It doesn't look that big in comparison to its neighbors either, but damn that's a long boring drive on I-70.

We just took 287/400 across the state. (Chasing the snow). Oh, it's a horribly long drive

[Eth]

I can't see exchanging I-81 for I-95. I-81 is two lanes of congestion with lots of trucks that move slowly on the hills (well, there's a long climbing lane as you approach Christiansburg, that helps a lot). I'm not a fan of I-95 between Washington and Richmond because it's three lanes of heavy traffic, but the micropassing trucks on I-81 aren't fun to deal with.

Yeah, both of those things are why I eventually settled on the I-85 to US 29 to I-66 route from Atlanta to DC. Might add maybe half an hour or so to the trip compared with the other options, but it's much more enjoyable.

[csw]

I-75 through Kentucky always seems to take forever. It's almost exactly 50% of the trip from Indy to the Smoky Mountains.

Also I-70 across Kansas. bleh.

[KEVIN_224]

Maine is also near all the small New England and other Northeast states like NJ, DE and MD..

Maine, New York and Pennsylvania are gigantic compared to other states in the Northeast corner of the US

Z981

True about Maine! All of Connecticut could fit inside of Aroostook County, the largest county east of the Mississippi River.

[bzakharin]

New Jersey is actually deceptively large for its apparent size. I'm from NJ and was surprised you can go for almost 60 miles East-West without leaving it (and I do that every day now). For out-of-staters the exit numbers on the Garden State Parkway sound impossible (it goes to 172). Wildwood is almost as far south as Washington, DC. You can get some of the radio stations from Baltimore/DC there.

[sparker]

Often I have an "inner debate" about what's more boring -- crossing the plains on (take your pick) I-20 through 94 or driving through endless cuts in pine forests (e.g. I-16 in GA, much of I-10 across the FL panhandle).  On one hand, you can look out (sometimes seemingly forever!) at the countryside -- but there's little to pique one's interest; on the other, you have nice greenery -- but no notion as to what else is out there.  Sometimes when driving through one or the other there's a crazy longing for a stretch of road cluttered with frontage-road businesses, a bunch of interchanges, and even gaudy billboards and other advertising.  At least you know you're somewhere!

[Flint1979]

I-75 through Kentucky always seems to take forever. It's almost exactly 50% of the trip from Indy to the Smoky Mountains.

Also I-70 across Kansas. bleh.

I always thought that I-75 through Georgia seemed to take forever. And Florida does take forever pretty much.

[jp the roadgeek]

Believe me, I know Long Island is deceptively large.  Montauk Point is as far east as Watch Hill, RI and Worcester, MA, the NYC/Nassau County line is parallel to the NY 22 corridor just west of the NY border with CT/MA/VT, and the westernmost point of the island at the Verrazano Bridge is west of Downtown Schenectady.   When I'm in Riverhead, Hartford FM stations come in better than NYC ones.  I live a little southwest of Hartford, and whenever I do a search for locations of a place within 50 miles of me, I get locations in Riverhead and Miller Place because, as the crow flies, they are less than 50 miles away; I just have to backtrack to NYC to get to them, which adds over 100 miles one-way.

If you take all of NY state, the southwest corner of the Southern Tier is west of Toronto, and Montauk Point is on the same longitude as Sherbrooke, Quebec, and about 45 miles west of Quebec City. 

[Beltway]

Does anybody think that Rhode Island is deceptively large for its size?

[webny99]

Does anybody think that Rhode Island is deceptively large for its size?

Not really. In fact, I was underwhelmed the time I drove through.
It's pretty common knowledge that you can drive through it in an hour. For those that know that, the range of possible expectations is very narrow.

[jp the roadgeek]

Does anybody think that Rhode Island is deceptively large for its size?

I-95 in RI is 44 miles long, which is twice it's length in NY and about 2 1/2 times the length of it in NH.  It's about 65 miles driving from the south end of RI 77 in Little Compton to the MA border on South Shore Rd. in Pascoag.  If you throw in Block Island, it's 75 road miles from the south end of the island to the same point in Pascoag (about 14 miles of it being by ferry)

Delaware is deceptively long north to south.  It's only about 17 miles across if you're going from Elkton, MD across the Delaware Memorial Bridge to Pennsville, NJ.  But it's 117 miles from Fenwick Island to the PA border on US 202.

The farthest essentially straight line drive I could find in CT is 145 miles from Byram Point in Greenwich to an eastward border crossing into MA about a mile north of the CT/MA/RI tripoint in Thompson.  It's about 120 miles as the crow flies

[CNGL-Leudimin]

Per what I've seen on Big Rig Travels, Nebraska. I though there would be more of a valley along the Platte river, but instead it's as flat as possible. It would be too boring for me to drive across NE on I-80.

[cl94]

New Jersey is actually deceptively large for its apparent size. I'm from NJ and was surprised you can go for almost 60 miles East-West without leaving it (and I do that every day now). For out-of-staters the exit numbers on the Garden State Parkway sound impossible (it goes to 172). Wildwood is almost as far south as Washington, DC. You can get some of the radio stations from Baltimore/DC there.

Cape May is roughly equal with the National Mall. And a lot of people don't realize that Delaware Water Gap - GW Bridge is nearly 70 miles. Easton-Holland Tunnel is over 60.