Road Trips either accomplished or planning for?

An interesting series of road trips I have done recently are an attempt to visit the entire US coastline. I am only missing three counties to complete this. Here are some of the bigger trips I took to accomplish this:

South Padre Island, TX - Lafayette, LA (starting and finishing in San Antonio). This trip was great for food as I sought out select Texas BBQ, tacos, and did some stops on the Boudin Trail in Louisiana.

Lafayette, LA - Tallahassee, FL (starting and finishing in New Orleans)

Key West, FL - Florida peninsula loop to Tallahassee up the gulf and St. Augustine to Fort Lauderdale down the Atlantic Coast (starting and ending in Fort Lauderdale)

St. Augustine, FL - Wilmington, NC (starting and ending in Charleston).

Wilmington, NC - Toms River, NJ (starting and ending in Philadelphia). Started the trip with baseball games in Philly and Baltimore, on the same day! Then jetted down to Richmond, VA and then to Wilmington to start the trek up the outer banks through Delmarva.

New York, NY - Gloucester, MA (starting and ending in Boston). Went to Cape Cod first, then to Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard, and Long Island.

Imperial Beach, CA - San Francisco (starting and ending in SF). Six day trip where I saw baseball games at all 5 California MLB ballparks and drove the coast.
 
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RaceBannon said:
US 395 north out of Reno into Susanville California up by Lassen to the back side of Shasta and up the Cascade spine of Oregon
In fact 395 is one of the cool roads ever along with 95. Lone Pine and Yosemite in Cali
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395 through Central Oregon is a great one.
 
YellowSnow said:
Joey said:
I drove through the center of Nevada on the way to Vegas with four of my friends when we turned 21. Had the night shift after we left Winnemucca. Got to Tonopah I think before we saw headlights again. Yes, very lonely
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I've been from Tucson to Tucumcari

Tehachapi to Tonapah

Driven every kind of rig that's ever been made

Driven the back roads

So I wouldn't get weighed

And if you give me weed, whites, and wine

And you show me a sign

I'll be willin'... to be movin'
@RaceBannon knows
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I know… every time I hear Winnemucca
 
Joey said:
YellowSnow said:
Joey said:
I drove through the center of Nevada on the way to Vegas with four of my friends when we turned 21. Had the night shift after we left Winnemucca. Got to Tonopah I think before we saw headlights again. Yes, very lonely
Click to expand...
I've been from Tucson to Tucumcari

Tehachapi to Tonapah

Driven every kind of rig that's ever been made

Driven the back roads

So I wouldn't get weighed

And if you give me weed, whites, and wine

And you show me a sign

I'll be willin'... to be movin'
@RaceBannon knows
Click to expand...
I know… every time I hear Winnemucca
Click to expand...
Don’t sleep on Little Feat. They are as essential as Skynyrd IMHO. But I’m crunchier than you Skagit County fellars.
 
Purple_Pills said:
An interesting series of road trips I have done recently are an attempt to visit the entire US coastline. I am only missing three counties to complete this. Here are some of the bigger trips I took to accomplish this:

South Padre Island, TX - Lafayette, LA (starting and finishing in San Antonio). This trip was great for food as I sought out select Texas BBQ, tacos, and did some stops on the Boudin Trail in Louisiana.

Lafayette, LA - Tallahassee, FL (starting and finishing in New Orleans)

Key West, FL - Florida peninsula loop to Tallahassee up the gulf and St. Augustine to Fort Lauderdale down the Atlantic Coast (starting and ending in Fort Lauderdale)

St. Augustine, FL - Wilmington, NC (starting and ending in Charleston).

Wilmington, NC - Toms River, NJ (starting and ending in Philadelphia). Started the trip with baseball games in Philly and Baltimore, on the same day! Then jetted down to Richmond, VA and then to Wilmington to start the trek up the outer banks through Delmarva.

New York, NY - Gloucester, MA (starting and ending in Boston). Went to Cape Cod first, then to Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard, and Long Island.

Imperial Beach, CA - San Francisco (starting and ending in SF). Six day trip where I saw baseball games at all 5 California MLB ballparks and drove the coast.
Click to expand...
On the Delmarva trip did you ride the coastline or the slightly inland roads? I've never even gotten down to the VA part of the peninsula despite going to the DE or MD shore almost every year. Chincoteague is somewhere I've always wanted to visit.

Most of my roadtrips are lame since I prefer flying, but driving through little towns across the plains of Nebraska and Kansas is always an experience. Did the OR and WA coast once as well; nothing like that scenery.
 
whlinder said:
Purple_Pills said:
An interesting series of road trips I have done recently are an attempt to visit the entire US coastline. I am only missing three counties to complete this. Here are some of the bigger trips I took to accomplish this:

South Padre Island, TX - Lafayette, LA (starting and finishing in San Antonio). This trip was great for food as I sought out select Texas BBQ, tacos, and did some stops on the Boudin Trail in Louisiana.

Lafayette, LA - Tallahassee, FL (starting and finishing in New Orleans)

Key West, FL - Florida peninsula loop to Tallahassee up the gulf and St. Augustine to Fort Lauderdale down the Atlantic Coast (starting and ending in Fort Lauderdale)

St. Augustine, FL - Wilmington, NC (starting and ending in Charleston).

Wilmington, NC - Toms River, NJ (starting and ending in Philadelphia). Started the trip with baseball games in Philly and Baltimore, on the same day! Then jetted down to Richmond, VA and then to Wilmington to start the trek up the outer banks through Delmarva.

New York, NY - Gloucester, MA (starting and ending in Boston). Went to Cape Cod first, then to Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard, and Long Island.

Imperial Beach, CA - San Francisco (starting and ending in SF). Six day trip where I saw baseball games at all 5 California MLB ballparks and drove the coast.
Click to expand...
On the Delmarva trip did you ride the coastline or the slightly inland roads? I've never even gotten down to the VA part of the peninsula despite going to the DE or MD shore almost every year. Chincoteague is somewhere I've always wanted to visit.

Most of my roadtrips are lame since I prefer flying, but driving through little towns across the plains of Nebraska and Kansas is always an experience. Did the OR and WA coast once as well; nothing like that scenery.
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I did both. I stayed in Chincoteague one night and Ocean City the next so I did a loop along Chesapeake Bay and crossed over to Dover to visit the state house and then down through Rehoboth and Dewey beaches to Ocean City.

I returned to Delmarva this November following the Penn State game. I stayed one night in Rehoboth Beach and then took the ferry across the bay to Cape May where I stayed a night before heading back to Baltimore.
 
I could do a full blown TLDR on this so I'll try to keep it brief
Biggest trip in terms of time/distance was a month long golf road trip in 2016 that started in Seattle, went South to Las Vegas, east into DFW/Houston for a wedding, continued east through Tuscaloosa and Muscle Shoals, Alabama, then north up through Nashville, Indy, and into Michigan, then looped around the Upper Peninsula of Michigan down into Wisconsin through Iowa and then back west through Omaha, Wyoming, Montana and I-90 home.
I've done all the types of routes that you can do from here to Texas (Montana to Billings down through Denver into northern New Mexico before hitting Amarillo and into DFW; through Salt Lake City towards Denver and the rest of the way). Usually those are 3 day drives but I did it in 2 days in 2020 due to COVID and did more of the back road route through Colorado … won't do that again.
I've gone up through Idaho into Canada and driven up through Banff on the way to Calgary … incredibly beautiful. Next time I'm in that area I'll go the other way to get up through Jasper. Going up to Whistler or even east to Kamloops or Kelowna is nice but isn't close to the drive to Banff.
Did a trip this year from Dallas to Eastern Tennessee (about 45 minutes east of Knoxville) that was better than one would think … went through Starkville and Birmingham on the way up to a golf resort called McLemore (fantastic) before getting to Tennessee. The way back went through the length of Tennessee through Memphis, etc. … not much of a looker
I've driven through much of North Carolina whether it's the stretch from Charlotte/Raleigh to Myrtle Beach or from Charlotte over the mountains to Eastern Tennessee (Johnson City).
I've done the drive to Bend more than a few times and a few times have carried on on that route down to Reno … fun drive when you're going through the back roads of California.
You don't realize how truly big Texas is until you've driven Dallas to El Paso … it's stupid long and the most boring drive you can think of that isn't heading East from Denver into Kansas.
By far the most beautiful drive I've ever been on is heading from Monterey/Pebble Beach and going down to Big Sur … best section I've ever driven. Close 2nd if going up the 101 in California on the way into Oregon and driving through all the redwoods as it literally feels like you're driving in a real-life video game.
The drive that consistently puts me in awe though is going through the red rocks in Utah (whether coming up through Nevada or heading from SLC to Colorado) and then when you're in western Colorado going through the mountains and eventually driving through the Vail and Breckenridge areas. I'm lucky that I have a friend that lives there and go there every few years … it's truly spectacular.
 
I could do a full blown TLDR on this so I'll try to keep it brief

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My longest drive was I-90 from Philadelphia back to Seattle.
Drove from Seattle to Phoenix, down through Idaho and Nevada. Stopped overnight in Boise and Vegas, and also drove the Hoover Dam. That was for the infamous Sark plunger in the desert game at ASU. Flew back, thankfully.
Have also done the drive from Phoenix back to Seattle through California with stops at Six Flags in SoCal and a day in SF on the way back. Also drove down to San Diego and back with a couple buddies, within the span of about 3.5 days, for a friend's wedding.
Did the road to Hana with my wife, and kept going all the way around the island in our rental Sonata. Handled the off-road stuff like a champ. If you stopped at Hana and turned back around you missed out on the best parts of the drive. Truly spectacular, and Charles Lindbergh is buried at a church out there overlooking the Pacific.
Have not driven much on the coast in WA/OR because the weather usually sucks. Probably should find time to take the family down 101.
 
YellowSnow said:
Purple_Pills said:
RaceBannon said:
US 395 north out of Reno into Susanville California up by Lassen to the back side of Shasta and up the Cascade spine of Oregon
In fact 395 is one of the cool roads ever along with 95. Lone Pine and Yosemite in Cali
Click to expand...
395 through Central Oregon is a great one.
Click to expand...
Burns, OR. Cool fucking town.
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I drove from the San Gabriel valley to EWa on 395. I had to stop in Burns to buy wiper fluid, a squeegee and a roll of paper towels due to large, plentiful bugs attracted to my windshield…at one point I was stopping every mile they were so thick.
 
Drive from Bend to Boise thru Burns was a nice drive - prettier on the east side of Burns than the west side coming into Burns. Have driven and rode along the 101 to Ocean Shores from San Fran - beautiful drive, scary road, damn near died with the RVs trying to make some hairpin turns (effing RVers).
Made 4 day drive in November from Whidbey Island to Baltimore staying on freeways (what a drag). Another from Huntsville, Al to Kirkland as quick as possible (another drag). Best drives have always been the back road travels - from Kanab, Ut to Tonopah, Nv along Nevada Hiway 375, The Extraterrestrial Highway - think I ran into one other car there. All sorts of obscure back roads getting from Pt a to Pt b mainly in the western states.
 
LebamDawg said:
Drive from Bend to Boise thru Burns was a nice drive - prettier on the east side of Burns than the west side coming into Burns. Have driven and rode along the 101 to Ocean Shores from San Fran - beautiful drive, scary road, damn near died with the RVs trying to make some hairpin turns (effing RVers).
Made 4 day drive in November from Whidbey Island to Baltimore staying on freeways (what a drag). Another from Huntsville, Al to Kirkland as quick as possible (another drag). Best drives have always been the back road travels - from Kanab, Ut to Tonopah, Nv along Nevada Hiway 375, The Extraterrestrial Highway - think I ran into one other car there. All sorts of obscure back roads getting from Pt a to Pt b mainly in the western states.
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Did you have any security issues staying on freeways? (I'm assuming this means you stayed at rest stops).
 
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Sounds like you forgot to flush the second time, mein Fuhrer
stopped on the off ramps, slept in vehicle
 
AtomicPiss said:
I was talking to a friend of mine recently who is about 65 and retired three years ago. I randomly asked him if he ever thought about taking a road trip and driving Route 66 or something like that. He replied "Hell yeah! I think about it all the time. Here I am with lots of spare time but I don't feel like I am making any memories."
Has anyone here, including @RoadTrip himself, driving Route 66? Or driven "the loneliest highway in America" which I think is in Nevada? Has anyone driven the Pacific Coast Hwy 101? I seem to recall @iDawg years ago said he rode a motorcycle along 101 in California.
Route 66 has always been in the back of my mind.

Historic-Route-66.jpg
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Driven the Loneliest Highway ~20 times. 395 top to bottom ~10 times. 93 a bunch. I've hit all of 101 but not all at once. Lots of 66, not all. AMA.

Most any highway, small town, and national park/monument west of the Rockies has Ern's seed on it except Arizona's. Still haven't seen the Grand Canyon. I did drive through a cactus blizzard from Phoenix to Kingman on 93 as a kid once though. That was neat.
 
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Joey said:
I drove through the center of Nevada on the way to Vegas with four of my friends when we turned 21. Had the night shift after we left Winnemucca. Got to Tonopah I think before we saw headlights again. Yes, very lonely
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Fuck yeah. You're speaking my new native tongue.

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I'm guessing you went down dark blue? That's God's Country, fren, and I'm atheist. Especially from Austin south along the Toiyabes. Better in the daytime.
 
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Unless you’ve stayed at the Clown Motel in Tonopah, I just can’t take you seriously.

Don’t forget to stop at the Shady Lady. Free parking. In the middle of the fucking desert.

The candy/jerky store/gas station in Beatty is world class.
 
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PurpleThrobber said:
Unless you’ve stayed at the Clown Motel in Tonopah, I just can’t take you seriously.

Don’t forget to stop at the Shady Lady. Free parking. In the middle of the fucking desert.

The candy/jerky store/gas station in Beatty is world class.
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Tonopah Brewing Co. - loaded tater tots, add BBQ chicken. Tradition of the ancients.
 
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