Sykotyk
Well-known member
It's about time this one gets started. This isn't going to be about rental cars, airlines, cruises, etc. This will be about travel. Not the destinations. The places along the way that you may see while traveling.
Since no one has put this one out there, I'll be the flag bearer unless and until someone more versed in travel minutia comes along.
My first, and foremost, recommendation for anyone who is traveling for a vacation: STAY OFF THE INTERSTATES. I know you want to get from A to B because B is where your 'vacation' is supposed to start. But the trip itself is part of your vacation. And unless you're REALLY used to driving long distances, and on very repetitive interstate highways, you're going to quickly bore of the drive and hate it. It becomes an endurance test rather than the relaxation you had originally anticipated. Especially if, after your 'vacation' you have to make the same trip in reverse before returning to your day job.
I say to stay off the Interstates, because the small towns are where you see the most Americana. The weird roadside attractions. The mom-n-pop diners, motels, etc. Where you see the actual scenery where 'the other half' live. You don't experience Kansas on I-70. You experience Kansas on US36 or US 24. If you're heading to the Rockies. You experience North Dakota and South Dakota on US12, not I-94 or I-90. You experience Colorado on US40 or US50, not I-70 (though, I will say Glenwood Canyon and the San Rafael Swell are well worth the drives on I-70 in CO and UT).
And it doesn't take nearly as much extra time as you think it does. The roads are far less crowded. The gas stations, restaurants, etc are all less traveled than those dotting highway exits. Repetitive and nauseating. The same thing again and again. The same national and regional chains.
And, as I said earlier, you get to experience a much more leisurely drive. Too many people back east (basically from the Mississippi River & East), see two-lane roads on a map (or GPS/Google Maps) as some type of slow slog through suburbia. Light after light. Impatient and distracted drivers reeking havoc on your drive. So, they figure the interstates and other freeways so much 'easier' to make time.
Out west, especially, and in a lot of rural parts of the country, those two-lane roads might have hours without a stop light.
Route 200 through Montana has one stop sign (near Grass Range) and three lights (in Lewiston) from Malstrom AFB east of Great Falls to Sydney. And only once do you have to turn (by Circle). With a few roundabouts... for nearly 369 total miles. Sure, I-94 isn't that busy of a road. But it's not indicative of the rest of Montana. But if you really want to see Montana, go explore the hinterlands of Montana on MT200 through Garfield, Petroleum, and Fergus Counties. There is really no other place in America quite like it. Garfield County is where the first ever Tyrannosaurus Rex was discovered. The skull is located at the museum in Jordan, Montana. It's miles and miles of rolling hills and endless skies.
Just shy of Canada, Literally:
Though not saying the interstates are a bad thing, sometimes there just isn't any other road. Such as I-90 from Wyoming to Crow Agency. This is it for ground transportation.
I'll leave it with this idea:
Since no one has put this one out there, I'll be the flag bearer unless and until someone more versed in travel minutia comes along.
My first, and foremost, recommendation for anyone who is traveling for a vacation: STAY OFF THE INTERSTATES. I know you want to get from A to B because B is where your 'vacation' is supposed to start. But the trip itself is part of your vacation. And unless you're REALLY used to driving long distances, and on very repetitive interstate highways, you're going to quickly bore of the drive and hate it. It becomes an endurance test rather than the relaxation you had originally anticipated. Especially if, after your 'vacation' you have to make the same trip in reverse before returning to your day job.
I say to stay off the Interstates, because the small towns are where you see the most Americana. The weird roadside attractions. The mom-n-pop diners, motels, etc. Where you see the actual scenery where 'the other half' live. You don't experience Kansas on I-70. You experience Kansas on US36 or US 24. If you're heading to the Rockies. You experience North Dakota and South Dakota on US12, not I-94 or I-90. You experience Colorado on US40 or US50, not I-70 (though, I will say Glenwood Canyon and the San Rafael Swell are well worth the drives on I-70 in CO and UT).
And it doesn't take nearly as much extra time as you think it does. The roads are far less crowded. The gas stations, restaurants, etc are all less traveled than those dotting highway exits. Repetitive and nauseating. The same thing again and again. The same national and regional chains.
And, as I said earlier, you get to experience a much more leisurely drive. Too many people back east (basically from the Mississippi River & East), see two-lane roads on a map (or GPS/Google Maps) as some type of slow slog through suburbia. Light after light. Impatient and distracted drivers reeking havoc on your drive. So, they figure the interstates and other freeways so much 'easier' to make time.
Out west, especially, and in a lot of rural parts of the country, those two-lane roads might have hours without a stop light.
Route 200 through Montana has one stop sign (near Grass Range) and three lights (in Lewiston) from Malstrom AFB east of Great Falls to Sydney. And only once do you have to turn (by Circle). With a few roundabouts... for nearly 369 total miles. Sure, I-94 isn't that busy of a road. But it's not indicative of the rest of Montana. But if you really want to see Montana, go explore the hinterlands of Montana on MT200 through Garfield, Petroleum, and Fergus Counties. There is really no other place in America quite like it. Garfield County is where the first ever Tyrannosaurus Rex was discovered. The skull is located at the museum in Jordan, Montana. It's miles and miles of rolling hills and endless skies.
Just shy of Canada, Literally:
Though not saying the interstates are a bad thing, sometimes there just isn't any other road. Such as I-90 from Wyoming to Crow Agency. This is it for ground transportation.
I'll leave it with this idea:
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