Q & A on US road trips

Planning a very long drive trip (OH-AZ-NV-CA as main stops).

While the main intention is visiting some friends / relatives (long pending, thinking about for years), there are also some plans to stop at tourist spots / sites.

The drive from Columbus, OH to Flagstaff, AZ (grand canyon) has necessitated an overnight stay at Okalhoma City, OK about which I have absolutely no idea.

Also, I-70 / I-40 are quite new routes for me as I've never driven in these at all.

Those who have experience in these routes (i.e. St Louis to Oklahoma / Oklahoma to Flagstaff) can please alert for unusual things to look for! Will very much appreciate it!!
(Things like "no-gas-station-for-100-miles-as-the-area-is-Indian-reserve" kinds)...

Completed the road trip of around 6000 miles!

Drove in rain / snow / sun / day / night / plains / hills :-)

Started at Detroit, Michigan on Dec 24, family of 4 plus a friend. Picked up a friend and mother at Columbus, Ohio on the same day.
(Road travel of about 200 miles / I-75 & OH 23)

Continued driving on Dec 24th to reach Oklahoma city, OK to halt for the night. (I-70 / I-44 / I-40, touched Indianapolis, IN / St Louis, MO, Tulsa, OK on the way which also crossed parts of IL)

Drove from OK to Flagstaff, AZ on Dec 25th. (Amarillo, TX / Albaquerque, NM on the way).

Visited Grand Canyon, AZ on 26th (close to Flagstaff, AZ).

Drove from there to Hoover Dam on the border of AZ & NV the same day and spent there till dark.

Las Vegas is about 25 miles from Hoover Dam and visited there for a few hours and drove to Los Angeles, CA to a friend's home to sleep on 26th Night.

27th Hollywood / Universal studios.

28th - failed attempt to enter Disneyland, the authorities had to put up with me for 30 minutes and patiently listened to my advices but no exceptions anyways :-) Drove around LA. (Opened a separate "warning" thread on this)

29th - Drove to San Francisco. Should have printed the yahoo map that told me to use I5 all the way but missed to do it. Ended up following my GPS which took me to 101 via a single lane CA road :-( In which I had to make some risky passing. (overtaking like Indian style). Spent some precious time in my most fav city in the world :-)

30th - golden gate bridge and visiting some friends at Novato,CA (just north of San Francisco) and drove back to LA, this time via I5 all the way

31st - Disney, entering before 9 AM

1st - drive to Albaquerue, NM for night-stay

2nd - drove non-stop to Columbus (reached 3rd morning) as my friend had to go to his workplace on 3rd. 21 hours driving!

3rd evening - home-sweet-home :-)

So, till-date, had a chance to drive in the following states (alphabetically listed) :

Arizona (Tucson / Grand Canyon)
California (Los Angeles / San Francisco)
Florida (Orlando / Miami / Keywest / Tampa)
Georgia (Atlanta)
Illinois (Chicago)
Indiana (Indianapolis)
Kentucky (just I-75)
Massachusetts (U of Ma)
Michigan (home state, drove to almost all cities except the upper peninsula)
Missouri (St Louis)
Nevada (Las Vegas)
New Jercy (Jercy city)
New Mexico (Albaquerque)
New York (NY city / Buffalo / Albany)
North Carolina (Smokey)
Ohio (Toledo / Cleveland / Columbus / Dayton / Cincinnati)
Oklahoma (Tulsa / OK city)
Pensylvania (Erie)
South Carolina (Greenville)
Tennessee (Smokey)
Texas (Dallas / Amarillo)
Wisconsin (Milwaukee)

i.e. 23/50 states :-)

Don't think I visited even this much % of states in India :-(

Drove only in TN / Kerala / Karnataka.

In addition, visited AP / Mah / Delhi / UP / Orissa / WB. That's all!

Whoa...that's still very impressive, I've heard from colleagues that driving through Cali is quite an experience because you pass through all terrains and weather conditions...

http://www.caldrive.com/contents.html

I certainly would like to visit some of the warmer states and NYC.

We've driven from here to Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Washington and Jersey.

I've found that Mapquest (of all sites :roll: :x ) has given wrong directions, I use google maps but I find it often provides the more roundabout/longer route to said destination. Yahoo maps has yet to give me wrong directions. And of course just relying on the ever handy road map is at times the best you can get.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Querida

Yahoo maps has yet to give me wrong directions.

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Best of the lot, IMO :-)

Very easy to use and quick also. Mapquest was good earlier but their new version is too slow and inflexible.

Google maps is awful, good for children to play with pictures, IMO. My 4 yr old clicks the "person" icon - drags it to places around the world and sees pictures :-)

People, any who plan to drive to Detroit during snow days - beware :-(

This is my 8th winter here and the 'salting' standards have been progressively going down. The last two years & this year has been horrible. Even Interstates & Freeways aren't salted in time.

If people look at the # of snow-triggered-accidents, they'll wonder whether the state is Michigan or South Carolina :-(

(SC had a rare case of icing of roads one year, very unusual to them and the authorities weren't prepared, resulting in a ton of accidents. In MI, snow-ice is a regular winter feature and still roads don't get treated adequately / in-time, resulting in tons of accidents).

Ofcourse, there's no toll in any MI road and naturally the transport department has to depend upon just taxes and state funds.

OTOH, NY thru way system is almost 90% toll and they do a great job of maintenance. Take the case of I-90 (We typically drive between Buffalo & Albany a couple of times during the winter each year) and the road treatment is well-ahead, based on forecasts. And it's one of the highest-snow-fall-areas in the country and still no great need to slow-down or cases of accidents. (Same I-90 is horrible between Buffalo & Cleveland, especially in Pensylvania near Erie , during snow days).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by app_engine

I-90 is horrible between Buffalo & Cleveland, especially in Pennsylvania near Erie , during snow days).

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Yup.

Of all the years we've lived in Canada never have I encountered the issue of snow-covered road signs as we did driving to Jersey, worse was that by night (and us still on the road :x ) the signs all looked like they were smeared with black.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by app_engine

So, till-date, had a chance to drive in the following states (alphabetically listed) :

Arizona (Tucson / Grand Canyon)
California (Los Angeles / San Francisco)
Florida (Orlando / Miami / Keywest / Tampa)
Georgia (Atlanta)
Illinois (Chicago)
Indiana (Indianapolis)
Kentucky (just I-75)
Massachusetts (U of Ma)
Michigan (home state, drove to almost all cities except the upper peninsula)
Missouri (St Louis)
Nevada (Las Vegas)
New Jercy (Jercy city)
New Mexico (Albaquerque)
New York (NY city / Buffalo / Albany)
North Carolina (Smokey)
Ohio (Toledo / Cleveland / Columbus / Dayton / Cincinnati)
Oklahoma (Tulsa / OK city)
Pensylvania (Erie)
South Carolina (Greenville)
Tennessee (Smokey)
Texas (Dallas / Amarillo)
Wisconsin (Milwaukee)

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nice stuff, app :)

Roughly hit up 8 of the above places.

That Kentucky I-75 is my favorite of all as it was 1 week after I started driving. Plus it happened after atleast a year or two on the rear seat :D

Smokey in winter and the San Francisco hills in Friday evening with a sleeping baby haha...

Nice to know you got to One Oh One :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by vramesh

That Kentucky I-75 is my favorite of all

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Very sweet segment of I-75, I really loved the ups and downs (drove last winter - Dec 09 / Jan 10).

It was a very welcome change after the flat - colorless Ohio plains for miles and miles with the final / brief respite at Cincinatti!

Expecting an 8 to 12 inches snowfall in the metro Detroit area tonight / tomorrow (starting Tues Feb 1 2011 night).

The forecasters say it would be heavy at times, making it difficult to clear the roads.

Even otherwise, the MI road cleaning had been not up to the mark in recent seasons (which continues this season as well).

So, if anyone is planning road trip to MI (I-75 drivers in particular, as most parts of I-94 / I-96 are within the storm region and people should already be aware), BEWARE!

MI - employees get caution messages like the one below :

Quote:

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Managers are encouraged to let employees begin the commute home early this afternoon. If you have a laptop computer, take it with you when you leave the office today, and adjust your Wednesday calendar on the assumption you won’t be in the office.

On Wednesday morning, please check your local weather information service. If weather conditions and roads are hazardous, employees are encouraged to work from home, rather than risk a dangerous commute. Please inform your manager regarding your plans, as appropriate.

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The most distracting thing when driving on snow days is the beautiful, snow-clad pine trees (the cone shaped evergreens).

There were so many today and I had tough time driving - told my co-passengers that at that moment I wanted to hug and kiss those little pines loaded with snow!

What beauties!

Another huge snow day in metro Detroit (about a foot of snow) and "sailing" on the road yesterday as well as this morning :-(

Interesting news bit for any who had travelled to Grand Canyon (or planning to visit) :
http://news.yahoo.com/rare-sight-bla...135757580.html

http://l1.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/nF....jpg1342128212