The Drive West

 A few years ago, I documented a solo drive on Interstate 80 from Des Moines to eastern Pennsylvania, on a road trip to Philadelphia.  This week, I did the opposite, a solo drive from Philadelphia to Des Moines.  I intentionally took a different route back via a few different interstate roads -- here's my summary:

* In Pennsylvania, Interstate 76 doubles as the Pennsylvania Turnpike.  The eastern half is mundane until your reach Harrisburg, where the terrain takes on the Allegheny Mountain range to the border.  You actually go through three fairly long tunnels carved out of those mountains.

* Who knew that as I-76 morphs into Interstate 70, you drive through just a few miles of West Virginia before entering Ohio?  I didn't.

* I-70 through Ohio isn't memorable, not even going through Columbus -- it's not like you see their famous zoo, or any of Ohio State University.  The closest thing to interesting is near Dayton, where you come quite close to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, which you can't see, either.

* The interstate through Indiana is equally boring, except for Indianapolis.  It turns out the quickest way to get from I-70 to Interstate 74 is by taking the road that goes through Speedway, Indiana, right by the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.  As you might expect, seemingly every business around it uses the word 'Speedway' in it.

* Once in Illinois and back on Central Time, the super-flat drive quickly goes through a bunch of college towns: Champaign (University of Illinois), Normal (Illinois State), and Peoria (Bradley).  Seems like a bunch of places not to stop right now, as college kids become potential COVID-19 super-spreaders.

* Just west of the Quad Cities, it's time to make a final stop at the I-80 Truck Stop near Walcott, the largest truck stop in the country.  It's a tourist attraction.  It even has a trucking museum....I'm just saying.

I-80 East

I made a one-way road trip from Des Moines to Philadelphia last week.  Among other things, this provided me with 1100 miles worth of observations while driving east, with all but the last 100 miles or so on Interstate 80:

* Iowa gets stereotyped for flat terrain, but across the fruited plain east of the Mississippi River, it's actually much flatter through the northern parts of Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio.  I suppose this is due to the proximity of the Great Lakes, but I never hear anyone refer to Ohio being flat.

* Once you cross the state line from Ohio into Pennsylvania, it suddenly gets hilly, and you spend most of the road time crossing the Allegheny Mountains, then the Pocono Mountains.  A much more scenic drive, but a much more difficult drive.

* Although I missed the toll roads in Illinois the lead to Chicago, it was all tollways through Indiana and Ohio.  Why?  The roads weren't any better in those states.  I was particularly discouraged about this in Indiana, a not-so-populous state that can't possibly need toll/road money any more than Iowa, which has no tolls on I-80.

* Did you know that there's an RV / Motor Home Hall of Fame and Museum along I-80 in Elkhart, Indiana.  Again, why?  This was the most memorable, cheezy site of interest along the way.

* It's no surprise that traffic was thick near Chicago, even mid-day.  But the worst of it was eastern Pennsylvania.  Once you get to Allentown, it's high traffic the rest of the way, because for some reason millions of people choose to live on a tiny section of America on the northeastern seaboard.

* Thank you to Google Maps, and Waze, and any other tech app that helps people with directions and traffic.  It's hard to remember how people could successfully made epic drives with only paper maps at their disposal.

I-95

Spent a few days last week in the I-95 corridor, shuffling between Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.  I hadn't been to D.C. for about 20 years, and never traveled there by car.  Some observations of the 30 or so hours spent there:

* Visiting the Smithsonian museums seems like it should be more interesting than it is.  The Air and Space Museum is very cool, but the others are.....museums.  Art and history aren't really that much fun.

* I highly recommend taking the tour of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.  It's only about 30 minutes, and to see and hear the details behind how money is printed is the opposite of the Smithsonian Museums, meaning it's more interesting than it sounds.

* The respectful silence of the hundreds / thousands of tourists at Arlington National Cemetery is deafening.

* The other monuments, in my order of interest:  Lincoln Memorial, Vietnam Memorial, World War II Memorial.  The Washington Memorial was being repaired, and while it's tall, it isn't all that compelling.  Didn't get to the Jefferson, MLK, or Iwo Jima Memorials.

* The White House is neat to look at but if you could tour it, or be there at the right time to see dignitaries or cars or choppers coming or going, it would be a lot better.  The Capitol and the Supreme Court are the same way.

* The Metro (subway) is a safe, clean, efficient way to get around D.C.  But it isn't necessarily cheap, and you still end up walking a long way to see the tourist attractions.

* The drive on I-95 between Philly and D.C. (through Baltimore) is ridiculous.  Packed with cars and tolls.  So many people in a hurry to get somewhere else, every day.  It's OK if there's no next time for that.