Road Trips A Coming

Spring time and my thoughts are definitely turning to road trip! I'm thinking about taking a couple of days of vacation from work and heading down to the Texas Hill Country which in spring is just about the prettiest place on God's green earth. Kerrville and Fredericksburg sound good. A visit to Utopia.
For a while yet, I'll have to content myself with shorter trips like this. But once I retire in the not too distant future hopefully, the following eight multi-week road trips are planned.

8.  Atlantic Coast - I've got this one at number 8 simply because I've never been thrilled with the east coast. I'm sure that's due to my limited exposure to that side of our country and because I somehow have never had a good experience the few times I've been. Let's see - Navy boot camp in Orlando in July/August (boot camp was bad enough, but the heat, humidity and those damn love bugs were intolerable!), Boston (the most obnoxious, loud, rude people I've ever run across), New York City (the only people more obnoxious, loud, and rude than Boston - I saw with my own eyes an ambulance stopped to pick up an elderly woman ( I saw her on the gurney) and people were driving by screaming obscenities and giving the EMT guys the one-finger-salute because they were blocking one lane of the road - unbelievable.), New Jersey (nice people, but everything looked grimy and dirty), Philly (my 2nd best experience on the east coast), Buffalo (spent a long, cold winter there one week), and driving through Maine (nice folks, pretty, and without a doubt the best experience I've had in the east). I may never find the time to take this trip, but if I do, I'm hoping to see a whole different world from my previous experiences. From funky and fun Key West, FL. up through Miami, West Palm Beach, Daytona, Fountain of Youth, Savannah, Charleston, Roanoke Island, Fort Sumter, Kitty Hawk, Virginia Beach, Atlantic City, and on up to the Statue of Liberty. It will be a long, but hopefully very pleasant and informative trip.

7. U.S. Hwy 80 - This is number 7 on my list just because it's shorter, I've seen some of this route previously and it essentially terminates in Dallas very close to where I grew up and ran around as a teenager and young adult. I love my road trips because they take me places where I've never been, but I haven't been end to end on this one and some sections sound pretty interesting. U.S. 80 is an east–west highway, which mostly was once part of the Dixie Overland Highway. The "0" in the route number indicates it was originally a cross-country route, from the east coast to the west coast, but the western section past Dallas has been decommissioned with various interstates taking it's place. You can still see US 80 on some maps and see US 80 signs past Dallas, but it will be the same road as the interstate. The starting point in the east is in Tybee Island, GA at the Atlantic Ocean. It terminates with it's intersection with Interstate 30 at the city limits of Dallas and Mesquite.

6. U.S. Route 2 - another east-west route traveling 2,579 miles across the tippy top of the USA as well as some miles across the tippy bottom of Canada. It's the northern most east-west route in America. The eastern terminus is at it's intersection with I-95 in Houlton, Maine and travels through Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. It goes into Canada at it's intersection with US 11 in Rouses Point, NY and re-enters the US in St. Ignace, Michigan. It remains in America the rest of the way to the west coast, traveling through Ashland, Wisconsin (where my son did his Freshman year of college & couldn't wait to get back to Texas where it was warm!), Minnesota, North Dakota, through some of the most beautiful land in the state of Montana - through three Indian reservations and along the southern border of Glacier National Park, into Idaho and finally terminates in Everett, Washington. This route was originally known when it was under construction in 1919 as the Theodore Roosevelt International Highway and was intended to link Portland, Maine with Portland, Oregon. It was first commissioned in 1926.

I believe that's enough for today. Top 5 coming up next time!

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