Thread: Our next jaunt accros the States.

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Crikey!
I've printed off so many pages of info I had to replace the ink cartridges!
Good stuff people...thanks!

Here are a few things in our area you may want to check out if you want to come to Iowa since you didn't get up here on your last visit. Our state fair is going on until August 23rd, and is ranked 6th in State Fairs in the USA.

Fair Dates - Iowa State Fair

The strategic air and space museum is in Ashland Nebraska and is definitely worth the drive.

Ashland, NE | Strategic Air & Space Museum

Since you're into Ag and equipment you could cruise over to Moline Illinois and check out the John Deere world head quarters and take a plant tour.

https://www.deere.com/en_US/corporat.../pavilion.page

I'm sure you're getting info over load now.

Heading through Missouri? Most have already been to Branson (appears that way in my home town as the summer traffic is all heading there) but its beautiful that time of year and you can see more museums, shows etc than you could see in 3 days, dip down to Eureka Springs Arkansas aka Lil Switzerland both are great drive and the scenery is awesome, Eureka isn't very commercialized like Branson. If you or the misses gets car sick nix the above and head up KS, but a bucket list for everyone ought to be the Speedway Motors Museum in Lincoln NE, the worlds supply of car everything is there, most of the floor in the 3 story museum is granite & marble so they can wipe the drool up easily! Best of luck Matthyj

Thanks for the input folks!
Sorry Mathyj and Ryan; but we're going the other way.

Due to what you people have told me, we've pencilled out a rough draft of our itinerary:

From Oklahoma on I 40 to Nashville and Dayton, on to Knoxville, then I 81 and I 78 to New York area, (which cuts out Indianapolis too,) but it's still just a rough draft at the moment, and subject to change and any time.

Dayton will give us both the USAF Museum and the Corvette Museum. Spend a couple of days there I reckon to take it all in.

25 Things to Do in St. Louis

St. Louis Car Museum & Sales - Home

Home - Kemp Auto Museum

Museum of Transportation - St. Louis

Home - city museumcity museum

I don’t understand your itinerary. It’s fine from OK City to Nashville on I-40 but then Dayton to Knoxville doesn’t make sense. From Nashville go north east on I-65 to Bowling Green, home of the Corvette museum, and from there to Louisville, home of the Kentucky Derby if you’re interested in horse racing, and from there you have two options. Going north on I-65 will take you to Indianapolis and from there I-70 to Dayton or I-71 from Louisville to where it merges with I-75 to Cincinnati and on to Dayton.
What’s in Knoxville? It’s the gateway to The Great Smokey Mountains and Dollywood is on the way to the Smokeys, but other than that I’m at a loss. There is a very nasty hair pin curve about in the middle of the Smokeys and the road will take you to the end at Cherokee, North Carolina and unless it’s changed over the years it’s nothing but a tourist trap.
From Dayton you would head east on I-70 and through a small portion of West Virginia to Pennsylvania . I-70 merges with I-76 just a bit south east of Pittsburgh and just a bit east of Bedford, Pennsylvania I-70 splits from I-76 and I-70 goes southeast toward the Washington DC area while I-76 goes east toward the NYC area. You will be at the edge of the Pocono Mountain range travelling through Pennsylvania and the scenery is gorgeous IMHO.
There are other routes but this keeps you mostly on Interstates. If you travel some of the back roads in Kentucky and Tennessee don’t be surprised to possibly seeing some older gentleman sitting in his rocking chair on the front porch with a double barrel 12 gauge shotgun cradled in his lap, ‘shine country, and it’s been my experience that their not real friendly either.
When you get the time go to Map Quest and bring up the Interstate system, it's fairly thorough.

Map scales can be a killer if one fails to note the changes in scale from state to state, page to page in the Road Atlas, and it can really screw up the plan - look at Delaware, Rhode Island or New Jersey and then Arizona, New Mexico or Texas! Consider that the combined North & South Islands of New Zealand are about the area of Colorado and it brings yet another perspective to the planning that's a mind game.

Originally Posted by rspears

Map scales can be a killer if one fails to note the changes in scale from state to state, page to page in the Road Atlas, and it can really screw up the plan - look at Delaware, Rhode Island or New Jersey and then Arizona, New Mexico or Texas! Consider that the combined North & South Islands of New Zealand are about the area of Colorado and it brings yet another perspective to the planning that's a mind game.

This is one of the better maps I found MapQuest Maps - Driving Directions - Map

Google has the best mapping system generally available on line in the states, in my opinion.

Originally Posted by NTFDAY

I don’t understand your itinerary. It’s fine from OK City to Nashville on I-40 but then Dayton to Knoxville doesn’t make sense. From Nashville go north east on I-65 to Bowling Green, home of the Corvette museum, and from there to Louisville, home of the Kentucky Derby if you’re interested in horse racing, and from there you have two options. Going north on I-65 will take you to Indianapolis and from there I-70 to Dayton or I-71 from Louisville to where it merges with I-75 to Cincinnati and on to Dayton.
What’s in Knoxville? It’s the gateway to The Great Smokey Mountains and Dollywood is on the way to the Smokeys, but other than that I’m at a loss. There is a very nasty hair pin curve about in the middle of the Smokeys and the road will take you to the end at Cherokee, North Carolina and unless it’s changed over the years it’s nothing but a tourist trap.
From Dayton you would head east on I-70 and through a small portion of West Virginia to Pennsylvania . I-70 merges with I-76 just a bit south east of Pittsburgh and just a bit east of Bedford, Pennsylvania I-70 splits from I-76 and I-70 goes southeast toward the Washington DC area while I-76 goes east toward the NYC area. You will be at the edge of the Pocono Mountain range travelling through Pennsylvania and the scenery is gorgeous IMHO.
There are other routes but this keeps you mostly on Interstates. If you travel some of the back roads in Kentucky and Tennessee don’t be surprised to possibly seeing some older gentleman sitting in his rocking chair on the front porch with a double barrel 12 gauge shotgun cradled in his lap, ‘shine country, and it’s been my experience that their not real friendly either.
When you get the time go to Map Quest and bring up the Interstate system, it's fairly thorough.

Ken: Thanks for your input.
That makes sense.
At the moment we're (read She,) undecided as to whether to head for Cape Cod as our penultimate destination; or go the other way to have a peek at the lakes area, before flying out of NY.
What would the panel recommend?

(Haven't had a chance to look at any maps today; we're hosting a neighbourhood get-together this evening and its been all go all day!)

Why are you stuck on flying out of NY? Driving to either of the major airports in NY (JFK or LaGuardia) is going to be the low light of your whole trip, and taking public transportation from the outlying areas will cost you dearly - think Auckland times six. I would strongly consider flying out of one other major airports in the NE region, like Boston, BWI, Philly, etc.

FWIW, those folks in the Cape Cod area, New England and especially Massachusetts, have a language all their own and are quite hard to understand.
Flying out of NYC sounds good to me, all of the major airports are a challenge though I found flying out of Reagan, DC, to be not as much of a hassle as Atlanta or KC.

Originally Posted by NTFDAY

FWIW, those folks in the Cape Cod area, New England and especially Massachusetts, have a language all their own and are quite hard to understand.
Flying out of NYC sounds good to me, all of the major airports are a challenge though I found flying out of Reagan, DC, to be not as much of a hassle as Atlanta or KC.

Ken, I'm thinking of navigating TO the airport, not the airport itself. You've got miles and miles of very dense population to drive through, and for what I would consider zero benefit. They're flying from the east coast to LAX to catch their homeward ANZ flight. Why not fly out of a city that's not ten million plus people crammed into one of the most complex metro areas in the US?

I think a lot would depend on where the rental is turned in. Most of the large metro airports are a pain to get in and out of if for nothing else the sheer number of people in the area and yes a smaller hub would make more sense only if the had the necessary flights without stops with added delays.

John go back and read my post #12--------ForgetLAX you already been out there---------and after Nashville/ Bowling Green ( Corvette) gp on north to INDY----If you can balance out the trip timing.date to get there on Sat/Sun for qualifying at National Drags---I can probably get you access to a pit area hospitality -----from Indy ( also INDY 500 museum) east toward Dayton for the USAF then north to Detroit area,at west end of lake Erie BIGGGGGGGGGGG water park slides rides etc then east Niagra Falls east to Boston area for USA historic stuff, LOBSTER, Cape Cod, south New York