I’m thinking of making a car trip from Wisconsin to Greensboro, North Carolina to visit the area where some of my ancestors came from. Mapblast tells me this will take me by Chicago (I’ll probably take a slightly longer route around just to avoid), to Indianapolis, through Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia and then to North Carolina.
The only comparable trip I’ve ever taken to anywhere near that area is to Knoxville, Tennessee and that was long ago with my parents. I’m wondering if it’s even thinkable to make this trip in a four cylinder Honda Civic. Will I have a lot of trouble keeping up with the flow of traffic in the hilly (mountainous?) areas?
I’m not sure if this link to a map of the route will work or not but I’ll give it a try.
Also, what else is in the area I should see? Since I’ve never been to either ocean I’d like to make a side trip to the coast.
Anyway, I’m offering advice on a long drive as someone who’s driven the 1,200m from MI to TX twice a year for the past 2 years, and who’s going to do it again at the end of May.
Stop every hour to get gas/stretch your legs. I tried doing it every 2 hours, but I was getting serious road hypnosis.
Stop every 6 hours for a short nap. It’s amazing how much a 2 hour nap can refresh you.
Pack snack food that’s easily eaten with one hand.
CD players are good, since there’s a lot of dead air out there (unless you like country or religious stations, then you’re set for life).
Try to avoid I-90, if possible. It can be really crazy during certain parts of the day, and it’s horrible when it’s raining (I’m sure to Chicago folks it’s no big deal, but I’m not a Chicago folk).
As to the car:
My Road Trip Car is a 1994 Saturn SL2 4-banger with 220,000m on it. Get a bit of a tune-up and a fresh oil change before you leave, so you don’t have to worry about it. If you usually drive city traffic, those long stretches of highway seem to be great for burning the gunk out of your car. The midwest is pretty flat, but not sure about Virginia. And don’t worry about the flow of traffic - unless there’s a city nearby, there really isn’t much to keep up with. Basically truckers and other folks on road trips. Mostly polite folks. Just make sure to be in the right-hand lane as much as you can if you’re not going 10mph over the speed limit (heh).
Oh. Also get a Plug Set to fix your tires in case one of them goes flat. They’re easy to use, and it’s a lot beter than waiting around for someone to fix your tire for you.
As for Carolina, I went to the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area with my mom years and years ago, and that was fun. As was Cape Fear. Sorry, no specifics - it was probably 8 or 9 years ago.
Your map link worked fine. I was surprised that the software routed you through West Virginia, but I tried some other routes and apparently it’s correct. I was envisioning this trip routing you through Louisville, Lexington, Knoxville, and Asheville, but it turns out that this route is 80-90 miles longer. (It’s a prettier drive, but perhaps not enough so to justify the added mileage.)
On the other hand, I’m surprised by the routing on US35 through southern Ohio - they’ve got you on some “stop light” roads, although I think it’s probably the right way to go. I’ve also cut southeast from Columbus through Athens to get down to that area.
Word of warning: Wythe Virginia is a major league speed trap. And the cops in NC can be very strict as well.
It looks like that route steers you around some notorious bottlenecks while still keeping you aiming as directly at your goal as possible.
I love long road trips, which may be weird, but half the fun is getting there. I echo Silver Serpentine’s advice about allowing occassional pit/stretch stops. You can get mesmerized by the process of driving, not realizing how tired and stiff you really are.
Other suggestions:
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Many states have Welcome Centers when you cross into them on interstates. By all means check 'em out. They’re great resources for detailed, free state maps, not to mention other info. The bathrooms are usually great too.
Invest in a small Igloo cooler and a freezer gel pack. (Under $10 at Walgreens, etc.) Stock up with your own choice of beverages, sandwiches, etc. Vending machine and gas station provender is insanely expensive, not to mention pretty dubious. Start out with your own, convenient to hand.
Use said Igloo at motels, etc. It’s legit baggage and your fridge-away-from-home. Nose around for where locals shop. Also great for keeping crab shack finds, wine, etc. cool. Fill from ice machines.
Roll up everyday plastic grocery bags into tiny burritos; tie w/ freebie grocery twisty-ties, then tuck some into your glove compartment. They’re great, free litter bags, carriers for wet bathing suits, etc.
Ditto on the basic car maintenance before setting out. It’s peace of mind insurance.
Sounds stupid, but invest in little travel packs of cleaning wipes, for self and car. (Usually about $1 each.) Prolonged driving can be suprisingly grubby. It ain’t so bad while you’re doing it, but tackling the road after a break can be rather unappealing. (“Oh good. The car. Again.”) Even a cursory mop-up can help leave car and driver ready to go. [/ul]
And of course arm yourself with CDs, tapes, whatever to while away the time as the road unfolds under your wheels.
If you hit Chicago at the right time of day, you can drive right through without even having to slow down. I think we’ve ended up hitting downtown around 11 AM the times we’ve managed this.
As other people have said, bring food and CDs. They both keep you from going stark raving mad with boredom, and driving all the way across Ohio can put you at significant risk for that.
No other real tips, but I AM driving myself from Wisconsin to Baltimore this May, so I’m going to have to do the same thing soon.
For long road trips, I’m very fond of taking books on tape. They may not be your cup of tea, but a good one can make the miles disappear.
I could never stand taking breaks every hour. I usually let my gas gage tell me when it’s time to stop, but you have to make the rest stops that are right for you.
I go from Detroit to WV a couple times a year. It looks like your route will be the same for part of the trip. I wouldn’t worry about the hills, if you keep to the interstate, they’re usually very accessable and even the state highways are negotiable, although they sometimes go slow.
No real info on what to see, but some advice on Chicago.
I drove a Semi for 5 years and went through Chicago at least twice a week. Your best bet is to try to hit it between 1 am to 4 am or 10 am to 1 pm on the Tri-State. 294 I think. The nighttime is best as it gets you through relativly quickly and leaves the daylight for the scenery you’ll see south.
I’d go through ChiTown, pick up I-65 out of Gary to Indy. Then pick up I-74 to Cincinnati. From there hit I-75 to Knoxville, TN, pick up Northbound I-81 to Easbound I-40 near Asheville, NC and go from there.
Your Honda will do just fine, you’ll be going through the Great Smokey Mountains and the Cumberland Mountains, not the Rockies. In an 80,000 rig, I usually only had a major slowdown on a mountain near Manchester, TN.
If you’re coming from central or western Wisconsin, head for 39 South and stay on it till you hit I 74 East in Bloomington. If you want to take a day’s break during the trip, I suggest continuing east and seeing the Air Force Museum in Dayton, OH, which has lots of cool stuff.
Let’s not forget that the stretch of 40 between Knoxville and here is keee-rappy, especially the bit right around the state line. Chronic road construction, wall-to-wall semis, and reduced speed limits, not to mention there’s usally a few wrecks slowing things down. We always go back to Lexington the 77/64 route, because although it’s more miles, it’s quicker and less of a hassle. (Contrary to Duffer’s advice, there’s no need to mess with 81 if you’re going all the way to Knoxville. I-40 runs right through Knoxville and takes you all the way to Greensboro.)
If you’re interested in side trips, you might consider picking up 65 and going to Nashville. From there you can pick up 40 and come straight through, although it’s a pretty crappy stretch of road. You could also route through Lexington and do the horse farm tours (it’s foaling season now, so there’s lots of cute babies all over the place) or visit the Shaker village in Harrodsburg, then pick up 64 east and follow your MapBlast directions from there. Like I said, the 64/77 route is quite a bit more convenient than taking 75 from Lexington to Knoxville, then hitting 40.
Whatever route you take, you’ll wind up coming through Winston-Salem on 40, probably Business 40. Traffic there is usually heavy but it generally flows pretty well. Try to avoid that stretch from 8-10am and 5-7 pm. There’s usually a wreck on 40 between here and Winston during those time frames, and that’ll slow you down.
Greensboro can be a little confusing to get around, because the streets tend to change names without warning, and nothing runs in a straight line. I heartily recommend popping by the Visitor’s Center and picking up one of their big-ass maps of Guilford County. It’s a bit unweildy to use in the car, but it’s a street-level map of, well, the whole county, which is pretty much Greensboro and High Point. It was invaluable when we first moved and were trying to find our way around HP to go furniture shopping. If you’re in the market for nice furniture, you’d do well to look around High Point. Furniture capitol of the world, you know. (The spring furniture market is just ending, so you should be good on hotel rooms and such till fall.) For some unfathomable reason, though, all the furniture stores are closed on Sundays.
As far as your car goes, a Civic in reasonable repair shouldn’t have a bit of trouble. My 10yo 4-cylinder Saturn routinely makes the trip through the mountains with my round little self and 100 lbs or so of dog in tow with no problems whatsoever, so you should be fine if the mountains are your only concern about the car. That 64/77 route isn’t horribly mountainous anyway. You do need to bring plenty of change for tolls, if you’re taking that route, though. It costs you roughly $4 to get through West Virginia.
From here it’s 3-4 hours to the beach, depending on where you’re going. Emerald Isle is nice, with only one section of the island devoted to t-shirt shops and such, and the rest pretty much nothing but rental housing and unspoiled beach. I understand that Wilmington is quite nice, too.
the West Virginia turn pike has three toll booths, 1.25 each. plus there are two cool tunnels to go thru. For the larger uup hill sections there is a third lane for slow traffic. It is hilly and windy but you should make it.
The Civic is brand spankin’ new and that was my biggest worry so I guess I’ll start making serious plans for the trip.
I’m a stickler for being in the correct lane.
How do these plug sets work?
I’m an old hand at driving from Wisconsin through Iowa and Nebraska to the-middle-of-nowhere Kansas. Ohio? Piece of cake.
What’s a crab shack? What might I find there?
That will be perfect. I’m sure these ancestors didn’t live in Greensboro proper and I’ll want to see if I can find the area where they had their homes/farms. It shouldn’t be too hard since they were part of the Quaker community. I have a second cousin who happens to live in Greensboro so I’m hoping he’ll be able to help out in that regard. I’ll want to visit the geneological center at the Greensboro library and the library at Guilford College.
As for side trips, I was thinking more along the lines of historic places. Battlefields, Quaker museums, cemeteries, etc. For shopping I’ll probably be hitting some antique stores. I can’t afford nice furniture. I’ll have to look up the Shaker village at Harrodsburg and see what that’s about. A ggg-grandmother of mine lived with Shakers for several years (in New York) after she was widowed.
After I posted I was thinking I might wait until after school starts in the fall so there’d be less vacation traffic to deal with. Will getting a hotel room be my only potential problem due to the furniture market?
I should have all summer to decide exactly which route to take and thanks for all of the advice on that. I’m kicking around the idea of taking the quickest route down but following the ancestral migration path from Guilford County, to Henry/Wayne counties (near Richmond, I think) in Indiana and on to Porter County Indiana (Valparaiso area) on the way back. That’ll make going through Chicago on the way back a given.
I can’t see going all that way and not making a side trip to the ocean but I’m not really a beach person. If anyone has suggestions on other things I might be interested in within that 3-4 hour drive from Greensboro I’d really like to hear them.
Well, if you’re not going further coastal, you’re not terribly likely to find crab shacks at all. So I wouldn’t worry about it.
I’ve never been to Pleasant Hill, but I’ve been to South Union, the other Shaker village in KY, and it was really cool. They’ve got all the buildings preserved, with genuine Shaker-made furnishings, and tours and demonstrations of stuff like butter-churning, milking, spinning, weaving, and sheep-shearing (in season, of course). You might also enjoy Berea, which is down 75 from Lexington. It’s a little arts and crafts community where you can find all sorts of traditional handicrafts (many produced by students at the college) as well as truly unique art pieces. It’s worth going that route to hit up the Mitchell Tolle gallery, IMHO.
Here in Greensboro, you’ll want to hit up our battleground, and the Colonial Heritage Center. (It’s all pretty much right there together at the corner of Battleground and New Garden.) Out in Jamestown, there’s Mendenhall, a preserved Quaker plantation. For more recent history, there’s the International Civil Rights Center–the Woolworth’s lunch counter where the sit-in movement began.
Actually, just call the Visitor’s Center at 336-274-2282. They can send you information on all these places, as well as a county map.
Well, traffic might be heavier, especially on High Point Road and Wendover, 40 and 85. You’ll probably also have more trouble finding available hookers, from what I’ve heard. Restaurants will be more crowded then. Basically, it’s the same problems you’d be likely to find in any town having a major convention. The Chamber of Commerce should be able to provide you with dates.
If you decide to come down via Louisville, you can take 64 from there east to KY 151 (first Lawrenceburg exit), go SW and pick up US127. Go about another 15-20 miles and you’re in Harrodsburg, and if you hang a left on US68 there you’ll be in Shakertown (Pleasant Hill) in less than 10 minutes. From Shakertown you could go South through Danville and then take US150 SW to I-75 (and take the aformentioned Knoxville route). Alternatiely, you could follow KY 52 from Danville east, then swing south on KY21 to Berea. This is a very winding road! However, by exiting 64 and taking this southern route, you miss the best of the horse farm country around here.
Also near Harrodsburg is a town called Perryville, which hosted a very large yet relatively indecisive Civil War battle. The Battlefield Park was my high school’s “home” cross-country racing site. There’s not a lot there, but there is a visitor center which describes the battle pretty well. It’s also a nice place for a picnic. They are actively buying up more land in the area and adding it to the park.
If you’re interested in more information about Lexington and the bluegrass area, don’t hesitate to email me offline.
Thanks, tpayne. My gg-grandfather (whose line I’m following to North Carolina) fought at Perryville so I think I’ll try to fit that into my trip. I’m also reconsidering a side trip to Nashville as he was also at Stone’s River. Decisions, decisions.
CrazyCatLady, thanks much for the additional information. The Mendenhall plantation sounds great, as does the battlefield. One of the Mendenhall women married into a branch of my tree and even though she’s pretty far from my direct line that makes it even more interesting. Are you familiar with the Kersey Valley area at all?
Well, if there’s a shortage maybe I can make some extra cash while I’m there.
I have to ask. Anytime someone mentions going to the Piedmont to look up family history I hope they might be from my family.
My family (almost all branches) settled the Piedmont. What is the family name you are going to look into? Sadly, I’m having problems with the genealogy program I’ve been using so the only thing I can access is whatever I’ve already printed or the Hauser family book I have.
What’s your priority, speed or scenery? If scenery, then what you have is nice. Otherwise, even though it’s longer, I’d suggest going through Knoxville because it’s more interstate.
Also, back to your given route. If you feel the need to stop overnight in Charleston WV, I recommend the Country Inn and Suites in Kanawha City (southside), along I-77. I stopped there when I moved last fall, and it was a very pleasant place with nice staff. I had one of the bigger rooms, with pets, and it cost me about $90. YMWillV.
Remember the tolls on the WV Turnpike, but the drive is gorgeous. We hit it in the fall with the leaves turning. Down by Beckly is this uber tourist trap rest stop where you can get just about anything West Virginny. It’s cool if you like that kind of stuff.
Sorry to hear you’re having trouble with your software. The main name I’m looking into in Guilford County is Kersey. I have most of the “data” on them but I want to see what I can find in the way of stories and things, get pictures from the cemeteries, things like that. My Kerseys left the area in the 1830’s. The other line I’m most interested in from the area is the George family. I’m pretty sure they came out of Chatham County though. I’d really like to find out who my ggg-grandmother’s (who was a George) mother was. I also have ties to Carter (there were three Kersey brothers who married three Carter sisters), Poe, Strawn/Straughn, and a bunch of other names I don’t remember off the top of my head. Hunt, maybe. What names do you have?
I just talked to my boss about taking a two week stretch off and she’s ok with it so it looks like scenery and going whereever I feel like going will be my priorities. I’m waiting for her to decide which of two two-week stretches I’m looking at will fit into our workload better. I’m really starting to look forward to this and I’m kind of hoping she picks the early June stretch instead of September.
Well, actually, it’s not faster to go through Knoxville. If she’s going to Pleasant Hill, which she seemed interested in, she’s pretty much going to be coming through Lexington. I’ve made the trip from here to Lexington both routes, and 64/77 is a greater distance but the same or less time and much less stressful. Unless you just happen to like going through hairpin turns under reduced speed limit with semis in front of and behind you, with a third one on one side, and a long-ass drop on the other. 'Snot really my cup of tea, especially at night. (If we’re going straight on to my parents house, both routes are about the same time, but we usually stop overnight in Lexington to see friends.)
Sorry, I don’t know the Kersey Valley at all. I know Greensboro, and I can give directions to our clinic from most of the surrounding areas, and beyond that, I’m pretty much in the dark about the area.
