US 50 is dubbed the loneliest road in America, and it goes across desert for hundreds of miles. If it were not very nicely and smoothly paved and deserted (get it?) and suitable for the sheer thrill of slamming the pedal to the floor for long stretches, it would be really, really boring. So it is boring to the law abiding.
Another of the few sticking up for I-70, having driven all of it (more than once). I like those flinty hills along 70 in parts of Kansas. And the Western part of Missouri’s got those cliffs (gets D-U-L dull after Columbia, though).
Seconding I-90 across New York. A friend and I drove from Albany to Syracuse at night. We were misinformed enough to believe this was mountainous terrain, so kept each other awake by talking about the sharp drop off into total darkness just beyond the road shoulder. On the way back, during the daytime… gawd. Flat, nothing of any interest whatsoever, ugly towns.
My least favorite, though: I-71 from Cleveland to Columbus. Ugh. I hope I never have to experience that charmless stretch of highway again.
Dalhart to Dumas is a pretty awful go.
I’ve been in southern Illinois where all you’d see was hours of unending, monotonous, evenly spaced corn but who knows what highway we were on or town we were close to. That wasn’t a road, it was a disease.
There is one stretch of road that kills me everytime. The A90 from Aberdeen to Dundee is the most boring stretch of road ever. Anytime my family and I or even the the in-laws and I are going that way we all fight over who is going drive because we call hate taking that road so much!
Try this same stretch in the winter after a snowstorm - miles and miles of flat white. I did it twice in a week - once heading west, then again heading back east…
A lot of people have mentioned I80 in Iowa, but why stop there? My version of hell is me living in Iowa City with little kids and Grandma living in Reno, NV and having to drive that stretch for holidays. I80 is worse in Nebraska than it is in Iowa, and except for a 50 mile section between Cheyenne and Laramie (which is deadly in the winter) it gets no better in Wyoming.
Going down the mountains into Ogden is interesting stretch #2, but then it is barren desert for the next 600 miles to Reno.
As I think I said way upthread a long time ago, Wyoming is somehow interestingly desolate to me. I’m not sure why. I couldn’t help but wonder what it was like to cross it in a wagon and honestly don’t know how they did it with their minds intact. I kind of got the feeling that the land didn’t care one way or the other about what happened to me, if that makes any sense. It was a bit scary somehow – there was just so much nothing.
Nebraska and Iowa were only dull. Please shoot me if I ever contemplate driving across them ever again.
And I thought the horizon was going to pull my eyes out through the windshield in western Minnesota…
If you’re passing through Hartford while driving on I-95, you are driving twice the distance you should be! (Did you mean New Haven?)
I’ve never heard of the Nullarbor before today. Heck, it has both “null” and “bor” in the name.
But I have driven I-70. It wasn’t so bad. At least its fairly short.
Those of you talking about I-80 aren’t giving it it’s due. From about Morris, Illinois to where the Rocky Mountains start. That’s most of the way across 4 states. And they’re not short states either.
Sure there are a couple of bright spots, Iowa City (an oxymoron if there ever was one) and Omaha (the most boring “big city” in the world - it’s got what? 2 buildings over 5 stories?), but they get quickly swallowed up by more and more soybean and corn fields.
Even worse - that long stretch of I-80 during late November when all the crops are in but the snow hasn’t fallen. You can’t tell the soybean fields from the corn fields. They are all just brown. Brown, flat land for hundreds and hundreds of miles.
So, that would be I-80 west of Morris, IL to the Rockies in the late fall/early winter FTW.
Tell me again what’s so great east of Morris, IL on I-80
As I’ve stated earlier in this thread, best thing Omaha has going for it is the endless miles of corn & bean fields in any direction.
Everyone who’s nominated I-70 across Kansas is correct to do so. But they only do so out of ignorance, because they’ve never gone across I-80. It’s the road less travelled for a reason - Kansas is downright breathtaking in comparison.
I-80 across Nebraska is truly mindboggling painful. Then you hit Cheynne, WY, and it starts getting downright surreal. It’s like you’ve been transported to the Moon. No, not that Moon - the boring one.
Huh? Oh - Bloomington, ILLINOIS! I was really confused there…
I-85 from Petersburg, Va to the NC border. Like driving through a 80 mile pine tree tunnel.
The Lake Ponchartrain Causway, 24 miles of nothing but water. The only breaks in the monotony are the occasional rise to allow surface traffic.
But the Causeway is still only 24 miles. I mean, it seems like a long drive, but it’s nothing compared to Nebraska.
For those interested, here’s a pic: salalah+040_blog.jpg (image)
Looks like I’ll be seeing several of these shortly. Going from Eastern Washington by way of Duluth to the Michigan UP (to pick up some Trenary Toast), down through lower Michigan to pick up the PA turnpike on down to the Blue Ridge Parkway, then over to the Natchez Trace, back up to the 40 to the northern route through New Mexico, Zion and Bryce then on home. I’m hoping the Parkway and the Trace will compensate for some of the boring roads. Anyone done these? They’re both in my Reader’s Digest most scenic road trips book. I have lots of audio books! I’m especially hoping the Natchez Trace will be worth the detour.
70 through Kansas. Hands down. Especially covered in snow.
Yup. I’ve done both I-80 and I-70. 70 wins (or loses) hands down. It’s horrifically boring.
This was the first thing I considered posting about…I drive it pretty frequently. But then I thought about it. It only takes 19 minutes to cross. It may be the only place in the world that you’re going to spend 19 minutes on a bridge over water going 75 MPH, but 19 minutes isn’t that long after spending hours driving across Kansas or Wyoming or Texas.