Some of us recall the James Watt National Parking Lot. That was a great one! And the disabled bathrooms at Yosemite Falls Lodge are quite good, better than at Crater Lake.
Some 'burbs surprise and they’re not all White, but often ethnic outposts. Malvina Reynolds wrote LITTLE BOXES to decry “doctors and lawyers and business executives” moving into Daly City, south of San Francisco. DC is now the heart of Filipino culture on the mainland. One of my Los Angeles area 'burb homes is now quite Guatemalan. Think of it as evolution in action.
'Burbs seen from a highway may seem homogeneous, but poke around and they emerge as unique. It’s like interstating across the Mojave. Speed by at 75 mph, it’s all Stinking Desert. Stop and walk the ravines and ridges at twilight for a quite different view.
LOL!
Pics 2, 3, 4 and 5 were from the shoulder of US 12, Kamiah to Lolo Pass. I guess the trick is to pick the right mode of transportation at the right time of year (spring runoff).
And bathrooms. Having driven down I-81 in Pennsylvania a few times, I’m left wondering, do they not believe in rest areas at all in that state? Pennsylvanians must have 20 gallon bladders or something.
I don’t see “the most boring Interstate highway drive within one state” and “the most boring state” as equivalent. States contain more than standardized roadways, which are not designed for visual excitement. Much happens off those roadways. Views and events differ with time and pace. I-70 at noon in July does not define Kansas and Los Angeles does not define California. Anywhere is boring if you’re in the mood, or fascinating if you look hard. Even Kansas supports one hard-ass species of cactus. Tough little bugger, yah.
That said, I have little use for Florida, even though (or because) I’ve never been there and my chance for assignment to Key West evaporated. Give Florida back to Cuba. They can have Boron, California too.
I actually like the elaborate “travel plazas” that are along the interstate highways in some Eastern states. (Multiple restaurants, gasoline, clean bathrooms and so forth.) But according to this article, new ones can’t be built because of a 1960s era federal law, meant to protect existing businesses off the highways.
I guess that’s a possible explanation of naming Idaho, but more likely some kind of political thing like saying WY is boring which is even more ridiculous. ID and WY both have amazing roadside scenery in many places; whereas there’s no state large or small which doesn’t have boring roadside scenery somewhere.
Iowa has a mix of plains and rolling hills in some places, but generally prosperous looking rural vista’s, rich land with obviously industrious people living there. Attractive IMO. I’m a little saddened sometimes by poor rural areas in the South. It’s not a blame thing or whose ‘fault’ according to my politico-social theorizing (and not really anxious to hear everybody else’s), just can be a downer driving along.
But this is such an inkblot test. ‘Interesting’ is what? A lot of posts harp on interstate views, rest stops (really?), or completely different scale, interesting things to do in cities (nightlife, in the day time?). If you not only like big cities (I live next to NY where I’m from and like it) but never want to be anywhere different (sometimes I do want to be somewhere different) then maybe anywhere outside NY is equally ‘boring’. I know people here who think that, even where I live a 6 minute train ride from being in the City is ‘boring’ and ‘nowhere’. To each his own. But I like small road (not Interstates, our recreational road trips are usually 85-90% non Interstate) driving almost everywhere in the US I’ve been, which is almost everywhere in the US.
Just getting toward bizarre to call Idaho or Wyoming scenery boring IMO. Not liking the Dakota’s I can see (I liked it, sparse beauty).
Oops. My 2003 Guia Roji is outdated. (And my bad eyes have trouble with its small print.) What used to be Fed-1D is now Fed-15D, the cuota (toll highway) partly paralleling the libre (toll-free) Fed-15 running the length of Sinaloa. I recall our drive south in the 15 corridor as pretty tedious.
I said that many of the posts were using old or limited information.
Someone mentioned Indiana’s odd liquor laws (yes, we used to have them).
Those laws have been gone for a few years now… very few limitations, I can walk into Kroger on Sunday and buy a bottle of Scotch (cite for using old information).
I spent a couple of years driving between Michigan and Wyoming several times a year and I have to say that the east-west drive across that state is the most mind numbing experience I have ever known.
There might be something interesting somewhere in Nebraska, but it sure ain’t along I-80.
I-70 across Missouri is pretty mind numbing too, except for the brief zig-zag stretch of minor interest when crossing the Missouri River just west of Columbia.
I find many of the interstate highway miles to be quite “sterile”, insulating you from the interesting parts and sights. The US highways on the other hand, they immerse you more in the local flavor.
For anyone that’s said Indiana, I don’t think they know what they’re talking about with the state as a whole.
This is a lone tree I found on Google Street View in Indiana:
I went there in person and it was absolutely massive. It’s one of the most beautiful places I’ve seen in the US and I’ve been to 25-30 states before, Banff National Park, Europe three times including Norway.
A great view I found in Indiana also:
As an Indiana native, Brown County is very pretty and hilly. The entire state is not flat and devoid of trees.
The very northern part of the state is on Lake Michigan which very few people know about. There are sand dunes and it’s pretty. You can even see the Chicago skyline over the water.
There’s the excellent children’s book Jasper Dash and the Flame-Pits of Delaware. Assuming his geography of the state is accurate (and he’s got a section several pages long assuring the reader that he’s never been to the state and is completely ignorant about it), Delaware is amazingly exciting.
The author even wrote a new state song, which you can listen to here, to gain a sense of how thrilling the state is.
Oh, and there’s even a tourist guide to the state! I’ve never seen that before and look forward to learning about it.