I’m driving our son up to Ithaca for his college orientation next month. Last time we took Interstate 81, which was pretty dull. I’m fine with taking a little longer to get there. Has anyone taken this route? Is there somewhere to stay about an hour out? If we were taking 81 we’d probably stay in Binghamton, but it looks like that would be a bit out of the way taking 15.
I haven’t driven it, but it looks lovely! And, parts of it are already interstate-standard (for future I-99).
I would consider spending the night in Lewisburg, PA — looks like a pretty nice town and region. Bucknell U is there.
An “hour out” from Ithaca, there’s Corning, NY, long famous for its glass industry. The glass museum looks worth a visit, if you have time.
I grew up in Baltimore and went to IC for undergrad…US-15 is much nicer now than when I drove it back 1980 - 84…I carpooled occasionally with a girl who was terrified to even ride on I-81, so she always drove US-15 and it took at least two hours more than on I-81…I drove the same route about 5 years ago, and US-15 has been rebuilt and it was much nicer…nicer scenery…
We take 1-81 South to visit my parents in TN. It looks similar heading north, although it looked like the snow may have messed up the surface north of Scranton. No way our son would agree to visit a glass factory. My wife and I did stop in Corning on our honeymoon.
I drove it a few times back in the day, maybe around the late 80s or so, and it was a fairly pleasant trip. There was a place we’d stop for lunch/dinner, maybe in Harrisburg, and they had some mighty fine pie. I’ll try to take a look at Google Earth and find it. The place name was a woman’s name, just one word.
The glass museum in Corning is well worth it if you can spare the time.
Agreed, as Binghamton is on I-81 and US-11. What I used to do in Pennsylvania is take I-476 from its interchange with I-80 until its terminus in Clarke’s Summit (or the reverse) and then often would take US-11 until Binghamton, thus bypassing all of Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and most of the other screwups on I-81. That’s if you still wanted to go that far east. For what it’s worth, US-15 in New York is now designated I-99, which is currently not contiguous with I-99 in Pennsylvania.
I’m trying to figure out your geometry here. From Maryland, but considering I-81, so I assume western Maryland around Frederick or Hagerstown. Willing to go way too far east to cut back west to Ithaca. If anything, only taking I-81 to about Harrisburg and then cutting up on US-15 is not only shorter but slightly faster. I guess I can’t figure out why you would have taken I-81 pretty much all the way to begin with, especially with how terrible construction and slowdowns can be on that road.
If you decide to go via Clark’s Summit, stop by (drive under, get out and look around) the Tunkahannock Viaduct, at the tiny village of Nicholson, PA. Better than the Pont du Gard — and right here in the USA!
Asterion, since we’re coming up from outside DC, we’d be coming into Harrisburg on I-83 from the Baltimore beltway. If we wanted to totally avoid 95 and Baltimore we could take 270 to Frederick and pick up 15 there, but 95 would have to be worse than usual for that to be an option (last time we went, on a Saturday, it would have probably been faster because 95 was a parking lot). It looks like Elmira may be right on the way, so we could probably stay there a lot cheaper than in Ithaca. Ithaca College, and I assume Cornell, are having orientation. I got the last room at one hotel a month or so for the nights of orientation.
Plus 15 isn’t that great from Gettysburg to Harrrisburg. Between Harrisburg and Williamsport there are lots of nice river views. After Williamsport it’s also nice for awhile, but nothing hugely special to me because the mountains look the same as New York mountains only slightly bigger.