How have I never heard of Route 20?

In reply to vwcorvette:

I was down the road in Morrisville for a semester. 20 coast to coast on a bike is my bucket list road trip.

I drove Rt 20 a number of times this year going between PA and NH for work. A few times, 90 would be backed up and Google would send me across 20 from 84 to 290 (or vice versa going home).

I lost track of how many different ways I figured out between PA and NH...

I spent a day trying to follow 20 west from Pittsfield MA just to kill a day when I was young and had nothing but time. I probably wasn't on that trip more than an hour before getting bogged down by traffic lights every 50 feet in the guts of Albany NY and I abandoned that adventure.

West of the Great Lakes I'd recommend swinging up to US 12 instead of 20, mostly because I prefer it through WI, MN and SD vs US 20 through IA and NE. You can also stop by my place off 12.

My wife grew up less than a mile off 12. I'll be there next week. I can confirm that through Michigan it's a lovely drive with an endless string of small towns and their small speed limits.

the reason "66" is so popular in culture has to do with where it ran across the country. Up until it's completion, you could not drive across the country in winter time without resorting to "local" roads to jump from highway to highway. The more northern roads were snow blocked. 66 changed all that, it opened up the Western States to the eastern ones for car trips all year round

Taking US (or State) Routes is almost always more fun than the Interstates.

For instance, I-70 starts in Baltimore and goes all the way out through Denver to somewhere in Utah, where it stops. US-40 also starts in B'more and follows a similar path, but has a lot more enjoyable twisties (and stop lights).

Last time my wife and I went to VA Beach for vacation, we noticed that US-17 would also take us down there, so we drove that road instead. It was a lot more fun, even though it probably doubled the trip time!

I had no idea it was some super route. I used to drive route 20 every day to get back and forth to work. It was scenic, sure, but there were too many tractors to make for quick commuting for the 30 miles I was on it.

Also everyone had the bad habit of driving just at the speed where my torque covnerter locked up, so it got annoying.

02Pilot wrote: Route 6, the Grand Army of the Republic highway, runs from MA to CA. And half a mile from my house.

And that used to go all the way to the Pacific, but got truncated a few years back. It's still bloody long.

I don't know, I do enjoy stopping at a little hole in the wall restaurants that I will never see again, but if I have a long trip I would rather jump on the interstate and really put away the miles. I took a father son trip to midohio this summer. Its about three hours using the interstate. I decided to take the back way home. It was one run down town after another. They spend all of their upkeep budget on adding more stoplights. The asphalt seems to get stripped off and never replaced. You can't make it more than a city block without an 89 c1500 with mismatched body panels backing out in front of you. Once I get out of town the corn fields look pretty much like the corn fields at home. I'm pretty sure I would rather set the cruise at 73 at pound out the miles.

Growing up very near US-20 in New York (near where Tuna grew up, though we never met until we both moved to South Carolina), we always referred to it as "Five and Twenty", as US-5 and US-20 ran along the same road for a ways there.

When I went to college near Albany, NY, I used to take the 20 back and forth from home to school, as it saved me the $5 toll on the NYS Thruway and was a nice, scenic drive, at a pace my dilapidated old truck could handle easier than the interstate. It was also less stressful for the occasional breakdown.

Last year for Christmas, my dad gave me a book he'd found: HISTORIC US ROUTE 20, A Journey Across America's Longest Highway. It was kinda neat reading about the sections of the road that passed near my hometown, and over towards Albany, that I was so familiar with. They even mentioned the "Five and Twenty" colloquialism.

Someday, I'd like to drive the whole thing. I've already done most of 66, and a good chunk of US-1 from Maine to Key West. The US-50 drive is also on my list.

Driven the 20 (in the area known as the Cherry Valley Turnpike, near Fulton/Lafayette/Syracuse, NY) many times to get to Cherry Valley Motorsports Park, the roughest, most treacherous, most rundown full-size kart track I have ever seen. Our SCCA chapter runs some events out on the kart course. It's a pretty hilly, twisty road in that area with some killer drives located just off of it.

Another good one is US Route 50. During my cross-country cycle trip, I took it from California through the high desert of Nevada and Utah into Colorado. The part through Nevada is dubbed "The Loneliest Road in America" because of how desolate the Great Basin is. You often ride for 50 miles without seeing a sign of civilization. No buildings, no signs, no nothing. The only places to stop are tiny 100-person towns every 100 miles or so. Eerily beautiful part of that trip.

For our honeymoon we drove out Rt. 50 and back Rt. 20, more or less. This is just the fuel stops I had receipts lying around for about a year later but gives you an idea.

I liked US 20. Very calm and desolate for much of it out west. Also, if you head out of Bend, OR into the badlands national park saying "eh we'll get gas later" you may find that the next station is out of gas and you can go 40 miles back or 60 miles onward. That day we learned how big the tank in an Accord wagon really is.

I drove between Texas and upstate NY before the interstates.

Picked up 20 at Cleveland and when I got to the 5/20 I switched over to 5 since it runs closer to home.

Then reverse on the return trip.

iceracer wrote: I drove between Texas and upstate NY before the interstates. Picked up 20 at Cleveland and when I got to the 5/20 I switched over to 5 since it runs closer to home. Then reverse on the return trip.

Before the interstates?

How old are you?

In reply to tuna55:

In reply to volvoclearinghouse:

I always knew it as five and twenty too! I grew up in Geneva, 5 and 20 is more or less main Street.

I lived on Route 6 in Ma until I was 20 and left for the Army. Never returned except to visit my family.

volvoclearinghouse wrote:

02Pilot wrote: Route 6, the Grand Army of the Republic highway, runs from MA to CA. And half a mile from my house.

And that used to go all the way to the Pacific, but got truncated a few years back. It's still bloody long.

Vermont route 15 is called the Grand Army of the Republic Highway. We also have the Theodore Roosevelt Highway (rte 2) and the Ethan Allen Highway (rte 7).

A little TV show from the past might have something to do with it, too. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053534/

Oooooohhh...US50 in WV...where the speed limit is a challenge.

In these pics, left to right is a 9% grade downhill.

I never heard of this route 20 that went across the country. The only route 20 I knew of was a small 4.5 mile highway in northern NJ.

Ya'll need to study a real map once in a while. Ever heard of Rand McNally?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Numbered_Highway_System