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Coast to Coast route recommendations...

Discussion in 'Ferrari Discussion (not model specific)' started by dan360, Jul 7, 2009.

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  1. dan360

    dan360 F1 Rookie

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    #1 dan360, Jul 7, 2009
    I'm intending to drive from NYC to the west coast this summer with some friends in a convoy of 2 or 3 cars and am interested in any route suggestions.

    My end point is the LA area, from Denver on I have good idea of my planned route, back roads thru the rockies, south thru Utah to the Grand Canyon, Vegas and then on to LA via death valley. Any tips on specifics would of course be welcome.

    I'm mainly looking for ideas between NYC and Denver. Any suggestions as to side drives, or cool places to stay are welcome. I did a Boston-Niagra falls-Chicago-Indianapolis-I70 back thru OH,WV,PA route for the US F1 GP a few years back, so any new east coast route suggestions would be welcome.

    Also would be any good stopovers, I've spent lots of time in Columbus, Indianapolis and Kansas City, which are obvious big-city stop offs on the way to Denver, but I'd prefer to stop somewhere new. Criteria would be having an "appropriate" place to stay and good places to eat. Hotels which "get" the concept of nice cars and can provide special parking would of course be a major plus.
     
  2. switchcars

    switchcars Formula 3

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    #2 switchcars, Jul 7, 2009
    76 through PA is always fun....windy freeway with no cops and traffic at 80+!

    If you're going the back route from Vegas to LA.....stop and see us and take a ride around the racetrack!

    http://maps.google.com/maps?q=switchcars.com&sourceid=navclient-ff&rlz=1B2GGGL_enUS177&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wl
     
  3. BT

    BT F1 World Champ
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    #3 BT, Jul 7, 2009
    76 is nice, but I would go south to about I-40 and then go west through NC and TN, taking some awesome side roads like NC 208/209, NC 215, and maybe NC 80 on the south side of the Blue Ridge Parkway. The parkway itself is pretty spectacular, but it is patrolled regularly and the limit is 45 in most places. You can have so much fun in the NC state roads you may never get to Denver. I recently went from Minneapolis to Scottsdale in a little roadster, and the roads in Colorado were lots of fun, especially CO 65 and US 550...
    A thread about our little 1800 mile ride is here:
    http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=246308
    :)
    BT
     
  4. dan360

    dan360 F1 Rookie

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    #4 dan360, Jul 7, 2009
    Cool - Ginetta. The cars we're bringing mostly have a roof, so you definitely score hard core points :). My aim is to take 5 or 6 days for the trip.

    Switchcars - might well take you up on your offer !
     
  5. BT

    BT F1 World Champ
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    #5 BT, Jul 7, 2009
    A roof is definitely a nice luxury to have, but not really a necessity. If you have 5 or 6 days I would recommend planning a route with maybe two 60-90 minute detours per day into interesting territory. I bought a Tomtom One XL GPs and used tyre ( http://www.tyre.tk/ ) to do the route planning. It allows you to use Google maps or Google earth and daisy chain points along the route, then you can save that route directly to the GPS, and name it for the start - end points for ease of recalling it during your travels. It was developed for motorcycle riders that cannot easily program the GPS while riding, but it works great for planning obscure routes ahead of time. I tried it out the first time in April on a mountain trip, it worked great for me!

    The April trip is here:
    http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=238750

    An earlier trip last October where we just used some handwritten directions here:
    http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=201774&page=9

    The handwritten directions are okay, but it is just tough sometimes to spot the roads as you are driving with only a few seconds to read each sign.
    Have fun on your trip!!!
    :)
    BT
     
  6. dan360

    dan360 F1 Rookie

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    #6 dan360, Jul 7, 2009
    Thanks - just downloaded tyre - very cool, I love techie stuff like this, was just in a car with a friend who's tomtommed his phone. Looks like there is now tomtom for iphone v3.0 but it isn't available yet, so I'll have to go and get a regular tomtom.

    I was just in the UK (which is where this software would appear to be from). I duly printed directions to get to Goodwood (which I've been to before). I planned cunning route across country in my rental car and printed out using google maps and then got hideously lost. I think a tomtom needs to be added to avoid such problems when in a car sans sat-nav.
     
  7. BT

    BT F1 World Champ
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    #7 BT, Jul 7, 2009
    Using the TYRE program for a 1000 mile three day mountain adventure got me lost only about 5 times, and I just marked the waypoint as visited, and the GPS would just route me to the next one, no big deal.
    It was much easier to concentrate on the roads and glance at the Tomtom every 5-10 minutes to see how far to the next road that we were routed to turn onto as opposed to the guessing where you are and looking at every street sign for the next road...
    :)
    BT
     
  8. forgeahead

    forgeahead F1 Rookie
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    #8 forgeahead, Jul 7, 2009
    ditto NC mountains. drive the "Tail of the Dragon" while you're "passing through."
     
  9. Paul_308

    Paul_308 Formula 3

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    #9 Paul_308, Jul 8, 2009
    The first coast-to-coast vehicular road:
    Checkout the 'Lincoln Highway' which dates from 1913 - http://lincolnhighway.jameslin.name/by_state/

    Interstates now generally parallel it but much is revived 2 lane roads, reconstructed old motels and restaurants.
    There are clubs dedicated to it's survival and revisit portions of the trip every summer.
     
  10. TurquoiseWheat

    TurquoiseWheat Rookie

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    #10 TurquoiseWheat, Jul 8, 2009
    Definitely check the weather ahead of time if you don't have a roof.
     
  11. BT

    BT F1 World Champ
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    #11 BT, Jul 8, 2009
    The Tail of the Dragon (or Deal's Gap) is US 129 just across the NC / TN border on the TN side. It is good for getting souvenirs, but when I went it was pretty crowded and therefore not much fun. It is also often heavily patrolled and in my opinion not worth the time or effort to go to. Apparently Tennessee does not want tourists in their state, so we should oblige that request.
    http://www.autoblog.com/2007/08/24/tennessee-cracking-down-on-tail-of-the-dragon/
    :)
    BT
     
  12. dan360

    dan360 F1 Rookie

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    #12 dan360, Jul 8, 2009
    Yes sounds similar to a friend of mine who got 4 tickets at the same time in one stop from a trooper in NY while on his way to Monticello. "I'm gonna make an example of you so you Ferrari boys don't treat this road as your private race track on your way up to Monticello". He'll have a ban if they all stick, but at the very least a large amount of aggro to make it go away.
     
  13. BigTex

    BigTex Seven Time F1 World Champ
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    #13 BigTex, Jul 8, 2009
    Once "out west" it's I10 or I40, this time of year they'll both be HOT!!!

    Where on the West coast are you aiming?
     
  14. BigTex

    BigTex Seven Time F1 World Champ
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    #14 BigTex, Jul 8, 2009
    If you vear north at Barstow the trip thru Yosemite from Mono Lake is awesome scenery.
     
  15. dan360

    dan360 F1 Rookie

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    #15 dan360, Jul 8, 2009
    Essentially between LA and SF - could do Vegas and across or wine country and down. Scenery is definitely a priority, although the scenery in Vegas could also be a diversion :)
     
  16. SrfCity

    SrfCity F1 World Champ

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    #16 SrfCity, Jul 8, 2009
    Seems like these days not unless you've got some pretty sophisticated equipment or intend to stick to speed limits, the cops could make what would be an amazing adventure, expensive and a bit of a drag.
     
  17. BigTex

    BigTex Seven Time F1 World Champ
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    #17 BigTex, Jul 8, 2009
    Right, we were coming CA to TX and went thru Napa, Yosemite then south to I40....

    Eastbound I40 was closed at midnight, east of Vegas, (industrial accident) so we headed south (Lake Havasu) and ended up on I10 anyway!

    Otherwise we would have used I40 and veered south once back to Texas, the re-route took us past Bondurant's track in AZ where a bunch of Fcars were shaking out for Pebble..

    So it's all good!

    Great canyon roads into Napa/Sonoma...enjoyment only reduced by fatigue from flight/drive, darkness and deer....what a drive!

    She was sleeping and never saw the deer..the burning clutch and brakes eventually woke her..LOL!
     
  18. dan360

    dan360 F1 Rookie

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    #18 dan360, Jul 8, 2009
    Having done a few of these type road trips, and having been a track rat its mostly about the experience rather than attempting awesome speed across country - the plan is to take 5 or 6 days. On my Indy trip which I did in my CS (with stripe which was a cop magnet!), I saw 2 guys on one day get tickets for blazing by me. We'll maintain a sensible pace on highways and shoot for side trips on interesting roads and interesting places and detours.
     
  19. SrfCity

    SrfCity F1 World Champ

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    #19 SrfCity, Jul 8, 2009
    Sounds like you're being realistic. Have fun!
     
  20. Townshend

    Townshend F1 Veteran
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    #20 Townshend, Jul 10, 2009
    I'd certainly stop in Chicago. It's gorgeous (much like NY..only cleaner) this time of year. If you want a solid hotel the Trump is great. River view..fantastic.
     
  21. dan360

    dan360 F1 Rookie

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    #21 dan360, Jul 11, 2009
    I'm a big fan of Chicago, and a steak at Gibson's is always worth stopping off for, but I have done a route via Chicago before. May well still go that way again.
     
  22. Carsleuth

    Carsleuth F1 Rookie

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    #22 Carsleuth, Jul 11, 2009
    Yes! Stop in Chicago. If/when you do, let me know! ;) There are some great driving roads around here. If you want a touristy thing to do, this just opened:

    http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=248864
     
  23. Townshend

    Townshend F1 Veteran
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    #23 Townshend, Jul 12, 2009
    ahhh..don't know about Gibsons.. :) Smith and Wollensky's not too bad, just don't have too many Macallan 18s. A nice hot dog from Portillo's or a slice from Uno's should do the trick though.
     

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