Interstate Road Trip Tournament, Round 1, Heat 2.
 

Just a little offseason exercise. There are 80 different Interstate highways in the USA (including Puerto Rico). Which one would be best for a road trip?

I've set the rules as follows:

I'm also including highways in Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico that are essentially interstate highways, though they're not called that since they don't cross state boundaries.

It'll be a single-elimination tournament, though some will regain new life in wild-card spots to get the tournament bracket correct.

You get a minimum of 7 days on any highway, regardless of length. However, if the length requires more than 150 miles of travel per day, you'll get extra days until your daily mileage drops below 150 miles.

You may travel in either direction.

You may stop at attractions along the way, but at no point can you be more than 10 miles from the interstate.

You have the budget to stay at any hotel or dine at any restaurant within ten miles of the interstate.

You may spend multiple nights in any location but you cannot drive more than 250 miles in a single day. So you have to budget your driving time.

You may use any criteria you wish to make your vote. You can consider the driving lengths and conditions, scenery, attractions along the way, any outstanding warrants you have in that state, the likelihood of a Christie Brinkley clone waving at your from a Ferrari, or anything else you might wish to consider.

You can pick the time of year.

You can pick the vehicle that you drive. Assume that you're renting any vehicle that you could purchase for $50,000 or less (new or used). It can be different vehicles on different road trips, so you can customize to fit.

I'll post the basics of each route, but I don't see any specific website that provides a good description of the attractions that one would see along the route. You're on your own for that. Of course, you can do a google map view to see what your scenery is.

Your next two competitors are:

Option 1 - PR2 from Ponce, Puerto Rico to San Juan Puerto Rico
7 Day Trip
150 Miles, 21 miles per day on average
Passes through Mayaguez and Arecibo

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puerto_Rico_Highway_2

Option 2 - I-81 from Wellesley Island, NY, to Dandridge, TN
7 Day Trip
857 miles, 122 miles per day on average
Passes through Harrisburg and Scranton, PA, and Binghamton and Syracuse, NY

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_81

#2

Lots of beautiful country and history.

This is a tough one, because both of these are interesting drives. I've never been in upstate NY other than Buffalo, and it would be interesting to explore. You're also running parallel to the Blue Ridge Parkway for a while through Virginia, which is likely pretty.

My initial reaction was to go with I-81, but that's also a fair amount of driving over the course of a week. PR-2 is a lot shorter, so I can stay someone for a couple of days, move on, and explore somewhere else. I've never been to Puerto Rico, so I decided to go with PR-2. There's not a weak choice here, though.

Beach wins for me.

In some parts of upstate NY you will lose all cellular service at the bottom of mountains lol so if you’re using gps prepare a backup plan. This happened to me about 8 years ago.

I miss the days of "Miss ChiefsPlanet"

These are fun to think about, but those threads were more fun to look at.

I feel like this is an early heavyweight battle. I've done a little preliminary Google mapping and both of these options seem really interesting. I'm tired though, and we'll have to wait until tomorrow to do some more research before I vote.

<img src="https://photos.zillowstatic.com/p_e/ISrtvt7cu93qaw1000000000.jpg" alt="Image result for pr 2 puerto rico"/>

Good enough for Captain America

good enough for me

Puerto Rico it is


<img src="https://i.redd.it/z354d6hnvxi11.jpg" alt="Image result for captian america puerto rico"/>

I've driven I-81 a fair amount and it's nothing special (but has less traffic than I-95).

Here's the highlight of I-81:

https://www.roadsideamerica.com/attr...agscurious.jpg

I'm going PR 2.

I got robbed in PR once and ended up buying the gang a drink at my hotel. Option 1 for this guy.