On the Interstate – Part 1

In my view, how much we like some place depends primarily on two factors. One is the people we know there, and the other is the opportunities the place offers us to explore our interests.

(The image on the left is a graphic of the interstate highway system. Note that it is denser on the East than the West. Click on the image to get to the wiki page on the interstate highway system.)

I like living in the US. I have a large number of friends and acquaintances in the US (but no family and I don’t have my own family, anyway), and I can indulge my hobbies and my interests. One of my passions is the open road. I love road trips. The US is made for road trips.

I don’t think that any other country offers anything comparable to the US if one is interested in going on long road trips. The country is vast and criss-crossed with a dense network of roads. Roads come in various varieties in the US: county, state and federal. The federal road system is known as the Interstate highway system. Click on the link to see the wiki entry. The Interstate was formed in 1956 and it’s been under construction all these years. I will leave you to read the wiki page on it. I find it fascinating.

Take the numbering of the interstate. Since the lower 48 states of the US is roughly rectangular in shape, the roads can be identified as running east-west and north-south. The even numbers are for east-west ones, with the numbers increasing as you move up the country — from 10 in the South to 90 in the North. The odd numbers are north-south interstates, with the number increasing as you move east. They go from 5 in the West to 95 in the East.

I used to live in California, and the N-S interstate there is I-5 (pronounced “eye-5”). Click on the image on the left for details. The total route length of I-5 is an easy to remember 2,222 kms — approximately the same as the distance between Bangalore and Chandigarh.

I-5 is the interstate that I have traveled the entire length of, from Canada to Mexico, several times. It’s the road most traveled for me. I used to visit an uncle in Portland, OR, and did tons of trips between the San Francisco bay area and Los Angeles during my over three decades in California. It passes through the central valley of California. I love I-5.

One time, a couple of friends and I went to Yellowstone National Park. That was about 1,800 kms from San Jose, CA. We went on I-80 East for about 1,200 kms to Salt Lake City, UT, and then headed north on I-15 North for another 600 kms.

Then five years ago, I moved from the West coast to the East coast — from California to Delaware. That time, I took I-80 East. I went from San Jose, CA, to Salt Lake City, UT. That was the first part. Then from SLC to Gillette, WY. Then from there to Watertown, SD. And then through Minneapolis, MN, to Chicago, IL. Here’s the map of my track, around 3,800 kms. That’s a lot of miles. But I loved every mile of it.

It was the first time that I’d driven that far East. It was immense fun. The people of the mid-West are not like the people on the West coast. They are laid-back and are willing to take the time to “visit”. One time, I had to chat with the lady at check-in for over 10 minutes. She wanted to show me pictures of her family and what they were doing.

I loved the neighborly attitude of the mid-Western people. When at the check-out counter of some store, expect to talk for a bit. “Hi honey, did you find everything you needed?” “Sweetheart, how is your day going?” “I don’t recall you from before. Are you passing through, darling?” Terms of endearment is standard. Warm and welcoming. They are willing to chat.

I stopped in Chicago, IL for a few days at a friend’s home. I took a side trip to see one of the greatest natural wonders — a total solar eclipse. It added around 1000 kms. I have written about that before.

So then from Chicago, IL, I headed east. I stopped along the way for an evening at a farm in Ohio. It was a lovely experience — the first time for me at an Air-Bnb.

That was my first West to East road trip. I took my time and had a great time. I arrived in August 2017. And after five years, I decided that I’ve had had enough and decided to move to a part of the US that I have never lived in: Texas.

This post has gone on long enough. I will follow up with part 2 of this post tomorrow. That’s the part where I drive from Newark, DE, to Dallas, TX.

Take care and be well.