You really want to ‘get away’ from people…
I can haz a suggestion…
Just go drive this road!
Granted I drove it back in 82, but seven hours crossing Nevada never saw another car outside the towns! It’s Route 50 in Nevada, runs from Ely to Lake Tahoe.
I got on it at Salina, UT, where I-70 ended, and that was a LONG day…
At least I didn’t try to drive it at night, I’d learned ‘that’ lesson on Hwy 45 from Memphis down to Mobile at night… shudder…never again!!!
It was really weird though, like I said, outside the towns, not a car or truck in sight for hours!!!
And you needed to make SURE you had enough gas! That was ‘not’ a place to run out of gas! And there weren’t many radio stations out there either… sigh
What is the ‘strangest’ road you’ve ever driven???
Could you add a google maps link showing the route?
Or, y’know, I could just drink some more coffee, figure it out, and then do that. 😉
https://tinyurl.com/54fdw9xf
But, were there any speed cops on it?
Nah. The speed cops loved I-80. There was a long downhill grade with a couple of radar cops in the 1970s and ’80s. Sometimes they’d get clever, and there’d be another pair with radar a mile further east to catch the “now I can put the hammer down” folks.
CB radios did good then and there. In Kansas, I heard a trucker warning people off, then lamenting he was getting stopped. One presumes they didn’t want people warning. That was the last time I drove through Kansas.
Back in 1980 or maybe it was ’81, young and unattached, drove from Mobile AL to Los Angeles on US 10. Was crossing TX at midnight, being young and bull headed, who needs sleep? Was minding my own business, almost zero cars on the road, doing maybe 75 when my doors were blown off by a Greyhound doing over 100 MPH. Decided there and then to draft the sucker. We crossed TX on a laser straight stretch all the way to NM border at that speed. Stupid? Yeah, but boy, what a ride that was. And yes, I survived as evidenced by this note.
Driving from Philly back to Norfolk in the seventies and crossing the Chesapeake Bay Bridge in a very dense night fog.
There were no vehicles near me, and the fog was so thick that when I was under a light, I could not see the next light.
Driving with my crew from Jubail KSA To Jeddah KSA back in ’87-’88(?) while doing upgrades on their PCCs and PGGs for their navy. I was the only guy who was there for 16 months. Drove a loaded down Toyota Land Cruiser with the gear while the boyos drove a nice Nissan car. One “gas station” with a hand pump to pump gas about half way across the desert. Fun run.
Yep, drove it eastbound after my ’71 deployment on the way to Millington. I had stopped in Minden, NV for an aerobatics course in a Citabra. I remember my ’68 Bug chugging up the interstate west of Denver in first or second gear while Detroit gas guzzlers were having to back down ’cause they couldn’t make the grade.
Back in the mid-60’s, too poor for a motel, driving across half the country without sleep !! ah, to be “young again”.
I drive 50 regularly. It’s not that empty anymore, it’s got quite a few tourists on it, as well as access to a couple substantial good mines. The advertising for it is working.
If you want empty, take 6 from Ely to Tonopah. Over 200 miles with no towns or services, and very few vehicles.
Not terribly odd, but driving 395 North in California on a road trip in 2012. Two things I remember are a sign saying “Next Service 72 Miles” and going up a steep grade, foot glued to the floor in 3rd gear and still losing speed in my 92’ Jeep Cherokee.
Still one of my favorite trips.
Drove something close to it, the “Great Basin Highway,” turning north off the I-15 out of Las Vegas as if heading to Mesquite. Ely is COLD, and there is some nice mining history there. North past Hiko on the 318 there is a sign marked “NO Services Next 115 Miles,” and that would probably bug the eyes out of some of the recent European FIFA tourists – or Japanese tourists. Although I had what I thought was a sufficiently a reliable vehicle I *still* brought 3 gal of water, a portable dipole antenna (20m, 40m, 80m ham bands,) a 100W Yaesu portable radio with alligator clips to attach to my car battery, and my J-38 paddle. No cell service, kiddies! Those kinds of roads have the BEST roadside restaurants, though.
Dr. Mauser- LOL, not a single one seen across Nevada!
All- Yep, we’ve ‘all’ done those road trips, and I can see they stick in our memory!
AF7FD- I had a CB with a 100 watt booster… 🙂
Baxter Pass in Eastern Utah and Western Colorado, south-to-north. I was driving a 3/4 ton passenger van. Cattle resting on the road. Football sized rocks from the cliff. Wash-outs. Dried mud with three ruts in it…outside ruts from the tires and the center rut from the diffy-case. Sunflowers growing in the center of the two-track on the north end of the road. We saw two guys on dirt-bikes from Grand Junction just north of the pass (on the wet-side).
Not a long road, or a remote road but there was a strange road where I grew up. At night in the summer, when you were driving northwest you’d get a perfect mirage when you were about a quarter mile away from a slight bend in the road – your own headlights reflected in the air, doubled, about level with your windshield. As you got closer the two sets of lights would merge into one and then vanish.
It was unnerving if you weren’t expecting it.
Phoenix AZ to Albany NY nonstop. Ahh to be young.
Just for fun, Maui – road to Hana. Wait till you tell the wife you have to go back the same way!
Middle of the night, some highway in Utah, driving back from CA to Michigan with a friend as co-pilot.
running low on gas and caught a tip over the CB from a trucker somewhere out there.
Before that, once drove from SC to Michigan, middle of the night, no I-40 yet.
Two lane blacktop through the mountains, including 441, before Gatlinburg was a thing.
Yeah…50 used to be the “loneliest highway”, but not so much anymore. Drove less than a year ago…at night…and saw more than a few other vehicles. But definitely plan your gas stops, especially at night. There aren’t many services available.
Moved from Colorado Springs, CO to Fallon, NV in 2019. First run was in the daily driver Honda Ridgeline, I-80 the whole way. Second run several months later was in the LMTV along Hwy 50. When max speed was 50 mph, shorter distance wins. Was slow, took three days, but saw a part of America many don’t get to see. Still live along 50 and drive a portion of it every day.
Loneliest Highway in America for sure.
“Tail of the dragon” in a f350 crew cab.
There was a road on the way up to mount Nebo in Jordan, where Moses died. Walls of rock nearly touching the side mirrors on the Bus. Bus Driver still went hell bent for leather and the oncoming traffic didn’t budge or slow down. On their side was a steep cliff that would crumble a car into cornflakes.
Main highway in Manilla heading to the airport. 4 lanes one way & 4 the other as you got closer to the airport the lanes seemed to reverse and there was 8 lanes all heading to the airport. You never knew when the lane you were in would end and suddenly you had miles of head long traffic against you. The only safe spot was to pull up onto a side walk until it cleared.
Roads in Kuwait make the Auto-baun look downright civilized.
Outback roads in OZ would get dusted out with the triple B cattle haulers. Good thing is you could them coming and pull over until the dust cleared. Oh and roll up the windows.
I’ve been in all the lower 48. Smarter Half is only missing N.J.
Favorite memories:
US-95 between Fallon and Las Vegas, NV. After seeing 2 or 3 vehicles in several hours I pulled over to relieve myself. Yup, 8 or 10 cars in the time it took to drain my bladder. And every fly in the county swarmed the new source of moisture.
US-160 southbound through Monument Valley with the soundtrack of “Stagecoach” on the CD player.
Topping an I-80 pass in WY and having the car DOWNSHIFT due to HEADWINDS. Never experienced that before or since.
Michigan 20 in the Upper Peninsula billed as “the longest stretch of straight road east of the Mississippi.” Great drive in summer. Winter would be “interesting” due to snowmobile crossings.
US-2 in Maine, NH, VT, one year. MI, MN, ND another year. Illness aborted our trip to Puget Sound but maybe …
Road To The Sun, Glacier Nat. Park. Take extra batteries and memory chips. Schedule several days.
I’ve driven it many times; daytime, nightime and once in a blizzard.
1968 I ferried a Super Cub from Carson City, NV to Cove Junction, UT going IFR (I follow roads). Somewhere along the way two USAF F-4s interscepted us and used hand signals as they staggard by. Turns out 50 knots airspeed and 50′ AGL wasn’t in their flight envelope. Guess they buzzed off. That trip is far more interesting from the air at 90 knots and 800′ AGL.
Try Norseman, Western Australia to Ceduna , South Australia.
You can start at Perth Western Australia. It is 900 miles to the WA/SA border.
Try the Eyre Highway east-west across South Australia.
When I drove it in ’95 from Perth to attend the Australian Grand Prix in Adelaide, I had to get back to Perth for work, so finished up driving west at night. This is NOT recommended because of the kangaroos, but in my case, I encountered a group of Aboriginals milling around and over the road at 2:00 AM just south of Yeelata.
They were all dressed in traditional garb and brandishing spears and woomeras. I had LOTS of lights on the front of my car, so I had spotted them well in advance. I slowed down, just to be sure that I was seeing what I thought it was, then changed down a couple of gears, and flew through the crowd at well over 100 mph, and climbing.
I stopped for fuel at the first available place (there aren’t many), and, still shaking, told the attendant about it. She laughed, looked at the lights on the front of my car, and said, “That’s the group from the mission at Yeelata. They come down to the highway to sell artifacts to the passengers on the Adelaide to Perth tour bus. With all those lights on your car, they probably thought YOU were the bus.”
Also done the trip a few times in our BD-4 homebuilt. About 5 hours for 636 nautical miles. Sure beats driving although one time just as Mrs Eyrie was serving coffee and food and saying this was way more fun than Mr Qantas as we flew along the southern Australian coastline the entire radio stack died along with the noise cancelling headsets and intercom with 3.5 hours to go. Came back in a few minutes, quit a couple more times over the next two hours. Couldn’t find anything wrong. When leaving Perth I turned the avionics master on gently and the power didn’t come up. Swapped the landing/nav light switch with the avionics master and all good. Traced to bad rivet joint inside switch.
Aviation is fun!
Did the trip from Perth to Adelaide once with an American lady we knew in Perth who needed her car moved the Adelaide. 31 hours only stopping for fuel and potty stops. One driving for 1.5 hours, one keeping the driver awake, one in back seat trying to sleep. I swear there were wombats the size of Volkswagens and 16 foot tall kangaroos at 3am in the middle of the Nullarbor.
We were young and stupid once.
You are amazed driving that long remote road. I wonder, how did it get paved out there???
roswell, nm to texas. didn’t top off my harley b/c there were three labeled intersections on the map. no services, never saw those intersections nor anything else until i sputtered into bible belt texas on reserve fumes on a hot sunday.
The Road to Hana on Maui. There are stretches where the road is one lane and the natives don’t know the meaning of yield. And I was dumb enough to drive out to Hana in the morning and come back late afternoon, so I had the sun in my eyes each way. Hana was worth it though.
State route 140 in Oregon and Nevada. From Lakeview OR to US95 in Nevada (the road keeps the same numbering), there used to be a public gas station in Adel, but as of 2014 it was fleet-card only (and not that far from Lakeview). One other gas station in Danio Junction. Never needed it, but the times I drove it (round trips in 2005 and 14) I’d gas up in Lakeview and/or Winnemucca before making the trip. Might have been a business associated with the station in Danio, but otherwise, it was ranches and really quiet rest areas.
Cell service was nonexistent. I don’t have a need to go that way again, but if I did, I’d have both the VHF/UHF and the HF radios on board.
Protip: Avoid from November to mid Spring. There’ve been a list horror stories of Oregon/Nevada outback drivers, and Danio (north of the Junction) has one of them. That driver survived, but lost toes, I think.
We drove much of the Loneliest Road in America in late May, on the way back from moving my mother-in-law Out West. Beautiful, desolate, and an easy drive except when towing the camper over the latest mountain range.
Strangest was the Blue Ridge Pkwy on our honeymoon. Driving from dinner at Big Meadows back to our cabin at Skyland Lodge in fog so thick I couldn’t see the road over my hood. We stayed on the road by having my bride hang out the open passenger door and watch the white line on the outer edge of the road. BTW, we were driving a 74 Firebird, Grey with a black roof. Not the most visible vehicle if we had run into other traffic that night.
Ah yes, WA for the ‘win’ on lonely roads… And it seems I struck a ‘nerve’ with a lot of folks! Thanks for pointing out those ‘roads’ I don’t want to try!!! 🙂