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Celebrating our two-lane highways of yesteryear…And the joys of driving them today!

Us 20


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Anyone see this US 20 website?

 

http://www.historicus20.com/

 

One day I hope to take US 20 From New York the left coast. Then down the Pacific Coast. I have been on US 20 from Rochester, NY to Pittsfield, Mass, then a bit in Boston. So I will probably will pick up 20 near Eire, PA.

 

I do not know if I can handle modern US 20 before getting past the Great Lakes. I not a fan of hitting every traffic light going through inner cities. Though I did find going through Bethlehem Penn educational. No one can understand how large a business Bethlehem Steel was until you go from the south heading north and seeing all those old Bethlehem buildings, not just the size of each building but the number of huge buildings.

 

Japan never had chance.

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Interesting website. Nice to see 20 getting some love. It's still my wife's favorite US route (we've done up through US 51).

 

Inner cities usually aren't too bad as long as you don't need to stop (needing to use a bathroom when you're sitting in traffic in a city is the worst). They're usually only a few miles and they go pretty fast, especially if you can time it so you hit them before rush hour in the morning when there's no traffic. I find the 20 miles of suburban strip malls with a (red) traffic light every quarter mile more draining, and much less interesting than the inner city.

 

Anyway, hope you get to drive it some day.

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No, I had not seen the US20 site. Thanks for the tip!

 

The route west of Craters of the Moon in Idaho follows pretty close to, and on, the route of the first transcontinental auto race. That may also apply further east, but I have not bothered to check.

 

I know the route well west of Arco and Craters of the Moon. You will not be troubled by traffic lights!!! It is interesting country if you know the history (isn't that always true!! :) ). But for the less informed, some of it will look pretty barren once you leave Vale in eastern Oregon until you reach Bend.

 

You will have to get off the road onto the original route to see the stage stations and ghost towns of the last century, but many are still there, including the tale of the lost blue bucket gold.

 

When you make your plans, let me know and I will share my “knowledge.” We can split the gold!! :)

 

Dave

 

Keep the Show on the Road!

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Interesting website. Nice to see 20 getting some love. It's still my wife's favorite US route (we've done up through US 51).

 

Inner cities usually aren't too bad as long as you don't need to stop (needing to use a bathroom when you're sitting in traffic in a city is the worst). They're usually only a few miles and they go pretty fast, especially if you can time it so you hit them before rush hour in the morning when there's no traffic. I find the 20 miles of suburban strip malls with a (red) traffic light every quarter mile more draining, and much less interesting than the inner city.

 

Anyway, hope you get to drive it some day.

 

How far are you away from US 20 and why is it your wife's favorite route?

 

I am not so much against going through downtowns or suburban areas. It just may come down to the amount of time. So as a trip takes more time the costs go up.

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I had seen the site but pretty much forgot about it. There is an associated Facebook page which I just checked and see it has been somewhat active lately. It hasn't shown up in my feed for a long time, though. FB works in mysterious ways. Interesting to see that the website founder has a book coming out in a matter of days.

 

In September I drove US 20 from Erie, PA, to Albany, NY, and quite enjoyed it.

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Do you remember seeing this on your trip this past September?

 

https://www.google.com/maps/@42.7255382,-73.9601091,3a,75y,270h,94.41t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s9NqJuSacdzmQbOi5roilMw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

 

I saw this for the first time July 1970. My dad, godfather, and I were towing home my first car.

I was 16. We found a 1935 Buick 3 window coupe in a storage building at a Junk Yard a little bit

south of Watertown, NY.

 

Side note my dad was in the Army 1935 - 37 and served at Camp Drum, later named Fort Drum. Which is outside Watertown.

 

Anyway, when I saw a railroad bridge, over a railroad bridge that was over a road, I thought it was something special. Special enough to ask my dad to stop the car and let me take a photo. Where is that photo now?

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No but I can tell you that I passed that point at 8:18 on the morning of Sep 26. I was on the way to a 9:00 meeting with a friend in Albany which must have kept me from noticing. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. :)

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I live just blocks from US Route 20 ... & am disappointed to have to say I've never seen that website before ... or, if I have, completely forgot about it. I don't remember seeing anything about it in any of our city's literature, either. I'd love to become a member, but with no job for nearly 3 years & no income since September 2013, I can't exactly afford any "extra" costs. Maybe I'll contact them, though, & see if they have a partnership with Elgin or not.

 

I've traveled US 20 in Illinois extensively, from where I live to the Illinois-Iowa border. I've also driven it in Iowa.

 

In 2010, I drove parts of it on the east coast:

https://picasaweb.google.com/knightfan26917/NorEasterTrekRoadTripWed08042010Sun08152010

Then, in 2011, when I was on the west coast, I drove much of it in Oregon:

https://picasaweb.google.com/knightfan26917/CoastToCoastRoadTripFri06242011Mon07112011

 

 

Cort :) www.oldcarsstronghearts.com

pigValve, paceMaker, cowValve | 1979 Caprice Classic (awaiting new owner)
"I foolishly believed that you would always be there" __ Reba McEntire __ 'If I Had Only Known'
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Living blocks from US 20, some people have all the luck.

 

I know that I am repeating myself though that summer in 1970 when we were driving upstate New York

to find an antique car. My dad had a endless supply if oil company road maps when they were still full sized and well laid out. I was in charge of mapping out our trip. But I repeat just incase the both of you, knightfan and Denny G have not heard it before.

 

I saw a 1956 US hwy map in my dads stack of maps. There I discovered that there were numbered routes (I knew that there were state and US routes as well as Interstates with numbers at the time) though I was surprised to see that there were numbered roads that went coast to coast still the same route number the whole way.

 

Being we were on US 20 at the moment of my enlightenment I had to do my first coast to coast road trip on US 20. Some day it will happen.

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The funny thing about living so close to it ... as I found out by talking to people in Oregon during my 2011 road trip ... living so close to Route 20 is NOT like living so close to Route 66. Rt 66 is so famed that you KNOW you're near it. Route 20, on the other hand, doesn't have all the memorabilia attached to it, so while you "know" it is Route 20, you don't "know" it ... if that makes sense.

 

That written, I definitely "know" it now ... & each time I get on it, I wonder who all is driving it across the country at the same time. It's a neat feeling.

 

 

Cort :) www.oldcarsstronghearts.com

pigValve, paceMaker, cowValve | 1979 Caprice Classic (awaiting new owner)
"What do you mean how could I do this to you?" __ Juice Newton __ 'Old Flame'
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  • 4 weeks later...
I have at various times over the past 50 years driven the 200-mile stretch of US-20 west from its intersection with Ohio-25 (formerly US-25) in Maumee, Ohio to its intersection with US-12 in Michigan City, Indiana. Also, while on vacation back in 1970 I drove the portion of US-20 that is in Yellowstone National Park and the stretch from the eastern entrance to Yellowstone to the intersection with Alternate US-14 in Cody, Wyoming.


I live 40 miles north of the intersection of US-20 and I-69 in Angola, Indiana. My travels on US-20 are either east from this intersection to Maumee or west to Michigan City. I am not a fan of heavy traffic, so I have no interest whatsoever in driving the section of US-20 from Michigan City to Elgin, Illinois, nor do I plan to drive US-20 through Cleveland. I prefer to travel the rural areas and small towns.

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Rod,

 

I agree! As you well know, one of the virtues of two lane roads is that they do take you through small towns. In fact the old road is likely to be Main Street, for the obvious reason that the road connected the towns along its route. Again obviously, for the most part, the interstates bypassed towns whenever possible.

 

Since you have been driving for at least 50 years, this isn't news to you!! I use the interstates when I don't care what i see and want to get somewhere fast. But if I want to appreciate life, I take the old road.

 

One other comment......often times the interstate cleared the traffic off the old two lane route, A long stretch of US99 (old Pacific Highway) runs near my home. It used to be one long traffic jam. But after interstate 5 was built, it became a nice drive through the countryside.

 

Dave

 

Keep the Show on the Road!

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...often times the interstate cleared the traffic off the old two lane route, A long stretch of US99 (old Pacific Highway) runs near my home. It used to be one long traffic jam. But after interstate 5 was built, it became a nice drive through the countryside.

The interstates often get a really bad rap and some of it is deserved. Their construction did cause some good stuff to be lost. But they also did some good in removing the bulk of big trucks and time focused drivers off of the remaining two-lanes.

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I prefer to travel the rural areas and small towns.

 

 

 

We are very much alike in this area! This is precisely why I prefer to go west of Elgin ... to the old 2-lane roads, including US 20. 1 of my favorite drives is taking US 20 west out to the Hampshire-Starks IL area, then taking other 2 lane roads back to IL RT 23, then back via Sycamore & along IL RT 47 (which, coincidentally, connects (more or less) US 20, Route 66 & the Lincoln Highway in IL!

 

 

Cort :) www.oldcarsstronghearts.com

pigValve, paceMaker, cowValve | 1979 Caprice Classic (awaiting new owner)
"Decorations of red on a green Christmas tree" __ Elvis Presley __ 'Blue Christmas'
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