When I was in college at Eastern New Mexico, which is about 45 minutes west of Amarillo Texas, a couple friends, both from New England, had the bright idea of driving down to the gulf over a 4 day weekend.
I cautioned them against the idea, trying to explain Texas was bigger than they could imagine. Three hours into the trip we got a motel room in some hole in the wall town and went back to school the next morning.
What? It takes 24 hours to drive from the Canadian border to Mexico border. Texas is about 770 miles at its widest, that’s a breezy 10-12 hour drive doing the speed limit or just over.
The only place I’ve driven for multiple hours that was worse than Texas was Nevada. Even rural Indiana is a huge upgrade and that place stinks from soy bean processing (I think?)
Michigan and California are incredible.
Looking at Saskatchewan…I dunno man, looks really pretty to me!
Compared to the other provinces, it’s just flat farm fields. When the rapeseed (canola) is blooming it can look pretty, but it’s just yellow flowers for HOURS, no variety.
Edit, oh and for six months it’s white with snow, and the highway is dead straight, it’s hard to stay awake for the six hours.
Wait, you’re driving south through Nevada? Do yourself a favor and go east to I-15 or west to I-5, both are orders of magnitude better than going north/south through Nevada…
The only time I drive through Nevada is either from SLC to Lake Tahoe (northern Nevada) or SLC to Vegas/LA (southern tip of Nevada) because the alternative takes way longer.
I went on a cross Canada car drive in the early 2000s. We left from Sudbury Ontario to make it to the west coast in BC. We took our time, sight seeing and making many stops along the way. Ten days later we made it to Vancouver.
The best part was that on our sixth day, we ran into a friend in Medicine Hat, Alberta. He had left Kapuskasing, Ontario the day before and was expecting to make it to Vancouver in about 60 hours with non stop driving. His eyes were so blood shot and he was literally shaking from all the caffeine drinks, pills and coffee he had been taking. He had some strangers with him that he had picked up as hitch hikers and he said they were keeping him awake.
We worried about him the whole time but he called us two days later to say he made it. We caught up with him three days later.
We were headed Portales to Corpus Christi, which according to Apple Maps is about 9 1/2 hours. We did not have Apple Maps then, we had Rand McNally. So at best it would have taken us 11 hours. And yes everything looked the same.
When I was in college at Eastern New Mexico, which is about 45 minutes west of Amarillo Texas, a couple friends, both from New England, had the bright idea of driving down to the gulf over a 4 day weekend.
I cautioned them against the idea, trying to explain Texas was bigger than they could imagine. Three hours into the trip we got a motel room in some hole in the wall town and went back to school the next morning.
What? It takes 24 hours to drive from the Canadian border to Mexico border. Texas is about 770 miles at its widest, that’s a breezy 10-12 hour drive doing the speed limit or just over.
Yeah so nearly half their weekend driving…through Texas. One of the most boring places to drive through.
24 hours out of 96. I’ve done worse.
And it can’t be worse than Saskatchewan.
The only place I’ve driven for multiple hours that was worse than Texas was Nevada. Even rural Indiana is a huge upgrade and that place stinks from soy bean processing (I think?)
Michigan and California are incredible.
Looking at Saskatchewan…I dunno man, looks really pretty to me!
Compared to the other provinces, it’s just flat farm fields. When the rapeseed (canola) is blooming it can look pretty, but it’s just yellow flowers for HOURS, no variety.
Edit, oh and for six months it’s white with snow, and the highway is dead straight, it’s hard to stay awake for the six hours.
Sounds like huge swaths of the Midwest US. My friend got into a wreck for the same reason you described (thankfully no one was hurt)
Northern Nevada sucks, but southern Nevada near Vegas is fine since it has cool rock structures and whatnot, provided you avoid rush hour.
I hate most of California because traffic is so awful, but north of SF is pretty.
Coming from a place with no desert or “beaches”, the sand is a cool difference from the rest of the drive down from Canada.
Wait, you’re driving south through Nevada? Do yourself a favor and go east to I-15 or west to I-5, both are orders of magnitude better than going north/south through Nevada…
The only time I drive through Nevada is either from SLC to Lake Tahoe (northern Nevada) or SLC to Vegas/LA (southern tip of Nevada) because the alternative takes way longer.
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I went on a cross Canada car drive in the early 2000s. We left from Sudbury Ontario to make it to the west coast in BC. We took our time, sight seeing and making many stops along the way. Ten days later we made it to Vancouver.
The best part was that on our sixth day, we ran into a friend in Medicine Hat, Alberta. He had left Kapuskasing, Ontario the day before and was expecting to make it to Vancouver in about 60 hours with non stop driving. His eyes were so blood shot and he was literally shaking from all the caffeine drinks, pills and coffee he had been taking. He had some strangers with him that he had picked up as hitch hikers and he said they were keeping him awake.
We worried about him the whole time but he called us two days later to say he made it. We caught up with him three days later.
I live in Arkansas and went on vacation to South Padre Island a few years ago. It’s a 16 hour drive one way.
I grew up near Seattle and now live near Salt Lake City. The drive is 14 hours one way and I’ve done that trip at least a dozen times.
West Texas alone is an 8 hours between Las Cruces and San Antonio, and it’s the same damn rock and shrub for the entire 8 hours.
We were headed Portales to Corpus Christi, which according to Apple Maps is about 9 1/2 hours. We did not have Apple Maps then, we had Rand McNally. So at best it would have taken us 11 hours. And yes everything looked the same.