Would I Do It Again?

We returned to Lexington from our two week road trip exactly two weeks ago. In Route 1, Day Eight: KEY WEST! Maggie T. comments that she wants to convince Jeremy to drive down to the Florida Keys via Route 1. Do I recommend it? Would I do it again?

Sometime after my epic Cross Country Trip in 1995 (15,900 miles, 48 states, 3 Canadian provinces, and 1 Mexican state, with six kids ages 4 to 14, in a blue minivan with a purple tailgate pulling a pop-up tent trailer), I dreamed of traveling Route 1 from Maine to Florida. I love the idea of doing all of something: driving through all 48 states… hmmm, actually, I can’t think of any other ‘all of’ things I’ve done.

Further back in time I read William Least Heat-Moon's travel book Blue Highways. It was one of the inspirations, along with John Steinbeck’s Travels with Charley, for my Cross Country Trip. The ‘blue highways’ are the secondary roads, color-coded blue in Rand McNally’s road atlas. He didn’t want to zip along interstates; he wanted to experience real America.

       Route 1 is not a ‘blue highway’, but I imagined I'd find a piece of America, more real than the interstate. What did I mean by real? I wanted to find diners with fresh pies on display                          

        

kitschy tourist traps, cheap motels.
                             

 I wanted to experience the highway that has connected Maine to Florida since 1926. I did find diners, and plenty of cheap motels (I chickened out there, fearing bedbugs and drug busts), but in the suburbs, instead of local color we passed mile after mile of Home Depot, Bed Bath and Beyond, Kohl's, Wal-Mart, and Target.
                    

 In areas too unpopulated to support those big box stores there were still the ubiquitous CVS and Walgreens, often just across the street from each other. Route 1 is teeming with car dealerships: Honda, Chevrolet, Hyundai, even Porsche, and BMW.
                                         

Small towns often had used-car lots. I can just imagine an early twentieth-century family getting in the family buggy, going to Route 1, and trading their horse for a Ford. Whatcha think?
                         

What surprised me? The lovely villages of Rhode Island and Connecticut, with their brick two-story shops
                      

and rolling countryside. Boston Road in Yankee Bronx. (It's part of the original 1673 'King's Best Highway' or Boston Post Road that was established between Lower Manhattan and Boston.) In Philly, our highway dipping below grade, then becoming a grand boulevard, passing handsome stone and brick houses. I didn't expect the loneliness of South Carolina and Georgia along Route: we passed mile after mile of tall thin pine trees in sandy soil.

The Historic Route One website suggests, “Avoid the congestion of East Coast interstates such as Interstate 95.” The reality is that on Route 1 we averaged twelve miles an hour for three hours through Miami. Since Route 1 doesn’t bypass cities and towns like the interstates do, it has several hundred traffic lights from Massachusetts to Key West. Through the densely populated areas, there is plenty of congestion. I can imagine taking a trip to explore smaller roads or even a section of Route 1; I feel no need to traverse the length again.

So, I've driven to all 48 states and all of Route 1 south of Boston. Jim and I plan to drive the northern section of Route 1 this summer. We’ll start at the Tobin Bridge and pass the northeastern cities and towns of Massachusetts, cross a bit of coastal New Hampshire, and then follow the coast of Maine till Route 1 turns inland toward Caribou and then Canada. "I'm goin' out on a limb here" (Groundhog Day): I don’t expect to see a big box store once we pass Freeport, Maine (home of many outlets); I do expect to see a lot of pine trees of the northern variety.

       Then I can brag about doing 'all of' two things: 48 states and Route 1.