On the Road With HaRVy- But, Which Road?

Just like you do whenever you get into your car to go somewhere, traveling with an RV requires you to decide what route you are going to take. In many cases, the route we take in our everyday driving to run errands, go out to eat, take the kids to school is pretty much predetermined based on our past experience of the best way to get there.

Driving an RV that is 38 feet long (even longer when we tow the car behind us,) almost 13 feet tall, and weighing up to (in our case) 22,000 lbs does introduce some variables that we typically do not need to consider when driving the family SUV. There are dedicated GPS systems for RVs as well as some phone apps like CoPilot that allow you to load in the dimensions of your RV and, those tools will do their best to keep you from going somewhere that you do not want to ever go in a 11 ton RV. Only utilizing roads that can safely accommodate a vehicle that large is pretty important.

But that's not really the topic I wanted to cover.

We currently live in the Tampa area and we previously lived in Augusta, GA so, we have already made a couple of trips to and from there. As you can imagine, there are many ways to drive from the Tampa area to Augusta. Google maps will offer the quickest route that basically utilizes the interstate highways as much as possible, provided that Google doesn't "see" any potential travel delays due to an accident on the route that would make another route faster. For us, Google says to use Hwy 54 to I-75 N, I-75 to I-10 E, then to I-95 N, then to I-16 W... then it is secondary highways from the Statesboro, GA area to Augusta. Google says we can get there in about 7.5 hrs using that route. I appreciate so much President Eisenhower's efforts to make the interstate highway system a reality. There is no denying that it is almost always the most efficient way to get from point A to B when traveling long distances.

But, I just don't like being on an interstate for 4, 6, 8 hrs. It's boring. It's a bit more dangerous (in my opinion) given the volume of traffic and the speeds of 70, 75, 80, and "how fast was that BMW going?" However, I do think that I am not really being honest when I give the reasons for not wanting to use the interstate (at least not for the majority of the trip.)

I like the old highways. As a kid that grew up in the 50s and 60s, my experiences going on trips and vacations preceded the building of many of today's interstates. We traveled on what are now considered secondary roads. And those roads went through the hearts of cities and small towns and I just miss that.

I have fond memories of the mid-century era motor lodges with their flashing neon signage that maybe boasted a swimming pool, air conditioning, TV, and other 1960s amenities that we just take for granted today.

There were roadside restaurants (Howard Johnson's and their iconic orange roof,) and gas stations (Stuckeys... where else can you get a pecan praline or log roll?)

and ice cream stands, and tacky tourist stops that looked like trading posts, or others that included some roadside attraction. There were often picnic areas right off the highway where we could leisurely gobble up the wax paper-wrapped sandwiches that mom packed before we left in our tank-sized Buick Special. This was the America I grew up in. No seat belts, windows down, me lying across the deck under the rear window without a care in the world (oblivious to Newton's law that says a body in motion wants to remain in motion when the brakes are suddenly applied.)

If you are over 50 and from Georgia or South Carolina (and ever traveled to Florida,) it is likely you are familiar with a road called the Woodpecker Trail. It dates back to the 1920s with that monicker. It basically is the route that includes Hwy 25 and 121. You would know about towns with names like Augusta, Waynesboro, Millen, and Metter. Cobbtown, Collins, Reidsville, Surrency, Blackshear, Waycross, Folkston, and St. George are towns you would experience before finally crossing into Florida. Sadly, you can only see remnants of some of the gas stations, motels and restaurants of that era that have long since been abandoned or re-purposed. Some prefer the more eastern Hwy 301 route. Others like the more western Hwy 1, 221 route to Florida.

We discovered that there is a pretty straight line route from our FL home to Augusta that includes FL Hwy 19, 129, GA Hwy 129, 221 and 1. This route adds about 30 minutes to the mostly interstate Google suggested route. With HaRVy however, we have modified that route to use I-75 through most of Florida, getting off near Jasper, FL and taking our usual "backroads" route from there.

We choose our roads for different reasons... safety, speed of travel, the view, and, for me.... I guess I just want to cling to some of those fond memories of my past. Happy motoring!