A driving trip to a conference in DC this week gave me an opportunity to take some new routes through otherwise very familiar territory.
On the way south, I had time constraints but was able to take a couple hours longer than the fastest routes and still get to the start of the event on time. I took my usual Thruway to I-287 route, then took I-78 and US 22 west past Allentown to Hamburg. New travels started there: PA 61, Business US 222 (with a quick lunch stop), PA 12, US 422, I-176, and part of I-76 back to US 222 were all new. US 222 and US 30 over to York are roads I'd traveled once before but were still interesting to see. Just before I-83, I cut a little corner on PA 24 and PA 462. I-83 to I-695 to I-70 were all previously-traveled but not ones I take often. At US 29, I finished off the tiny piece north of I-70 before turning back around to head south to the beltway. My destination was in the Woodley Park area of DC, so I took MD 185 and Connecticut Ave in. A little confusion about where to turn as I approached my hotel resulted in me on the Rock Creek Parkway (about a mile out and back) for a little bonus TM mileage there at the end.
I was able to take more time going home. The event ended at 12:30, followed by a lunch in the nearby neighborhood. It was about 1:30, I was going only as far as the Harrisburg area for a baseball game and had about double the needed time to do it. A more ambitious plan to start by finishing off I-66 and US 1 in DC looked like a Very Bad Idea in afternoon traffic, so I left DC via Massachusetts Ave, and took some MD 396 and MD 190 back out to the beltway. It was the beltway around to US 1, where I filled in a bit of that route up to MD 32, which I took over to US 29. US 29/I-70/I-695 (including a lengthy delay on the I-70 to I-695 ramp) took me to I-795 for my first ride up that route. At its northern end, I cut over to MD 30 and took that and PA 94 all the way up into Carlisle. This ride was slow at times, and is a route I won't need to take again. I went through Carlise on US 11 to my hotel right near the turnpike exit. I checked in then went right back out to get to the Harrisburg Senators game on City Island. I was able to fill in a couple gaps on the rides out and back, taking the turnpike for one exit to fill in an I-76 gap, and US 11 back to Carlisle to fill that in.
The next day, I again took about double the needed time to make my ride. The new travels started on US 22 and US 322 west. I had been as far as Dauphin, but continued on this trip to PA 147, which allowed me to drive up the eastern side of the Susquehanna (I'd done US 11/15 on the other side quite a while ago). It was a scenic and pleasant ride. I stopped for a bit to check out the ferry in Millersburg (it wasn't running). I crossed the river on PA 61 at Shamokin Dam, then took US 15 up to Williamsport (lunch stop on the north side of Lewisburg). This filled a gap and completed all of US 15 north of Farmville, VA. There, I picked up US 220 (at first, concurrently with I-180). Once I left I-180, it was all new US 220 until just south of the NY border. This ride was also scenic and pleasant but with a few more bouts of slow drivers that I couldn't pass. Fortunately I wasn't in much of a rush. On the way, I picked up my one new county on this trip: Sullivan, PA. I picked up a couple miles of US 6 as well with a side trip into Towanda for gas. When I reached NY, that finished off all of US 220 north of I-68. I took NY 17 east for just one exit then cut up NY 34 to NY 17C for something different, and NY 282 back to NY 17. I left NY 17 again at Endwell to take NY 17C to head for the Wegman's in Johnson City. From there, it was fastest way home: NY 17/I-81/I-88/NY 30A/NY 7/NY 30. As usual, I-88 was filled with lengthy construction zones. I passed through a pretty nasty thunderstorm with a lot of lightning, rain, wind, and a little hail around Cobleskill, of course, part of the time while in a construction zone.
For TM, I added 330 miles, 262 of which were in PA. My new NY travels pushed me over 9000 miles overall in the state. I only added about 40 new usai miles, but that included clinching two routes I had never previously traveled (I-176, I-795). I got 140 new miles in usaus, with US 220 being the biggest mover. For other systems, I traveled 5 usamd highways, 2 usany highways, and 8 usapa highways for the first time.