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Stops along a drive from Texas to Pennsylvania
Hey y'all! In about a month I need to drive from San Antonio, Texas to State College, Pennsylvania. The current plan is to take I35 to I30 and I40, which will take me through Dallas, Little Rock, Nashville, Louisville, Cincinnati, Columbus, and just outside Pittsburgh.
It's a long drive, so I'm looking for a few places to stop along the way and stretch my legs. I know it's a large area and this is a very vague question, but does anyone know any particularly interesting places to stop?
Just checked your route. I was on a road trip through southern Ohio almost 15 years ago, and my friend convinced us to take a detour to Serpent Mound. It's the largest serpent effigy in the world and at least 2,000 years old. Nice combo of Native American history and getting to stretch your legs walking around the site.
That sounds perfect! I'll need to look at the time I'll likely be there, but it's definitely tempting.
Serpent Mound is definitely pretty neat for a quick stop!
If you’re going through Cincinnati, it could be neat to stop by “Loveland Castle / Chateau LaRoche” just outside of Cincinnati. It’s on a back road and I think $5 per person. It’s a neat (short) stop, not a lot to do there but just kinda nifty as a place to visit as an “oddity.”
That sounds great too. At least for the ride up quick stops are perfect.
How long do you plan on taking to get there? You’d probably want three or four days if you want to see/do something without rushing too much. I haven’t really been out that way, but a quick glance at maps suggests Memphis has some interesting places to visit (Graceland, the National Civil Rights Museum).
People I've talked with have also mentioned Memphis, and that's currently my planned halfway point. Unfortunately, at least for the drive up, I only have a couple days so I don't have too much time. I might take a longer drive back though so I can better enjoy the route.
Those will be two very long days, especially adding in stops. If you can’t stretch it out going up, look on AllTrails and see what you can find close to your exits so you can get some quick hikes in. Since you have time pressure I would skip anything super involved going north.
Oh yeah, it's going to be a long drive. Unfortunately that's how the timing worked out, so that's how its going to happen.
I hadn't thought of looking up trails along the route. That sounds like a perfect stop to stretch my legs.
Given your time constraints, the only stops I would make besides food, gas, and sleep would be for stretching your legs and walking.
BBQ in Memphis is lovely. Best ribs I've ever had were from Rendezvous.
When you get to State College, be sure to eat at Big Bowl Noodle House! It's my favorite spot in town. My go-to order is the beef stir fry with egg noodles.
If you like parks/hiking consider checking out New River Gorge National Park in West Virginia or Ohiopyle near Pittsburgh. Both are beautiful areas
I'd also add Mammoth Cave to the parks list, it looks like you'll be driving right past it. Just make sure to reserve a cave tour way ahead of the time; the self-guided section is really small so you don't get to see much of the cave unless you book a spot on a tour. And they sell out really fast.
Thanks for the food and hiking recommendations! My finance and I are actually big into hiking and are planning on going to some local parks when she comes up. It's been a hot minute since I've actually looked at each park online, but I'll have to give those a look.
Speaking of food, though, do you happen to know any good vegetarian restaurants? I'm not vegetarian (looking forward to trying that stir fry) but my fiance is.
I haven't been in town in a while, but I recall Roots having good reviews.
I'll look them up as well, thanks!
I was in Cincinnati recently in the Cincinnati Nature Center was pretty nice. Good place to walk around with some decent trails.
I'll have to give it a look! It'll probably need to wait until my return trip, but thanks for the recommendation!
Near Pittsburgh is Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater house - not a way to break up the trip so much, but would be cool to visit when you are there!
Ooh, Falling Water would be really cool. Definitely adding that, along with Snake Mound, to the trip back.
Texas North and East of San Antonio is mostly coastal plain... flat, flat and more flat. East Texas has some amazing bbq joints, but the ones I know about are well off of the interstate.
The Walton family built a world class art museum in NW Arkansas (Crystal Bridges), it's well worth the drive (but 4 hours out of your way).
You could modify your route and spend an extra night in the French Quarter in New Orleans.
edit to add DayTripper (tv show) features a ton of off the beaten path stuff in Texas - might scroll through their catalogue and see if anything piques your interest and is near your route.
Unfortunately 4 hours is a bit too much of a detour. I'll have to check out DayTripper though. I've driven quite a bit on West and North Texas, but East Texas is not an area I'm familiar with.
It can be worth checking Atlas Obscura and also the national parks website and the state parks for your route
Seconding Atlas Obscura, I’ve used it to find interesting stops the couple times I’ve done cross-country drives.
Will do! Once finals are finished I've got quite a few places to look for info!
It looks like the default route on Google maps is Dallas to Texarkana via I30. instead, you can take I20 to Marshall then 59 north, and there is more tonsee and do along the route. If I am reading it right, the drive time is the same.
Along that route, there is a Buccee's outside Forney (just east of Dallas). Worth a stop for the spectacle of it if you've never been to one.
You hit Canton, which has a giant flea market the weekend of the first Monday of every month, appropriately called the First Monday Sale. There's a place called the right on the exit called the Dairy Palace that has good greasy food and ice cream.
You'll pass through Kilgore, which is where I grew up. Kilgore College (aka "Harvard on the Highway") has the East Texas Oil Museum, which includes a re–creation of main street from the 1920's complete with animatronic figures, and a ride to the center of the earth. (This is not really a serious recommendation). Excellent barbecue at Bodacious Barbecue or Mexican food at T Blancos. Unfortunately not a ton of vegetarian food in East Texas. Maybe cheese enchiladas at T Blancos.
German Village in Columbus has a lot of good food and some nice shops. Schmidt's Sausage Haus is amazing.
Pittsburgh has a ton of museums. Natural history, art, the science center, the Roberto Clemente museum and the Andy Warhol museum. Nikki's Thai Kitchen is amazing Thai food, lots of veggy options.
I once did Pittsburgh to Kilgore – 21 hours – without sleeping. I definitely do not recommend it. Two days is still pushing it, and your trip is about five hours longer. If you can make it 2.5 or 3 days, that is much more comfortable.
If I remember correctly the other two recommended routes added about an hour. Which isn't much, but that cuts into my stopping time.
That sounds wild lol. I actually love small museums, so depending on how we're feeling on the drive back we might stop by. We'll see about T Blancos. As a San Antonio native I've been spoiled in terms of Tex-Mex.
Pittsburgh is sounding more and more like somewhere we'll stop on the way back. There's so much there and neither me nor my fiance have ever been.
Oh yeah, doing it all in one shot is not something I want to do. Years ago an ex of mine and I drove back from Grand Mesa, Co to San Antonio in one shot after a night of drinking at a wedding. The whole trip we alternated between chasing and being chased by massive storms. The ~16ish drive up that we did in one shot turned into a terrifying ~19-20 hour drive. I've never been more terrified driving, never again.
If I need to turn it into a 2.5 day drive I'm sure my new boss will be fine with It.
If you don't mind adding a little time to your drive take 281 out of San Antonio instead of I35. The drive is much nicer than being stuck in traffic on I35.
That'll probably be a day-of call. You right though, that I35 traffic can be awful.
Pick a thing to do in each place and make it as banal or fun as you want to.