The Road Less Traveled
Turns out it is US 52/41. Round about Fowler’s Ridge. I travel to Indianapolis on a fairly regular basis, and I actually love the drive down I 65. In particular I love watching the seasons change in the farmland. Now that spring is here you can see the green starting to pop up everywhere. Unfortunately, the last time I went down there they had removed the bridge over I 80 near Merrillville. This involved some pain of surface roads in New Chicago and Merrillville. Not a good time. (And I thought Chicago roads were bad. These weren’t pot holes, these were craters.) So I decided to take an alternate route back.
I have to say that was a really enjoyable drive. The US highways were really well maintained, and the barely had any traffic at all. The speed limit was a little slower, but looking at my gas gauge, I think dropping from 75/80 to 65/70 seems to have really jacked up my mileage. (Normally I do 33 or so highway, but my first guesstimate for the return trip is somewhere in the upper 30s!) The nicer items though were the fact that the road is less separated from the towns you are driving through. You get to see a bit more of the scenery, even if you do have to slow down some. Also I got to see the (apparently still in construction) Fowler’s Ridge Wind Farm. (Looked for a good link, only found news articles, and it is so new I can’t even give you a satellite shot from google maps[1].)
The major disadvantage it the long distance between potential bathroom stops. You get used to a McDonald’s at every interchange on I 65.
1 - My favorite not in Google Maps yet is I 355. Turn the overlay on and off and you can see that wile the highway is there on the map, there are only minimal signs that there will be a massive new superhighway there.
Recently I was in Lafayette (visiting Purdue), and trying to figure out the best way to get back. I was worried about going through Chicago, and was considering taking Highway 24 over to Interstate 39. If it hadn’t been rainy and dark, I would have tried it. It would have been slower, but (I think) much more peaceful.
I didn’t consider 52/41 at all–I’ll have to think about it next time. Thanks for the tip.
-alain
Well 41 isn’t going to save you going around Chicago. If avoiding Chicago is your goal, 24 probably is your best bet. Also, if it is anything like 52, driving on it in the rain or at night will be no different from driving on an interstate, just with fewer places to stop for food and whatnot. Looking at the map though, 24 does go through a lot more actual towns than 41 does. One of the nice things about 41 is the limit was 60 most of the way, but that always went down when you got to a town, so you might have more of that on 24.
Alternately you can take state 25 down to I 74, though I will note that google maps claims that adds an hour onto your trip. Is that a trip you do often? We should try to arrange it so our trips coincide and we make the drive together! (Of course I suppose we both probably need a car while we are there. Oh well.)
I-355 opened in November 2007.
I’m a big fan of taking US Highways instead of Interstates, since you actually see a lot more of the country that way. I’ve driven that stretch of US 41 at least 3 times that I remember, and probably others.