For road trips, Google's guess on quickest route isn't always better
Road trip.
Two words that conjure up adventure and excitement. I approached an off-Cape assignment to Hartford, Connecticut with that in mind last week. As kids, most of our road trips took us from the homestead in Canisteo, New York to my grandparent’s house in Gloversville, New York. This 200-mile adventure involved about half the trip on state roads and an exciting leg on the New York State Thruway. My brother and I would always start out in the back seat together, but any bickering or fighting resulted in a pull over to put me in the front seat trading places with mom going to the back seat to moderate the turmoil. Dad remained at the wheel the entire trip, always making sure the Thruway toll ticket was tucked behind the visor for safe keeping.
Fast forward 50-plus years and 2023 trip planning, simply plug in the address, and the map app does the rest. For destination Hartford, it presented three options, the fastest was also the farthest, 161 miles but two hours and 27 minutes and included Mass Pike tolls. Route #2 was 160 miles but with a projected travel time of 2 hours, 57 minutes. Last, trip 3 was the shortest in length, 150 miles, projected time, 2 hours and 41 minutes. Wanting speed over anything for the trip west, I headed up Interstate 495 to the Mass Pike west, and then south down Interstate 84.
Anything but fast, an accident slow down on I-495 and construction on I-84, one guy, one shovel, one truck, filling the middle lane potholes, stretched the arrival time out to three hours.
After the photo session, my subject suggested the short mileage route for the return voyage. A good section of the trip was on Route 6 eastbound, but with better scenery and light traffic. Route 6 felt familiar. The Cape’s major highway is historic. It is the longest continuous transcontinental highway in America, 3,200 miles from Provincetown to Long Beach California, finished in 1937.
The sightseeing was great, chugging through western Rhode Island, with a variety of store fronts to entertain the wandering eye. There was “Old Man Mercantile,” a pot shop named “A Joint on 6,” several “Famous Pizza” shops and a big neon display for “Cindy’s Diner and Restaurant,” in North Scituate, Rhode Island. Car travel the way it was meant to be on the “road less travelled” as Robert Frost would say. The highway speeds were lower, but it was definitely a better ride.
This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Google miscalculates a road trip. Taking the backroads was better.
