East Coast Road Trip (April 21-May 8)&(June28-July18) through 32 US States with my 2020 Honda Accord Hybrid...

[PetitFrereArmada]

I am finally done with my big road trip and made it home today. Here is my summary in numbers.

Total miles driven: 5,667.2 miles
Cost of gas: $351.5
Total gallons: 134.774 gallons
Miles per gallon: 42.8mpg for the whole trip, according to car.
I calculated 42.0mpg.

That was pretty good considering there were some long drives that were very spirited.

On this trip I drove through some amazing back roads. I saw sceneries that I only see in movies. I took so many pictures. It is very relaxing looking at all of my pictures of nature.

As a side note, I must mention this information about miles one can go after DTE turns to ZERO on my 2020 Honda Accord Hybrid.

Today, I drove until the DTE on my car turned to ZERO. Since I know the car still has some reserves and I wanted to only get gas at Sam's club, I continued driving the car at 65mph (speed limit was 70mph) with no ac for 14 miles before getting to Sam's club for gas. I put gas and it took in 12.115 to fill up the 12.8 tank.

I know that was very close, but now I know that if I find myself in a situation where I cannot easily find gas and my Hybrid DTE turns to ZERO, I am guaranteed atleast 14 more miles at a steady speed of no more than 65mph.

 

[PetitFrereArmada]

This trip was not fully completed as I was hoping to go through all States on the East Coast that I have never driven to or been to. Well, time did not permit so I completed what I had time for.

I have some more time now and I am doing Part Two of this trip to drive through all the other states on the East Coast that I have never driven to.

At the end of this trip, I would have finally achieved my goal of driving through all 48 US States with my personal car and taking a picture at at all 48 stateline "Welcome To ...... " signs. This goal started 5 years ago and I have already driven through all States on the West Coast. Some states I have driven through more than 4 times.

But by the end of this trip, I would have finally achieved my goal of driving through all 48 States.

On this trip, I will still go through a lot of the states I went through 2 months ago, but the new ones I will be going through this time that I need to post pictures of their "Welcome To ... "signs would be Arkansas, Missouri, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont, New York, and Wisconsin.

 

[PetitFrereArmada]

 

[PetitFrereArmada]

June 28th: Leave at 10pm. Night driving using my magnetic lightbar on the roof of my Accord.

June 29: Houston to Nashville. Drive through the night, starting at 10pm. 13 hours drive.
Sleep in Nashville, TN

June 30: Explore Nashville a bit. Then drive Nashville to Tails of the Dragon to Gatlinburg. 6 hours drive.
Sleep in Gatlinburg, TN

July 1: Explore Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Sleep in Gatlinburg, TN

July 2: Explore Pigeon Forge, Gatlinburg and Great Smoky National Park
Sleep in Gatlinburg, TN

July 3: Gatlinburg to Hillsville to Mabry Mill on Blue Ridge Parkway. Stay on BRP until Roanoke. Take highway now to Luray Caverns. Enter Shenandoah NP now at Thornton Gap Entrance. All the way to Winchester. 8 hours drive
Sleep in Front Royal, VA

July 4: Front Royal to Lancaster, PA, to have lunch at the largest buffet in the US at Shady Maple Smorgasbord. Then drive to Linthicum, MD. 5 hours drive.
Sleep in Linthicum, MD

July 5: Explore Washington DC
Sleep in Linthicum, MD

July 6: Explore Washington DC
Sleep in Linthicum, MD

July 7: Drive Linthicum to Newark, NJ. 4 hours drive. Stop at these attractions along the way: Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia, Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Franklin Institute, Valley Forge National Historic Park
Sleep in Newark, NJ

July 8: Take the subway train to visit New York, NY.
Sleep in Newark, NJ

July 9: Drive to Long Island, NY and explore.
Sleep in Newark, NJ

July 10: Newark to Middleborough, MA. 6 hours drive. Pass by Yale University. Visit The Mark Twain House and Museum. Visit the Breakers in New Port, RI.
Sleep in Middleborough, MA

July 11: Explore Cape Cod and the coast.
Sleep in Middleborough, MA

July 12: Middleborough to Portland, ME. 3 hours drive. Visit Harvard University. Stop at Nubble light house and Portland Head lighthouse
Sleep in Portland, ME

July 13: Portland to Niagara Falls. 9 hours drive.
Sleep in Niagara Falls, NY

July 14: Visit Niagara Falls and park. Then drive Niagara Falls to Detroit, MI. 6 hours drive.
Sleep in Detroit, MI

July 15: Drive Detroit to Kenosha. 5 hours drive. Visit Cloud Gate, Millennium Park, Art Institute of Chicago
Sleep in Kenosha, WI

July 16: Drive Kenosha to Fredericktown. 7 hours drive.
Sleep in Fredericktown, MO

July 17: Fredericktown to Hot Springs. 5 hours drive.
Sleep in Hot Springs, AR

July 18: Hot Springs to Houston. 7 hours drive.
Back home! See you on your next trip!

 

[PetitFrereArmada]

Welcome to....

2 months ago I did what I consider Part 1 of this trip and drove through 22 different states. This is Part 2 of the trip and I plan to go through many of the states I drove through 2 months ago, but will upload the thread only with the new states I would go through that are not on Part 1.

#23 Arkansas @ 2:15am today

 

[PetitFrereArmada]

Mileage at start of trip; 17,409

Very tiring drive this night. The highway was full of 18 wheelers on I30 and I40.
After a very tiring and exhausting overnight 13 hours drive from Houston to Nashville, TN, first stop was for a big plate of Mexican food.

 

[PetitFrereArmada]

Finally made it to Nashville about 1pm yesterday. We went and checked into the hotel and then went to the Country Music Hall of Fame.

 

[PetitFrereArmada]

Very nice drive today from Nashville to Gatlinburg, TN. I had to go through the Tail of the X
Dragon and it was the most fun drive I have ever had on that road.


Random pics from my drive today.

On my exit from I40 to get on Tail of the Dragon, I saw this horrible accident. Thank God it was not a fatality. But traffic was backed up for miles! Please guys be safe out there.

Then it was on to Tail of the Dragon with 318 curves on that road. I met some guys at a scenic look. I asked a guy to put my GoPro on his Jeep so he can follow me for me to get a video of my car on the drive to the end of Tail of the Dragon. He said no. I saw a guy on a bike. I asked him if I could put my GoPro on his bike. He said Sure! I thanked him and put it on his bike. Then we were off for the most fun and very spirited drive I have ever had on that road. I will try to make a video of that and post.

 

[PetitFrereArmada]

My best drive on Tail of the Dragon. I hope I can meet this guy again and thank him.

I asked a guy with a Jeep and he refused to allow me to put my GoPro on his car. I do not blame him. Not everybody wants to do that for someone else. But I turned to this other random stranger on his bike and asked him if I could please put my GoPro on his bike. He said, "sure!" And we both had a very fast and fun run.

That guy rode his bike like a professional stunt driver. And well, I drove Accord Hybrid like a true rally car. It was a very fast fun ride. The biker stayed on my tail and the video came out really great!

Thanks again random stranger.

And thanks for the laughs when the GoPro fell off almost at the end and we thought it would roll off and be lost in the valley, but we safely recovered it as it stayed on the road still recording cars go by.

Pictures of me and the biker caught by 129slayer.

 

[PetitFrereArmada]

Tail of the Dragon run with my 2020 Honda Accord Hybrid.

Honda VS Dragon

 

[PetitFrereArmada]

Yesterday was a very busy and rainy day. Just drive around the park and walked on mainstream in Gatlinburg. Walked to the top of Clingman's Dome and then took a drive to Cades Cove where one was lucky to see the horses. Lots of people feesinf and letting them.

Newfoundland Gap. Tennessee/North Carolina stateline.

 

[PetitFrereArmada]

Fatal accident in Pigeon Forge, TN last night. One dead.

I am currently at the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It rained a lot amd hard yesterday. At 8:30pm, I was driving from Gatlinburg to Pigeon Forge (10 minutes drive), just after the tunnel on hwy 321, we met a fatal accident scene. A red mustang had spun, badly wrecked and driver was killed.

We got there just like 30 minutes after the accident had happened. Cops were directing traffic. The Mustang had spun out, badly wrecked and is totaled. A few people took pictures as we all drove by the red Mustang. I took pictures too, though will not post them. The accident should be on the news today or tomorrow.

Very tragic accident. So we all should be careful as we drive out there on any roads, especially in bad weather and know the limits of our cars and just be careful.

 

[PetitFrereArmada]

Killboy pictures of me on Tail of the Dragon with the biker who allowed me to put my GoPro on his bike so he can shoot my video for me.

 

[PetitFrereArmada]

Today was the last day at the Smokies and it was spent in Pigeon Forge.

 

[PetitFrereArmada]

Drove from Smoky Mountains NP to Front Royal, VA yesterday. It was a very long and scenic drive through the Blue Ridge Parkway and Skyline Drive on Shenandoah NP. The best part was stopping at Mabry Falls on the Blue Ridge Parkway.