It runs through Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota. Looking on Google earth, it appears to have crack repairs every 20 feet. Other wise it looks like a quiet farmer highway.
Just trying to figure a good route to cross the US.
Thanks
I've traveled all of 200 in Montana and Idaho. It is all Model T-able. The part from Bonner to Lincoln is a bit hairy, as it is 2-lane with a poor shoulder and quite a bit of traffic.
Rough, 2-lane, with quite a bit of farm and pulpwood traffic all the way across Minnesota. It is a pretty route and a better choice than Hwy 2.
The perfect road for a T, especially if you aren't bothered by holding up the hotrod contingent. Honestly, I'd lose the
idea of taking a HIGHWAY and get out your Gazetteers to find a rough parallel route using backroads and REALLY
backroads, coming back "online" when you need fuel or lodging. The best stuff on earth is off the beaten path. Why
drive a highway ?
When I first read the title I was like,Hum? he is going to be close to home here. I was about to type a response about the recent repaving of nc200 for a few miles and the bridge being out near Monroe. But wrong state. . Ooops.
Burger is correct. Why do you want to be out there on the highway with the semis and the girls texting while they do 70? In most places there are county and township roads with a lot less traffic.
Not to highjack the thread but Steve is right on: it is the exceedingly rare occasion that I look over at a girl under 30 NOT texting while she is driving. Unreal.
As to not traveling highways. Without traveling a highway of sort, not even a local state highway, leaves county roads as Jeff and Burger says. I agree county roads is where real life can be found but I also believe it would be insane to expect there is a county road system enough to perform the task of cross county travel. No doubt it could be done given every county map, an endless time schedule and bottomless fuel.
Safety tops my priority list. It is my first consideration for a route. As to the 30 year old texter, I retired from county public works and I know all to well of the texter, the drunk, the phone user, the stupid and its not just the under 30. These folks are on county roads also. Along with the 80 year old farmer. Part of my job was filming fatality accident scenes. I am sadly aware.
Thanks guys for your input whether I agree or not. This is info I need to know. But I can't see how a trip like this can be pulled off without even small highway travel. Plus, there are few mountainous county roads.
I don't know how it is in the USA , but in Holland when you use your phone by hand when you are driving, you get a ticket of 230.00 Euro That is 293.00 Dollar. A hands free car kit is much cheaper !!!
Toon
I have hauled 5'th wheel RV's over much of 2 and find it to be a very good route! If you have any kind of trouble how far out in the pucker brush do you really wan't to be? Bud.
A lot of what Robert Pirsig said in "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" about roads applies well to choosing good routes for model T Fords. He calls these secondary roads. They are the ones marked on the map as thin black lines. They are also often inaccurate on out of date maps... just part of the adventure!
The "superslab" is great to have, it keeps most of the "smart" phone toting set off the really good roads.
IMH, TH
Tyrone, I have traveled quite a bit in my T including all 48 lower states in one trip. I find highways a good way to travel. I think the most important safety feature you can have, is a T that will travel at a decent highway speed, that is 45 mph plus. Any slower seems dangerous to me as I have heard of many serious accidents from folks in T's getting rear-ended, including two friends of mine. One accident resulted in a broken back the other a death. A T traveling slowly often just doesn't register with some folks and they plow into them, even when not otherwise distracted. I mentioned that I traveled all of 200 in Montana and Idaho. I didn't make clear that I have done it in a Model T.