Before I begin to describe the west coast and my return journey (I am now outside Kansas City), I thought I would provide a quick look back at my trip on U.S. Route 20, including links to all the posts describing my travels.
After leaving Baltimore and spending several days visiting friends and family, I started off at Route 20′s eastern endpoint in Boston, Massachusetts.
First sign for Route 20 West, at Boston University
I took two weeks to get to the western end of 20 in Newport, Oregon.
The end of Route 20, in Newport
The endpoints of Route 20 are also documented here, by US Ends.com.
Ten days were spent traveling westward along Route 20, with the legs of the trip as follows:
- Boston, MA –> Sloansville, NY
- Sloansville, NY –> Buffalo, NY
- Buffalo, NY –> Cleveland, OH
- Cleveland, OH –> Chicago, IL
- Chicago, IL –> Sioux City, IA
- Sioux City, IA –> Merriman, NE
- Merriman, NE –> Glenrock, WY
- Glenrock, WY –> Yellowstone, WY
- Yellowstone, WY –> Boise, ID
- Boise, ID –> Newport, OR
Badlands National Park in South Dakota is not along Route 20, but close enough that I decided to take a trip up there to see it.
Several sections of Route 20 follow or cross parts of the Oregon Trail, so I wrote a separate post about that.
Within the space of sixteen days, I visited both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
Route 20 goes an official distance of 3,365 miles, making it the longest road in the United States. With side trips, I traveled a total of 4,325 miles from the start of Rte 20 until its end.
Trip Odometer
Route 20 goes through twelve states, six of which were new to me. Here are the states, as well as towns and cities which are either major cities or of note because of what I did there. [Population numbers listed are from Wikipedia; states are rounded to the nearest hundred thousand; towns/cities are rounded to the nearest thousand, unless the total is under 1000 in which case it is given exactly.] I decided not to link the descriptions to the posts I wrote about them, as that would create a solid wall of links. Instead, refer to the above linked posts — it should be pretty easy to associate a city or activity with the right post.
Massachusetts (pop. 6,500,000)
- Boston (pop. 618,000), capital and largest MA city; beginning of Route 20 at Kenmore Square
- Watertown (pop. 32,000), where I stopped at my friend Matt’s restaurant
- Springfield (pop. 153,000), third largest city in MA
- Lee (pop. 6,000), where I left Rte 20 and took a side trip into Tyringham Valley
- Tyringham (pop. 350), home of the Gingerbread House
- Pittsfield (pop. 45,000), city nearest to my alma mater Williams College
- New Lebanon (pop. 2,000), entrance to New York along Rte 20 and where my aunt used to teach
- Albany (pop. 98,000), capital of NY and where many of my relatives live/lived
- Esperance (pop. 2,000), town of which Sloansville village is a part, and where I left Rte 20 to visit my grandmother
- Cazenovia (pop. 6,000), has a historic downtown with many old storefronts facing Rte 20
- Seneca Falls (pop. 9,000), where the First National Women’s Rights Convention was held in 1848 and home to the associated Women’s Rights National Historic Site; also where I left Rte 20 for a side trip to Taughannock Falls State Park
- Buffalo (pop. 261,000), where I visited the Botanical Gardens and ate at the home of the original Buffalo Wings
- Erie (pop. 104,000), where I took a side trip to Presque Isle and Lake Erie
- Mentor (pop. 50,000), where I visited the home of President James Garfield
- Euclid (pop. 49,000), town named after the Greek mathematician
- Cleveland (pop. 397,000), second largest city in OH; Rte 20 goes right through downtown
- Oberlin (pop. 8,000), home of Oberlin College
- Toledo (pop. 287,000), fourth largest city in Ohio
- LaGrange (pop. 3,000), town not named after the French/Italian mathematician
- South Bend (pop. 101,000), fourth largest city in Indiana and home to the University of Notre Dame
- Gary (pop. 80,000), suburb of Chicago near Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore
- Chicago (pop. 2,696,000), third largest city in the USA, where I visited Grant and Millennium Parks, saw Lake Michigan, and ate a deep dish pizza
- Galena (pop. 3,000), a town with nice views down into a valley
- Dubuque (pop. 58,000), the first city I entered after crossing the Mississippi River
- Sioux City (pop. 83,000), city on the Missouri River
- Merriman (pop. 118), where I departed from Rte 20 to go visit South Dakota’s Badlands
- Chadron (pop. 6,000), last city I traveled through in Nebraska
- Glenrock (pop. 2,000), where I climbed to the top of the Rock in the Glen and carved my name beside travelers of the Oregon Trail
- Casper (pop. 55,000), where I visited the National Historic Trails Interpretive Center
- Thermopolis (pop. 3,000), at the north end of Wind River Canyon and home to a famous hot springs
- Cody (pop. 9,000), last city before Yellowstone
- Yellowstone National Park (3,640,000 visitors in 2010), which divides Rte 20 officially into two disjoint segments, and where I saw hot springs, geysers, steam vents, a mud volcano, lakes, rivers, waterfalls, and a canyon
- West Yellowstone, MT (pop. 1,000), town on the western edge of Yellowstone National Park
- Idaho Falls (pop. 57,000), largest city in eastern Idaho
- Arco (pop. 995), town near Idaho National Laboratory and Craters of the Moon National Monument; home to the Arco Number Hill; and town where I ate an “Atomic Burger”
- Boise (pop. 206,000), capital and largest city of Idaho
- Parma (pop. 2,000), last town I traveled through in Idaho, adjacent to the Snake River
- Nyssa (pop. 3,000), first town I entered in Oregon, adjacent to the Snake River
- Drewsey (pop. 18), where I entered the Pacific Time Zone for the first time ever
- Bend (pop. 77,000), largest city in central Oregon, near forests and mountains
- Albany (pop. 50,000), has the same name as another city along Rte 20
- Toledo (pop. 3,000), has the same name as another city along Rte 20
- Newport (pop. 10,000), end of Route 20 at the junction with US Rte 101 near the Pacific Ocean
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