Raleigh, NC to Boston

Question

My daughter will be driving a small box truck from Raleigh to Boston this week. The obvious route being 95 through DC, Baltimore, Philly, Newark and NYC.

She grew up on a farm, so the truck isn’t too scary for her, but she’s never driven a vehicle with no rear view mirror in mult-lane traffic.

Looking at alternate routes that might take a little longer but be lower stress. No urgency on time. She has two and a half days to get there.

Anybody have a preferred alternate route?

amxpress · Answer

If she currently has the truck she might want to spend some time this weekend driving around the Beltline in Raleigh and in town as much as possible. It might make it easier when she gets up North in I-95 traffic.

jplante4 · Answer

I-81 north to I-84 to the Mass Pike into Boston misses everything. The best way to pick up I-81 is either I-64 out of Richmond or I-95 then US17/US50 north of Fredricksburg VA. I wouldn't take a box truck on I-95 through the NY metro area on a dare.

Make sure she doesn't get onto Storrow Drive when she gets to Boston. Every year one or 2 college students get their U-Haul stuck under one of the 10 foot underpasses.

bumpyroad · Answer

jplante4 wrote:I-81 north to I-84 to the Mass Pike into Boston misses everything. The best way to pick up I-81 is either I-64 out of Richmond or I-95 then US17/US50 north of Fredricksburg VA. I wouldn't take a box truck on I-95 through the NY metro area on a dare.Make sure she doesn't get onto Storrow Drive when she gets to Boston. Every year one or 2 college students get their U-Haul stuck under one of the 10 foot underpasses.I would take option B.  I-95 out of Richmond to 17 west to 81bumpy

luvrvn · Answer

We used to live in CT...Raleigh residents now. When we go to CT with our 5th wheel, we do the 95-17-66-81 route. Around Harrisburg, PA, we pick up 78 to 287 in NJ and take this over Tappen Zee Bridge, then 684 to Brewster NY and pick up 84 into CT...this goes up to 90 (Mass Pike). We started doing this because 81 through Scranton is a terrible road. Be aware that 90 (Mass Pike) is now a cashless toll road...if you don’t have EZPass, I guess they take picture of license plate and send you a bill... Safe travels...

jplante4 · Answer

LuvRvn wrote:We used to live in CT...Raleigh residents now. When we go to CT with our 5th wheel, we do the 95-17-66-81 route. Around Harrisburg, PA, we pick up 78 to 287 in NJ and take this over Tappen Zee Bridge, then 684 to Brewster NY and pick up 84 into CT...this goes up to 90 (Mass Pike). We started doing this because 81 through Scranton is a terrible road. You can also pick up I-80 and take that to Stroudsburg to take US209 along the Delaware to connect to I-84 just over the PA border to miss Scranton. We try to avoid I-84 through Danbury/Waterbury. Traffic there can be miserable.

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