Maps tell only part of the story. You'll look at the routes I suggested and they'll look like they're hours longer than the direct route. After driving in the northeast for 50 years, I select these routes based only on consistent times. You can go I-95 all the way, and I've done this on a Sunday, and it would take 6-8 hours. Other times it could take 12-15 hours. And you don't know when you start how long it will take.
BTW, for almost the entire 50 years of driving in the northeast they have been working on the I-95/I-91 interchange in CT. :) I avoid that area like the plague.