Taking the Long Way Home - Favorite Drive, Favorite Tunes

JoeVermont

JoeVermont

Well-known Member
After a day and a half of sometimes stressful planning meetings last week (for my day job) I decided to avoid the interstate, and even state highways and took a combination of paved and dirt town roads home. The 20-mile trip took well over an hour. I cranked up Booker T and the MG's Mclemore Avenue CD, rolled down the window, and enjoyed the slower trip home.

Then it dawned on me - after living nearly 10 years in Atlanta commuting on I-85 / 75, roads that are sometimes seven lanes wide with L.A. level congestion, I've been avoiding the interstate since moving back to Vermont.

My favorite drive is probably an area called Smuggler's Notch here in Vermont. It's a single lane road, barely one car wide, that cuts between two mountains and only open in the summer. 18-wheel trucks often get stuck, literally wedging their large trailers between hopelessly narrow turns - despite the dozens of signs for miles around warning trucks to stay off that road. Local stores even have a pools to guess when the first truck of the summer season will be stuck.

Favorite road music is probably Breezin' by George Benson. If I need something up-tempo the go to is likely some Deep purple or newer Uriah Heep.

Cheers!

How about your favorite drive (and tunes)?
 
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I used to put on Basie or some other really swinging band like Woody Herman blasting on the CD player while driving alone on the off-roads.

Since retiring before the pandemic and not commuting anymore, I'll wash my car and wear noise cancelling headphones with bluetooth to listen to solo classical marimba players on YouTube - which I find oddly relaxing.
 
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Certain music- which demands my attention- is not a good idea while I'm driving... 😁
That said hitting the road on a trip- as a passenger- this one is memorable

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Time Is Of The Essence

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and it's Elvin.
 
I'm guaranteed here to raise a few eyebrows.......BUT.

C.W McCall's "Convoy", The theme to Knight Rider, The theme to Duke's of Hazzard and the theme to The Automan TV series are all new songs that I have on rotation in the car at the moment.

I picture myself as Michael Knight driving KITT South bound on the Tonkin Highway on the way to work playing that song.

Just swap out Michael Knight with me and swap out KITT which I believe was an '82 Pontiac Firebird with my Aussie made Toyota V6 Aurion.

Absolutely no comparison to either.....but anyways.
 
Benthedrummer said:
I'm guaranteed here to raise a few eyebrows.......BUT.
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Absolutely no judgements here, my friend. On any given day I might be listening to Foo Fighters, 70s soft rock (aka Yacht Rock), or Strauss (I love a good waltz). I am all over the road, musically speaking.
 
oh man...that would be any country road that goes through small towns and farmland or even better....pine forests with mountains rushing rivers and snow!!!

in Ohio:
I love to take State Rt. 4 from C-bus north and back if I can
State Rt. 42 for NE or SW trips
State Rt. 33 for NW pr SE trips
State Rt. 16 if I am going straight East <--- this gets you into Amish country as well

I have a "Driving" playlist that my wife and i use for road trips...lots of 70's - 2020's up tempo stuff; lots of "salad days" music from our youth...7 hours worth of music

by myself, tons of metal, punk, and prog playlists. I have specific night driving music playlists that can get "deep"...I love driving at night, and I get internally philosophical to while the time away
 
Benthedrummer said:
I'm guaranteed here to raise a few eyebrows.......BUT.

C.W McCall's "Convoy", The theme to Knight Rider, The theme to Duke's of Hazzard and the theme to The Automan TV series are all new songs that I have on rotation in the car at the moment.

I picture myself as Michael Knight driving KITT South bound on the Tonkin Highway on the way to work playing that song.

Just swap out Michael Knight with me and swap out KITT which I believe was an '82 Pontiac Firebird with my Aussie made Toyota V6 Aurion.

Absolutely no comparison to either.....but anyways.
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You forgot The Bandit , Snowman and Fred : East Bound and Down .
 
My kids will go ride around together on the country roads listening to music. I used to do this all the time when I was their age.

On my rides recently, I've been enjoying some old Ronny Milsap on these hot summer days. I'll listen to some Lionel Richie too. Gah, if listen to "Stuck on You," I end up listening to it at least 3 times in a row.

You know it's funny...I really don't mind traffic if I have good music and good air conditioning. It's just an excuse to listen to cool stuff.
 
PorkPieGuy said:
My kids will go ride around together on the country roads listening to music. I used to do this all the time when I was their age.

On my rides recently, I've been enjoying some old Ronny Milsap on these hot summer days. I'll listen to some Lionel Richie too. Gah, if listen to "Stuck on You," I end up listening to it at least 3 times in a row.

You know it's funny...I really don't mind traffic if I have good music and good air conditioning. It's just an excuse to listen to cool stuff.
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It was on a brutally hot + humid day down in Georgia when I rediscovered my love for Waylon. The local AM station played Luckenbach, Texas and it fit the day perfectly. Big Milsap fan, too.
 
My favorite drive is in NY’s Adirondack Mountains, Route 73 heading towards Lake Placid. Perfect mountain country roads. And for my listening pleasure along that stretch I will often put on Hendrix’s Axis Bold As Love as well as some 70’s fusion.
 
MisterGroove said:
My favorite drive is in NY’s Adirondack Mountains, Route 73 heading towards Lake Placid. Perfect mountain country roads. And for my listening pleasure along that stretch I will often put on Hendrix’s Axis Bold As Love as well as some 70’s fusion.
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The view of the Olympic ski jumps from the highway (RT 73) blows me away every time. Until I saw them in person, I had no idea how steep and high they actually are. WOOF!
 
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At my last job (23 years worth!) I had a 45-50 minute commute no matter which route was taken. For 6 or 8 years, I cruised the freeway trying to stay ahead of rush hour. For another 6 or 8 years, I pared it down only about 20 minutes of freeway and the balance on two-lane highways. I pared that down even more, so I only drove on two-lane 55 mph/90 kmh and while navigating two small towns at 25 mph/40 kmh.

The drives got progressively shorter and I reduced my stress level by more than half.

But by Friday, I was tired of work and rather than arrive home in more of a frenzy than I left at work, I'd stay on gravel roads.

Somewhere about the 10-12 year mark, the radio in my 2004 Honda Accord gave out. I tried a boom-box on the passenger seat, but that was silly. It wasn't long before I got used to sorting my own mental laundry while driving and even now that I'm retired, I'd rather engage Mrs Smoke in conversation. Without her, I'm comfortable with my own musings.

So, no bumper music for me anymore.
 
PorkPieGuy said:
My kids will go ride around together on the country roads listening to music. I used to do this all the time when I was their age.

On my rides recently, I've been enjoying some old Ronny Milsap on these hot summer days. I'll listen to some Lionel Richie too. Gah, if listen to "Stuck on You," I end up listening to it at least 3 times in a row.

You know it's funny...I really don't mind traffic if I have good music and good air conditioning. It's just an excuse to listen to cool stuff.
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oh yeah...some of the best times of my teen years were when we would pile in to my 1969 Delta 88, stop by White Castles, and cruise out to the reservoir (which is now sadly surrounded by "city") cranking Iron Maiden, or Dio, or Queesnryche etc. We would get there, park, and then lay on the hood up against the windshield and look at the stars, and have philosophical discussions and eat Whities....many a summer night was spent that way

and same RE traffic....for the most part
 
MisterGroove said:
My favorite drive is in NY’s Adirondack Mountains, Route 73 heading towards Lake Placid. Perfect mountain country roads. And for my listening pleasure along that stretch I will often put on Hendrix’s Axis Bold As Love as well as some 70’s fusion.
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heaven!!! total heaven
 
Not exactly my favorite drive, but I've been cruising up and down the NY State Thruway going to practice and gigs, listening to Steppenwolf, Deep Purple, Mountain, Rush etc. I highly recommend Rockpile live CDs at 3am. That'll keep ya chugging right along the thruway in good order
 
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JoeVermont said:
After a day and a half of sometimes stressful planning meetings last week (for my day job) I decided to avoid the interstate, and even state highways and took a combination of paved and dirt town roads home. The 20-mile trip took well over an hour. I cranked up Booker T and the MG's Mclemore Avenue CD, rolled down the window, and enjoyed the slower trip home.

Then it dawned on me - after living nearly 10 years in Atlanta commuting on I-85 / 75, roads that are sometimes seven lanes wide with L.A. level congestion, I've been avoiding the interstate since moving back to Vermont.

My favorite drive is probably an area called Smuggler's Notch here in Vermont. It's a single lane road, barely one car wide, that cuts between two mountains and only open in the summer. 18-wheel trucks often get stuck, literally wedging their large trailers between hopelessly narrow turns - despite the dozens of signs for miles around warning trucks to stay off that road. Local stores even have a pools to guess when the first truck of the summer season will be stuck.

Favorite road music is probably Breezin' by George Benson. If I need something up-tempo the go to is likely some Deep purple or newer Uriah Heep.

Cheers!

How about your favorite drive (and tunes)?
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I live Near Augusta GA, but about 30 min south, so anywhere I need to go is at least 20 min with very little traffic, basically the worst traffic here is getting stuck in the freeway for about 5 min. I lived in Honolulu where I once was stuck for 10 hrs after work on a 14 mile drive home because there are no service roads there (who designed that freeway??) I also been to NY several time and had to drive during rush hour, not as bad a Honolulu but a close third with Atlanta being second... I guess Los Angeles and NY are about as bad and Houston can be added to the mix too.
Back to topic, I don't have CD capabilities on my vehicles for about the last 20 years, but all have had USB input, so I create a USB stick with all the music I want to listen to and just keep that on rotation the entire month, every once in a while I create a second and a third drive and swap those periodically, then everything new that comes out gets added (I have the capacity to put about 1000 or 1500 songs per stick so they have quite a lot to keep me busy for a while. I don't have a specific favorite tune, but there is a lot of metal from all over the world from Japan to Germany to italy to Argentina, to.. you name it its probably there.
 
doggyd69b said:
so I create a USB stick with all the music I want to listen to and just keep that on rotation the entire month, every once in a while I create a second and a third drive and swap those periodically, then everything new that comes out gets added (I have the capacity to put about 1000 or 1500 songs per stick so they have quite a lot to keep me busy for a while. I don't have a specific favorite tune, but there is a lot of metal from all over the world from Japan to Germany to italy to Argentina, to.. you name it its probably there.
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I have six large USB sticks that I keep in my vehicle. Rock / Prog&Metal / POP-R&B-Soul / Jazz / Country / Classical
Each one will hold a few hundred LPs. Even with an MP3 bit rate of a paltry 192 kB, they sound just fine.... I mean, five months of the year my auto background noise is snow tires. I go for quantity over audio purism. On the way to a company meeting a few years ago one of my coworkers asked... "You got any, like... Deep Purple, or Zep, or Pink Floyd?" I said yes, and they asked which albums. My answer was... all of them! :cool:
 
Twice per year I take a 2-day drive out of state for work. I listen to podcasts if there's good topics. For music I use Apple Music "mixes", usually in the "classic country" genre 'cuz I can easily understand the lyrics. Hard rock ain't good when I'm stuck in stand-still traffic while going through, say, Columbus, OH, or Indianapolis.
 
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