Memphis to D.C. through Kentucky

[fishy11k]

Hi! I have been traveling the same route through Knoxville and the moutains for months now. I am looking for a new route that is not too much longer but takes me through Kentucky, since I've never been there. Any helpful routes will be awesome. Thanks!

[Foy]

.......you can get it, but you'll probably have to take most of West Virginia along with it.

Hello fishy11k,

I suppose the most direct route eliminating some of TN and all of VA in favor of KY and WV is as follows:

I-40 to Nashville, thence I-65/Bluegrass Parkway/I-64 to Charleston, WV, I-79 to Morgantown, I-68 to Hagerstown, MD, and I-70-270 to the northwest side of DC.

I've only traveled the I-64 section of this between Lexington, KY and Charleston, WV, and as a result, I avoid it like the plague nowadays. It's been nearly 10 years now, but the Huntington-Charleston part was a very congested industrial corridor, and the section of I-77 south of Charleston was the roughest up and down section of Interstate I'd ever been on as of that time. I haven't a clue what I-79 and I-68 elsewhere in WV might be like, relative to that lousy section of I-77, but I'd be reluctant to trade I-40 from Nashville to Knoxville and I-81 up the Valley from there for it without some recent intel on the matter.

Your question leaves open the possibility you're trying to avoid mountains, and the KY-WV route noted here fails that and fails it terribly. All of the distance between Charleston and Hagerstown, MD is in the mountains, with Charleston to Morgantown being in serious mountains.

Foy

[Mass Tim]

As far as I-64 East of Lexington - I was on this stretch of highway back in August, and I didn't encounter any difficulties with traffic at all. I was westbound during rush hour on a Monday and eastbound a little bit after a few days later (Thursday.)

I-68 in Maryland will take you through the Sideling Hill cut, which is quite the impressive feat of engineering.

Are you in fact looking to eliminate traveling through Virginia?