South Jersey to Lexington, KY - advice please!!

I'm planning a trip from South Jersey to Lexington, KY area and would like to find the least hectic drive possible. I'm okay with tacking a little extra time onto the trip to avoid really hectic roads. I'm looking at a route that would take me I-76 West to I-70 West to I-270 South to I-71 South (which looks like it turns into I-75 South?). Does anybody know if this would be a fairly easy drive? Any feedback would be very much appreciated! And also any advice on neat places to stop along the way.

[Robert Schaller]

Leigh,
I think you may be on the right track. For me, hectic means confused as much as it does BUSY. You could take US40, US1, and US50 across in almost a direct route, and that would sure be at a slower pace, but many times these secondary roads are more confusing and traffic-logged in small to medium sized cities than the interstates are in the larger cities. So if I was looking for a more relaxed trip, in that sense I'd probably use the interstate system -- as long as you don't kick your speed up too much. High speed ADDS stress, so if you want a less stressful journey, keep it on the conservative side (60-70). Just my opinion. Bob

Thanks for your feedback, Bob. I considered taking Route 40 but thought it might get a bit too confusing for me (and maybe a bit too slow as well-- any idea how long that might take, just out of curiosity?) My main goal is to avoid I-95 and all the congestion around D.C. so I thought going west first and then south might be a better option. Thanks again!

[Robert Schaller]

MS Streets and Trips says... if you take US322 across the river between Wilmington and Philadelphia, then US1 over to SR41, then 41 to US30 and west from there using I-76, I-70 all the way to I-71 at Columbus, I-71 to I-75 and that into Lexington -- that's about the quickest route of the ones I pulled up -- about 11 hours (673 miles). That's only about 1 hour longer than the fastest (most direct)interstate route, and accomplishes your stated purpose of avoiding I-95 and D.C. congestion!

You could take US40 down to Baltimore and around that on the loop, then pick up the direct interstate route from there using I-70, I-68, and I-79 and I-64 -- this is 635 miles and 10.5 hours. Not much difference -- and certainly Baltimore is going to be congested, yes? I'd go the first way.

Of course any traffic you run into will add time to these numbers, and I'd bet these numbers are optimistic anyway. I'd count on it being closer to 13 hours even if the roads are not that busy. Just a guess.