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Sun, 02/26/2012 - 9:35am

Hi all,

I was just wondering what would be the best route to take from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada to the Amtrak Auto station in Lorton Virginia.USA

Thanks

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Sun, 02/26/2012 - 10:01am

If I was driving

Take ON-417w to ON-416 towards ON-401

ON-401W to ON-137S

ON-137S to I-81S

I-81 S to I-70 E (Hagerstown, MD.)

I-70 E to I-270 E

I-270 E to I-95 S to Lorton

Watch the weather - can be tricky going I-81 thru ny & PA in the winter

--
MrKenFL- "Money can't buy you happiness .. But it does bring you a more pleasant form of misery." NUVI 260, Nuvi 1490LMT & Nuvi 2595LMT all with 2014.4 maps !
Sun, 02/26/2012 - 10:20am

Very true

MrKenFL wrote:

Watch the weather - can be tricky going I-81 thru ny & PA in the winter

Also be very careful between sunset and sunrise, there's alot of deer that wander onto the interstate, trust me evil

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Nüvi 255WT with nüMaps Lifetime North America born on 602117815 / Nüvi 3597LMTHD born on 805972514 / I love Friday’s except when I’m on holidays ~ canuk
Sun, 02/26/2012 - 1:44pm

.

FWIW, both Google Maps and the TomTom Route Planner suggest taking I-81 to Harrisburg, PA, then taking US-15 down to Frederick, MD. From there it's I-270, then I-495, bypassing Washington, DC, on the west side.

I took the US-15 portion of that route many years ago on the motorcycle, and I remember being surprised that significant stretches of it were 4-lane divided controlled-access highway. I planned that route on paper using my own "avoid freeways" preference, long before I owned a GPS. However, those stretches were not an unpleasant surprise because the highway was in really good shape and traffic was very light. (But I repeat: this was many years ago.)

Certainly a lot would depend on traffic, weather, construction, and so on. One thing I notice about the route suggested in the original reply is that it appears to go over the Woodrow Wilson Memorial Bridge, and bridges can be a natural choke point for traffic.