Interstate Road Trip Tournament, Round 1, Heat 6.

[Rain Man]

Just a little offseason exercise. There are 80 different Interstate highways in the USA (including Puerto Rico). Which one would be best for a road trip?

I've set the rules as follows (in spoiler for those of you who've read them already]:

Spoiler!

I'm also including highways in Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico that are essentially interstate highways, though they're not called that since they don't cross state boundaries.

It'll be a single-elimination tournament, though some will regain new life in wild-card spots to get the tournament bracket correct.

You get a minimum of 7 days on any highway, regardless of length. However, if the length requires more than 150 miles of travel per day, you'll get extra days until your daily mileage drops below 150 miles.

You may travel in either direction.

You may stop at attractions along the way, but at no point can you be more than 10 miles from the interstate.

You have the budget to stay at any hotel or dine at any restaurant within ten miles of the interstate.

You may spend multiple nights in any location but you cannot drive more than 250 miles in a single day. So you have to budget your driving time.

You may use any criteria you wish to make your vote. You can consider the driving lengths and conditions, scenery, attractions along the way, any outstanding warrants you have in that state, the likelihood of a Christie Brinkley clone waving at your from a Ferrari, or anything else you might wish to consider.

You can pick the time of year.

You will not be at risk of coronavirus en route.

You can pick the vehicle that you drive. Assume that you're renting any vehicle that you could purchase for $50,000 or less (new or used). It can be different vehicles on different road trips, so you can customize to fit.

I'll post the basics of each route, but I don't see any specific website that provides a good description of the attractions that one would see along the route. You're on your own for that. Of course, you can do a google map view to see what your scenery is.

Your next two competitors are:

Option 1 - I-69 from Indianapolis, IN, to Port Huron, MI
7 Day Trip
375 Miles, 53 miles per day on average
Passes through Fort Wayne, IN, and Lansing, and Flint, MI

Important note: Wikipedia shows this in its planned final state from Texas to Michigan, but it seems to be being built in pieces, mostly in IN and MI right now, with some big gaps. So we'll go with only the IN and MI segment even though some other parts also exist.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_69

Option 2 - I-80 from San Francisco, CA, to Teaneck, NJ
20 Day Trip
2,900 miles, 145 miles per day on average
Passes through Sacramento, Reno, Salt Lake City, Cheyenne, Omaha, Des Moines, and Chicago.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_80