US Rt 20 - the longest highway in the US - I'd love to see a Bush trip following it

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1

Growing up just outside Boston, Rt 20 kind of goes everywhere. But I had no idea until a few years ago (decades now? oh no…) that it’s actually the longest highway in the US, 3,365 miles, traveling from Boston on the east coast, through 12 states by the great lakes, through Yellowstone National Park, all the way to 1 mile from the Pacific coast in Newport, Oregon. And this year it’s reached 100 years old as a highway. A good bit of it is even older than that as it’s still called the Boston Post Rd in Massachusetts as a good portion of the post road from Boston to NYC.

I’ve long wanted to create a Bush trip following along the highway and stopping at various airports along the way.

Anyone else interested?

https://www.treehugger.com/take-a-classic-road-trip-on-americas-longest-highway-4864037

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@tgbushman ?

2

Maybe you could feed the data into an LLM and ask it to create a .pln file.

3

Ooh! That’s a great idea. I was also thinking of asking an LLM to put together a list of airports grouped by state within 10 miles of the highway or something like that. I’ve been thinking about this for a long time, but kept getting frustrated trying to put together a good list of airports.

4

Thank you for coming to my TED talk :smiling_face:

5

Thank you for inspiring me! And thank you Co-pilot

Airports Within ~10 Miles of US Route 20 (Grouped by State)
Massachusetts
US‑20 runs through Boston metro → Springfield

Logan Intl (BOS) — Boston (~2 mi from US‑20 terminus)
Hanscom Field (BED) — Bedford
Norwood Memorial (OWD) — Norwood
Worcester Regional (ORH) — Worcester
Spencer (60M) — Spencer (small GA)
Westfield-Barnes Regional (BAF) — Westfield
Westover ARB (CEF) — Chicopee
Pittsfield Muni (PSF) - Pittsfield

New York
Route crosses southern/central NY (Finger Lakes / Capital region)

Buffalo Niagara Intl (BUF) — Buffalo (just north but within corridor zone)
Buffalo Airfield (9G0) - Buffalo
Lancaster Airport (LKP / KBQR area) — Lancaster GA fields
Geneseo Airport (D52) — Geneseo
Canandaigua Airport (IUA) — near Finger Lakes corridor
Greater Rochester Intl (ROC) — within ~10–12 mi band
Syracuse Hancock Intl (SYR) — slightly north but corridor-adjacent
Albany Intl (ALB) — within corridor band east of Schenectady
Frankfort Highland (6B4) - Frankfort
Hamilton Muni (VGC) - Hamilton
Skaneateles Aerodrome (6B9) - Auburn
Finger Lakes Regional (0G7) - Cayuga
Le Roy (5G0) - Le Roy
Chautauqua County Dunkirk (DKK) - Dunkirk

(NY has ~323 airports total, so density is very high near the route) [mapscaping.com]

Pennsylvania
Short segment near Erie

Erie Intl / Tom Ridge Field (ERI) — Erie (very close to US‑20)
Northeast PA Airport (9G1) — Northeast, PA

Ohio
Route hugs Lake Erie and crosses northern Ohio

Cleveland Hopkins Intl (CLE) — within urban corridor
Burke Lakefront (BKL) — Cleveland lakefront
Lorain County Regional (LPR) — Elyria
Griffing Sandusky (SKY) — Sandusky
Erie-Ottawa Intl (PCW) — Port Clinton
Toledo Express (TOL) — west end
Toledo Executive (TDZ)

Indiana
North Indiana corridor (South Bend / Elkhart / Gary)

South Bend Intl (SBN)
Elkhart Municipal (EKM)
Goshen Municipal (GSH)
Michigan City Municipal (MGC)
Gary/Chicago Intl (GYY)

Illinois
Chicagoland corridor

Chicago O’Hare Intl (ORD) — within ~5–8 mi of US‑20
Chicago Executive (PWK) — Wheeling
DuPage (DPA) — West Chicago
Aurora Municipal (ARR)
Schaumburg Regional (06C)

Iowa
US‑20 closely parallels major GA fields across the state

Sioux Gateway (SUX) — Sioux City
Le Mars Municipal (LRJ)
Cherokee Municipal (CKP)
Fort Dodge Regional (FOD)
Webster City Municipal (EBS)
Waterloo Regional (ALO)
Independence Municipal (IIB)
Dubuque Regional (DBQ)

Nebraska
Northern Nebraska corridor

Chadron Municipal (CDR)
Alliance Municipal (AIA)
Gordon Municipal (GRN)
Ainsworth Regional (ANW)
O’Neill Municipal (ONL)

Wyoming
Route passes through central WY

Yellowstone Regional (COD) — Cody
Worland Municipal (WRL)
Hot Springs County / Thermopolis (THP)
Casper/Natrona County Intl (CPR)

Montana (short segment)
Only a small stretch overlaps

West Yellowstone Airport (WYS) (edge case depending on routing variation)

Idaho
Crosses eastern → central Idaho

Idaho Falls Regional (IDA)
Rexburg–Madison County (RXE)
Driggs-Reed Memorial (DIJ) (near corridor split)
Mountain Home Municipal (U76)
Boise Air Terminal (BOI)

Oregon
Longest single-state stretch, many GA fields

Ontario Municipal (ONO)
Burns Municipal (BNO)
Bend Municipal (BDN) / nearby Roberts Field (RDM slightly north)
Madras Municipal (S33)
Corvallis Municipal (CVO)
Albany Municipal (S12)
Newport Municipal (ONP) — near western terminus

6

VFR Logan Intl (KBOS) to Newport Muni (KONP).lnmpln (37.5 KB)

Here you go. LNM lnmpln file of US Route 20. Around 190 waypoints, all within 4 miles of the route. No “legs” as such, just drop in to one of the many little (or big, whatever takes your fancy) along the route.

7

Is route 20 the same as I-80?

8

This is one highway I had planned to do on my Roads Less Traveled series, but I have a couple on the list ahead of it.

9

Simply stated, no. I-80 crosses the full state of PA but 20 only touches PA near Erie.

10

It’s co-signed (along with several other highways) many places east of Chicago, but to the west, 80 veers to the south quite a bit, ending up in San Francisco, vice Oregon.

11

US20 was one of my first long distance flights in FS2020 using the Just Flight Piper Arrow, though I went west to east just to be difficult.

I used “Road Trip USA” by Jaime Jensen for things to keep an eye out for, which has a bunch of other routes, including US-83 (Black Square Bonanza).