Just a little meaningless tidbit. On I80 in Ohio (the east-west road you take to get to New York City) and on parts of I90 (the more northern east-west road, both which go through the Cleveland area -- you take I90 West to get to Chicago and east to get to Boston) there are really wonderful, renovated service areas even with Panera bread shops (my favorite fast food restaurant)
. Those service plazzas better be nice! After all, it costs at least $15 to drive across the entire state of Ohio!
Anyway, my little story. When my friends and I drove to Boston a few years ago, gas prices were horribly expensive. Since I am a bit . . . let's say cheap, I would hold out until I found a gas station for less than $1.50. And that was hard to do since gas then (especailly in Mass. and NY) was all around $1.80. Anyway on I90 (which is a turnpike in Mass., New York, and parts of Ohio west of Cleveland) in upstate NY -- maybe around Syracuse -- there were signs on each service plazza that their gas was cheaper than anywhere else in the state. And I was like No Way! Gas will not be cheaper on the turnpike! Let's go into some little town and gas will be really cheap! Well, it turns out, this town was a good 20 minutes off the freeway! And since my gas was virtually on empty when we got off the freeway, I just about ran out of gas as we sputtered around this hilly town there was 1 gas station -- full serve -- and twice as expencive as at the service plazza! I learned my lesson! The state of new york does not lie to you about gas prices.
On the regular freeways, the rest stops generally don't have service plazas, as others have said. There are generally blue signs before exits indicating gas/food/lodging and occasionally what interesting sight-seeing things are at each exit. Often, you can see the signs for the gas stations from the road.
I do a lot of traveling, and since I don't fly in planes, it is all by car. I've been to every state in the eastern US and part of Canada by driving. And, actually, almost never use a map. But I have to admit, I've never been to Kansas nor anywhere West of Chicago.
- Laura
