Alright, in a couple days I'm going to be driving out to Connecticut to see an old friend. I plan on leaving from Chicago at about 3 or 4am.
My plan is to get on 80 south of Chicago, through Indiana, Ohio, but then I've heard a couple different stories of which would be the better way to take. I'm going to New London, CT.
This is gonna be on Friday night, my first thought was to take I-80 all the way to 95, go across the GW Bridge into Manhattan/the Bronx, then head up 95 to New London. I figure I'll probably be getting to NYC around 9pm, I assume there's going to be mad traffic going up 95. I really want to see the city since I haven't been there in ages, but if it's gonna be a pain in the ass I can just wait since we're going to be spending time there anyways.
Map of taking this route
I've talked to 2 people that have done the drive out this way, neither of them recommended the first way. Second option would be taking 80 into Jersey, then catching 287 across the Tappan Zee bridge, to 15(Merritt Parkway) in Connecticut since I guess 95 up the coast is a cluster fuck(?)
Map of this way
And the last person I talked to said to avoid Pennsylvania and NYC altogether, by taking the NY State Thruway to Springfield, MA and catching 91 down to Hartford, then CT-2 down to New London. This seems WAYYYY out of the fucking way to me, but he said it's actually faster since you don't have to compensate for traffic on 95 and around the city.
Map of this way
But yeah help is appreciated, as of right now I'm doing this drive alone and I get tired after about 14 hours of driving so the last couple might be a stretch.