Looking for a better route

Not really driver. Any other route is going to take you too far out of the way.

 

You can try U.S. 301. I've taken both routes (not in a truck) and you can still make good time along U.S.301 and it's not that much out of the way especially coming from Richmond. You might have a couple of sharp left turns at a light but it's still a U.S. highway. Of course you'd never want to go this way on a weekend in the summer time. I was living in La Plata MD and would drive up past Newark NJ to see my in-laws with my wife. This was some time ago and EZ pass was not in. So you could make just about the same time on U.S.301 up until Willington DE and then you're back on I-95.

 

GasHauler's route may not be a bad idea. He has many more years behind the wheel than I do, and I've been out east exactly once. Couldn't avoid Baltimore because I delivered in Columbia and picked up in Sparrow's Point. Doesn't sound like it would be anything like rolling the interstate though!

 

There's nothing on the west side unless you want to go site seeing.