THANK YOU State of Ohio...

All true, back in the seventies I used to run across the Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania Turnpikes regularly and all of the service plazas were kept in good shape like that, I have taken a lot of showers in the Ohio Plazas. The PA Pike plazas used to have outstanding apple dumplings that were served warm with milk served that you could pour on them. I don't remember ever getting a bad meal at any of them, pricey maybe, but not a bad meal, and as has been said already, really clean.

 

We liked the rest areas at Lake Junaluska, but there were occasions that some truckers on the road seemed to love blowing their horns as they went by in the wee hours of the morning, guess they were jealous.

 

I'm gonna echo OP and say Thanks Ohio! I actually look forward to hitting the Ohio Turnpike just because of the Service Plazas. It's nice knowing that if I have to stop there's plenty of places worth doing so.

Somebody upthread mentioned Texas upgrading their RA's and I was surprised to find two pair of nice, new, large RA's on US 287. One pair about 70 miles south of Amarillo and the other about 70 miles north of Wichita Falls. Just seems odd that such quality RA's would be on a US highway and not an interstate, but hell, I'll take 'em right where they are

 

And just why were you looking down there? ?????

 

I agree. Since the scheduling and end points of my trips are usually a lot worse for handling personal business, I try to favor the better truck stops with showers when I can manage. Or I end up getting more ripe than I care to impose on others.

One cool looking rest area I keep meaning to stop in, but never can make it work, is that one in the middle of the Atchafalaya Basin between Lafayette and Baton Rouge. Seems like every time I'm thru there I've got no time to spare. One of my customers has a hunting lease a few miles south of that rest area. If I was into hunting I'd be getting the camo on and calling them up to invite myself LOL.

 

While I agree, the turnpike is very nice. But compare apples to apples, the rest areas that are complained about are free while the Ohio Turnpike are not. Your paying to be on the road, it should be nicer.

 

I love the pike. Never too much traffic, always plowed in the winter, very well mantained, only thing annoying about running it every day was the ridiculously low speed limits in construction zones. It's 4 am, there's nobody there, and the area they are working at is separated by two concrete walls, why on earth should I go down to 50 mph?!

 

Florida has the best free rest stops. Plenty of parking & clean.

Washington, California, Arizona, New Mexico are nasty.

The toilet doors in Arizona are only four feet tall. Anyone five feet can watch you taking a dump.

 

While that's true, there are also toll roads that are nowhere near as nice so Ohio does deserve the special recognition imo.





edit:missed the reply with quote button by *that* much