Interstate 64

U.S. Interstate highway extending from Portsmouth, Virginia to just west of St. Louis, Missouri. Principal cities along the route include Norfolk, VA, Richmond, VA, Charleston, WV, Lexington, KY, Louisville, KY, Evansville, IN (actually just off of 64 on Interstate 164), and St. Louis, MO.

Intersects with Interstates 95, 81, 77, 75, 71, 65, 57, 55, and 70.

I have travelled the full length of this road, minus approximately 6 miles west of St. Louis between downtown and the Interstate 270 beltway. Observations from east to west: beach, sprawl, mountains, mountains, hills, sprawl, corn, corn, corn, corn, and sprawl. Not very exciting, in other words.

Until recently was also the only two miles of Interstate in Virginia Beach, VA. This fact changed when State Highway 44 was changed into an extension of Interstate 264 one of the many branches of Interstate 64. These include:

• Interstate 264 from 1/4 mile west of the coast to the end of Interstate 64
• Interstate 464 from Downtown Norfolk, VA to Chesapeake, VA.
• Interstate 564 from the Wards Corner district of Norfolk, VA dumping directly into the Norfolk Naval Ship Yards
• Interstate 664 from Newport News, VA to the end of Interstate 64

As a longtime motorist upon I-64, especially those portions found in Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois (and the recent addition of Highway 40 in St Louis) I feel reasonably confident that the exit to which I live closest is also the most oddly named.

Yes friends, it's Kentucky's Exit 43, it's the one, the only Waddy/Peytona Exit! The names just trip off the tongue -- Waddy-Peytona, Waddy-Peytona, Waddy-Peytona. Has a certain rhythm, a certain rural poetry, doesn't it?

Get off on Exit 43 and you'll be turning onto Kentucky Highway 395, known locally as Elmburg Road. Waddy's to the south, Peytona's north. There's a big ol' Flying J truck stop (ahem, excuse me, travel center) on the north side of the intersection and an older, seedier truck stop to the south.

The town of Waddy is about a mile south. It features a bank, two general stores (one with an attached small engine repair shop!) a couple of churches and, most prominently, the railroad tracks.

Peytona is about a mile north along US 60 and the knee-slappingly named "Peytona Beach Road". Peytona's pretty much just a wide place in the road, but there is a junk shop and the headquarters of the guy who works on my furnace when I forget to change the filter often enough.

I sometimes think that it would be more logical to name the exit for my hometown, making it Waddy-Bagdad, because Bagdad is virtually identical in size to Waddy and because it's right on KY 395 (not off on US 60 like Peytona). But I generally come to my senses quickly, because I wouldn't want to sacrifice the euphonious effect of the Waddy-Peytona name and the quiet pride that comes from living near most oddly named exit on Interstate 64.