Interstate 40 by FlaxmanR

In 2009, the North Carolina DOT announced that a sign on the way out of Wilmington listing the 2,554-mile distance to I-40’s western terminus would not be replaced again after having been stolen several times. Which California city – which has a similar sign that has also been repeatedly stolen – was named on that sign as I-40’s western terminus?

Interstate 40 is the southern terminus for only one major interstate, one that heads mostly northeast along the Appalachians into northeastern Pennsylvania before traveling more directly north to the Canadian border at Alexandria Bay, New York. What interstate, which meets I-40 near Dandridge, Tennessee, is this?

Though Interstate 26 is not much further, as it passes through western North Carolina, I-40 is the closest interstate highway to what mountain, famed as the highest on the North American mainland east of the Mississippi River at 6,684 feet?

Although I-40 does not itself enter the borders of this state capital, its auxiliary route I-440 serves the city’s airport, and Interstate 30 reaches its eastern terminus at I-40 just north of the city. Name the city.

Despite becoming wealthy following his role in the conquest of Peru, he returned to the Americas in 1539 and ended up exploring much of what became the American Southeast. A painting of him discovering the Mississippi River hangs in the US Capitol, and he was the first documented European to cross it – possibly near Memphis. The bridge on which Interstate 40 crosses the Mississippi between Arkansas and Tennessee is named for which Spanish explorer and conquistador, who died along the river in 1542?

I-40 crosses the Tennessee River in western Tennessee and the Oklahoma and Arkansas Rivers in Oklahoma (the latter not far from the Arkansas border). It also crosses two other rivers named for states that it never enters. One is the Mississippi; name the other, a more than 1,500-mile drive on I-40 from where it crosses the Mississippi.

“Well, I’m a-standing on a corner in ___________ / And such a fine sight to see / It’s a girl, my lord, in a flatbed Ford / Slowing down to take a look at me.” These lyrics, from the Eagles song “Take It Easy,” have had what city and state through which I-40 passes redacted from them?

As it crosses the Appalachians, I-40 spends roughly 50 miles tracking the course of a river named for a bird that once used the valley as part of its migration path. Name either the river, which flows into the French Broad River in eastern Tennessee shortly after diverging from I-40, or the bird.

The Coronado Freeway crosses the Rio Grande, has an interchange with Interstate 25, and then after leaving the city passes between the Sandia and Manzano Mountains through Tijeras Canyon. So describes the west-to-east journey of Interstate 40 through what city?

Its parent route was decommissioned in 1985, which was later used as part of the justification to renumber it. What was the former number of US Route 491, which today has its southern terminus at I-40 in Gallup, New Mexico, renumbered in 2003 mostly due to the efforts of then-governor Bill Richardson, who euphemistically stated that the change should be made because of the “inopportune naming of the road?”

As it heads north and west from its eastern terminus, the first major metropolitan area I-40 passes through is North Carolina’s “Research Triangle,” the cities of Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill. The second, not much further west, is the regional grouping known as the “Piedmont Triad.” Name ANY of the three cities that are part of this combined statistical area.

Coca-Cola debuted cherry, lemon, lime, and vanilla-flavored Coke mixtures at this event, leading to the mass production of Cherry Coke (the most popular) three years later in 1985. Dinah Shore was the emcee of the opening ceremony, and the event had the theme “Energy Turns the World.” What event was this, perhaps best known today for its association with a 266-foot-tall structure that is visible from I-40 (and not, as far as anyone knows, full of unsold wigs)?