Excellent Trip Report
Nicely done with a good idea for the telling detail and "felicitous phrase".
You mentioned Breezewood, PA as "a notorious half-mile gap between I-76 and I-70 where voyagers must endure motel hell on surface streets to make the connection." It's also where all road traffic headed north and west from DC and Baltimore has to come to a near-stop to navigate the traffic lights, cheap motels, mediocre restaurants and trinketerias before connecting with the Pennsylvania Turnpike.
The best analogy I've heard compares Breezewood to second base in the game of baseball. You don't want to stop there, but you usually have to.