I did not think he (or she) was being sarcastic. It simply crossed my mind that this might be someone playing games and asking for a detailed route that they really are not interested in - and just wanted to see if I will go to the trouble of listing a set of detailed directions.

After reading the subsequent reply above, it then occurred to me that my use of the term "lanes" is a British thing (I'm a Brit). In the UK if you said "take to the lanes", most people, drivers and cyclists alike, would know you meant small roads, in the countryside, typically paved (tarmac for Brits) but lacking any kind of lane markings and are often not wide enough for two vehicles traveling in opposite directions to pass. These lanes often have turn-outs at regular intervals and high hedges on either side of the road - and only an insane fool drives fast on them given the high risk of a head-on collision. Speed limits are typically 25 to 30 mph.

I guess in the USA, the default interpretation of lane is restricted to a lane on a highway. Hence the question of whether I meant 99W. I will chalk this up to a cultural misunderstanding.

Some of the people I cycled with in the UK are like walking maps - once you got more than 10 miles out of town, you really did not want to get dropped off the back. Luckily the policy on most rides was to make sure someone that knew the route would follow at the back. That was all a long time ago, long before portable GPS, or in fact any kind of GPS.

Here are a couple of photos of quintessential countryside lanes in France:

DCP01623.jpg DCP01624.jpg DCP01510.jpg