I realize you've made your decision, but I just wanted to put this out there for anyone else making this decision. We live in central PA and use I-81 alot since we are located about 20 minutes from it. We use it most often to go between where we live and State College and Harrisburg, but we also travel to the Outer Banks and to Myrtle Beach often (I've also driven it to it's end to go down to Louisiana). We have found that using I-81 is a faster drive. Yes, there is ALOT of truck traffic, but the speed limits are fairly consistent and that leads to less aggressive driving. Setting the cruise control and driving a happy, consistent speed with everyone else makes for a pleasant drive. Sure, like any highway or road, you can hit traffic from an accident, but we have found there are less backups than 95. We take 81 down to 64 towards Richmond, but instead of going all the way to Richmond, we get off of 64 and take 288 south east. It hits 95 further south of Richmond and you can avoid alot of the traffic (so, when you are going home, I'd really suggest going that way to get onto 81).