Advice on Cross-Country Roadtrip

missdelilah · January 2015

Well, it's not so much a road trip, as up moving. But Boston to Vegas is a long way! We'll be heading off, if things go as planned, on the 1st of February. I'm a little worried about the shortest route, which is the most Northern, as we're going to be really screwed if there's bad weather. There's a more southern route that takes a little longer, but I figure, less chance of snow. We're not going to have a huge amount of time to stop off and look at much, but I'd like to take a break whenever we reach an interesting sounding city or town.

Here's the Google maps link: I'm hoping it works. https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Boston,+MA+02130/Las+Vegas,+NV/@38.0748174,-112.1941512,4z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m13!4m12!1m5!1m1!1s0x89e379698310ec53:0xd818396fabab0ad0!2m2!1d-71.1151431!2d42.3097365!1m5!1m1!1s0x80beb782a4f57dd1:0x3accd5e6d5b379a3!2m2!1d-115.1398296!2d36.1699412

Thanks for the advice!

x

missdelilah · January 2015

There's also this route, which I was a thought might be an even better option.

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Boston,+MA+02130/Kansas+City,+MO/Las+Vegas,+NV/@38.1008056,-112.2479515,4z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m20!4m19!1m5!1m1!1s0x89e379698310ec53:0xd818396fabab0ad0!2m2!1d-71.1151431!2d42.3097365!1m5!1m1!1s0x87c0f75eafe99997:0x558525e66aaa51a2!2m2!1d-94.5785667!2d39.0997265!1m5!1m1!1s0x80beb782a4f57dd1:0x3accd5e6d5b379a3!2m2!1d-115.1398296!2d36.1699412!3e0

Thanks again. xx

lyndausvi · January 2015

Ive only taken i-70 from the east coast to Grand Junction, CO. Just like any interstate through the fly-over states there are a lot of boring sections to go through. In the winter time i-70 they will close the interstate in parts of KS and CO for bad weather, so look out for that. Driving from Denver to Grand Junction provides you with a lot of great scenery. You will be in the flats, then 11, 000 ft up, then back down to almost dessert like areas. It has a wow factor during the day.

When we moved from Indy to CO we only stopped one overnight at that was in Abilene, KS (about 9 hours from Indy). It's known for being the home of President Eisenhower. Now we didn't visit the former president's library, but had the best fried chicken anywhere at the Brookville Inn. It's a restaurant that only sells fried chicken and some sides family style. It was amazing. But they are only open Wed-Sun.

missdelilah · January 2015

Thank you @lyndasuvi! I was worried about road closures, as we're on a bit of a tight schedule. The fried chicken sounds like a mighty big incentive though.

mlg78 · January 2015

I live in the Cleveland area and it looks like you'll start heading more south right outside of CLE. We're about 10 hours from Boston so it might be a good stopping point after day 1 of driving. Let me know if you need hotel/restaurant recommendations!

esstee33 · January 2015

How often are you planning to stop for sleeping and things? The shortest route is only shorter by an hour, which isn't much of a difference for a road trip this long.

The slightly longer route takes you through Cleveland (awesome places to stop and eat) and Columbus (awesome places to stop and eat). If you decide to take that route (or even the shorter route that takes you through Cleveland) and you want recommendations, let me know!

You're also definitely right to be concerned about the snow. It can get very, very hairy along the Great Lakes states. TBH, you could even avoid the lake borders even more by going a different route and picking up with your original route in Columbus: https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Boston,+MA+02130/Columbus,+OH/@41.4370365,-81.7925702,6z/data=!4m15!4m14!1m5!1m1!1s0x89e379698310ec53:0xd818396fabab0ad0!2m2!1d-71.1151431!2d42.3097365!1m5!1m1!1s0x883889c1b990de71:0xe43266f8cfb1b533!2m2!1d-82.9987942!2d39.9611755!3e0!5i2

I think this route adds maybe an hour, but if you're really concerned about the snow, you'd avoid a bunch of very iffy areas.

missdelilah · January 2015

Thank you @esstee33 and @mig78. I'm still leaning towards avoiding the lake areas, but I'll definitely hit you up if I need recommendations in Cleveland or Columbus. x

WhatawagSBNy · January 2015

After many a cross country trip west from Boston you could not pay me enough to take the Great Lakes route in Feb, the snowiest month.
I would head south along the coast to Virginia and Carolinas before turning west heading for OK and then west, where it will be mostly dry and 40 to 50 degrees.
No matter the increased time. You can easily loose one to three days while on the road in snow just south of the great lakes. Huge risk of accidents since it is always wet snow and icing on even freshly plowed roads. Speeds keep cutting to 40mph due to visibility and slippery roads, and huge trucks with traction try to make schedules passing everyone. A wrecked car is not the best way to move to a new place.
Southern route after the warmer coastal trip speedier and less risk. Side trips are nicer. Feb along the Carolinas is like late April in Boston, sunny enough to give you spring fever.
Good for you that this is the cheapest gas prices in years. Good luck in Vegas.

blabla89 · January 2015

My best advice is just to pace yourself, and don't try to fit in more than 10-12 hours of driving before you stop for the night. Bring ALL THE SNACKS. If you take the I-70 route there's still a chance of snow in February. It may not be quite as cold, but weather in Missouri is unpredictable. I mapped the route that @WhatawagSNBy suggested and it only adds a few hours to the drive.

If you do take I-70, you could stop for the night in Columbus and reach St. Louis mid-day on your second day. I recommend getting out to check out the Arch and whatnot, and grab some lunch in the area. Do not stop in East St. Louis. From there you can head on, stop for dinner in Columbia or Kansas City, and make it to Lawrence or Topeka by the end of the day.

luckya23 · January 2015

Are you driving your stuff in a truck or just normal cars?

With a moving truck I would take the absolute flattest route, even if it meant skimming the gulf coast :-P

WhatawagSBNy · January 2015

With a truck you do not want to go near Wheeling W Virginia, western Pennsylvania or Ohio.

jenna8984 · January 2015

I agree with @whatawagsbny. I moved from MA to AZ and I drove the 95 down the east coat, hung out in Myrtle Beach for a few days (obviously you can skip that since you're tight on time) then bang west from there across the south. It's really not that much longer and you totally avoid having any stress about snow.

Or you could take the route that I took the second time. Head west into PA and OH then promptly head south through KY and MO and across OK.

It's best to map out how far you'll drive each day and book a hotel in advance rather than just pulling off and finding one where you are.

ETA- wrote east, meant west

missdelilah · January 2015

Lol. @WhatawagSNBy I've had the misfortune to drive through Ohio before. I'm hoping to never repeat that experience. Unless, of course, going to Cedar Point, because that place is awesome!

Thank you so much for your alternate route. I'll definitely map it. We're just taking the car, but it's a light car with a ton of torque, and doesn't perform super well in icy conditions, which is one of the reasons I was worried about the northern route. I am trying to keep my car in one piece.

@blabla89 I always forget about snacks. I try not to buy them at gas stations, but I figure wherever we end up stopping for the night will have a supermarket of some sort. I'm not sure my little Focus fits ALL THE SNACKS in it, but we'll certainly stock up before we leave.

I'm pretty used to having to drive long distances. We did Boston to Detroit overnight once. It was terrible, but such emergency that we didn't have any choice. Flights were all booked out, etc. That was about eighteen hours of driving. I will not be repeating that. I don't want the drive to take forever, but I know when I need to stop. I tend not to plan out the stops, and just call it a day when I start to get tired. I have definitely decided that 12 hours is my maximum (again, tons of long distance driving) but I'd like to keep it to about ten. Maybe a little more on one day; try to keep the drive to four days, five at most.

Thank you all for your suggestions. xx

missdelilah · January 2015

Thanks @jenna8984. I'll definitely talk this over with Nick and see about booking places to stay along the way before we leave.

princessleia22 · January 2015

You could take I-40 down from St. Louis and go through Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. It doesn't add much drive time. You still hit mountains in Flagstaff, AZ area, but it may not be as risky of closures as Colorado. This is the route I took when I moved from Michigan to Arizona and it was a fairly easy drive.

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Boston,+MA+02130/37.443203,-92.6099728/Las+Vegas,+NV/@40.8010828,-95.9430895,5z/data=!4m20!4m19!1m5!1m1!1s0x89e379698310ec53:0xd818396fabab0ad0!2m2!1d-71.1151431!2d42.3097365!1m5!3m4!1m2!1d-95.1740455!2d36.8009511!3s0x87b7ddb2e2c8ea35:0xb43ef83c412a2543!1m5!1m1!1s0x80beb782a4f57dd1:0x3accd5e6d5b379a3!2m2!1d-115.1398296!2d36.1699412!3e0

WhatawagSBNy · January 2015

Watching the time of day and avoiding Eastern cities during high traffic hours matters. For example, following the pike west over the New York line and then going down west of the Hudson cuts out Hartford and NYC, and also the very long steep downhills down through Danbury CT, and that little bit further west gets you into drier snow or less possibility of sleet and icing. And at least 25 fewer major areas where the highway is elevated and freezes like bridges do, unexpectedly because the road before and after have no ice. West of the Hudson the down hills are like on the Mass Pike, semi flattened and gradual.

lyndausvi · January 2015

When we moved from Indy to Aspen it was last February, the trip was pretty uneventful weather wise on I-70, but that is subject to change. It was snowy through Vail Pass, but it wasn't horrible. I will say I prefer to drive from Denver westward in the day light. Not only is it prettier but between the mountains, passes and canyons, it just feels safer. Often it snows at night, but not during the day, so there's that too.

hellosweetie1015 · January 2015

I... wouldn't be going near snow. At all.

Come through Alabama! We don't have snow! We can get to Vegas! I-20 goes west! No snow!

missdelilah · January 2015

Thanks so much! You guys are all incredibly helpful. The route I kind of mapped did go through DC, so I'll have a look at skirting around it, because with traffic, that's a whole day of driving right there, and I figure we can get further than that.

penguin44 · January 2015

I don't know what the weather will be like in February, but I will say that Missouri has had next to no snow this year. Also, I-70 gets plowed farirly quickly between StL and eastern Kansas.

Make sure to get BBQ in KC!

ShesSoCold · January 2015

penguin44 said:

I don't know what the weather will be like in February, but I will say that Missouri has had next to no snow this year. Also, I-70 gets plowed farirly quickly between StL and eastern Kansas.

Make sure to get BBQ in KC!

I went to KC for the first time in November and I can still taste the burnt ends....I need that in my life on a regular basis.

esstee33 · January 2015

Mid-February last year, an hour south of Cleveland, we got this horseshit in UNDER 10 MINUTES:

The roads were totally clear prior to this. No snow to be seen.

WhatawagSBNy · January 2015

Lake effect snow can be intense, even when there is no major storm sweeping across the area.
Long distance divers passing through Cleveland and Buffalo have bad experiences locals never have, especially when they come from the Northeast where forcasters always overestimate snowstorm potential. Like the boy who cries wolf, you get to thinking it will not be half as bad as they say. But the people who live in Cleveland and Buffalo, and broadcast weather, are so used to it that a traveler listens, thinks no big deal. And gets three inches per in a half hour so they cannot see and cannot stop, and the next day there is a foot and a half and everyone goes about business as usual. Tough for people just passing through to figure out.

missdelilah · January 2015

@penguin44 You so hit on my secret plan here. I haven't ever been south of Virginia, or more west than that in any of the Southern states. I totally wanted to get some real barbecue, in a bunch of different states. But stuffing self with food three weeks before wedding... hmm... I really do still need to fit in to that dress. Or I could sell the dress, and probably have enough time to make myself some sort of lacy sack. That's about as far as my sewing skills go.

@estee33 we're bloody buried too! We'd had almost no snow until this week though.

@WhatawagSBNy FI is from MI, so I know all about the lake effect snow, which is fortunate. In full disclosure though, it did take me about a year to understand why so many storms came from the west. At home rain always comes from the ocean. But then someone told me that even lake Ontario has more water in that the entirety of Australia.

WhatawagSBNy · January 2015

Like when N New England gets a polar express ripping down from Ontario and Quebec, when our storms are supposed to come from the west, or be Nor'easters coming up the coast. Wet storms we are used to.
Not zero degrees and so dry your face cracks and falls off.

missdelilah · January 2015

Oh, I'm so bloody thankful that I only have to leave the house if I choose today. It's still not zero degrees here, but it's more than cold enough.

lovemyrunner · January 2015

Well, the Northern route does go through my hometown of Omaha, NE. We are the home of the College World Series, home to the Nation's top ranked zoo, Henry Doorly Zoo, and we have 3 restaurants listed in the Open Table top 100, Modern Love (a vegan restaurant in NEBRASKA!), The Flatiron Cafe,and V. Mertz.. If you're into the quirky, Lincoln, NE has a rollerskating museum and there's always Carhenge in Alliance, NE. For what it's worth, this winter has been unseasonably warm, we'll have highs in the 50s and 60s all week. But if you insist on taking the Southern route, I would suggest Oklahoma Joe's BBQ in Kansas City and my ex was a huge fan of Shakespeare's Pizza in Columbia, MO.

missdelilah · January 2015

Thank you @lovemyrunner I think at some point I'm going to have to make it to that Roller Skating museum, but we're not really going to have museum time on this trip. Unfortunately it's pretty much just stop to eat, sleep, and get gas. I will definitely take your advice on the barbecue. If end up going through Kansas, I'll definitely make that stop.

missdelilah · February 2015

Once again, you guys are all awesome. I am in Armpit Arkansas for the night, and hitting my head against the wall. Why did I think this was a good idea? Oh, yeah, the cost of transportation of car (too new to sell), air fares, and being stuck in a city without much public transportation, and therefore, need for rental car.

Oh well. I'm really hoping we can make it by Friday.

Thank you all so much for helping me avoid the north! My car does not function in snow, but is happily plowing along in warmer climes. I just wish FI had a license. It would make life a lot easier. He can drive, but I'm not up for taking the insurance hit if he gets in an accident. Well, at least he can get it sorted once we get to NV and if we ever do this again, it will be different. But remind me not to do this again.

Thanks again! x

jenna8984 · February 2015

Hahahah that's exactly how I feel about road trips! I have moved across the counry twice and it's nothing but a pain the fucking ass. When people say they want to road trip for their honeyoon or something I think they are nuts. It's not fun, it's not like Thelma & Louise. It's traffic, and back pain, and strained eyes, and just want to be there! Have a safe rest of the trip, let us know when you arrive!

missdelilah · February 2015

lol @jenna8984! That's so how I feel. It's better or worse depending on the car (tiny car filled to the brim not so good) and the number of drivers (one, a very bad idea, but two is definitely more manageable). I'd consider it once FI gets his license and the truck he wants, but only short road trips. Otherwise, fly, and rent a car.

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