SF to NY - which route?

Hello all,

My family might move back from the San Francisco area to New York, and I'm considering driving cross-country as a cost saving measure.

I've received some disapproving looks with this idea since weather isn't great this time of year, so I'm considering two routes - the former what I would guess is the more traditional direct route - the latter a way to avoid a good amount of the bad weather states (or so I'm guessing).

Northern Route

Southern Route


My goal here is to find the most direct route with the least number of pitfalls (i.e. weather, traffic).

So given all this info, can anyone provide some feedback on the two options (and any others you can think of), given that the journey will likely occur in January and I'll be traveling by myself (I'm guessing an 11 month-old wouldn't enjoy the drive)?

Thank you in advance for your help!

Erik

Welcome to the RoadTrip America Forum!

The two routes you have linked are relatively straightforward; of course, the Northern route being shorter than the Southern route by the good portion of a day.

Both of the routes you link to could have weather detrimental to your trip. The difficulty of weather is that it is impossible to tell what it will be like more than a few days ahead of time. Just this morning I was reading of bad weather and traffic problems along I-40 near Amarillo, TX, but that's not any indication of what to expect a month from now.

I would look at more options than those you have listed - you could run on I-40 3/4 of the way across the country and then hit bad weather, so you're going to want to have an alternate route available to you should that be the case. Likewise for I-80/I-90. For example, if you are heading across I-40 and bad weather is going to hit Arkansas, you could avoid it by going up I-44.

I would also recommend, if it is possible, to have somebody else along with you on the trip, to help out in case a problem does arise. Normally I would be all for recommending taking a solo trip, but I think this particular situation calls for a bit more caution. A cross-country move can be stressful enough.

I see that you have added in a stop in Kentucky on this trip. Any particular reason?

Finally, allow as much time as possible to make the journey. It will take five days to cross the country under normal circumstances by the quickest route. With the way the weather has been thus far this year, I would definitely allow more time in case you have to stay put for a couple of days.