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Hello I am new to Road Trip America. I joined b/c my husband and I are military and are moving from Virginia Beach, VA to Everett, WA. We need help with planning the best route. We are moving in middle of March 2011. ANy advice would be great especially about driving through the mountains that time of year.
Thanks in Advance!
Welcome!
The shortest all-Interstate highway route is usually the best. This would be I-64/I-295/I-95/I-495/I-270/I-70/I-76/I-80/I-355/I-290/I-90. You will need to keep tabs on weather and road conditions and be prepared to take a "day off" or take an alternate route. You shouldn't have any issues in the middle of March, but you never can tell, just be prepared. A laptop with wifi or even a smartphone with a 3G data package can be invaluable for this, all state's DOT's have websites with road status. This is a 3000 mile trip and should not be attempted in any less than 6 days, especially if you will be driving a truck and/or towing. This would give you overnight stops near:
Pittsburgh PA
Rockford IL
Sioux Falls SD
Gillette WY
Missoula MT
Thank you both for your service. I'm retired Navy Reserve.
........and please accept my thanks for your service, also.
Hello crystalfrison,
If this were my trip, my intense bias against large cities and their traffic would make me look closely at avoiding DC and Chicago, provided doing so didn't add too much distance. The alternate I'd map out for comparison with my friend glc's route would be I-64 all the way from the Beach to Lexington, KY, I-75 to Cincy, I-74 to Davenport, IA, where you'd pick up I-80. Then I-80 to I-29 north (using the I-680 shortcut just east of Omaha, of course) to I-90 on the eastern border of SD at Sioux Falls. You do pick up Cincy and Indy as cities that way, but my feeling is they're a good trade for the God-awful morasse of DC and Chicago.
As glc noted, you'll just want to continue to look ahead at what the weather's doing about a day ahead of your route. Once you get to central MT, you start going through a series of passes at Bozeman, Butte, the ID border, and finally Snoqualmie Pass in WA just east of Seattle. What you can avoid by continually looking ahead is driving right into the teeth of a storm. The storms usually pass quickly and the plow crews and their equipment are the best anywhere in the world, so normally everything's squared away within a few hours of a storm.
Also as glc noted, the Mountain states have live webcams liberally scattered along the Interstates, so you can search them up and have a look at conditions at the passes and elsewhere along I-90 in particular. Practically every travel plaza (the new term for truck stops) has TVs constantly on the Weather Channel if you're not smartphone or laptop-equipped.
Glad to learn of your Navy Reserve service, glc. I knew we got along well, but never the underlying reason why. My "baby" son, all 6'3" 220 lbs of him, is a Seabee, you may recall. He's now in the Reserve. I love the Navy and everything it did for my son.
Safe travels crystalfrison.
Foy
To expand on Foy's route suggestion, I think I'd do this instead:
Take I-64 all the way to and through STL, then I-70 to KC. Take I-435 around the NE side, then I-29 to IA-2/NE-2 to Lincoln. Take I-80 all the way to SLC, then I-84 to I-82 to I-90.
The only real trouble areas can be I-80 across the high ground in WY and Snoqualmie Pass. If I-80 looks bad, just stay on I-29 to I-90 and use the last 3 overnight stops I originally suggested.
Overnights:
Huntington WV
STL
Grand Island NE
Rawlins WY
Boise ID
The only possible difficulty may be STL traffic, you will be hitting it at the tail end of evening rush (unless you happen to hit it on a weekend). However, I-64 has just finished a major rehab, so you should be able to get through the city without major issues, I'd stay out in the western burbs - such as St. Charles. If you hit the area in the height of rush hour, get off the highway in the eastern suburbs (Fairview Heights?) and have dinner.
glc nailed it, as usual, but as we look at our maps and computers, we tend to say "I-80 to SLC, thence I-84 thru SW Idaho, etc."
The geographic reality, however, is that the traveler bound for the Pacific Northwest should turn west on I-84 off of I-80 at Echo Canyon, some 40-50 miles east of Ogden, UT, and would of course remain on I-84 over I-15 across the NE tip of Utah and all of Idaho into Oregon completely bypassing SLC as one accesses I-84 west of I-15 at Ogden. Remaining on I-80 from Echo Canyon through Park City "earns" you a trip over Parley's Summit (7,100' or so), down a 15 mile grade into SLC, and all of the SLC basin traffic one can possibly stand.
Foy