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Anyone who told you they have done this drive in 3 days is either lying or was recklessly endangering themselves and everyone else on the road.
Having multiple drivers, treating this like a speed run, you might be able to punch it out in 4 pretty brutal days on the road, but I would never recommend that for a solo driver, especially not in the winter.
You mentioned planning on having him drive 9-10 hours a day. That is reasonable, but at that pace, it will take 5 days on the road.
Your husband might treat a trip to MI as a sprint, but this trip should be planned like a marathon. A marathon runner paces the race evenly to make sure he gets to the finish line. With luck he will have a reserve in case he needs a sprint at the end.Quote:
Originally Posted by dramm
Starting this drive with a sprint is completely against the recommendations of any long term activity. He will wear himself out. Then, not fully recovered will hit the road again, and not having recovered from the first day, will be more worn out by the second night. And so it snowballs.
It is the cause of thousands of accidents each year.
Sleeping in the car will only aggrevate it. Besides the reasons Michael stated, one simply does not get the rest a body needs, after a full day behind the wheel. It would be most unadvisable.
Lifey
Hi all,
Thanks again for your suggestions! My husband just left this morning. We are concerned about these winter storms rolling through the Midwest as he is traveling west. From what we can tell by watching The Weather Channel, the roads should be fine until he hits St. Louis? From there he will decide whether to continue on I-90 or I-80. It seems there is another storm coming that will affect I-80 even worse.
I'm just wondering if you all know of any apps that could alert him to more bad weather, or traffic problems or the best way to judge which route to take once in St Louis.
Thanks again!
This is a pretty miserable day to be on the road in a large part the eastern half of the US. While I think your husband should see decent weather up until Nashville, It is a near certainty that he'll start seeing ice and snow before he gets to St. Louis.
Considering St. Louis was already on the upper end of what he should be looking at to drive in a day, I wouldn't try to get that far tonight. Really, as soon as he starts seeing even a little bad weather (probably just as he's getting to Kentucky), I'd tell him to find a room for the night. Conditions should much better and easier by the morning.
Looking at forecasts, I-90 seems like it will be a much better bet, and should be relatively clear from here on out - although that could certainly change in the days ahead. I-80 does look like he'd see high winds across Wyoming, which is one of the biggest challenges of winter driving on that route, as it can easily lead to blowing snow and low visability.
Thanks so much. You confirmed what I was thinking.....someone else kept telling hubby to go another route even further south, but I saw the next storm coming through there, too. I thought I-90 would be clearer, too. I called him on the road and read your post to him. Thanks. And thankfully we have lots of sunshine this morning for him to start his trip so far!
Thanks again for all of your help! This is a big deal for us as we have been in one place for over 27 years and haven't traveled west at all past TX! :-)
Does he have a laptop and/or a smartphone? If so he can get up to the minute road conditions at safetravelusa.com.
There is something to be said about letting the forecasts to develop as much as possible. While I-90 does look like the best option right now, things can change even over 24 hours. His second stop should be around Omaha, which means he can decide Friday Morning if sticking with I-90 is still the best bet, or if things have changed and I-80 would work better.
The good news is that it looks like the storm that hit St. Louis and Southern Illinois this morning appears to have moved east, so the roads could be back in good condition by the time he gets there.
As it stands right now, he is going to start hitting snowy and icy road conditions when he gets to right around Marion, IL. The state of IL does an excellent job keeping things pretty clear, so if he spends the night around Marion he will probably have pretty clear sailing on into STL.
Thanks again, y'all and especially for the website for the road conditions. That is a great site! I was able to tell my hubby the same thing about when the roads start looking bad. He is almost to where I-24 and I-57 merge. He sent me a pic from the rest stop in Ill. Lots of snow, but he says the roads are all clear. He's just going to keep an eye on things. Thank you again!!
If the roads are good enough to drive the speed limit, he can make it from the 24/57 junction to STL in about 2 hours. That's going to put him there in the height of rush hour, but the roads are now fairly clear all the way till he gets west of STL.
He's in a bit of a "no win" situation in STL - going through in this afternoon's rush hour is going to be rough, but if he pulls up short he will have to fight rush hour in the morning.
If he feels okay, he should stop somewhere around O'Fallon (IL) or Fairview Heights and get some dinner, let rush hour clear out. Then he can head right through town on I-64 and spend the night out west of STL so he won't have to deal with tomorrow morning's rush. East STL (IL side) is NOT a place where he should get off the highway, especially after dark.
There are some reasonably priced hotels in Wentzville - where I-64 ends and joins I-70.