From GA to WA first week of Feb...driving alone

Hi all,

My husband will be leaving Feb 5th from Northeast Georgia to the Puyallup, Wa area. He will be driving alone, so naturally, I am concerned for him and have been researching all I can to help make his trip easier.

Once he hits Omaha, NE, it seems he could either take 80 or 90. One friend suggested him taking 90, but since neither of us have been northwest, we weren't sure and was concerned about it being more snow the further north he drove.

Can anyone shed some light on this for us so we can make a more educated decision?

Thank you so much!

Welcome to the RTA Forum!

Either route could be the better choice, but it depends upon something no one can know right now: the weather. The only way you'll know the answer is to look at weather forecasts once you are on the road.

I-90 is often a better choice, because it generally is at a lower elevation, and if all things are equal that is the route I would go with. I-80 stays relatively flat, but it is at a rather high elevation across Wyoming, which can lead to some challenging wind conditions.

I also would consider Kansas City to be a much bigger decision point, as it is also possible that taking I-70 across Kansas could be a better choice than I-80 or I-90, as the difference in weather on a given day between Kansas, Nebraska, and South Dakota can be significant (and again, south does not by itself mean better conditions or less snow and ice).

Finally, the other huge factor in having a safe winter road trip is time. You're looking at needing about 5 days to make this trip safely in good conditions, so having a 6th or even 7th day available to wait out a storm will go a long way to making sure everything goes smoothly.

Welcome to RTA!

When traveling in the winter months anywhere in the USA, it's best to check the weather before leaving and then again along the way. It's also good to have an extra day or so built into the schedule, in case the weather gets bad and he needs to pull into a motel and hole up for a day until the weather gets better.

The issue between I-80 and I-90 is elevation. I-80 goes into higher elevations, making bad weather more likely. However, I-90 sees its share of snowy weather. My husband, a former commercial driver, has been holed up in a truck stop along each of those routes at one time or another! He could wait to decide until just before he has to make the choice.

Since your husband is driving alone, if he is driving a car, he could do 500-600 miles a day, which would translate to 8-11 hours on the road. If driving a U-Haul or similar (as my husband has ALSO done), he probably won't want to do that many miles in a day.

What I did for my husband, before he left, was to research his overnight stops as well as I could ahead of time. Then I downloaded coupons (hotelcoupons.com) for likely looking motel properties in each possible overnight. Because he was driving a U-Haul truck that needed a larger fuel-up area, I sent him places where he could find Love's and Flying J truck stops, though I encouraged him to watch highway billboards for truck stops that advertised their unleaded fuel prices. One bummer to traveling alone is that there's no co-driver to sit there and look at Gasbuddy.com app while driving, or checking the GPS.

Is your husband flying back? Mine flew one direction and drove back in the U-Haul going the other direction.


Donna

Thanks, Michael and Donna! That was very helpful!

Donna, we will be moving out to WA soon. He is going ahead to start work. So he will be driving out there and flying back to help finish the move when the time comes. Yes, we have been studying the maps, plotting out his stops, driving around 9-10 hours a day....that's the plan anyway. But we have only been looking at I-80 because we thought it would be less bad weather that route. I did not consider the elevation at all. I'm a GA girl and never been very far west. :-)

I'm wondering...would it be a good idea for him to have tire chains with him just in case? I have also been looking at lots of apps that might help with motel rooms, etc. He thought about sleeping in his car at a Flying J , but that scares the bejeebers out of me! I prefer the motel room!

Thanks for your help! So glad I found this web site. I had no idea who I could ask these questions!

Rhonda

Tire chains ... well, if you're gonna need 'em, I would be the first to get off the highway and go find a nice warm motel to hole up in! If the interstate is really bad enough, they'll close it, but they'll get it open as soon as they possibly can. (Our commercial goods MUST go through quickly!) It's nice to have chains "just in case", but if push came to shove, I'd pull off the road.

Sleeping in the car at any time of the year is dangerous, though in places such as truck stops it isn't so bad. However, in February, it is a matter of keeping warm enough. Even if the weather isn't snowing, it's likely to be cold -- especially THIS winter! I live in SoCal, and the thought of sleeping in my car when it's 42F outside makes me shiver...much less the below O's you could find in the farm belt country! Also, unless you have an old station wagon where you can stretch out fully, it isn't comfortable enough to get a decent night's sleep. Add to that, lights from the truck stop, rumbling truck engines that NEVER stop, you don't sleep well. Find inexpensive motel rooms for him -- check Google, Yelp and TripAdvisor for ratings (bearing in mind that many people complain and few compliment) and hotelcoupons.com or this website for the prices.


Donna

Tire Chains are not all that useful for a cross-country interstate trip. If conditions on the interstates are so bad that he'd need chains to get by, then he really has no business being on the roads at all. He should find a comfortable place to stop, and let the plow crews do their thing.

Sleeping in a car at a truck stop isn't dangerous from a crime type perspective, but doing it in February? It could be quite dangerous from a hypothermia standpoint! Other than blocking the wind, a car provides almost no insulation from the elements, and trying to stay warm by using the cars heater while sleeping can be deadly due to carbon monoxide. Unless he has heavy duty winter camping gear, I wouldn't recommend it!

Thanks again for your help!

I was working up a "loose guide" for him, just to get an idea of what he could do in a day. We were thinking it would take him 4 days to get there, however, we will make time for an extra day or so, just in case.

First day:
Ga to Columbia, Mo 10 hr 37 mins (he will be motivated to drive more his first leg of the trip!)

Columbia, Mo to Chamberlain, SD
8 hr 51 mins

Chamberlain, SD to Livingston, Mt
9 hr 27 mins

Livingston, Mt to destination WA
10 hr 27 mins

Does this look doable? I had read somewhere else on these forums that from Livingston to Spokane there will be four "high spots", entering the Rockies. I was thinking he could start out on that leg of the journey first thing in the morning and then end in the evening at his destination.

Do you think it is doable to drive over 10 hours in a day through the Rockies. Again, this is if all goes well, no inclement weather, etc.

Your drive times are not realistic. Computers never have to stop for anything or get caught in traffic, and never drive under the speed limit. Add 20% to what the map app says.

There is no need to plan out each overnight, you will never be more than 50 miles away from a choice of hotels. He should know when it's time to start thinking about stopping for the night. For me, it's right around dinnertime!

This is a 5 DAY drive minimum, in order to allow for bad weather I would allow 7 days. I would target the following areas for possible overnights:

Marion IL
Omaha NE
Sundance WY
Missoula MT

I use the hotels.com app on my phone to research places to stop.

Using Athens GA as a starting point in 'northeastern Georgia', it is over 725 miles to Columbia MO. There is simply no way that you can drive that in a day, let alone ten hours. Yes, I also got the same driving time estimate, but you have to remember that computer generated time estimates bear absolutely no resemblance to reality. For starters, they assume that you can drive at or above the speed limit for every second of every minute of every hour that you're on the road. They allow no time for traffic, construction, fuel stops, meals, or even time to go to the bathroom. And worst, they assume that a human being can just keep up a monotonous drive for hour after hour and maintain the alertness needed to operate a two ton vehicle at highway speeds. There is a reason that professional long-haul drivers are forbidden by law from driving more than 600 miles a day. It is simply unreasonable, and more importantly: unsafe.

The drive to Pallyup will take a minimum of five days to drive, plus any additional days for weather related delays. Safe and sensible goals for each night's stop, assuming good weather, would be roughly Mount Vernon IL, Omaha NE, Moorcroft WY, and Deer Lodge MT (assuming he uses the I-90 routing).

AZBuck

Thanks all! I guess I was basing this on our yearly trips to his family in MI, which we drive straight through, taking about 12 hours or more. I know he is usually "wide open" on his first day of driving and therefore thought he would drive the longer day on his first day, but then I scaled it back to 9 hours the other days except the last....again, knowing he will want to "conquer" that last leg.
Everyone else that we talked to said that they have driven it in 3-4 days. I've never had anyone say it took them 5 days. Guess we need to rethink some things.
Thanks so much!

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.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by dramm

First day:
Ga to Columbia, Mo 10 hr 37 mins (he will be motivated to drive more his first leg of the trip!)

---

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.

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.

Thanks, glc! Just heard from him again. He is about 30 miles east of STL. The roads are good, even though the IL DOT reported them 100% covered in snow/ice. He said there are several cars off in the median and looks about like what we dealt with locally in the Atlanta area just last week. I will look at Wentzville for hotels. If I know him...and I do....:-) He is going to try to make it to Kansas City, but since it's getting dark he may just stop over so he's not driving in the dark.

Yeah, trying to make it to KC would be an extremely bad idea.

As we've discussed earlier, fatigue is a killer and this trip is a marathon, not a sprint. Even if he doesn't "feel" tired, his driving ability is going to quickly start going downhill, and pushing himself to the max today will make him a less safe driver tomorrow.

The roads are NOT that good yet west of Wentzville - I'd highly recommend he not try to go any farther after dark, they are going to ice up. It's VERY cold up here, may go below zero tonight. Salt doesn't work when it's that cold and there's no sun.

4 hotels on hotels.com in Wentzville with rooms available - prices and ratings:

Economy Inn - $44 - fair
Knights Inn - $50 - fair
Super 8 - $64 - good
Fairfield - $131 - outstanding (it better be for THAT price!)

He actually made it to Colombia, Mo tonight. It's 7pm there, so he will get a very good nights sleep. He said the interstate has been great all the way, but when he got off the exit to Colombia he started sliding a little bit in the slush.

Good deal - I was thinking Columbia would be a decent option. It certainly has a lot more hotels than Wentzville and there won't be any traffic issues whatsoever in the morning. It's also far enough from KC where he won't have rush hour problems there.

Tell him the best way around KC is I-435 around the NE side to I-29. I don't advise he go through downtown.

If he decides to take I-80, instead of going all the way to Omaha, get off I-29 at IA-2 to NE-2 through Nebraska City to Lincoln, US-77 will get him to I-80. If he's going to take I-90, just stay on I-29 to Sioux Falls.

Another option is take I-80 to Cheyenne, then use I-25 to get to I-90. It all depends on weather and road conditions. Right now, none of the options are terrible, but none of them are clear either.

Well, he's in Sioux City, SD having car troubles now. May be the bearing going out of the alternator?? Whatever that is!

That's no big deal, alternators are fairly easy to change and are widely available. The alternator is what makes the electricity to operate the car.

It is a good thing he caught it while he was in a city and not out on the rural Interstate.

Good lord, what time was he back out on the road this morning? Sioux City, Iowa is about 7 hours from Columbia (Sioux Falls, South Dakota is another 90 minutes past that), so he must have been checked out of his room by 5am?

Always hate to deal with car repairs on the road, but maybe this is karma reminding him that he shouldn't be pushing himself to the brink?

Agree with GLC, at least the problem was found near a major city where they should be able to repair the problems relatively quickly.

My husband just made it to his destination in WA. The roads were all good and he said it was a beautiful trip. I can't thank you all enough for your invaluable help! Thank you, thank you!

Thanks for reporting.

Glad to hear the weather stayed in his favor, and he managed to not any other significant problems.