I’m moving my son to Washington DC in a couple of weeks. Looking for suggestions about the best route to take considering Covid and places closing again. All suggestions or recommendations are greatly appreciated!
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I’m moving my son to Washington DC in a couple of weeks. Looking for suggestions about the best route to take considering Covid and places closing again. All suggestions or recommendations are greatly appreciated!
Welcome to RTA!
What are you using to make the move? Rental truck, car/truck, car/truck towing a trailer?
I would recommend the following route to avoid the Chicago metro and excessive tolls:
I-94/I-90/I-39 to Bloomington IL
I-74 to Indy
I-465 south bypass to I-70
I-270 south bypass around Columbus
I-70 to Washington PA
I-79 to Morgantown
I-68 to Hancock
I-70 to Hagerstown
I-270 to DC
This is just over 1200 miles, you MIGHT be able to do this in 2 long days if you share the driving, but I'd spread it out more into a 3rd day, especially if it's a rental truck or you will be towing.
What you need should be open. Hotels and gas stations are no problem.
Restaurant seating may be an issue but you should be able to get food to go and use drive throughs, eat in the car, outside, or in hotel rooms. Bring hand sanitizer, masks, and gloves for fueling. Assume everywhere you go will have a mask ordinance, even if not, it's the smart thing to do.
The only toll on this route will be I-90/I-39 between the WI/IL state line and Rockford.
Hi, welcome to RTA!
My husband and I just got back from a trip to check on family, and it's possible to travel if you take certain precautions. As for routing, are you going to be driving a U-Haul truck or towing a trailer? That might affect the routing choices we can suggest. Sightseeing is the most difficult -- can't tell you how many things we had to remove from our trip!
The route I'll suggest is one to avoid Chicago and some of the other huge cities: Take I-90/94 to I-39. At Bloomington, IL, pick up I-74 and take that to I-70. In PA, pick up I-79 and take it down to I-68 which will take you down to I-70 and into DC. It's a little over 1200 miles, and that can be about a 2-1/2 to 3 day drive if you have a U-Haul truck or are pulling a trailer. It also avoids all the toll roads except for a small portion of I-39 which is toll in IL.
Precautions: take along hand sanitizer and hand sanitizing wipes. Use gloves to put in fuel, but if you feel they're cumbersome, then immediately wash your hands or use sanitizer after fueling! You might feel more comfortable bringing along your own hand soap. Take care using public restroom facilities and use hand sanitizer or wash your hands for 20 seconds!
Hubby and I stayed in mid-range properties (Quality Inn and Comfort Inn) and found them to be very very clean. We brought our own pillows, though.
Restaurants - well, yes, here's where the closures are more likely to be. They may be at "take out only" status, or "al fresco dining" (nice if it isn't 100 in the shade), or they may have dine-in. We found ourselves looking on TripAdvisor and calling a place as we approached, to ask "are you open for dine-in?" The vast majority had all staff in masks and gloves.
Speaking of masks .... don't forget yours. Several, if you can, because they do get dropped, misplaced in the vehicle, etc.
EDIT: I see GLC offered the same routing and same suggestions. We were typing at the same time! I won't delete mine because we have different details in our posts.
Donna
Thank you! I’m so happy that I found this site. We will be taking a u-haul truck one way. I’m thinking. I thought about driving my car too. So that we have a way to get around once we drop off the truck. Not sure. Looking forward to the road trip!
If you are going to be driving a truck and a car, each driving solo, plan on 3 full days to avoid fatigue.
Three day should allow you to get into the DC metro area mid day which you want to do especially with a uHaul truck. While many are still working from home the traffic and rush hour is not for the faint hearted.
Another thing to think about, if one is driving a U-Haul truck and the other is driving the car, is *communication*. The U-Haul truck will not have the modern convenience of Blutooth phone handling, that a more modern car would have. Trying to contact each other could be frustrating. I'd suggest a pair of family radios with brand-new batteries. They're good if you get up to about a mile apart.
Another thought would be to rent a car-trailer for the personal vehicle to ride 4-wheels up. It might be the same price as the extra fuel that the personal vehicle would take, would be less wear and tear on that vehicle. Just be prepared for it to need a good wash when you get to DC!
The other thing that having the car will help with? Getting you back to MN. If you don't have it, you'll have to fly. The airlines have returned to stuffing as many folks into their jets as they have seats, and to me, driving is MUCH less risky than flying. Everytime my husband and I have to fly some place, one of us comes down with a cold or flu right after we get back. And that was BEFORE Covid-19!
Donna
Look what U-Haul sells!
Scosche Universal Bluetooth Hands-Free Car Kit with FM Transmitter and 10-Watt USB Car Charger
List price:$34.99
Price
$23.95
https://www.uhaul.com/MovingSupplies...harg/?id=22027
Speaking of rental trucks - I don't know how big a truck you are renting, but U-Haul trucks all have gas engines. My nephew rented a 26 footer for a move from Michigan to California. They claim 10 miles per gallon, don't believe it. It had a Ford V-10 which is a notorious gas hog, he got 6 miles per gallon. Penske 22 and 26 footers are diesels, which should get at least 10 miles per gallon. Rates are competitive, and Penske also offers a 12% AAA member discount.
Just joined the forum - have this exact question - moving my son to DC area - so thank you Nawlins, glc, donna...
My son has a car of his own and we will be driving a minivan - so here are my questions
a) does the route you guys suggested make for some sight seeing along the way? we are not pressed for time
b) should i consider hauling the car ('18 Civic) on a dolly behind the van ('12 Odyssey) - i think this is more $ than worth the convenience of us being in the same car
c) should i buy a pair of two way radios to stay in touch - in case of bad cell signal
thanks in advance!
AK
Welcome aboard the RoadTrip America forums!
Yes, the basic routing outlined by various posters above is a good route between MSP and DC. While it is about 100 miles longer than the shortest possible route, it misses a lot of congested traffic around Chicago and Cleveland, it's still doable in three days of driving and it saves a LOT on tolls.
As to your other questions...
I would not put the car on a dolly. Your opinion may differ, but I consider one of the most enjoyable aspects of a RoadTrip to be the actual driving. Also putting the car on a dolly and towing it with the minivan might not even be the most fuel efficient combination. Then there's the fact that you'd both (all?) have to squeeze into the minivan. And it's just not that hard to stay together when driving a couple of vehicles. The trick is to let the slower vehicle (the minivan?) lead so that it doesn't drop too far behind the car. Also, this lets the car pull into the left lane and 'block' for the minivan when it has to pass slower traffic.
I would think your cell phones would be fine. Using some new technology would make you more of a distracted driver than using devices you're already familiar with. And you simply don't have to stay in constant immediate contact with each other while on the road.
There are many, many places to stop all along every highway and the suggested route covers the same basic geography as the shortest possible route while missing a good bit of the traffic.
Don't hesitate to come back if you have more questions.
AZBuck
I would not consider hauling the car, and unless you have some really compelling reason, would actually consider towing in this case to be a pretty bad idea.Quote:
Originally Posted by toananth
First, I suspect towing would put you over towing capacity for the mini-van. A civic weighs about 3,000 lbs, and the towing capacity for an Odyssey is 3,500. However, that does not include total payload, and presuming you're going to have the van, and possibly also the car packed with stuff that's being moved, it would be very easy to be well over the payload capacity for the van.
Tow dollys are also kind of tricky anyway - for example, you can't back up at all - and if you don't have a lot of experience towing, it's probably a bigger challenge than you need.
Even if you weren't at towing capacity, Towing that far also is likely going to put a fair amount of stress on an 8 year old minivan. At that age, the van is probably getting to the point where you've probably got some parts that are reaching the end of their expected life cycle that would need to be repaired sooner rather than later. Not a deal breaker by any means, but also a factor worth considering.
As far as radios, I would generally agree with Buck. Years ago, they were a good idea, but with cell coverage being nearly universal on interstate highways, I don't think there is a need. All you really need is to be able to communicate when and where you're planning your next stop, so even if you hit some pockets with poor coverage, you should still have plenty of opportunity to coordinate those stopping points.
I'd definitely agree with "no tow dolly". But as for the two-way radios, it's a matter of personal preference. If both vehicles have "hands-free" capability with the phone, like the newer vehicles do, cell phones might be fine. However, (for anyone reading this in the future), U-Haul trucks do not have that capability, and of my own 3 vehicles, 2 of them don't have it either.
Two way radios are EASY technology. Load with batteries. Turn on. Set both radios to the same channel. To talk, press button. Most have a button on it that says "Call". You press that, and it sends a signal to the other radio that you want to talk. If you get in an area with lots of static, or other conversations going on, you say, "change to channel (new number)". We used ours to move our daughter from SoCal to the Denver area, 2+ years ago. Their car had the capability of hands free phone, but the U-Haul truck did not.
Donna
Donna, refer to post #8. U-Haul sells something that's inexpensive that will tie your phone into the truck FM radio.