Houston To Seattle, WA-HELP!

[miriam01]

Hello,

I love driving. However, I have not driven long distances. We are relocating from Houston to Seattle in a Uhaul (medium). I would like to stay on Interstates. I am trying to keep the drive down to 4 days (3 hotel stays at night)
I am not accustomed to driving through mountain passes, however I do love the mountains.

1) Shortest interstate route ( trying to avoid two lane highways)
2) Any tips that you can grant regarding safety.....

Thanks (in advance) for your assistance.

[Southwest Dave]

Hello and welcome to the RTA forums !

The quickest route looks to be 1-25/US287/1-40/US87/1-25/I-80/ I-84/ I-82/I-90, although someone with local knowledge along the route may come up with something slightly different.

You really need to do this with 4 overnight stops. It would be a tough ask to do it in 4 days with a car, but in a Uhaul it will be brutal and fatigue could set in which then becomes a safety issue for you and all that are sharing the road with you. Try and keep your mileage at around 500 miles per day and the last day into Seattle would be around 345 miles so you would arrive at a decent time, maybe avoid rush hour(s) with an early start. Any major City's you may stop at try and stay on the 'other' side so when you depart in the morning you are heading away from the city work traffic heading in for the day. If you are including loading and/or unloading the truck in that time, picking it up or dropping it off, then you probably need a day 6.

What time of year will this trip take place?

[glc]

Take I-45 out of Houston, not I-25, to US-287. You will take I-35W for a short distance through downtown Fort Worth. When you get to Amarillo, do not get on I-40, stay on US-287 to Loop-335 to US-87.

US-287 is near-Interstate quality between Fort Worth and Amarillo. US-87 between Amarillo and I-25 has the only stretches of 2 lane you will need to use, there's no reasonable alternate without adding a lot more miles.

I concur, 4 days would be pushing it.

[miriam01]

Hello and thanks for your response.

We are driving during the summer. The trip only includes driving. Are there any areas to avoid, as far as safety....We are trying to avoid mountain passes, minimize driving on isolated two lane highways, and lodge in cities that are diverse.

[Southwest Dave]

You can't avoid mountains but by using Interstate you will barely notice a change as they are built with gradual curves and gradients designed for the biggest of rigs and generally have safety rails. As for personal safety you should have no problems. Everywhere is someones home where they take kids to school etc and getting to the 'wrong part of town' is normally off the main path. Usual rule is, if someplace doesn't feel right it usually isn't so move on. Trust your gut feeling but I don't think it will be an issue. Safety issues are normally based around fatigue and speed on the road and although speed won't really be an issue for you, fatigue could be and it creeps up slowly and then slaps you right in the face. That is why I recommended an extra night even though your trip is a straight A to B journey, they will be long back to back days and as you said, you have no experience of long distance driving. It's a marathon and not a sprint so set your days out evenly and avoid pushing too hard at the start when you are fresh and excited to avoid 'burn out'.

[miriam01]

Thank you. Your recommendations are appreciated. I am going to extend the trip and focus on pacing myself.

[Southwest Dave]

If you are loaded and ready to hit the road on day 1 you could look at the following overnight stops, or at least use it as a guide. Houston>Memphis TX>Colorado Springs CO>Evanston WY>La Grande OR>Seattle. You could juggle it many ways, one would be to head to Denver from Memphis and then stop over in Ogden UT. You can check out lodging options in towns by clicking on the lodgings link in the green tool bar above.

Have a safe trip and drop by and let us know how it goes.