Quote Originally Posted by Southwest Dave View Post
Hello and welcome to the RTA forums !

The first thing to point out is that heading south by no means guarantees avoiding winter weather and should the south be hit with a winter storm they are not as well prepared to deal with it as their countrparts further north. Thats not to say you shouldn't head south, it's more of a caveat. The other thing is that by heading to CA to stay with family will add another 300 miles to your journey and the longer you are on the road the bigger chance of catching a storm, so something else to consider. Travelling with pets and UHaul truck means that covering 500 miles per day would be 'work like' but what you could expect to do reasonably comfortably travelling for 9-10 hours a day with appropriate stops for food, fuel, bathroom and rest breaks. So heading to Cico would be a day gone then it would require another 5 overnight stops/6 days to complete your journey. If you decided to go more direct and head east on I-80 you could complete the jouney in 6 days, either way you should be build in some extra time so that if you did run into a storm you could get off the road and wait it out. The most important thing is not to cover too much ground at the start, it's a marathon and not a sprint, meaning that if you push hard to early when fresh and excited you could 'crash and burn' along the way. You can find 'pet friendly' lodgings by clicking on the 'Lodging' link in the green tool bar above. If you have specific questions please ask. Safe travels !
You make some really good points. We are familiar with the drive to southern California and I do agree that there's no way to completely avoid the risk of winter weather. I guess maybe because we're familiar with driving down to California and Arizona, I was thinking it would be a better route for us than the more northern route that we aren't familiar with. We are still toying with doing pods instead of a moving truck, so that would definitely make for an easier drive. Lots to think about.

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Quote Originally Posted by glc View Post
Welcome to RTA!

There's no route that can avoid possible winter driving conditions, but if you take I-5 to I-10 the likelihood should be minimized. This is also close to being the fastest route.

Suggestion to avoid most of the LA metro area:

At Lost Hills, take CA-46 east to CA-99. Take that south to CA-58 east. Then take US-395 south to I-15 south. Take I-215 south to CA-210 east to I-10.

To avoid most of Phoenix:

Take AZ-85 south to Gila Bend, then I-8 east back to I-10.

To avoid New Orleans:

At Baton Rouge take I-12 back to I-10.

From Chico to Orlando is about 3000 miles and I would allow 6 days. You might be able to do it in 5, but that's pushing safety when you are driving a U-Haul truck in convoy with cars.
Thank you for the information. That helps a lot to at least get started planning a route.