Road trip from Southern Ontario to New Orleans end of January

[Crunchies]

We will be setting of on a travel adventure, in late January, travelling from Burlington, Ontario to New Orleans. This will be our first big trip pulling our 25ft travel trailer. We have been investigating the best route to take, travelling in the winter with a travel trailer.

First question: Which border crossing would be better: Sarnia / Port Huron OR Windsor / Detroit? (mid-week and midday)

Second question: This is the route we are planning. Would this be a good route at this time of the year?
Day 1: I-75 to Toledo
Day 2: I-75 > I-275 to Montgomery, OH (northern part of Cincinnati) to see friends
Day 3: I-275 > I-71 > I-65 to Nashville
Day 5: I-40 to Memphis
Day 6: I-55 to New Orleans

Any advice, tips or thoughts for these newbies would be appreciated!

[Midwest Michael]

Welcome to the RTA forum!

For the border crossing, I would probably lean towards Sarnia while towing. It's basically a freeway to freeway connection, so you don't have to worry about navigating city streets, like you do if you cross at Windsor. That said, if you cross at the Ambassador Bridge, you'll arrive in the US south of Downtown Detroit, so that might save you a touch on traffic, especially if you're around a rush hour.

I presume you would be restricted from using the tunnel, due to size and/or propane, but I wouldn't recommend it even if you're allowed because of the more difficult connection back to the freeway in Detroit.

Your route looks fine - of course with any winter trip, the weather during your specific time of travel is the key thing, and you may need to be flexible and look for alternate routes.

Another option you might consider would be taking the Natchez Trace Parkway from Nashville south into Mississippi, instead of heading over to Memphis. It's a slower but scenic route worth considering.

[Lifemagician]

Have you considered that during winter your travel trailer will be limited to what you can do. The other consideration is that very few, if any, campgrounds will be open, even in the southern States. Best you research that in detail.

Lifey

[AZBuck]

I agree with Michael that the Blue Water Bridge in Sarnia is your best option for a crossing point. You could then use I-69 to completely bypass the Detroit area and US-23/US-223 (largely freeway quality) to I-475 around Toledo and join up with I-75 to Columbus. After that I-71 to Louisville, I-65 to Birmingham AL and I-59 to New Orleans is as straightforward a route as there is. I would not use the Natchez Trace, even though scenic, as it is a two lane road with a low speed limit, few exits and limited passing opportunities.

This is a three day drive at a minimum, with your longest day being the first one between Burlington and Montgomery. The halfway point between Montgomery and New Orleans on the routing suggested above would be roughly Decatur/Huntsville AL where there are a few campgrounds around Wheeler Lake on the Tennessee River. You should also be far enough south at that point that camping in a travel trailer is possible, depending on the actual weather conditions at the time.

Your original suggestion of I-40/I-55 to go through Memphis is almost as good. However it would move your halfway point to Jackson TN and options there for overnight trailer camping are much more limited. You could, of course, use one route southbound and another northbound to see more of the country between you and New Orleans.

AZBuck

[Crunchies]

Thank you for the tips and advice. We have decided to use the Sarnia border crossing and then use the I-69 then US-23 to bypass Detroit.
We will most probably only use our trailer once we get to New Orleans (weather depending) opting to stay in a hotel south of Toledo and then also in Nashville as we would like to spend a day exploring the city.
What is the best App or website that we should use for monitoring the weather to determine our departure day?

[AZBuck]

Every weather forecast, whether on local TV, in the local paper or on radio, all ultimately come from the same source, the National Weather Service (NWS/NOAA). When you first open that site, you will see a map of the US on which each county is color-coded according to the expected weather.Clicking anywhere on the map will get you the local forecast for that county (or a nearby major city). That is your best bet for the latest and most accurate observations and forecasts. The only other weather web site I use is the Weather Channel which has somewhat better graphics. It also has supports a phone app which you can download. I don't see that the NWS/NOAA offers the same.

AZBuck

[glc]

There's also Wunderground which is owned by the Weather Channel.

[Mark Sedenquist]

There's also Wunderground which is owned by the Weather Channel.

Actually, Weather Undergound is owned by IBM. In some ways, it is not as good as when it was owned by the original founders, but it is still the go-to site that I use for checking radar. They have a product that I use virtually everyday -- it is a graphical tool called a "Wundermap" that makes reading radar returns on-the-fly a breeze.

For example here is the page for Sarnia, Ontario and on this page you can look at current conditions, by the hour, 10-day predictions and the Wundermap link.

Mark

[glc]

Actually, Weather Undergound is owned by IBM.

The Weather Channel is also owned by IBM.

[Crunchies]

Thank you so much to all of you. What a great forum!