Memorable Road trip (imposible people says)

[agualeguas]

Im planning my greatest road trip ever, i have driving experience and roadtrip experience but only in summer locations.

I NEED HELP PLEASE

So this is the plan, in late december me and other 3 guys are going to start this trip from Monterrey, Mexico. (close to Roma, Texas) The trip goes to New York City as the main destination, but here is the complete route, we are going to Houston and from there to New Orleans, this is pretty easy for us we already have done it several times, but from here the hard part starts, from New Orleans we are going to Washington DC, and then to NYC. After some time in there we plan to go to Montreal Canada, and then to Toronto. From Toronto we want to visit the Niagara falls and then go back by Detroit and all the way back to Dallas Texas, where things will be familiar again. My calculations are 5100 miles, we have 16 days minimum. But all of our families doubt we can make it, and we think that the winter and that stuff can send us back after our plans.

We are using a USB GPS receiver and a laptop for road info. but we need advice, and experience info (we only plan to stay a good time in NYC and Toronto all the rest is only for route info and maybe sleeping places. Please post anything, and i also want to know about the time that people can use the ice skating place in Rockefeller in NYC, which date the thing is unusable.

Sorry for my spelling i need practice in my english.

[Mass Tim]

No problemo - mi espanol es muy mal tambien (I know it's pidgin, but I also know I didn't just ask for fried cactus mustaches ;-)

Just a couple of points:

Late December in NY state can be hairy. The lake effect can have a nasty habit of dumping two feet of snow on the Niagara Falls region of NY at a whim, so keep a close eye on those weather reports! NYC tends to fair better in this regard, but there is always a chance, so don't be surprised if you have to alter your plans at some point along the route.

Your mileage indicates an average daily drive of around 320 miles. After 16 days of doing it consistently, that can get wearisome. And if you plan on exploring NYC and Toronto, you're going to want more than just one day to do it.

[RoadTripper Brad]

Just to let you know- if you don't have a passport, you need to get one. Starting real soon, the US Dept of Homeland Security will require passports for everyone, including American Citizens, to enter the United States of America.

[Robert Schaller]

Buenas noches! I calculated about 4,973 miles for your trip using MS Streets and Trips. Figuring 53 mph average, that's about 310 miles per day, or about 6 hours driving each day. Given there are about 10 daylight hours each day in winter, that leaves you about 4 hours each day for doing things, sightseeing, etc. In only 16 days, this doesn't leave you any time to accomodate any bad weather you run into. So it is a gamble, unless you can add a few days if you have to. I'm no expert on Diciembre weather in the northeast, but my guess is it could be OK, or it could be muy mal. My guess is your odds are about even (50/50) on that score, at any given place or time -- which means that you will likely hit some bad weather SOMEWHERE along the way. How bad is anybody's guess.

The Rockefeller Center ice rink is usually open from October (Columbus Day) through April, and off and on all day until about 10:30 at night -- I assume they close every couple of hours to resurface the ice. Buen Viaje!

"Roberto"