Welcome aboard!

I can understand your dilemma. It's a lovely drive, no matter what route you take, but you're worried about the weather. Normally we don't offer routing suggestions on the first message, but I'm going to break protocol. But first...weather.

Of course you'll be watching the Weather Channel, checking weather online, or whatever before and during your trip. No matter what route you choose, you'll want some flexibility. When I drove from central MO to SoCal one December, after Christmas, I listened to the weather broadcasts constantly!!!

One suggestion for routing will take you far enough south to avoid a lot, hopefully. If it were me, I'd take I-80 into Pennsylvania, where I'd catch I-81 heading south. Sticking to interstates during the winter usually helps, because they are the first ones dealt with in bad weather - - our truckers MUST get our goods through. Along I-81 there is Shenandoah National Park. Skyline Drive is open during the winter months, if the weather is decent.

Once in Tennessee, you can catch I-40 west. Just south of Knoxville is the Great Smoky Mountain National Park - - a day ca be spent there. Some of it will be open in the winter! Back along I-40, you'll go through Memphis. Elvis Presley's Graceland is there, if you or your son (you didn't say how old he is) are interested. My daughter says it's a nice tour.

I-40 in Arkansas and Oklahoma is a beautiful wooded drive, until Oklahoma City. Then the terrain gets to be high desert. Climbing into Albuquerque is where the weather can get "iffy" again, as well as into Flagstaff, AZ.

At Williams, AZ, you could take a small detour up to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. Part of the Rim Drive is open year -round.

To get to Las Vegas from I-40, one could either take US 93 from Kingman, or cross into CA and take US 95. OR, as an alternative, take AZ-68 from Kingman over to Bullhead City and Laughlin, then NV-163 over to US 95 and north.



Donna