Road Trip Central CA to Fort Benning GA

[Anita.Sharp]

We sat down tonight with a load of maps and guidebooks to set up our route. We will be driving I 10 from CA to Texas, Then taking I 20 to Alabama, then working our way to Columbus, GA. We are leaving on a Friday evening and plan to be in Columbus Tuesday afternoon. Coming home, we are planning to work our way north from Columbus to Memphis, and then pick up I 40 to head East to California. Some of the things that we are thinking about seeing/doing are: Getting our feet wet in the Mississippi River, visiting Civil War battlegrounds/cemeteries, taking in things that make the South 'South'. We would like to visit some Native American sites, The Petrified Forest, and The Grand Canyon. I am looking for roadside restaurants/cafe's, etc. to eat at rather than visiting chain restaurants or fast-food places. We don't mind going a few miles off the beaten path to find such places. Also, we thought it would be fun to eat foods that are representative of the states that we will be traveling through. We will be traveling through Arizona, Texas, New Mexico, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Arkansas and Oklahoma. So, I am looking for suggestions of places of interest that would fun and/or convenient to stop for site-seeing and rest breaks. Good places to eat, and things that would make the trip fun and interesting. I have AAA and I have downloaded the Gas Buddy app to my phone. So. Any information on these routes would be helpful. Or if you have alternate route suggestions that would make the trip easier or more scenic that would help too! We are up for pretty much anything. We are not traveling with small children if that helps to narrow things down. Thanks so much!!

[glc]

You don't have time to get off the beaten path. It takes 4.5 days just to drive from central CA (you didn't say where but I used Fresno) to Columbus GA via I-10/I-20. This is with overnights around Palm Springs, Las Cruces NM, Abilene TX, and Vicksburg MS.

[Midwest Michael]

I have to agree with GLC. Trying to leave Friday evening and get to Georgia on Tuesday afternoon isn't impossible, but that's basically a speed run pace. You're looking at being on the road for at least 10-12 hours Saturday-Monday, and at least that much time combined on Friday and Tuesday. That doesn't include and doesn't leave much time for sit down meals or scenic detours off the beaten path. Throw in the fact that you mentioned you planned to camp, and your available hours in the day are even shorter.

Like I said, that doesn't mean it is impossible to make this trip and have a good time. But based on what you are telling us you want to do and what you want to get out of this trip, I would strongly consider giving yourself more time to make these drives, so you you'll be able to include the kinds of stops you are talking about.

[DonnaR57]

As far as making restaurant choices that are unique to the areas you are stopping at, this has been our goal too. The chains do start to taste the same, and the menus get boring.

When stopping for the evening at a motel, ask the front desk. What you'll get in response depends on how you phrase it. One time, we saw that there were 3 places next to/across the street from our motel, but we said, "OK, we see these restaurants, but if you were going to go out to eat tonight, where would YOU go?" and got a delightful recommendation down the road a bit.

Another way, which we used when we found the motel front desk person was really busy, was to check urbanspoon.com. Then we combed it looking for something that was unique to the area with good ratings.

Restaurants and motels change management all the time, making menus-food-lodging choices even more difficult. So here at RTA we have a tendency NOT to recommend anything specific to an area unless we've found that over a long period of time, the quality has remained stellar.

BTW, I totally concur with Michael and GLC....you need more time for the trip if you are trying to see something!


Donna

[Anita.Sharp]

Thank you for all the input. We are newbies to serious road tripping so this trip will get our feet wet. Here is a question. When I Google the distance and hours it takes to drive, (not factoring in traffic and stops). if you go I 40 from CA to Memphis then south to Georgia, it gives you a travel time of 33 hours. Does taking I 10 and I 20 add miles and time??? I'm a fan of taking I 40 to and from. My son wants to take the 'southern' route going, and the 'northern' route returning. Is there a time difference due to the southerly route being more metropolitan? (By time difference I mean the hours taken to travel, not the actual time zones.) I know we are cutting it close. We do have four drivers, so if necessary, we can push through to get where we need to be in a timely manner.
Thanks for the info. about urbanspoon.com. I will check it out. And yes, we are in Fresno! All advice welcome!! We're looking at this trip as an adventure. I appreciate the help!

[John259]

When I Google the distance...

Sometimes Google Maps offers different routes in the left margin - drift the mouse pointer over them to see what effect they have.

Otherwise, you can drag one or more points on the route Google suggests to the route you want to investigate.

Sometimes you need to tick the "Show Options" > "Avoid Highways" box to stop Google trying to force you on to interstates.

All that's for the old version of Google Maps. I don't know whether or not those things are identical in the new version.

[glc]

You MUST add 20% to Google drive times to reflect reality - and I don't care how many drivers you have, trying to go more than 600 miles in one day with NO sightseeing or getting off the beaten path is NOT a wise idea.

Fresno to Columbus via fastest route is 2330 miles and will take you 4.5 days. Fastest route:

CA-99/CA-58/I-40 to Memphis
US-78 (I-22) to Birmingham
I-65 to Montgomery
I-85/AL-186/US-80 to Columbus

The southern route adds 60 miles and 3 hours, bypassing LA:

CA-99/CA-58/US-395/I-15/I-10/I-20 to Meridian
US-80 to Montgomery, then as above.