LA to NY Drive - Questions, Questions.

[glc]

Exactly where in upstate NY, please?

[nylioness]

Upstate New York

[Lifemagician]

Upstate New York

I think glc means near which city..... Syracuse? Binghamton? albany? Buffalo? etc.

Don't worry, you won't be on the road alone, and front wheel drive is a good start.

Lifey

[Midwest Michael]

Is it more advisable to go southern route just to avoid bad weather if the chance is slimmer than northern route? I just want to try to avoid snow as much as possible. I'm frightened by the snow.

Absolutely not! As I said in my first response, you can't assume that a more southern route will have better weather. The only thing you can do is look at weather forecasts. There are plenty of times where I-40 or even I-10 is seeing snow and ice, that can actually be avoided by going farther north. It just depends upon the exact weather patterns when you are actually on the road.

[DonnaR57]

Suggestion: Look at a good map, perhaps an atlas. Plan out two, possibly 3 routes, or even more. PLAN on taking the shortest route. Then, a day or so before you leave, check the weather forecast and make sure that Plan A will work. If not, look at Plan B, or even Plan C.

Even when you're on the road, if you have a laptop or smartphone with you (to use when you're in a fuel station, rest area, etc) and check current weather, you can divert yourself around something if needed.

Interstate freeways are the FIRST to be cleared, sanded/salted, because commercial traffic MUST go through. However, there are a few places where snow and ice are uncommon, and when they do show up, the State is rather slow to respond because they don't have a lot of equipment hanging around.

Donna

[glc]

"Upstate" New York is a big place - near what city would help a LOT in recommending a route.

[noFanofCB]

Southern route isn't necessarily the best choice. Ice storms make roads slippery. Very cold & dry snow has a LOT more traction.

I much prefer to drive in very cold than potential icing. (and you do NOT want to be in the South when snow sticks to the road - they have no plows and aren't very good at driving in it)

Be sure you have new wiper blades and your washer reservoir has COLD WEATHER fluid in it. Good for -25F. You may or may not be able to get that at the start of your trip.
Frozen washer reservoir and pump is a bad deal.

Good, deep tread on your tires is important in snow.
And if you've never dealt with it before, it might be worth practicing in a parking lot for 30 min once you reach snow to learn how the car handles.

And a fresh battery in the car might be essential to getting it started if the temp is near 0 or so.

[nylioness]

hello again,

I am planning to drive from Los Angeles to New York via the southern route and passing by these states:

Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennesses, West Virginia, Pennsylvania.

I read that I-10 will get you from Los Angeles to Louisiana.

I was thinking of driving along 1-10 until we get to New Orleans. What is the most straight forward route to drive from Louisiana to get to New York?

Also, if there are any suggestions on places that I must visit along this route, please do share!

1. Arizona - Grand Canyon and Sedona

2. New Mexico - Not sure what to visit yet.. but would like it to be along the way, if possible.

3. Texas - Will try to drive pass it. If there is some place worth visiting that is along the way, please share!

4. Louisiana - French Quarters, New Orleans

5. Mississipi - ???? No idea..

After Mississippi, we just plan to drive directly to New York.

Would anyone have any idea approximately the time or mileage it will actually take me to drive this route?

Thank you!

[EDIT: PLEASE DO NOT MAKE NEW THREADS FOR THIS TRIP -- KEEP ALL OF YOUR RESPONSES IN THIS CURRENT THREAD.... -- Moderator]

[DonnaR57]

Welcome to RTA!

First thing I'd do, if I were you, is to get yourself a good set of maps and/or road atlas, and start looking at the routes yourself. Yes, I-10 goes from LA to Louisiana -- and beyond. It goes all the way to Jacksonville, FL.

If you were to drive from LA to NYC via the most direct route, it would take you 6 days in normal weather without any sightseeing. For us, the most direct route 3 years ago was I-15 to I-40, to I-81 in TN, to I-80 in PA, east to NJ and beyond to NYC. (I-78 is better for most other people, but we were actually going to a town along I-80 in NJ.)

Going the way you are talking about -- it's 1900 miles from LA to NO, LA. Texas along I-10, btw, is very sparsely populated. There are a few things worthwhile to see, if you have the time. Then from there, I-59/24/75/40/81/78 is the combination that is probably the most direct route from NOLA to NYC.


Donna

[Midwest Michael]

At this point, until you start looking at some maps, any advice you get here is going to be pretty meaningless.

The fact that you've only "read" that I-10 will get you from California to Louisiana and you aren't sure if you can visit New Mexico, tells me you don't even have a basic lay of the land, which really is the first step to planning any trip.

I will say, when you look at a map, you'll discover that the Grand Canyon is nowhere near I-10, so that's a major detour from your current plan. You still also haven't told us where you're going beyond the huge target of "upstate NY," which makes it impossible for us to give you an accurate idea of routes or travel times.

Having said that, going via I-10 and New Orleans means you're going to be looking at around 500 miles of extra driving vs. going a more direct route - so that's a minimum of 1 extra day on the road and that's assuming you don't hit any bad weather - and you'll need at least a full week, plus time for siteseeing, extra detours like to the Grand Canyon, and weather delays.

But once you start doing a little bit of the work yourself to at least get a lay of the land, we can do much more to help you along your way.