Moving from Houston to Philadelphia - Road Trip!

[Sanmom]

Hello, I need some help planning a road trip from Houston, TX to Philadelphia, PA. We're planning to leave on July 7 evening, and reach by July 11. We have a 3 year old, so we would like to drive a maximum of 8-9 hours everyday. It's going to be the 3 of us- husband, wife and baby.

Any suggestions on ideal stops to make along the way and places to visit would be very helpful too. Please guide!

[AZBuck]

Welcome aboard the RoadTrip America Forums!

With four full days and a (very) small part of a fifth, you can take your time on this move, even allowing for a stop every couple of hours to let the toddler get some fresh air and exercise. In fact I'd urge you to do just that, spreading your eight hours of driving over several two-hour legs through the day and actually being 'on the road' between overnight stops more like ten to eleven hours. That would let you make the most of the longer summer daylight hours while still letting everyone get a full night's sleep.

As for routing with such a relaxed schedule consider heading more-or-less direct to Natchez MS and taking the Natchez Trace Parkway up to Nashville, than I-40 across to Knoxville and US-421 through the Great Smoky Mountains to the Blue Ridge Parkway for as much as time permits. Finally I-81 up to Harrisburg and the Pennsylvania Turnpike into Philly would let you avoid the traffic nightmare that is I-95 through Washington, Baltimore and the Maryland and Delaware Turnpikes.

Besides the aforementioned parks and parkways, other possible stops along or near this route include Mississippi Petrified Forest, Shiloh National Military Park, Mount Rogers National Recreation Area, Shenandoah National Park, and Fort Frederick State Park among others, although your child would be just as happy with smaller state and local parks such as these. You won't have time to visit them in depth, but any of them will provide a pleasant break from the road. Depending on how far you were planning on getting on that first evening and assuming that eight hours of actual driving (not counting meal, fuel and other stops) translates to about 400 miles, I'd plan on overnights at approximately Burkeville TX, Tupelo MS, Knoxville TN, and Roanoke VA. I'd also go ahead and make reservations so that you're not wasting time on the road looking for places or worse, running into No Vacancy signs

AZBuck