Houston to Paso Robles - need advice

[SoCalMom]

I am helping a friend move from Spring (The Woodlands in Houston) to Paso Robles the week before the 4th of July (leaving June 30th and hopefully arriving July 3rd. We are driving a moving truck and her brand new car separately because we are not experienced at towing and don't want to risk damage to her car. We are giving ourselves 3 days to make the trip, and planned to take I-10 all the way (stopping over in Ft. Stockton and Phoenix), and then up the I-5 through Bakersfield and over Hwy 46 into Paso. We are both from LA, so we're not looking for the scenic route on that stretch.

I was wondering if maybe we should consider I-40 instead of I-10. Besides being a bit longer, what are the pros and cons to each? Any pitfalls for single women travelliing solo on either route? Towns we should definitely avoid staying over in (we are avoiding El Paso for that reason).

Its been a long time since I drove I-40, but I remember it being a much prettier ride.

Thanks!

[Midwest Michael]

Welcome to the RTA Forum!

There isn't a huge difference in either I-40 or I-10, as they are very similar in the amount of miles they cover. I'd probably lean towards I-40 as my choice because its arguably more scenic (but there are pro/cons of each - there are a lot of things on I-10 I like in Arizona for example), but more importantly you should see less traffic problems. Basically, you'll only have Dallas, as opposed to dealing with Tucson/Phoenix, and Los Angeles. Also being from LA, I'd assume you know you'd want to take I-210 instead of taking I-10 all the way into downtown LA.

If you take I-10, I think you need to try to get farther than Fort Stockton your first day, as that would set up an extremely long day getting to Phoenix. I would shoot for Van Horn instead.

If you go on I-40, Amarillo and Flagstaff would both be good stopping points.

As far as cities to be avoided, there really aren't any. Remember, every place is someone elses hometown - and pretty much every major city is also going to have its share of areas to be avoided. Skipping an entire American city because you don't think it would be safe is taking things to an unrational extreme.

[glc]

My mapping program says that I-10/I-5 is the fastest, and it's 1750 miles. This is going to be a long grind with only 3 days. This will require that you deal with San Antonio, Tucson, Phoenix, and LA.

The I-40 option is 1825 miles. This would be I-45/US-287/I-40/CA-58/CA-99/CA-46. This would only have you dealing with Fort Worth and Albuquerque.

Either way, if at all possible, I'd try to add at least half a day, if not a full day. You aren't going to be able to drive that moving truck as fast as you would a car, it's going to have a governor, probably set around 65 or so. That's going to be painful across West Texas if you take I-10 with its 80 mph (daytime auto) speed limit.