There are three options, as I see it.
1) The "Northern Route" goes east on I-10, then north on I-25 to Albuquerque, then east and north on I-40 through Amarillo and Oklahoma City, picking up I-70 through St. Louis, Indianapolis and Columbus, finally hopping onto I-79 up through Akron, within five miles of my new office and into Youngstown on I-80. Distance: 2140.4 miles. Time: 30 hrs., 59 mins. (But the way I drive, it will be much less than 31 hours.)
2) The "TJ Route" (a.k.a. "You Haven't Gotten Many Good Mother Points From Your Older Son Lately) : I-10 through El Paso, then I-20 to Lewisville, TX, to see my older son and meet his lovely Kathryn, about whom I've heard so much. From Dallas, I-57 to just east of St. Louis, then I-70 to Indianapolis and Columbus and I-79/I-80 into Ytown. Distance: 2218.3 miles. Time: 32 hrs. 39 mins.
3) The "Stock Up On Good Daughter Points Route": Triple-A tells me to take I-30 out of Dallas through Little Rock and Memphis, then I-40 through Nashville and Knoxville down past Asheville to Hendersonville, then backtrack up I-40 and grab I-77 into Pittsburgh and PA/OH Turnpike and I-279 into Ytown. Distance: 2493.7 miles. Time: 37 hrs., 35 mins.
Not to act like I know more than Triple-A, but I'd prefer taking I-20 out of Dallas through Atlanta, then I-85 through Greenville-Spartanburg and up I-40 to Mother's. That's 2507 miles and 38 hrs., 18 minutes.
The portion from Mother's apartment in Hendersonville to Ytown is 555.9 miles and 8 hrs., 40 minutes. If I don't drive that extra five hours from Dallas to Hendersonville on this trip, then in a few weeks I'm going to have to take a Friday off and drive 9 hours down there and 9 hours back on Sunday afternoon. Five hours now or 16 hours later?
Seeing TJ and Kathryn adds an hour-and-a-half to the basic trip. Adding Mother into the equation adds a day to the basic trip. She is, after all, going to be 95 in May, and every day is a gift or an added bonus or some such platitude.
Part of the challenge is not knowing how long the movers are going to take on Saturday and, thus, what time I'll be able to leave and start driving. I don't believe I can get all the way to Dallas in one day, so if I'm going to see TJ and Kathryn on Sunday evening, I believe I need to start driving on Saturday afternoon. And I don't like to drive much at night, so the later on Saturday I leave, the farther away from Dallas my Saturday night hotel.
I guess I could change the movers to Friday. Part of my consideration involves arriving in Ytown on Friday the 29th to see Tyler in Forever Plaid (click on the link to Tyler's blog on the side of this page) and having sufficient time to unwind and find my clothes before I start work on Monday.
And as I write this and work through all these logistics, my hat is off to the Traveler, who puts 6,000 miles on his bike and his butt every May to do the Run for the Wall and Rolling Thunder. At least I'm not traveling with the wind whipping over my helmet, although Rudi might find that interesting.
If you have an opinion on this trip, I'd love for you to add a comment, below. I told my beloved boss yesterday that the thing I miss most right now is having a partner to bounce things off of.
6 comments:
I'd love for you to meet Kathryn. I'm just sayin'.
Well the way I see it-no question about it -you move the movers to Thursay or Friday and see the son and the mother!!
I say make this trip an adventure... get the movers in early and you out early ... stop and see everyone... make every memory of the journey something to remember (and to blog about for the rest of us :) )
You know what I would say:"take the long way home baby!" All of your possible routes are wonderful. See the USA in your... oops! You aren't driving a Chevy! On my way back from DC in late May, I will probably use a lot of your Route 1 until I cut over to Denver.
Traveler
If you do decide to swing through the Atlanta area, my mom and/ or I would more than love to try and meet you for breakfast/coffee/lunc/dinner/something.
And you're also welcome to our guest room.
Of all the maps, here, I like the lowest one the best. Traveling across Dallas, into Atlanta & then up to Y'town.
As I mentioned, in an email, you have to be careful of the Winter weather when traveling across the U.S.
Espcially with the kind of severe weather the mid-west has been getting recently.
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