So, my dude and I are driving from maryland to los angeles right after christmas. I do not have any experience driving on bad weather conditions ( I am from l.a) but he does. Anyhow. Our masterplan was to drive from Baltimore>Ft Myers, IN>Chicago >Des moines>omaha>Denver>Las vegas> L.A
does it sounds outrageous? We have from Dec 26 to Jan 1st to travel this stretch.
I wonder if anyone here has made this trip (or a similar route) around this time
Thank you!
We’ve driven part of that on occasion: DC to Chicago for Christmas/New Year’s and back. Sounds like you plan to mainly use US 30 for Baltimore to Chicago, yes? Good alternative to the toll roads.
Sorry, I meant Fort Wayne IND not Ft Myers.
i am not worried about toll roads, what really makes me itch is the weather. I mean, we dont really HAVE to hit those places, itd be nice to visit some friends on our way to California. I am trying to stay away from NM and TX (as ive seen the hills have eyes ha!)
Which takes out the smart route. To avoid weather you should take the southern route - drop down into Georgia and head due west on the 10 or the 40.
Back in early January '97 I made that trip. Took the more southerly route (the 95 to the 40 then straight across (with a side trip to New Orleans)). The weather was much better than across the 70, with the exception of hitting some snow between Santa Rosa, NM and Needles, CA (concentrated around Flagstaff, AZ).
If you stay on the interstates, there are no “The Hills Have Eyes” areas.
Quoted for truth. The Rocky Mountain pass on I70 (west of Denver) is close to 11,000 feet. If you’re on a five or six day timetable, it’s not something you should count on in December.
Due to the price of gas and the wear and tear on your car, it would be much cheaper to fly than to drive.
I used to live in the Fort Wayne area. You’ll be perfectly fine unless you get a lake-effect snowstorm, which is a real possibility. Basically, I think you have a 90% chance of having dry roads and zero trouble, and a 10% chance of catastrophic snowstorm.
We have to bring my boyfriends car. We really have no choice but to drive, and we were trying to make it as productive as we could. But, there is some truth. As long as i stop in vegas, id be fine 
Thank you folks for all the awesome tips and insightful advice!
I’d be leery of the northern route that time of year. If you do want to try it, watch the weather forecasts and be prepared to change your route on short notice.
BTW, Silenus / Turtle: “You boys ain’t from around here, are ya?” :D. It’s not “the 95”. It’s NEVER “the 95”. I once heard Agent Mulder say “the 95” on The X Files and knew that the dialogue was not written by anyone who’d ever driven 95. Never heard of either 40 or 10 called that either, at least not this side of the continent, but I know Californians use that phraseology.
Personally, I would consider 40 a safe if boring alternative to 70 or 80. We drove 40 cross-country the other direction, 25ish years back. You’re never too far from a rest stop / a place to stay, and while there probably are places where weather might be an issue (I’m thinking northern Arizona / NM), it seems less likely than places like Omaha and IL.
Yeah, I came in this thread to second, or third, that you should take the southern route at that time of year.
You could also go I-95-I-495 (near DC) to I-66 to I-81 down to Kingsport, TN (or an earlier exit). Maybe it’s a bit warmer down there. Anyone know the best way from there?
Another option is to take US 50 from DC west to Cincinnati - St. Louis ->
Correct. It is always either “I-95” or just “95”. It is so well known and traveled on the east coast that just saying “95” is good enough- nobody is going to confuse it for US 95 or a State Route 95.
Note my previous. I never mentioned I-95 at all. All I said was “drop down into Georgia.” I can say The 40 and The 10 because both of them run through Southern California, where that is the correct designation.
Not sure where Kingsport is, but 81 dumps you onto 40 near Knoxville.
If you plug “Baltimore, MD to Los Angeles, CA” into google maps, the 3 default routes are I-70 and I-40 (which drops down to 40 in Oklahoma), I-40 which seems to take 81 south to 40 in Tennessee, and I-70 (which takes 70 all the way to central UT, then I-15 southwest… through Vegas which is an interesting place to see). Any of those routes say “one day, 19 hours” i.e. 43 hours of nonstop driving. However, I assume you’ll want to sleep / eat / use the bathroom.
How flexible is that schedule, anyway? It’s a solid 4 to 5 day drive coast to coast if you put in 12ish hour days and don’t speed TOO heinously (back in the days of 55 mph, we made San Francisco to central NC in 4.5 driving days, some of which were long). You’ve got a similar drive, with more of a chance of bad weather than we did (we were on the road in June).
The I-70 route takes you through some pretty mountainous regions of Colorado; while the scenery is stunning, if there is weather, you might need to be able to hunker down somewhere for a day or so while roads get cleared out.
I70 is probably the most important road in the state. It is probably responsible for 50% or more of the economy in the central mountainous part of the state. Keeping it clear of snow and drivable is the #1 priority for the DOT in winter.
If it is actually snowing it can be slick and bad for driving, but it it has stopped snowing, the road will be clear in a matter of hours. I70 is the shortest and most direct route for the OP’s route, plus the most scenic. I’d suggest taking it and if it looks like there might be weather issues, head south to I40 at Kansas City and take the southern route. I’ve driven from Denver across the state in winter over 50 times, and only once did I have white knuckles, and that was because a truck changed lanes right in front of me, forcing me to brake on an icy downhill part of Vail Pass.
I’ve driven I-80 from Chicago to Oakland and it’s very boring. Oh the scenery is nice for like ten minutes then it’s just more of the same. I would definitely go futher south in the winter. Denver is known for sudden snow, then it’s nice again, then snow again.
The interstates are usually pretty well taken care of, but it desolate in those areas as you’ll find out and you don’t want to worry about weather.
That makes eminent sense. Depending on what kind of weather is predicted, the OP should have a couple of days notice to make whatever changes are needed. both before AND during the trip. Side trips to Omaha etc. would make that a little less flexible but by making up for it with longer days before / after, still doable.
A question: During a bad blizzard, how long would one reasonably expect the road to be closed? or at least unsafe for someone without specialized tires etc.? I would assume a blizzard of longer than 24 hours is not too common, right?
Because we Californians can’t drive 55…and we don’t mean the number of the highway or interstate…we mean miles per hour. It only makes sense to call an interstate or highway “The <n>”, because it’s described as a noun, not as a quantity.
I used to drive home from school in California to New Mexico for Christmas break. I did this 3 years in a row and hit heavy snows on I 40 near Flagstaff either coming or going 2 of the 3 years. I have been skiing in Vail when I 70 has been shut down for about 4 days. I have been stuck on I 50 and I 80 because of snow in the Sierras.
Weather is a crap shoot but the odds of getting stuck go down as you go south.