California to Chicago

Yeah, I know - loooong trip.

Wifey and I will be starting from San Jose in the next couple of days. We are taking our Acura TL, which (along with my wife) is relocating to Chicago for the next few years. I know, long distance sucks. Hopefully I'll get to meet some of the boarders from Chicago during my (soon to be frequent) visits there.

Thanks to my wonderful planning (not!), we still haven't made up our minds whether we will be going low (Hwy 40, possibly visiting Grand Canyon), medium (through Reno, then shooting straight across the country via Hwy 80), or high (visiting family in Boise, then maybe Yellowstone if time permits, then Hwy 90 all the way).

Our goal is not to do a cannonball run, but to take it slow and easy, and a good 9-10 days to get to Chicago. I've been told that the high route (through 90) should be scenic this time of the year, while the low route will be getting pretty warm in parts. Leaning towards the high route at the moment, also an opportunity to visit my niece along the way. If any of you here have strong opinions about any of the routes, would love to hear them.

Am taking a roadside assistance kit, jumper cables, small air compressor, recently got everything serviced so all should be well on that front (car has almost 100k miles), have AAA plus, 2 navigation systems (1 in the car, 1 portable), maps, might even take some mangoes . Oh, and I'm planning to put some painter's tape on the front. Hopefully wife won't hate it too much.

Will post a report when I get a chance.

Hey bigb,
I maybe doing that in 2 weeks if my daughetr can't convince my son to make this trip with her. My daughter is relocating to Columbus, Ohio for 1 yr for her intership at Ohio State Univ. She leaves on June 15 and planning on doing this in 10 days sightseeing.

I've driven hwy 80 from the south bay all the way to Baltimore back in 95. I didn't do any sightseeing since I was pressed for time.

Cool Efren! It'll be pretty hot in places in a couple of weeks, better have the AC working

If you haven't been to Columbus, a couple of very good friends spent a few years there getting their degrees. Nice college town, and your daughter better like college football come Fall!

I should still be in Chicago when you are on the road, so give me a hollar if you pass through Chicago - you should have my number.

I would suggest going the northern route and stopping at places like Yellowstone, etc. When we drove to Indiana in December for my relocation we came the southern route due to weather concerns but other than the Grand Canyon and meteor crater I'm not sure what you'd stop and do on the way. Although you could take the scenic Route 66 drive which starts out southerly and then heads into Chicago.

Thanks Tom

Tom M said:

I would suggest going the northern route and stopping at places like Yellowstone, etc. When we drove to Indiana in December for my relocation we came the southern route due to weather concerns but other than the Grand Canyon and meteor crater I'm not sure what you'd stop and do on the way. Although you could take the scenic Route 66 drive which starts out southerly and then heads into Chicago.

Click to expand...

Thanks Tom. Yeah, the plan with the "low" path was to take Hwy 40 (Rte. 66) as much as possible. But looks like I'll seldom get the opportunity to go up north, so perhaps that is what we'll end up doing.

My wife and I drove to Billings for an interview I had that didn't pan out. On the way we stopped at Yosemitie even though she didn't want to waste the time. Once we arrive ad the park she was sad we only had a day and a half to spend there. Leaving the park we took the northeast exit over what would be a gorgeous Boxster road (we were in our Infiniti FX35 before it got crushed by a tree after we got back) when we headed for Billings. Lots of scenic vistas and high elevations but very drivable.