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Old 07-10-2018, 05:47 PM
 
26 posts, read 19,250 times
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The good news: My son finished his graduate work at U of Illinois and was hired within 3 weeks in Houston. The bad news: He is broke and has a lot of "stuff" so I decided to help him (and finance) his move. We will be driving a U-Haul this weekend.

Looking at the map, I was thinking of a 2 day trip from Champaign Urbana to Jackson MS Saturday and from there to Houston via Baton Rouge, so I-57, to I-55, to I-12 and finally I-10 on Sunday.

However every time I Google the route, it wants to take me through Little Rock and Texarcana and South on US-59.

Any one familiar with these routes that can offer driving advice? We sill be driving a 15' U-Haul.
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Old 07-11-2018, 07:17 AM
 
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Driven this to/from S. Illinois (Mt. Vernon area) a lot.

The 59 route that Google is solving for is faster & shorter.....but between Texarkana and Kingwood its not interstate, so multiple stop lights/ re-routes, etc. It will eventually all be Interstate 69, but I'm not holding my breath for completion.

If you want interstate only, probably better to go all the way on 57/55/30 to Memphis, Little Rock, DFW then down 45.
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Old 07-11-2018, 08:24 AM
 
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Yeah, Google will always give that route first. As mentioned that stretch of 59 is tough, especially after a long drive. Watch for speed traps.
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Old 07-11-2018, 11:38 AM
 
Location: Washington D.C. By way of Texas
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He also could 57/55 down to Louisiana and get on 10 West the rest of the way. Might be a tad longer though.
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Old 07-11-2018, 12:40 PM
 
Location: ✶✶✶✶
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Last time I did this I cut the difference some by taking I-45 to Corsicana, took TX-31 east to Athens, then TX-19 north to Sulphur Springs to meet back with I-30. No Dallas.
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Old 07-11-2018, 03:11 PM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Tdecel View Post
The good news: My son finished his graduate work at U of Illinois and was hired within 3 weeks in Houston. The bad news: He is broke and has a lot of "stuff" so I decided to help him (and finance) his move. We will be driving a U-Haul this weekend.

Looking at the map, I was thinking of a 2 day trip from Champaign Urbana to Jackson MS Saturday and from there to Houston via Baton Rouge, so I-57, to I-55, to I-12 and finally I-10 on Sunday.

However every time I Google the route, it wants to take me through Little Rock and Texarcana and South on US-59.

Any one familiar with these routes that can offer driving advice? We sill be driving a 15' U-Haul.
the google route is easily the fastest - no comparison at all. Going to Jackson is way out of the way. 59 is almost 4 lane all the way to Texarkana, it's not a bad drive at all. There are a few speed traps and a few lights, but still much better than your alternate.
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Old 07-11-2018, 04:13 PM
 
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Thank you all for the responses. I was all set on going through Louisiana and getting some of that Cajun seafood on the way!

Ill have to study the other options (except for the one going by Dallas) but two weeks ago, I drove one way from California to Houston over 3 days and flew back, and found horrible traffic on Sunday between San Antonio and Houston.

Beautiful day, beautiful weather, but bumper to bumper traffic most of the way. Every type of truck, RV, pick up, SUV, Etc. on the highway that day.

Any feel for the traffic on a summer Sunday on any of these routes?
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Old 07-11-2018, 10:08 PM
 
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I've done Houston to Chicago several times and the google route is definitely the best one. Memphis is a nice place to spend a night or two. There aren't a whole lot of things to do, but you can check out a few things for a day or day and a half, and it's a good middle stopping point (from Chicago, but maybe not from Champaign). If you want the absolute shortest route timewise you'd bypass 55 and Memphis by Arkansas 67 and couple other roads.


The 59 stretch in Texas isn't too bad. You have to be alert at some of the switchovers and there's a 20 mile or so bypass off 59 somewhere along the way that saves 15 minutes or so. I do like to plan my drives so that I don't have complete darkness between Texarkana and Porter.


As far as traffic to expect, it's all smooth sailing except for I30 between Texarkana and Little Rock. There's construction and expect delays, but traffic does generally keep moving. It's a lot better than some of the I10 slowdowns.
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Old 07-12-2018, 05:49 PM
bu2
 
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I've done Indiana/Ohio/Kentucky to Houston/San Antonio multiple times. 59 is the best way to Houston, but it does have some slow stretches. One time we drove straight through and I think it took us 22 hours from central Indiana to San Antonio.

Now if you really want the Cajun food, you can head through the emptiest part of the country west of the Mississippi in Northern Mississippi, switch to I-10 and stop at Henderson just east of Lafayette at Chicken on the Bayou. Great Po-Boys. Great Spicy chicken. Whenever we travel that way we make a point to stop.
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Old 07-21-2018, 04:13 PM
 
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Trip report:

Like they say, miles in, miles out. After a while, you just drive and drive, feeling every bump of the road along the way on that U-haul.

We took the 57 to the 55 and then the 12 and 10 West. Spent the first night in Mt Vernon Il, and the second night in Ridgeland. Brand new Marriott affiliates both nights (I made Marriott lifetime gold on this trip). Life is good.

The highlight of the trip was stoping in Memphis at Rendesvouz for BBQ and po'boys at Steamboat Bills in Lake Charles which is neither a steamboat or on Lake Charles, but I got my oyster fix. We visited the Bass Sports Pyramid in Memphis, for an hour's break mid day in the middle of a 97 degree day.

The 18 mile bridge was fun but I loved driving through Mississippi the best. Everything was very green and lush, we had great weather, so the blue sky, patchy clouds and green horizon made the trek fun for me.

We had a 10 minute storm as we approached Lake Charles so it washed the filthiest truck I've ever rented. Thank you U-haul. There were even chicken bones behind the drivers seat that my son found when we were returning it to their location. Of course they screwed up my reservation costing me $400.00 more but that's something I will let my credit card company deal with.

Life is good.
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