Driving/moving from Louisville KY to Portland in January! Help! (Durham: hotel, cost)

[erin179]

Hello all,

Although it's the worst and most dangerous time of year to drive cross-country, I will be moving/driving from Louisville KY to Portland OR in mid-January. There are good reasons that I'm doing it in the middle of the winter, otherwise I'd wait until spring.. I'll hopefully have a friend with me, but will possibly be doing the drive alone. I have a Honda Civic, which will have brand new tires and be freshly tuned up, but I'm still pretty freaked out about the whole thing. Mapquest is telling me I'll be on I-80 for much of the trip, but I'm hearing horrible things about driving I-80 in the winter! And after looking at the map, I have even more to be concerned with on I-84 through Idaho and Oregon.

Aaaah! Anybody have any experience or advice on this? Thanks!!

P.S. I absolutely can't wait to get to PDX (love the vibe of the city, the people, the landscape, etc)... I'm just hoping I can make it safely on the drive out!

[malone7384]

Take my advise - do NOT go through Wyoming, etc.

Take I-40 through Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and in to California and then connect with I-5 and go straight up into Portland.

I have driven both routes and would take the I-40 route any day of the week. You don't have as many or as high of mountains to deal with. I made the drive in February and yes there was snow on the side of the roads but that was it. Also, you don't have as far between towns on the I-40 route as you would have the other way.

It may add an extra day or so but it will definitely save on your sanity!

HTH

[erin179]

Thanks for the advice! I hate the idea of taking the long route, but I hate the idea of being stranded in a hotel (if I'm lucky to get one) for days during a storm even more!

[PDXmom]

Originally Posted by malone7384

Take my advise - do NOT go through Wyoming, etc.

Take I-40 through Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and in to California and then connect with I-5 and go straight up into Portland.

I have driven both routes and would take the I-40 route any day of the week. You don't have as many or as high of mountains to deal with. I made the drive in February and yes there was snow on the side of the roads but that was it. Also, you don't have as far between towns on the I-40 route as you would have the other way.

It may add an extra day or so but it will definitely save on your sanity!

HTH

What about I-5 in Northern California around Redding and Shasta? What is that drive like in January??

Also, to the OP, did you look at flying and having your car shipped to you on a car carrier? We moved from Portland to Durham, NC in the summer (went through Louisville) and we drove one car and put the other one on a car carrier. The route I took was beautiful in the summer but we took i-70 straight through the Rockies so I don't know that I would do that in the winter.

Good luck and god speed!

[malone7384]

Originally Posted by PDXmom

What about I-5 in Northern California around Redding and Shasta? What is that drive like in January??

Hi there,

I made the drive in February and again in December and did not have any problems in the Shastas. I would definitely recommend keeping an eye on the situation there though because the week after I went through they had white out conditions there and shut down the pass for a few days.

[suncat]

Have you considered having your car shipped? I did that, and it cost me about $1300 cross-country, which was roughly the same as driving (considering $4/gallon gas at the time). I used Dependable Auto Shippers, and I was really impressed with them.