SC to SD -- Charleston SC to San Diego CA

Hi Jamie! Thanks for being there! Maybe you can settle a dispute between my husband and me. We were both born and raised in Los Angeles and know little about the East, but my husband is flying to Charleston, SC and picking up a car and he's trying to plan his route back.

He and I have driven from Dallas to San Diego which gave him a mortal fear of the west Texas roads, so he's considering routes that take him up and over Texas, but he is in a hurry to get home. It's not a tour, although he is excited about it and does want to make the most of it. I think he is crazy for not going straight through on the 8 (and 80) to just get home, but he is twisting himself in to a pretzel to avoid that long open stretch between Dallas and, say, Yuma.

Help me convince him that he's not going to be happy driving sooooo far out of his way and he should see the wisdom of just drinking a Red Bull, cranking up the CD player and taking the Southern Pacific route.

Thanks!

Cindy

===>>

Hello Cindy --

Thanks for writing in to Road Trip USA, and I hope I can help!

Your husband's worry about Texas reminds me of the movie Thelma and Louise -- though with a different back story. I agree with him about the tedium of 1000-mile drives across endless plains of tumbleweeds, and think I have a semi-sensible solution: how about he heads a little bit north, and swaps a nifty cruise along Route 66 for that long stretch of Texas?

My outline route would go something like this: Charleston (stay a while, it's really really pretty... Savannah GA is nice, too) -
Atlanta (avoid rush hour!) -
Birmingham (visit Vulcan! -- not Spock's home planet, but the "World's Largest Cast Iron Statue of the Roman God of Fire")
then maybe Tupelo (Elvis' Birthplace!) --
veer north to Memphis (eat / drink / listen to music!) --
then zoom along to Oklahoma City, on old Route 66 (good baseball stadium!) --
west to Amarillo (in Texas, but home to the very cool Cadillac Ranch!) --
then home via Santa Fe and the Grand Canyon.

Makes you want to join him, doesn't it? :-)

I don't actually think these "detours" add more than 100 miles to the I-10 freeway drive, but I do think the addition of daily destinations to look forward to and enjoy (and stay awake for!), will more than make up for an extra hour or two on a week-long drive.

The question I have is: is it a cool car he's picking up in Charleston? That would make the trip even better...

Hope my ideas help to ease your domestic tranquility, and let me know how the trip shapes up.

With best wishes and a "bon voyage",


Jamie Jensen
--
Road Trip USA


===

Subject: Charleston, SC to San Diego

Thank you very much Jamie! I'll let you know how it turns out.

Cindy