When I plugged this trip into Google Maps, it defaulted to buses and trains. If you don’t want to partake in a 5 day cross country journey, then I guess I can’t blame you. That’s what Google wants too. We’ll cover 2806 miles at a pace of 68.4mph, with an 8 hour daily goal of 547 miles. It’s a good old fashioned road trip, an we can make good time, but only if we leave now.
DAY ONE (Thursday)
It’s pretty wild to think about it, but our drive on Thursday will take us from Yuba City to Wendover, Utah, through the wasteland of northern Nevada, and the region is presently between two tropical storms. Hilary was swept north of the region last week, and now the remnants of Tropical Storm Howard are moving into the 4 Corners. I wouldn’t be entirely surprised to see some clouds on the eastern and southern horizon when we reach Wendover and the home of the Bonneville Raceway, but the drive will stay dry.
DAY TWO (Friday)
Howard is going to get hung up in the Rockies and lose his self among the seasonal monsoon. Wyoming will be rainier than one might expect, and we’ll dodge a few showers, maybe a rumble of thunder, as we trek through Wyoming on I-80. I would expect the heaviest rain will be west of Laramie, but we won’t get much further than the home of the University of Laramie, stopping west of Cheyenne at exit 348 as our day concludes.
DAY THREE (Saturday)
High pressure in Canada is going to start sinking south, squashing out any life that Howard had. This will mean any lingering moisture will spread west to east along a cold front that is going to mostly be stationary through Saturday. Rain will be most likely early in the day, but there will be a chance for clouds and some isolated showers throughout the day as we make it to Avoca, Iowa, which is East of Omaha. As is all of Iowa, but this is pretty close to Omaha.
DAY FOUR (Sunday)
All good things on Sunday! We’re going to finally start encountering some populated locations, including Chicago, but we’ll do it on the weekend, and one with good weather conditions at that. We’ll see a lot of sun, maybe a little bit of smoke in the atmosphere from the Canadian wildfires, but other than that, hakuna matata. We’ll reach Howe, Indiana for our destination for the day.
DAY FIVE (Monday)
By the time Monday rolls around, all weather eyes will likely be out to see, where Franklin will be spinning between Bermuda and the Carolinas. The tail of the cold front we have been talking about will be working to kick Franklin to the sea, but for our own selfish purposes, it will be allowing dry conditions to enter Ohio and Pennsylvania as were traverse those two states to get to New Jersey.
