Bend, Oregon to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

Not only do we get a long road trip, we get one that moves diagonally across the country. It will take 5 days, and a with a long 5th day at that, to cover 2,829 miles, at a pace of 67mph. That means our regular 8 hour days will be through after 538 miles. This is going to be a long trek, but at least it ends at the beach!

DAY ONE (Friday)

Bend, Oregon

It’s getting hot out west, and we are certainly going to notice that a ridge is building into the region, at the very least. We’ll be driving through some pretty rural country between Bend and the Boise metro, and again after 84 splits from 86 and heads south to Utah, and the views should be, if not spectacular, then at least unspoiled by clouds. We’ll just cross into the Beehive State, and finish in Snowville, Utah after day one.

DAY TWO (Saturday)
We will see the topography of our drive change pretty dramatically on Saturday. After starting the drive between some major mountain ranges, in the Great Basin, we will first hit the Wasatch in Utah and then start climbing the Rockies. All of this will be done in the sunshine, but some afternoon showers and storms in peaks of the Rockies might creep over I-70 by the end of our drive. We’ll end the day in Vail, Colorado, which is probably just as charming outside of ski season.

DAY THREE (Sunday)
Low pressure is going to get going again in the central Plains, with strong storms again becoming likely on Sunday. This time, however, the threat is going to be further to the north. The storms will pop up north and west of us as we drive through Kansas, emerging only late in the day. They will leave the better part of Kansas alone during the day, but after we stop in Solomon, in the north central part of the state, we should expect some storms to rumble through that night.

DAY FOUR (Monday)
The cold front is going to bog down in Missouri as the low shifts northward. Since the boundary did peel out of Kansas, though, we will be in some clear air through Kansas City, but after that, some scattered clouds with some embedded showers are going to be possible in the Show Me State, with the best chances coming between Columbia and St. Louis. We’ll make it to southern Illinois for our final night of the trip, stopping just north of Paducah, in Goreville, Illinois.

DAY FIVE (Tuesday)
Now ahead of the front, into some summer time heat and humidity, the threat for showers and stors is going to pervade the entire day. The best chance for rain will show up between Knoxville and Asheville, but after that point, it will be the evening, and instability will be at it’s highest. Scattered showers and storms will be possible throughout the Carolinas. Fortunately at this point, that activity is going to thrive on the heat of the day, and the evening is going to be dry in Myrtle Beach.

Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

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