United States of America Travel Forum

I want to go from Fort Myers Florida to Frisco Texas - a trip of about 20 hours and 1300 miles. I don't want to drive more than about 250 miles a day, so at least 5 days. We will be leaving March 2nd and we want to get to Frisco on or before March 7th.

We've done this route quite a bit since we have children/grandchildren in Miami and Frisco.

I was thinking of stopping in Tarpon Springs (I visited there when I was 16 but haven't been since - they had sponge divers then). We've recently been to Weeki Wachi so I don't want to go back there.

Never spent any time in Tallahassee. Is there anything we could do there at the end of a day? Would that be an appropriate place to stop at the end of the first day?

In the last couple of years we've spent time in Panama City (Florida), Fort Walton Beach, and Pensacola (although I'm still looking for the place we used to live in Avalon Beach, Florida), and we have driven from Mobile (and spent time there) to Baton Rouge (and spent time there) via Biloxi, and we've also gone by Shreveport, Houston and Huntsville.

We were in New Orleans before Katrina - might that be interesting to go back or is there something to see in Metairie?

I was thinking about going via Hattiesburg and Natchez.

Panama City and/or Pensacola Beach would be my choices. I really like Pensacola though.
Metairie is mostly a suburb, but there is the Old Metairie section, along Old Metairie Road just before it enters into New Orleans. There are some shops and restaurants. The New Orleans suburbs have tried various ways of making their own tourist attractions over the years, but none have really succeeded in making anything that interesting.
New Orleans has changed quite a bit since Katrina, so it may be worth going to again, if only for a short time.
I like Lafayette also, but it's grown so much in recent years that the traffic is a bit of a nightmare, but still not as bad as Baton Rouge. Great food though.
Natchez is interesting for a while. It's pretty, as it's set on bluffs above the river, and there are some old buildings and a walkable business district. You would certainly be entertained for the evening.
Hattiesburg is more of an interstate town.

Thanks for the information. We used to live in Pensacola back in 1959 and we've been back several times since our daughter moved to Dallas. I'm not much on the beach though and last time we were there, we still couldn't drive along the barrier islands or get to Fort Pickens. Is that fort accessible now?

It reopened relatively recently. They did a nice job on that road and it's back running all the way from Navarre. I was there just a couple of weeks ago. Pensacola Beach has a lot of BP stuff set up on it, which is unattractive, but it at least shows they're working.
I was talking about Pensacola itself though. Pensacola Beach is just a typical beach town to me.

We were in New Orleans this spring. As you know, the Quarter is the highest spot in the area (the French weren't stupid), so it had much less damage than other areas. In addition, there is renewed spending in the warehouse district on the other side of downtown, because of the convention center and the National World War II Museum (which we saw), whose growth has been driven by sponsors Tom Hanks (actor and Hollywood bigshot) and the late Stephen Ambrose (writer of The Band of Brothers and many other books). This used to be the D-Day Museum, but it has grown a lot. We stayed in a Marriott Courtyard (I think) a couple of blocks from the Museum...it was easier to park here than in the Quarter...and I was surprised at the number of people (a lot) milling about in Jackson Square as I drove through...the Quarter is not a forlorn place...

How are you coming up through Texas? If you drive through Beaumont (i.e., along I-1), you can drive to and pay homage to my birthplace ;-)

Seriously, if you take the southern route (I-10 to I-45), the distance is a little longer but it gives you the opportunity to see sights around Houston such as the San Jacinto Battlefield (OK, just a big field with a tall monument in the center), the Battleship Texas (next to the battlefield and very much worth the visit), NASA, Galveston (always nice for a very laid-back day or two), and a variety of unusual places in Houston, such as the Buffalo Soldier Museum (in a guy's house but crammed to the ceilings with stuff you won't find elsewhere) and the National Funeral Museum (yeah, it was more interesting than you would think - and I was astounded to find that they have the original mold that created Benedict XV's (about WWI) papal ring, along with a duplicate ring made from the mold...you know the papal ring is smashed when the Pope dies...that's why I was amazed to see a copy of the ring in a little-known museum in Houston, Texas...it even prompted me to write a short story concerning it and author Dan Brown (Angels & Demons, The Da Vinci Code) which I would post here, but then VT would co-own it ;-) Hey, if VT would help me sell it, maybe that wouldn't be such a bad idea ;-)...but I digress...

Bill

bocmaxima you said "Panama City and/or Pensacola Beach would be my choices. I really like Pensacola though."

So I wasn't sure which you were recommending. I do like Pensacola (I have a top 5 page there) and have both lived there and been back to visit at least twice in the last 5 years. If we can visit Ft. Pickens, we might go back that way.

mccalpin we stayed in Montgomery TX for a week in 2006, and we visited the San Jacinto Battlefield although unfortunately the monument was closed for renovation at that time. I missed the funeral museum but I really enjoyed going to Big Thicket and seeing the carnivorous plants. Also went up to Huntsville but missed seeing Sparky the electric chair.

We were in New Orleans for a week in Dec 2004, and did go to the D-Day Museum as it was then. I've been following the progress of rebuilding on the internet and there were a couple of places I missed going to. My second cousin's husband and one of her twins is buried there, and I might like to visit that cemetery.

But I think we've done a lot of what there is to do on that route. Plus we don't have much leeway in time as my daughter in Frisco will need us to leave on or before March 10th. So I can't dawdle too much unless we have much longer driving days than I like.

Yes, do stop at Tarpon Springs. That's one of my favorite little towns to visit in Florida. I think Weeki Wachi is closed btw. There is a very nice nature park in Tallahassee, that might be worth it, if you like that sort of thing. It's the wrong time of year for a Seminole game.
We just drove I-10 all the way to the other end of Texas in June from Florida. One comment: driving through Houston is something else!! Never seen roads like that anywhere. The other one: I REALLY hate that bridge in St. Charles!!

Sorry, I'm not trying to sound smart (too big a stretch), I really am curious about these.

> driving through Houston is something else!! Never seen roads like that anywhere.
You mean I-10 west of Downtown, where it turns into the sea of concrete? Or the interchanges?

> The other one: I REALLY hate that bridge in St. Charles!!
St. Charles Parish, as in the Atchafalaya Swamp Bridge? The one that goes 30 or so miles, between Baton Rouge and Lafayette?

I am always interested in hearing about different US road trips. Will be interested to read any other answers to this posting.

When you went to Huntsville, did you stop by the Space Museum there? I found that place to be fairly interesting, though on this trip it does seem to be a bit off the most desirable route.

Have you been to the Florida Caverns State Park and the Blue Hole Springs in that state park? I visited about 25 years ago, so I don't remember that much! Might be worth further research to see what is there though.

driving through Houston is something else!! Never seen roads like that anywhere.
You mean I-10 west of Downtown, where it turns into the sea of concrete? Or the interchanges?

> The other one: I REALLY hate that bridge in St. Charles!!
St. Charles Parish, as in the Atchafalaya Swamp Bridge? The one that goes 30 or so miles, between Baton Rouge and Lafayette? >>>>


Houston roads: I drove through there at night, and ALL these roads on top of roads on top of other roads, the raised sections, the interchanges, my gosh!! Some engineers went wild there! I kept asking my husband " AM I still on I-10" , afraid somehow I would end up on the wrong road, 2 miles up in the air...lol! Spagettie roads....

The bridge: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1C0TWJFdYkY&feature=related
It's on I-10, you just drive, minding your own business, and then you see this what looks like a mountain in front of you...only it is a very old, very narrow ( for my truck) , VERY high, scary bridge.

Oh, the bridge in Lake Charles. Sorry, I should have connected that. Yeah, that's a little crazy. My dad used to tell me that they had originally built the I-210 bridge, which is a little wider, longer and not quite as scary, without rivets when it first opened and the contractor was the brother or something of one of the politicians responsible for its commission. I think it was more a story to demonstrate Louisiana nepotism then it was actually true, although it may be true. He worked in Beaumont in the days the bridge was built. The old Trinity River Bridge in Texas on I-10 used to be just as bad, if not worse.

The I-10/I-45 interchange is a little bit of a mess, and it's kind of weird with the sort of dual freeways they have right there, with the HOV running overhead. I-10 through Downtown is being reconstructed right now as it hasn't been remodeled since its construction and is not up to current interstate standards with its tight curves and narrow lanes.
But I think the section in San Antonio where it's double-decker is more impressive. That was used in the "Everybody Hurts" video by REM.

We came into Huntsville at the end of the day from the east side and I wanted to see the big statue of Sam Houston. We ended up in the cemetery which I thought would be a logical place for it and it took us some time to find where it really was on the highway. We didn't visit anywhere else as it was closing time.

That road to the cemetary was, until just a couple of years ago when it was removed from the system, the shortest state highway in Texas.