Bypassing Dallas-Need Local Knowledge

[Kuppajoe]

After Thanksgiving, we will be driving our coach from California to Florida. My plan is to turn Southwest from Amarillo and pick up I-20 around Tyler, TX. Hoping to avoid as much of the Dallas traffic as possible, am I making a good call by taking US 377 from Denton across to Greenville, then cut southeast through Mineola to I-20? I would appreciate recent, local experience doing that or some other option.

[mick]

If it were me, and It is most of the time, I would just stay on 289 from Amarillo to WFalls tx, get on 82 and hammer down east bound to Bells Tx, get on 69 south all the way to I-20 (at Linden) and lilght east out from there.

Believe me going this way you will experience great relief, beautiful country, no traffic and good 2 and mostly 4 lane traffic. There are plenty of walmarts, rv parks etc on the way from Wichita Falls to Bells where if you wish to stop you can.

And its a lot faster.

Then at Shrvpt take I-49 south to I-10 to I-12 split, take I-12 over to I-10 and hammer down.

377 runs north and south, 380 is the one you are talking about from Denton to Greenville, and I would not suggest that route to my worst enem ny in an rv. Traffic will absolutely murder you.

[gfs1943]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mick 377 runs north and south, 380 is the one you are talking about from Denton to Greenville, and I would not suggest that route to my worst enem ny in an rv. Traffic will absolutely murder you.

I second this advice!

[Elkhartjim]

Unless you time the drive across Dallas/Fort Worth during rush hour, you'll be driving way out of the way to go the northern route. Hwy 287 to Fort Worth and I 20 east. I've driven across the DFW area many times during non rush hour and its a very easy drive. Heck, a couple years ago I drove right by the state fair grounds on a Saturday morning not thinking about the state fair going on and also the Texas vs OU football game was an hour or so from kickoff. Now that was some traffic.

[bullheaded]

Just avoid rush hours and take 20 around the south side of town. Unless there's a crash, no problem. You can listen to 1080 AM radio, they have traffic every 8 minutes.

[mustang652]

From Amarillo take 287 to I-35S just north of Ft Worth and take 183 east to I-820E to I-20E. DW and I did that in reverse comming out of east Texas last summer on our way back to Las Vegas. If you can schedule yourself not to hit during major traffic hours in Dallas, I've found that I can go through Oklahoma City to Dallas just about as fast and on most occations faster because of being on interstate to whole distance. I-40 tp Ok City, I35 to Dallas via I-35e then take I-635 around to I-20 E

While in Tyler I stayed at #1 RV park. Good for short and/or overnight stays.
#1 RV PARK OF TYLER

[Wayne M]

Welllll! Drivin' S'West from Amarilla, just ain't gonna get you to Tyler. You need to be going Southeast.

Now is you do want to avoid Dallas altogether, but I agree with Jim that it's not bad during normal hours, you can take US-82E toward Sherman, then pick up US-69S toward I-20.

Or go to Borman, pick up Texas 78s to Texas 11S on to 20.

The roads in Texas are pretty good, maybe not the best, but not that bad either. The US numbered roads are mostly good in all the states we have been in. Yes, there are exceptions, but mostly good.

[Kuppajoe]

Thanks to everyone for the suggested routings. Come the day, how we end up going will depend on the weather and the time of day as we approch the city. You have given us great options and I only wish we were not going to be time pressed. Wayne, sorry about the SW and not SE, I knew and you knew which way I should be heading from Amarillo even if my fingers didn't

[Wayne M]

I just couldn't resist. Well, at least you know I read it. (lol)

If you come close to Houston, give a holler. We may still be in town.

[wandering1]

Follow I20 all the way thru DFW, thats the shortest, most direct route and the traffic moves just fine.

[powerboatr]

380 will kill you time wise
construction everywhere on it, plus 2.5 million redlights now

a few stretches that are 65mph and you can go,
i second 287 south out of amarillo to hwy 82 across ( still a few lights, but not as much )the north top of the state to hwy 69 south and through greenville down to lindale which picks up I-20 then east to 55 in miss then south to I-10

from 287 to emory (69 and 515)which is near us its 3 hrs
if you hit them roads at night, make sure you have some good lights

or we have also gone around dallas on 635 which is a LOOP
timing is everything.....but on 635 when you get near I75 expect a slooow down, for some reason the dallasites all have to stop there for no reason.
they have HOV lanes and busses are except....i never tried running the mh on it but it is a BUS