Best route from Palo Duro State Park Texas to Galveston

Well, darn! Looks like we'll be having to go through Austin as we booked overnights in Sweetwater and LaGrange.
Thank you all for helping us with traveling through an area we've not hit before.

Back of the Pack wrote:
Austin is the worst city in Texas, any direction or road.

This has been my experience, so I agree.

When you leave Galveston take the ferry over to the Bolivar Peninsula and up to I-10 that way. It's a much more uncongested road and wide open for any size rig. The ferry takes semi trucks across the bay so your rig will fit too. It's free.

Don and Eileen wrote:
Still hoping to get some expert help here on my questions about San Antonio/Austin and bypassing Houston on the way east to LA.
Thanks!

IH-10 is the route preferred. The close-to coast route is slow, crowded and problems can’t be avoided.

Coastal Louisiana is interesting enough, so if a 35-MPH average trip speed (not posted speed limit) is okay, then try it.

Understand that Houston is really more like Louisiana in the first place.

I “might” choose the lower route, but for me it’d be because something about the season appealed.

10 thru LA is hard enough.

Lake Charles gets backed up at the bridge, and Baton Rouge is never easy (road split to New Orleans backup). The water table is too high so the roads available are few.

You can run the old highway north of 10 past BR, just expect a slow average speed. Takes you across the Huey P.

The worst congestion is in BR then east to where IH55 goes north. You’ll lose an hour or more, so plan that in advance

Thunderstorms along this coast are the most dangerous in the US. Any road.
Slidell area peak.

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Don and Eileen wrote:
We're just now getting back to our routing (nothing like some surgery to distract us.) I'm looking at BackOfThePack's route (avoiding Houston and the Dallas area), but am wondering why you suggest going through San Antonio rather than Austin?
Thanks!

San Antonio E-W on IH-10 is easy.
Austin is the worst city in Texas, any direction or road.

Still hoping to get some expert help here on my questions about San Antonio/Austin and bypassing Houston on the way east to LA.
Thanks!

One more question (for now.)
When we leave Galveston we are heading east towards LA. Our map program routes us up I45 to I10. Is there any reason why we wouldn't want to take TX 146 - again avoiding the heart of Houston?
We're originally from the Boston area, so we know that sometimes it's just as easy to go through the heart of the city on an interstate as to get bogged down in smaller cities/towns around the city. However, I did check it on Google Earth and it looks ok. ???

We're just now getting back to our routing (nothing like some surgery to distract us.) I'm looking at BackOfThePack's route (avoiding Houston and the Dallas area), but am wondering why you suggest going through San Antonio rather than Austin?
Thanks!

Agreed. I had my share of difficult weather a few weeks back (waiting for roads to re-open)


Another scenic route is to head south in Texas to pick up US-62 across southern Oklahoma to Lawton/Ft Sill. (Highly recommended in spring).

South from there via US-287 to any number of choices.

FWIW, E-W across D/FW is easy relative to trying N-S as with Houston. US-281 from Wichita Falls to IH-20 thence to IH-35S is scenic, and the leg across the Metroplex is short enough not to be much of a problem (always before 1400, preferably from 0900-1100).

Thank you so much, BackofthePack, I apologize for not responding sooner. Life has had some twists and turns, but we're holding our own and grateful we're not in the midst of any of the country's crazy weather.
Eileen (and Don)