Chicago to LA in the winter in class C without a basement

I hate to dilute my liquor!! :)

If you're really concerned about pipes freezing, use your water pump & diverter hose to draw a 5th of vodka (unflavored, of course!) into your fresh water tank. It'll lower the freezing temp of the water and you'll LOVE brushing your teeth in the morning! ;)

Free beaches sounds like a great start to me. Will have to try Rudy and Pacos place....

The beaches...it really starts in Galveston. I45/Gulf Fwy to the 61st st exit, go right to Seawall Blvd and go west. Plenty of places to access the beaches thru the dunes once you're clear of west beach...all the way to Surfside. But Galveston alone deserves a long visit. Lots of touristy stuff but also stuff the locals do...my favorite eatery is Rudy & Pacos at 21st and postoffice. It's where the locals go. Again the beaches are free but no amenities.

artguys,

Actually have friends in San Diego and then plan to go through LA to stay with our daughter in the Arroyo Grande area. Do not plan to actually camp around LA.
Thanks.... camping along the beaches in Texas sounds great... My DW loves sitting by the water,,, any water..... :)

Know every inch of your intended route...but lots of ???? Are you intending to visit certain areas based on perceived landmarks or just to kick back and enjoy what that particular area has to offer. For example: Memphis has night life, good for a one day/night experience. If your doing I55 from there to BR(Baton Rouge) nothing special. I55 very flat but bad road surfaces in limited areas. French Quarter is legendary but that's it in the whole Nawlins area unless your'e acquainted with some backwater jugs. I10 form Br, lots of interstate, lots of commercial traffic.

So unless BR and Nawlins is preferred I would do I40 from W Memphis to Little Rock, then I30 to Texarkanna and 59 to Houston. Bypasses alot of not too much in favor of seeing not to much via I40-!30-59...but a more relaxed transit...And shorter distance.

From Houston you have access to gulf highways and free miles and miles of on the beach camping/no hookups just boondocking it on the beach. And especially the Corpus area, including Aransas Pass, Rockport, Fulton and so on.

If San Antonio is a must from Corpus it can be had easily via I37 and there you can grab I10. As for San Antonio it's the Alamo or River Walk, that's it. For me not worth it, my usual go to is Hills and Dales n west of town, ice house/watering hole on the 1604 feeder. Best place to visit in that area is the many hill country towns, Kerrville, Fredricksburg and so on. Once you leave that area that's pretty much it until El Paso. Beware of night driving anywhere before and after the Junction area...big time deer kills on I10. Coldest weather encountered on I10 is usually the I10-I20 split/junction farther west. And for your pipes...once you hit I40/Memphis crank em on, you should be good from that point on. And La, really, must have family/friends in the area otherwise the payfor Rv sites can empty a wallet. I have a son who has a home in La Mesa and a vist in my rv wouldn't happen unless he was there to provide parking.

There is no "freeze line" along your planned route, in the sense of temperatures never going below freezing. You might assume New Orleans to be less than 5-10% chance of frost, but that increases as you move inland again along I-10. I've been caught in ice storms in Houston, and sub-freezing whether is not unusual at San Antonio, and occurs more often as you move west through El Paso and western New Mexico.

But you are just playing the odds. On many nights it drops below freezing, the days may be above freezing. Or maybe not. How long does it have to be below freezing to cause a problem with YOUR RV plumbing?

I've had pretty good luck with dewinterizing at the I-30, I-20, I-10 corridor, for San Antonio and east, December and January, because warm Gulf air pushes in that far. Maybe 40s-50s during the day and 20s at night, not enough time for tanks and lines to freeze if the furnace runs at night.

West of San Antonio, I'm not so sure, elevation is rising, continental air masses out of the Artic push away the warmer Gulf air. February? On the high plains and hogh desert, that's often much colder than earlier in the winter, until spring patterns emerge again.

Always above freezing, no way. I-10 corridor is not frost free. Warm enough for dewinterized travel, quite likely, if you are prepared to generate enough heat to take care of things during subfreezing peroids.

Get to Little Rock, I30, I20, I10 ... no problems outside a freak storm. I mean who would have predicted Hurricane Sandy? Hard freezes down here around I20 are short lived. We are in a severe drought with no relief expected west of Dallas.

Even the desert can see hard freezes now and then but I've never had plumbing in our RV freeze. There are a few areas along I-10 that can get dustings of snow but almost always only at night with it gone by sunrise.

Do not drive I-10 all the way through Phoenix unless you have reason to visit Phoenix. Instead take I-8 west to Gila Bend, then north on highway 85 to I-10 west. This bypasses the Phoenix traffic and congestion that can make a trip through Phoenix miserable!

Your route seems to be a pretty good one....once you get down south, you should be fine. Could there be a serious freeze? Sure, but you would be living in the RV, and have the heater running, so you should be fine.

You will also be able to monitor the weather channel or check out areas on the computer, so if you see it' getting too cold in one area, you can beat feet, and head to another which is supposed to be warmer!

Just to be sure, open cabinets at night, so the heat from the rooms gets down under there, where the pipes are.
You may also want to get an inexpensive space heater for a basement area, if it's got some items that might be damaged with a freeze.

Have a great trip!